Through the Pariah Abyss

Storyline

Ages ago, the goblinfolk tribes of Adamah banded together to reject the politics of hierarchy, hereditary rule, and private property; each tribe pledged to manage their communal life through direct democracy, and that no one individual would ever enforce their will over another. Only the Pariah Clan protested these anarchist principles, and for their contemptible crime of selfishness, the goblin tribes banished the clan into an abyss deep below the surface of the world.

Thousands of years have passed since the goblin tribes exiled the Pariah Clan, and even the most fearless and capable goblin pathfinders still refuse to risk their lives exploring the Pariah Abyss. But when a fleet of privateers prevents seafaring passage to the continent of Vela, the maverick scholar Zeljo Kane must venture through the Pariah Abyss. Accompanied by his sister, the expert pathfinder Kraz, and his orphan apprentice, Annez, Kane will come face to face with the Pariah Clan and the tyrannical society they have built to survive the hardships of the abyss. But do the goblinfolk histories tell the truth, or is there more to the story of the Pariah Clan’s banishment?

Through the Pariah Abyss is the first part of The Golem-Maker’s Grimoire, a role-playing game set in the high fantasy world of Adamah. 

Gameplay

Through the Pariah Abyss features tactical, turn-based gameplay where you will have consider every choice you make. Each enemy has special abilities and tricks designed to challenge your tactical sense. Some enemies are guaranteed to attack your lowest HP party members, while others will use taunts to protect their allies. Certain enemies will even provide passive buffs to their entire troop, granting all their allies damage reduction or allowing them to attack twice. It will be necessary for you to make strategic use of your skills and items to overcome the particular challenges that each enemy encounter brings, and you will have to prioritize high-threat targets while also working to keep your party alive. However, you won’t be able to unleash your most powerful abilities without building up will points (WP) first. You can only gain WP in combat, and you’ll need to use it to cast your most important abilities. Will your use your WP to cast a Shared Barrier on your allies or attempt to inflict bleed on an enemy with Hidden Knife? Will you empower your spells with Spirit Focus or save up your WP to regain MP with the expensive Clarity skill? Will you cast a Taunt to draw an enemy’s attacks or stun an enemy with a Pommel Strike? When you face off against the Pariah Clan in combat, every decision will be significant.

To provide a gameplay challenge you feel comfortable with, the game features four difficulty levels that can be changed in the main menu. If you are defeated in combat, you will be able to retry the battle from the start or load a save file.

Characters

Acting as a prologue to The Golem-Maker’s Grimoire, Through the Pariah Abyss features three playable characters of the eight total that will be available in the full game.

Annez starts the game as a lowly orphan from the mean-streets of Yandell. A chance encounter to leads her and Kane fleeing the city together, and he agrees to take her on as his apprentice. After surviving many harrowing years alone in Yandell, Annez now possesses an unprecedented willpower and latent magical powers. Though undisciplined and doubtful about her own abilities, Annez might hold the key to shaping Adamah’s future. In gameplay, Annez uses barriers to protect her allies, luminous spells to quickly build her WP gauge, and siphoning strikes to regain HP or MP when she slays an enemy.

Zeljo Kane is a maverick goblin scholar and a member of the Marawak Tribe. While travelling through the Crescent Archipelago, Kane discovered that the use of azurite crystals has potential to destabilize the laws of nature and distort the natural flow of time. Kingdoms and companies across Adamah use azurite distillate as an energy source to power their industrialization, and so Kane must travel to the Tenjinn Archive to seek counsel on how to address the Azurite Crisis. In combat, Zeljo can enhance his magical attacks for a limited period, allow his allies to ignore taunts, and spend WP to regain his MP.

Kraz Kane is a vigilant pathfinder of the Marawak Tribe. Having spent her whole life training to protect her tribe, Kraz now finds herself torn between a fierce loyalty to her tribe and a yearning for independence. The Marawak see her love for Monick, the Marawak tribe’s healer, as breaking a taboo, for loving a single person over your entire tribe is considered an act of selfishness. In combat, Kraz can draw enemies’ physical attacks toward her with taunts, use items to heal the entire party, and buff herself with thorns to deal damage to enemies that target her.

World

Through the Pariah Abyss presents only a small segment of Adamah’s history and mythology. The Church of Resignation, Adamah’s most widespread religion, holds a nihilistic Innermost Doctrine about the nature of the world: Adamah’s creator abandoned Her creation before She completed it, and now that world is condemned to irreversible decay. But within the power vacuum left by God’s absence, mortals of exceptional will and imagination can control and change the natural elements to meet their desires. Particularly ambitious individuals even have the power to shape others’ conscious sense of reality. This magic system is a commentary on the relationship between ambition, imagination, and creativity – gifts that allow individuals and organizations to both shape and implement ideas about how society should function.

Keyboard Controls

Z - Confirm

X - Back/Open Menu 

Arrow Keys - Movement 

W - Next Page in Menu

Q - Previous Page in Menu 

F2 - Show FPS

F4 - Turn Full Screen On/Off

F5 - Reset Game

PC and Xbox Gamepad Controls

(PlayStation controllers won't work - sorry!)

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