Archeia (2022 - 2023)
- Jun 1
- 4 min read
Updated: Jul 20
Education Role Playing Game - Post-apocalyptic Sci-Fi
With the objective to introducing students on the Animation Cinema course at the École de Condé Rennes to the widest possible spectrum of the creative entertainment industry, second-year students take part in a role-play exercise that I organise as part of their screenwriting and character design modules. (For reference, third-year students are creating a board game and a promotional trailer.)
By rolling dice to determine their characters’ stats – thereby encouraging them to move away from the trope of the character who has to be ‘cool’ – the students then take part in three three-hour sessions, after which they produce an illustrated book in which they recount their characters’ adventures through both text and visuals.
The themes vary each year, drawing on the cultural hits of the current year and combining them with one or more ‘classics’. In addition to the three sessions, I also produce an illustration to accompany the final one. Once the project is complete, a lesson is held explaining the narrative structure of role-playing games and the process of creating the illustration.
Archeia is the first of these role-playing games. Relying on the release of Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation of Dune , the story drew on a hostile and highly sacred universe in the style of Frank Herbert, combining it with the humanist themes of Orson Scott Card’s Homecoming : The Memory of Earth. It also played on the term isekai, often popular with students, this time used in a setting far removed from anime or manga.
Here is the description they were given:
“The universe you choose to create as your character’s point of origin belongs entirely to you. Sci-fi, fantasy, historical reality or imagined reality – it doesn’t matter. However, there is one requirement: in your world, a phenomenon has been affecting humans and animals since the dawn of time.
When a soul is born on Earth, it splits and incarnates into two bodies. One human; the other animal. They are so closely bound that they feel the pain and emotions of their other self, and live and die together. However, they remain two separate entities with different ambitions and actions. Endowed with two independent wills, cooperation is therefore essential.
One fine day, whilst you are going about your business, space-time tears apart before the two of you, and a dimensional rift opens up before your eyes. No matter how hard you struggle with all your might, the rift sucks you in. You find yourselves torn from your homeland and transported to a completely unknown world. This extremely futuristic world features arid ground, three iridescent moons on the horizon and immense cities covered by domes just below. You quickly find yourselves surrounded by individuals in full-body suits, and it is at this moment that you realise something strange is happening. You feel your skin, look around you, searching for the obvious.
You are now a single being.
The soul that had split into human and animal has reunited during the interstellar journey, and you are now a single creature: an anthropomorphic chimera. Is this for the best? Or the worst? The dice will tell you soon enough…
Captured, you are taken back to the base of one of those enormous domes. You find yourself in a cell, waiting, waiting, waiting… Finally, as hunger and thirst begin to overwhelm you, a guard approaches. With a single gesture, he orders you to follow him. You make your way through corridors, each more nondescript than the last, disoriented and desperate for certainty. You pass through an airlock and find yourself in what appears to be a changing room. After a brief rummage, the guard hands you a uniform and a badge. Its colour will determine your fate.
This civilisation in decline has had no choice but to resort to haphazard teleportations through space and time to compensate for its dwindling population. Dangling the prospect of a possible return to your home world before you, they urge you to cooperate. To this end, each of the ‘Chosen’ is selected at random and assigned to a caste within society. Three factions, three colours:
Crimson – You are the armed forces of Archeia. Although you do not live in great luxury, you are adequately fed, housed and clothed. You defend the city and its surroundings from looters, fugitives and alien creatures.
Mauve – You are the scholars of Archeia.
Selected to assist the elite in the wise governance of the city, you receive comfort and prestige in return for your loyal service.
Saffron – You are the scrap collectors of Archeia. Cast aside and despised, you are sent into hostile lands in search of salvage materials, at the expense of your health. You brave danger every day without any reward.
You are now an active member of Archeia’s society. But just as you are more or less struggling to find your feet on this new planet, a rumour is already reaching your ears.
Gruiki, the city’s Supreme Judge, seems set to return soon..."
Each pupil had been assigned to one of the various factions; some in line with their statistics and background, others through deliberate ‘errors’ designed to balance the three sides. They then had to survive until the final session, in anticipation of a great showdown against the man known as Gruiki. There were a few clues suggesting that the tyrannical Judge was not as cruel as he seemed, and that all it took was a word with him to solve the mystery.
But the temptation to confront him was too strong, especially as the conflicts between the various factions continued to escalate. And without ever having been able to tell his story, Gruiki was slain.
Of the twenty students who took part in the adventure, only three managed to bring their characters home.
