Lore & History
ATITD is a cyclical game - It has a beginning and an end. This page will attempt to give an overview of the game's storyline, history and lore.
The Storyline
Egyptian is run and controlled by Pharaoh, and by his representatives at the various Universities.
In the days of our ancestors, 'The Stranger' stepped forward, and claimed that Pharaoh was corrupt, and simply using us as slaves to his whim and desire, while we struggled to allow him to live in luxury. He mocked our 'society', and challenged us to perfect the
Seven Disciplines Of Man in order to prove our worth, value and level of civilization. We must complete the Tests he set, and build monuments to each Discipline. Only then will he accept that we are in fact a worthy and successful society.
The Tellings
When a telling begins, the available technology is very basic. As time progresses, we as a community donate skills to universities so that they may research and make available new technologies. As such, technology progresses over the period of a telling. New abilities are unlocked, new tests become available.
The game ends when we either complete the 7 monuments, or fail to do so within the allotted time (external events are likely to signify impending doom and destruction towards the final days...)
The next telling will begin afresh, with basic technologies. However, major game content and core updates often occur between tellings. For example, the introduction of compounds from T1 to T2, and the introduction of an entire level system from T2 to T3. Who knows what will be next? Of course, tons of new content emerges mid-telling, such as the new Pyrotechnics system in T2, and Swimming in T3. Starting a new telling is by no means 'starting again from scratch', and is often much more of an exciting prospect to do things differently, rather than having to 'do it all over'.
As part of the monument construction, we also as a community design a new test for each discipline to be included within the monument. When the monument is dug up in the next telling, the test design can be retrieved and unlocked.
It's worth noting that we can very definitely fail. This would likely result in hardships for future generations, and all sorts of unknown after-effects.