Inspirations

• Of Pax Dei

We wanted to create a world where players could live out their lives in relative safety, build, grow, harvest, take care of their animals, and go on adventures without having to battle other players at every step. We also realized that for the world to be dynamic and survive, there had to be conflict and even war from time to time, with the destruction and violent ambitions that follow. Pax Dei, the Peace of the Divine, enables this. In a world that is surrounded by evil beings and ambitious people, remaining under the watchful eye of the Divine keeps all that strife at bay.

• Of the world itself

When it comes to original inspirations for the game, the question that sparked it all, I think, was imagining an early medieval world where, as people believed, heavenly forces were real and present, and the legions of darkness were also real and present and actively trying to corrupt the world from outside and within and in addition to that, you had the creatures of ancient myths still around, trying their best not to get squished by the supernatural powers at be.

Whether or not people believe in these things still today, the way this was expressed and written about and how these factors governed much of life in medieval times suggests, in many ways, the greatest RPG ever played, complete with strict character advancement, magical systems, monsters, dark dungeons, funny costumes, heroes and villains and cloaked preachers with a big staff and pointy hats, claiming to hold the power of miracles.

Another interesting aspect of this setting is that, to a varying degree, people know or have heard of various parts of it. Both from history and also from contemporary culture. Movies, paintings, books, and games, so whatever we would be making in a setting like this would have the advantage of us not having to explain everything ad nauseam down to the smallest detail. It would, as any good setting would do, create a familiar backdrop to whatever adventures are played out in the Pax Dei world.

This is exactly what “low fantasy” means. We are not inventing anything really or altering the core of human nature, we take the basic concepts, rules, and constraints of things as they were believed to be and then reorganize the contents to make a living world full of wonder and mysteries. This is, for example, what Game of Thrones did very well, something we all loved to watch and learn from.

One thing that is important to note here is that even though this setting is far away from us now in time, using elements that relate to this period in our history does require a certain amount of respect. We are, for example, not using anything within the setting of Pax Dei that touches on specific religious entities people still hold dear. It would be very wrong to do so. But all these things are a part of our common intellectual and historical heritage, ours as much as anyone else's. We take it seriously, without prejudice or malice, and with all the respect that it deserves. 

We want to enjoy it with you all, in the best way possible.

• Of Fables and myths

In addition to the main scene of Divinity, demonology, angelology, and all the rest of it, our common background is full of yet older, wondrous tales and fables. Celtic myths, the Kalevala, the dark fables from Rus, Anatolian and Greek stories from antiquity, the amazing flora of Persian and Indian mythology, and yes, even things further afield.

The only thing that connects the world of Pax Dei directly to a location in the real world is that the angle we use from which the world is viewed is somewhere in Europe.