Vharaduun
The treaty that has held nine nations together for four centuries is being dismantled from the inside, by someone who worked out that the Concord was never a peace agreement. It was a containment measure.
The Ninefold Concord
Four hundred years ago, nine seats signed a treaty. Each surrendered a number of its own people as Collateral, bound together by a single geas called the Tether. Harm done by one seat to another is repaid out of the Tether, and the Sworn feel it: all sixty-six of them, at once, wherever they happen to be standing.
It worked. Not out of goodwill, but because atrocity became instantly, publicly and unforgeably attributable. Then, at Sixgate, every Sworn took a wound in the same hour, and the accounting attributed the harm to a tenth signature block. There are nine signatures.
Step-based, party-based, turn-pressured
Vharaduun moves a tile at a time through a first-person world drawn in hand-painted pixel art, with free mouse-look over grid-snapped movement. Exploration accrues an encounter counter; every step rolls against a region-weighted threshold, so the dangerous roads feel dangerous.
Combat is Active Time Battle. Four characters, front and back rows, gauges that fill on Speed, and a Wait mode that stops the clock while you are choosing. Wait is on by default, off if you want the pressure. Row position decides who melee can reach.
Designed for a headset, playable without one
The engine is written from scratch in C on raylib, with an OpenXR path for VR. The chunky ornamented interface (portrait row, drag-and-drop inventory, right-click context) was chosen because it reads correctly at arm's length in a headset as well as it does on a monitor.
Features
- A four-person party: drawn from a planned roster of sworn companions, each with their own history.
- Active Time Battle combat: speed-driven gauges, front and back rows, and an optional Wait mode.
- Step-based first-person exploration: grid movement with free mouse-look.
- Hand-painted pixel environments: forests, barrows and stone halls drawn frame by frame.
- A continent that continues without you: regional politics, nine seats and a treaty coming apart.
- Optional VR: an OpenXR path built alongside the flat-screen game, not bolted on after.
Screenshots
From the build
Captured in engine. Select any image to view it full size.
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