Project Loci Story

Once upon a time, in a universe far, far away, the spherical planet of Cruthiar was populated by the Shee, an ancient and advanced race who once lived on a disc-shaped world called Albia.

Having found a suitable and more round planet, they settled in, and got to work making themselves at home. What that work was is another story: the Shee, in their inimitable way, couldn't decide just what to create or how to create it, and what was worse, couldn't agree on the optimal temperature for a proper cup of tea. Frustrated by their lack of progress, they took off again, leaving their construction unfinished and its domes populated with their genetic experiments.

Back when the Shee were around, Cruthiar teemed with Norns - small cuddly creatures endowed with an intelligence of their own. While most of the Norns accompanied the Shee to planets unknown, a few wild populations remained and eventually gained a foothold on Cruthiar and began to evolve independently into distinct species.

Meanwhile, a few domestic Norn eggs were left in an abandoned stasis nursery. As the Shee constructions degraded, many of the planet's crucial machinery failed, including those stasis banks. The eggs left behind hatched and now those intrepid young Norns must ensure that the planet's biodomes don't continue to fail or their future prospects will be bleak. Very bleak.

The whole dome complex in which our creatures live is one great biomechanical machine that uses the hot, molten core of the planet Cruthiar as its power source. The biodomes themselves function like organs in a body and it is in the uppermost dome that Loci, the organism's brain, resides.

Like any creature, Loci's brain depended on it's body to survive and in fact, if it weren't for all the malfunctioning machinery, Loci would be the ultimate Artificial Intelligence, capable to solving all of life's greatest mysteries. Now Loci stands quiet and no spark of its once great intelligence can be found.

But Loci is not quite dead...

For untold ages, Loci's brain has been ticking over at a very low level. Now, in pain and darkness, he has simmered with rage at being left alone. Slowly he begins to bring certain systems online, slowly regaining his strength.

Loci is hatching a plan. An evil plan.

Back at the stasis nursery, the young Norns have found a friend in Ogma, the mechanical bird who is the player's avatar in the game. Ogma helps the Norns to repair the bits of their home that are failing and teaches them to live and survive on their own. But it isn't long before they learn of Loci's plans for Cruthiar and now Ogma and the Norns must race against time to shut Loci down before he destroys himself and all the other life forms on the planet forever.