Fairlight

Starting a Game

NOTE - When playing with a controller, it is necessary to use the keyboard to perform some actions. Refer to the list of controls for keyboard input to do this.

To begin the game using a controller or keyboard, press any button on the keyboard or controller to continue past the introductory sequence.

Gameplay

To move between areas in the castle, move Isvar to a door, or the edges of the current screen and continue walking. If there is a room in the direction Isvar is moving, the screen will change to the new room.

Note that some doors may be locked and require a key to be opened - if a door is locked, the energy/status screen will display a prompt saying ‘LOCKED’ in the bottom left-hand side of the screen.

Items

Press the Pick up item button to interact with items close enough to Isvar.

Most items can be stood on by the player. Items can also be stacked on top of one another to create new pathways to areas in the castle.

To drop items, press the Drop item button on the keyboard. This will drop the selected item on the floor in front of Isvar.

There are a large number of enemies in the Castle Avars, all of which can drain Isvar’s energy when touching or attacking him. Find food and magical potions in the castle to restore his health. Isvar can use his sword by pressing the Attack key.

Each item has different weight. If Isvar is carrying a heavy item, he might not be able to pick up another, even if he has empty inventory slots.

A lot of objects dropped on the floor can be pushed by Isvar - drop an item and move Isvar towards it to begin pushing the object.

Inventory

Isvar’s inventory consists of 5 different slots. Press the keys 1 - 5 to cycle through the inventory items - pressing the Use or Drop item keys will perform an action on the currently selected inventory slot.

Interface

1. Energy/status screen
2. Inventory

The energy/status screen shows Isvar’s current energy level, as well as important messages if Isvar is attempting to interact with something in the game world. For instance, if a door is locked and Isvar is walking into the door, a prompt is shown over the current energy level saying ‘LOCKED’

Story

CRONICLES OF THE LAND OF FAIRLIGHT

1. A Prelude: The Light Revealed.

A Dying Land
It did not happen overnight. The Land of Fairlight had once been a beautious
place, people by a fair race, led by mighty and worthy Kings and Queens. But
the beauty had faded. The leaders had grown weaker and weaker. The Light had
all but gone...

The history books written by the Elders of days long gone by, talked almost
solely of a land of peace, a land of music and jollity. A land where it
seemed the sun shone brightly everyday, in clear blue skies.

A land in which magic was everywhere, in everything and in everyone...

No one could explain exactly what had gone wrong, although there was no
shortage of village story tellers more than willing to try. There had been
Gerion, a great and powerful leader standing 8 feet tall, it's said, who led
the land into costly and wasteful war. Ogdar had then replaced the mighty
Gerion only to promptly ban all study of science, music and the magical arts.

There followed a succession of weak rulers from Reeth to Leofine, who all
allowed the once pristine order to slip into chaos and darkness. And even
when a seemingly good leader finally appeared many bad harvests later, his
own people murdered him. It was the final sign of a decaying land, and there
were many at that time who despaired and left Fairlight for lands far beyond
the Cynwulf mountains.

Only the Castle Avars sttod alone and silent on the plains of Avarslund. The
last dwelling place of a King of Fairlight, the King Avars who some say was
King when the Land was still full of magic, before the fall...

As long as anyone could remember no one had succeeded in gaining entrance to
this last vestage of the land as it once was. Legends about it were to be
heard everywhere, with some saying that inside still lived the tall ancestors
of Fairlight's people, some saying that a perpetual summer shone within, and
yet some saying that within sits Segar the Immortal awaiting his moment to
bring the Light back to the Land.

But few alive in these times could believe that, as mysterious as this Castle
might be. For this was an age of fudalism and a time when Merchants and
Barons rule, if any can be said to rule in such a fragmented land.

A Trespass: A meeting; An unexpected guest
Nothing was further from Isvar's thoughts than tales of his ancestors, less
still of the myths surround the Castle Avars.

"The clouds are particularly grey today...still I suppose it is July..."
mused Isvar, "can't help but laugh at the Elders who will claim anything if
it suits them - such as the tall tales of days gone by when the skies were
clear blue and Solas shone brightly at least 8 hours each day! Blu! Huh.
Still they also said don't go near this wood. Ogri's Wood. 'Dangerous', they
sais, 'evil, nasty place', and they even tried to claim there are poisonous
snakes in here. Well I'm sure there's no such snakes in this latitude, and as
for their other warning, well they only serve to support my idea that they
are trying to hide something! Perhaps a treasure? Well  certainly something
worth finding, and I'm going in to look for it.

"It's certainly dark in here... and so silent... not a ...what was that? A
crack of a branch? A bat? An owl? Don't get jumpy now Isvar, your older than
that.. so just... what?! a noise again, like someone or something breathing
quite close by. I think perhaps I'll return later, better go back for now.
Er, the path was just behind me here, just... where's the path gone! It's so
dark in here, but even so there's no sign of the path at all!! Help!"

"Don't be afraid young master", came a voice so soothing that Isvar thought
for a moment that an angel had spoken. "This is Ogri's wood and Ogri's
friends quite safe here, yes, and Ogri like young master, not let harm come
to him, no, no harm. Long time since Ogri saw young master, why young master
not come again sooner, why leave Ogri here so long on own? Hum? Not like Ogri
young master? Huh?"

Isvar's mind and body were both equally frozen by what stood before him. Part
of him still desperately trying to run away, and another part was totally
fascinated by this woman-like creature that stood half bent before him! But
how? And those eyes, those eyes, so soothing, so welcoming so...

Isvar sank into a blissful loss of consciousness, and as he did so he felt
Ogri lifting him up and starting to carry him away...

Isvar woke up what seemed to him to be an eternity later. He was sprawled out
on the floor of a cave and the faint glimmer of a typical Fairlight day was
easing in through the entrance. There too stood a figure, that of an old man
in a hooded cloak. Before Isvar could piece his thoughts together, the old
man spoke in a deep, resonant voice.

"Arise Isvar, we have much to do, and if you do not move fast I fear that
Ogri will be returning to feast upon you as her breakfast!"

Hardly knowing what to think, Isvar's body almost automatically rose and he
found himself following this old man out of the cave and into the glade
outside. Still dazed. Isvar managed to stutter, "Who are yyyou? Where am I?
Where did you come from?" and another part of him saying, "moreover how do
you know my name??".

"Isvar, you have strayed. You have ignored the warnings of your Elders and
entered Ogri's Wood. But I can lead you to safety. Come this way. Just down
this slope and then we're almost out of Ogri's way. You'll be safe then. Come 
boy! Don't dawdle."

Isvar followed, quite mesmerised by the old man's voice. Down the slope and
along a path which suddenly turned sharply and ran alongside a wall.

"This must be an outer wall of the Castle Avars", thought Isvar, "I hadn't
realised I was so close to it."

"This way boy! Hurry, we must move fast if we are to get well away from
Ogri - she's far more dangerous than you might think. In here, quick boy,
in here."

The old man had found an opening in the wall that Isvar could have sworn was
not there a moment before. Entering, Isvar had the shock of his life.

"But, but, this is the Castle Avars! We're on the Inside! But no one has ever
got inside - at least the Elders tell use that no one has ever been in here
since the last King Avar died over 3,000 years ago."

Even as he spoke, Isvar was aware that the wall behind him was quite
seamless, there was not the slightest sign if a doorway of any kind. He was
trapped inside! Isvar turned to face the old man and found that he was about
to speak, wearing an almost pathetic apologetic face.

"Isvar, I must admit that I have lured you inside this castle. You are wrong
to say that none have ever been in here since the King Avars. I myself live
here, and have done so for many many years. Lived did I say? Huh! I should
say entrapped! For I am a prisoner and what you see before you is merely a
projection of myself that I have created by force of my will. I am a prisoner
Isvar, in that tower over there. Yes, I was once the court sorcerer to the
King Avars, yes I am that old! But the King's slayer entrapped me here all
that time ago.

"I have waited Isvar, oh how I have waited! only one has come before you, and
he too too I gave the same quest that I give to you this day. But je failed
me Isvar. You must not! Do not fail me Isvar.

"Isvar! I must be freed! The only way I can be free is if you can find
somehere here a book - 'The Book of Light'. This book is magic, nay it is
more than that for only with it can there be any hope of magic returning to
are fair land. You must find it! Bring it to me and my invisible bonds will
be broken, and I can assure you Isvar that upon that moment I will be able to
give you the means to leave this castle. But only then!

"Beware, though, Isvar, for those who entrapped me here did not leave me
unattended. You will see guards, trolls and many other creations which they
have around this castle to ward off anyone who may succeed in gaining
entrance! He who came before you was almost successful - he may have even
found the book... I don't know But this I do know, that the guards got him
and entrapped him too in the dungeons of this place.

"Go! Quickly Isvar. Hurry, the future, the future of Fairlight depends upon
you! And remember this, the book could only be approached by the King Avars!
More than that I cannot help you in locating it. But hurry, there is no time
to lose!

And with that last phrase, the vision of the old man seemed to fade and
barely a moment he had dis appeared altogether.

"Wait!, I said wait!", cried Isvar "You must know more about where I can find
the book! You must know more about how I can find my way around this castle!
Surely you can tell me more!"

But no answer came.