Wandering through prehistoric, alien, and surreal worlds: an interview with Carlos Bordeu from the ACE Team

If I remember correctly, Zeno Clash was the first game that I bought on STEAM. I was mesmerized by that weird and surreal world, a prehistoric and complex painting full of bizarre characters. After seeing a picture of the Father-Mother, I knew that was a game I needed to try. And I was right, because playing Zeno Clash game felt like punching through a Dalí painting. Years later, Zeno Clash 2 was released, expanding the world and mechanics with a more open formula.

The ACE team is the Chilean company behind the development of Zeno Clash. The company was founded in Santiago by three brothers: Carlos, Andres, and Edmundo Bordeu. Over the years, the ACE Team created more and more unique and interesting universes. For example, Rock of Ages is a series of three titles that allow the player to bring more destruction into another surrealist world. In this case, the player controls a colossal boulder, rolling around the peculiar landscapes while destroying everything in their path.

The peculiar characters of Zeno Clash around the giant Father-Mother

The ACE Team developed many other titles, including the roguelike Abyss Odyssey, and the shooter inspired by the 1950s sci-fi Deadly Tower of Monsters. However, in the following interview, I will focus on their last two titles: The Eternal Cylinder and Clash Artifacts of Chaos.

The Eternal Cylinder is an interesting and innovative survival game, where the player is in charge of evolving and keeping alive a tribe of small creatures: the Trebhum. But of course, those creatures live in a highly predatory world full of monsters, where a colossal cylinder is smashing everything in its path. The game is set in a proper living ecosystem, with so many creatures to face and avoid by using the multiple strategies driven by the unique capacity of the Trebhum to mutate their bodies based on the environment.

Clash Artifacts of Chaos is the spiritual sequel of Zeno Clash, set inside the same world, but in a very different time. The game also evolved for the gameplay, moving toward a third-person view and with more Souls-like elements. The world is as rich and colorful as never before, with so many places and paths to visit, both during the day and night. The dichotomy between the many characters, Pseudo and the Boy, helps to shape this big and epic journey.

Since you probably already realized how these two games were some of my favorites from the last years, today I had the great opportunity to ask some questions about them to Carlos Bordeu from the ACE Team. Together with Carlos, we will discover secrets, curiosities, and developmental details of both Eternal Cylinder and Clash Artifacts of Chaos. So if you are a fan of these games, I highly suggest you read the following interview.

Q1: Thank you Carlos for the opportunity to interact with you. Your games are characterized by sharing surreal and bizarre worlds, providing the feeling of being inside a surrealist painting. Which art pieces and artists influenced you the most in the creation of your worlds?

A1: Our games have been inspired by diverse artists from different time periods. We have been influenced by the works of John Blanche (Fantasy Illustrator of the 1980s), as well as Harry Clarke (late 1800s) and also Hieronymus Bosch (1500s).

Gemini from Clash could be a part of some very disturbing paintings

Q2: In your most recent game, Clash Artifacts of Chaos, every important battle is introduced by a ritual, a minigame which provides bonus or malus to the following battle. I personally find this idea brilliant, not only for the gameplay but also for how it is rooted in the world-building. At which point during the development, did you decide to introduce this ritual? Was it always supposed to be like the actual dice-based game?

A2: We are big fans of the “choose your own adventure” role playing books of the 1980s. These books not only had different routes by leading you to unique pages of the story depending on your choices, but they also had combat that had to be resolved by throwing dice (like D&D). So, from the conception of the game, we wanted to somehow add this role playing element but into the fiction of the real world. This is how the ritual was born.

Q3: Clash Artifacts of Chaos features a peculiar day/night cycle, including huge changes not only in the enemies but also in the protagonist. How are these changes reflected in the nature of the world? Why did you decide to include this gameplay-element?

A3: This feature came to be because the game was originally meant to have an “invasion” type multiplayer feature (like Dark Souls) – where players could enter in PvP… however this was not going to work if everyone was playing as the same character / protagonist. We basically had a ‘God of War’ type game where we needed Dark Souls invasions. You can see it wouldn’t work to have several “Kratos” fighting each other in God of War if they added a PvP option. And because of this we needed our protagonist to see himself as a sort of “puppet” (a blank slate) in his dream form. We obviously incorporated this heavily into the narrative, but it was an unused feature which prompted this design choice.

At night, the world of Clash becomes more mysterious and dangerous

Q4: The lonely Boy, the creepy Gemini, and the mysterious Golem: the world of Clash Artifacts of Chaos is full of peculiar characters. If you would have the opportunity to do a spin-off to expand the story of one of the characters, which one would it be and why?

A4: I would love to do a game where you play as Golem. I’ve always wanted Nintendo to do a Zelda game where you play as Ganondorf instead of Link, so maybe that’s why. 😛

Q5: The Travelling Players, a cult/theater production, are a brilliant piece of storytelling, world-building, and meta-gaming, fitting perfectly into Clash’s world, but also strikingly going outside of it (for the readers: you can read more in my analysis HERE). How the idea of such a peculiar gang of bandits was born?

A5: All credit for the idea of the Travelling Players and their part of the story goes to Jonas Kyratzes – the writer of the game. At the beginning the Travelling Players were more of solution to a problem we needed to resolve… so I’m very happy their chapter ended up being so strong. For a game with this many unique enemies, it is typically a massive challenge to get as many characters created as those needed for the design. So, we usually try to reserve a “slot” for a faction of foes which are easier to produce and homogeneous in their design, and therefor more repeatable as enemies. Most games don’t have this issue. No one will find it weird if you fight 200 times the same alien type in Halo or the same soldiers in Call of Duty (they can all look the same). But enemies in Clash aren’t monsters… they are unique characters… and because of this they cannot be cloned over an over again. That’s quite the challenge for an indie studio. So having a group of enemies that share a common template allows us to expand the roster with less production time. I’m super happy that despite this, the Travelling Players ended up being some of the best characters once Jonas helped us give them a great story and background for the game.

The Travelling Playes is definitively an unconventional group of bandits

Q6: Your previous game, The Eternal Cylinder features a big open-world, with an insanely complex and variegated ecosystem, from gigantic peaceful creatures to the malevolent Servants of the Cylinders (check more in my article HERE). What were the rules you followed to create such a complex and yet organic world?

A6: For The Eternal Cylinder we had a vision of creating an alien world which is being consumed by this unknown force – the Cylinder. Since the planet had to be alien; all the creatures and flora were designed to be something unique and foreign to our human world. If we would have created the servants of the Cylinder as “additional alien beings”, it would have been hard to separate them from the local fauna. That is why they have these earthly designs that separate them from the beings of the planet being invaded.

A disturbing Servant of the Cylinder hunting the Trebhum

Q7: An ominous, indestructible, potentially sentient, and colossal cylinder, is not a very common antagonist in gaming media. And yet, after escaping it for the first time, players realize that it is a purely and terrifying being. How did you end up with the idea of creating such a unique main enemy?

A7: During the development of Zeno Clash 2 we drew inspiration of surreal paintings where giant shapes can be commonly seen as “elements” in the background. Giant blocks or spheres exist in several works of surrealism, and when I thought of how a Cylinder would feel – it immediately struck me that such an element would have obvious “gameplay” implications if it were to exist and move. It would be like a giant roller pin, and I found this to be fascinating.

Q8: In a world as big and complex as the one of the Eternal Cylinder, were there some creatures that you conceptualized but then they didn’t end up in the final release?

A8: Yes, but these were later incorporated in the update we did once the game launched on consoles and we added Raytracing. The Gharukuk and the Buddugh Gropp were both designs we couldn’t get in time for the game’s launch but were added with the update. But there are definitely some sketchier creature ideas that never got too developed that we never incorporated in the game.

The colossal Mathematician in front of the mastodontic Cylinder

Q9: Between the open-world structure and the many creatures to encounter (or escape from), the Eternal Cylinder is potentially full of secrets. Do you think that there are still some secrets that the community hasn’t discovered yet (who knows, maybe on both sides of the cylinder)?

A9: I think there are secrets that the great majority of players won’t find during their playthroughs, but I doubt anything that is so hidden that no one has found it yet.

Q10: Thanks again for your time, Carlos. Before concluding, I am just curious if you could hint us something about your future projects. Do you have some new IPs that you are already working on, a DLC for Clash, or maybe a sequel to a previous game?

A10: We are deep in development of a new title, but I can’t say anything other than that. 🙂

Final Remarks:

I would like to thank Carlos for his time and very interesting answers. As a big fan of the ACE Team, I am very glad to have an interview with them, and knowing more about two of my favorite games of the last few years was a unique opportunity. If you didn’t play games from the ACE Team, start with Zeno Clash and go all the way down. And if you are mainly interested in the games covered in the interview, you can find both the Eternal Cylinder and Clash on STEAM.

Bandits looking for a fixed narrative following a divine Play: the Travelling Players from the surreal Clash Artifacts of Chaos

Clash Artifacts of Chaos is a spin-off/ prequel of the Zeno Clash saga, set in the same surreal and insane primitive world. However, this time the game is not a first-person brawler but a third-person martial-arts-based Souls-like, full of unique and bizarre mechanics. The twisted and colorful world is a pleasure to explore, a place enriched with unmovable rules, violent rituals, and a set of weird and unique characters. The world extends from cold mountains to mosquitoes-infested swamps, always offering something new to discover. But in all this madness, what for me truly shined are the Travelling Players and its actors.

The Travelling Players is a group of aggressive bandits living in the mountains, busy raiding villages and brainwashing people to join their ranks. If till here is nothing new, I forgot to mention that the Travelling Players are obsessed with following a sort of holy script, a fore-sighting spectacle in which they can never go out of character. The actors/bandits are constantly acting following the divine script, avoiding any form of individuality, finding their place in a predetermined role and embracing a fixed routine.

Worth to specify that the Travelling Players are also extremely creepy-looking in their appearance and fighting mechanics. They are usually dressed as hooded figures somehow resembling scarecrows, with body and face completely hidden. This is probably due to the necessity for the actors to hide any individuality and peculiarity, becoming only generic pawns following the Play. Interestingly, Travelling Players can also appear in other parts of the world where fixed battles previously occurred, replacing the fight with an unexpected new battle. There are three different types of Travelling Players: a normal one, an obese one, and a sort of bird-like creature. All the enemies have extremely weird and bizarre fighting styles, with unexpected moves. The most normal-looking actor is a martial-art expert, surprising the player with acrobatic moves and weird kicks, moving almost as if he has very few bones in his body. Moreover, he can use tricky colorful petards to unexpectedly attack the player. The fat actor is quicker than he looks, able to fold his body into deadly jumps and rolls. He will literally try to smash the player using his body in any possible way. The bird-like actor is the most disturbing of the trio, with only a long beak going out from the hood. This actor moves weirdly, and he can surprise the player with deadly grasps and long-range attacks, using the beak as the main weapon.

The Travelling Players’ main hideout is at the top of a cold mountain. The base resembles a Greek theater, with an amphitheater as main social location, including ritual battles, and mysterious carvings decorating the rock. For example, the tragedian and comedian masks from Greek theater, or modified version of them, are carved at the main entrance. Other Greek-inspired giant heads are sculpted all around the hideout, resembling philosophers and ancient statues, in a way, to provide credibility to the actors and their unquestionable play. More subtle and creepy environmental details hide around the base, including creepy masks with sparkling eyes located into semi-collapsed corridors.

The boss of the Travelling Players is, of course, called the Director. The creature is completely dressed in a complex suite, behaving like a sort of Messiah that comprehends the future. He is the one writing the Play, providing the scripts to all the Players, fixing them in his own narrative. The Players do everything the Director writes for them, since they believe in his diving figure. However, the Director is mainly a fraud, tricking the enemies by falling inside his narrative-plan, and, as result, appearing to the masses as a prophetic figure. The Director wears an sumptuous orange costume that looks almost with bird-like features. According to the official artbook, the Director wears this extravagant outfit to differentiate even more from his actors, which instead appears as generic and peculiarity-less scarecrows. Because the Director is the star of the Travelling Players, and he knows it. During the battle, the Director tricks the opponents into drinking poison from an ancient artifacts, thus already incapacitating their powers. Moreover, the Director will not fight alone but together with his actors, and he will keep the distance while mining the amphitheater with colorful smoking bombs.

The Travelling Players are a brilliant piece of storytelling and world-building, fitting perfectly into Zeno Clash’s world, but also striking going outside of it, resonating with more complex social and philosophical concepts. In fact, they are indeed bloodthirsty bandits but also inhabitants of a chaotic world, which prefer to renounce any responsibility and decision-power in front of a holy script. Whichever brutality committed is not their fault, because they are only playing a role assigned by a higher being. They don’t need to think or question their own actions, because the Play will do it for them. Do you see any similarity with our society?

But if the struggle against the social-moral compass could be too much of a stretch, the Travelling Players show other interesting traits. For example, there are many references on how the Travelling Players combine theater and live role-playing game in their narrative, achieving an amazing extrapolation for breaking the fourth wall. Sometimes, actors will forget their own script, asking advice to the others and breaking their own narrative. But the insane detail is that the Travelling Players are indeed NPCs inside a videogame that love to be scripted NPCs, somehow celebrating their digital existence. Because if you think at it, the mind-twist of characters inside a fictional world that want to exist as scripted beings, but are in fact scripted NPCs inside a videogame, is a brilliant piece of meta-gaming.

Clash Artifacts of Chaos is a beautifully crafted souls-like set in an insane and colorful world, where the Travelling Players are the cherry on top this extravagant setting, playing with standard gaming rules and breaking the fourth wall in an unexpected way. And all this without losing their creepiness as scarecrows-like bandits fighting with bizarre and alien styles.

The Servants of the Cylinder: annihilating biomechanical creatures serving the “Eternal Cylinder”, a rolling machine destroyer of worlds [Bestiary]

The Eternal Cylinder is a really bizarre, peculiar, and unique game created by ACE Team, the same group behind Zeno Clash and Rock of Ages franchises. The game is set on a mysterious alien world, where tribes of small creatures able to mutate and evolve based on what they eat, the Trebhum, need to survive a hostile ecosystem to discover how to save their world. Because if gigantic predators all around are an integrated part of this ecosystem, a colossal metallic Cylinder that came from an alien world to relentlessly smash everything on the planet, clearly is an intrusive artifact. The Cylinder is not just an ordinary machine but exhibits a sort of alien intellect, and the ability to create Servants to help in its cryptic and catastrophic purpose.

The Cylinder is colossal and intimidating, destroying everything under its weight, and leaving only an empty burning wasteland after its passage. Only some ancient towers can temporarily stop the Cylinder’s advancing, but, sooner or later, it will continue to destroy the ecosystem. The Cylinder can somehow create biomechanical Servants, disturbing creatures comprising human traits and pieces of machinery from the human world, such as cars or TVs. How these creatures are generated and why they look assembled from scraps of our world is a huge mystery. Did the Cylinder destroy the human world before coming here? Was the Eternal Cylinder created by humans and sent to destroy other worlds? Are the Trebhum and the humans living in the same world at different times? The Eternal Cylinder’s plot is deeper and more interesting than you could imagine, so I will leave the answers to you and I will try to minimise spoilers.

The Servants of the Cylinder come in different shapes and sizes, disturbing monstrosities with a really twisted design. In the colorful world of the Eternal Cylinder, they are pale and rusty nightmares that look more fitting for a horror game. Because being chased by a giant wheel with an infant’s face, or by a headless torso dragging around with its own arms, is a really terrifying experience. The Servants are silent, cryptic, and mysterious beings, with the only apparent purpose of exterminating creatures or collecting resources.

Almost every Servant has elements connected with the human world, both in their organic and mechanical side. Human torsos or hands are often part of the design, which also includes old technologies such as cars or TV screens, creating peculiar creatures that clearly look like disturbing intruders in this colorful alien world. Other Servants, the most advanced ones, also wear masks reminding golden Greek statues, connecting these monstrosities with ancient Gods. And this of course only magnifies their mystery.

In the following article, I will analyse the Servants of the Cylinder and their unique design. The only comparable creatures to these amazing designs are the Brothers from Ice Pick Lodge’s The Void, which also showed twisted biomechanical forms. Sometimes, the images of the Servants are not enough to portray their nightmarish behaviour, so I truly suggest you play the game or watch more videos if interested. Moreover, this will be only the first article about the Bestiary of the Eternal Cylinder, with the following one focused instead on the endemic predators of this variegated ecosystem.

Witness

The smallest Servant of the Cylinder, the Witness is a chimeric creature part organic and part machine. Specifically, a joined pair of human hands are grabbing together a monitor or an old TV, with an eye on the screen. The peculiar abomination can slowly float around, acting as a scout for the other Servants, calling for backup if it spots an organic creature of interest for the Cylinder. They usually team up with more aggressive and dangerous Servants such as the Cleanser or Unifier, which then join the hunt once alerted. The Witness is also equipped with a searching light, which has also an antimutagenic effect, making weaker the organic creatures under it, and removing the mutation of the Trebhum. In this way, the chased creatures will get weaker and weaker during the hunt, losing their evolutive powers right on time when a deadly Cleanser will join to finish the job. Witnesses can be temporarily disabled with water, and this is their only weakness since, otherwise, they are extremely resistant to other forms of damage. Sometimes, Witnesses are contained in specific structures, such as the staff of the Mathematician or the head of a Unifier, acting as visual organs or security cameras. The name “Witness” highlights the non-aggressive nature of this biomechanical creature, which can only spot and follow other creatures, “witnessing” their presence and alerting the other Servants.

Cleanser

A half-organic and half-mechanical creature, the Cleanser is a deranged and extremely dangerous abomination wandering in different biomes. The creature has the mechanical part of a truck or a big car, an ancient model, with also spikes similar to elephant fangs coming out from the metal. The organic side is instead a humanoid torso, missing the head, full of muscles, and with powerful arms. While chasing its prey, the Cleanser will drag the truck around using the arms, trying to smash and crash the prey under it. Moreover, the lights coming from the spotlights of the truck have the innate power of making involve and remove mutations for the creatures that stand too long time in them, such as for the Witness. Basically, the creature will constantly weak its preys while chasing them. The monster has an insane physical strength and can destroy rocks and even small metal structures, so no hideout is safe from a Cleanser. However, strangely enough, water is the worst enemy of the Cleanser, since this is the only Servant of the Cylinder that will instantly short circuit and die if in contact with water. Sometimes, a Cleanser can be found in a sort of hibernated state, unreactive to everything around it. Only really noisy sounds will awake it from this state, activating the chasing monstrosity. As every servant of the Cylinder, the Cleanser doesn’t kill for food like other predators in the different biomes, but for some hidden evil purpose. As the name suggests, and including the power coming from its lights, the Cleanser is actually “cleaning” the organic population by making them weaker, less evolved, or by directly killing them. After all, they are mindless machines created only to track and kill other creatures.

A tribe of Trebhum is chased by a ferocious Cleanser. You can see their terrified eyes when they try to escape the deadly abomination, while they body suffers and mutate under the effect of the chasing lights.

The Trebhum are curiously watching a hybernated Cleanser. The small creatures don’t know the danger of being so close with this deadly abomination.

Unifier

Bigger than a Cleanser, the Unifier has a very peculiar morphology and a completely different purpose. Again, the creature is a biomechanical abomination, where an armless humanoid torso is placed on top of a mechanical spider-like structure. The head is a metallic polygon that can perceive life by using echolocation. It is quite peculiar to know that the Unifier appearance resembles a bacteriophage, a small virus that infects bacteria, present in our human world. The Unifier is not a physical predator and relies on a more subtle way to protect the Cylinder. For this reason, the large biomechanical abomination will often position in a remote location, like on top of a structure. From there, the Unifier will eject small electronic parasites to take control of living creatures. Then, it will use the energy collected from the controlled creatures to collapse the towers containing the Cylinder, resuming the relentless destruction of the colossal structure. However, the parasites are easy to destroy by using water and, if all of them are short-circuited, the Unifier will also die, probably missing the energy collected from the parasitized species. On rare occasions, the Unifier can also frontally attack its targets. The lower body will be charged with an electric field, which will damage any creature coming in contact with it, while the Unifier can also use its energy beams to charge and transform crystals around into bombs. The peculiar head is often used to collect, store, and protect materials of interest for the Cylinder. As the name “Unifier” suggests, the main purpose of this Servant is to control and subjugate other creatures, making their consciousness part of the Cylinder.

A menacing Unifier is approaching the Trebhum in a cold biome. The disturbing bacteriophage shape can really be appreciated while walking.

Exonerator

This abomination is one of the most disturbing and relentless Servants of the Cylinder. Big, fast, and extremely dangerous, the Exonerator is a sort of cylindric vehicle projected to hunt fast preys. The creature is basically a giant and compact wheel, protected by a metal structure and with a lightbulb on the side. In this case, the organic component is truly nightmarish, since the Exonerator has a disturbing face of a baby on the front. And nothing is creepier than being chased in a desert by a living vehicle having the half-face of an infant. Like a sort of Tyrant from Resident Evil, the Exonerator will heavily fall from the sky, to then relentlessly chase its prey. The Exonerator is fast and extremely dangerous, able to destroy an entire tribe with a single charge. Moreover, the lightbulb on the side can produce powerful antimutagenic light, similarly to the one of the Cleanser, just even faster in making every mutation disappear from the Trebhum. Luckily, the Exonerators are not that well-trained in avoiding obstacles, so it is easy to trick them into getting stuck by using covers and other harsh terrains. Of course, this is true only for the obstacles that the creature is not able to destroy by simply running over them. Worth specifying that the Exonerator is so aggressive that will violently charge and attack every lifeform, including big predators. And if the Trebhum are lucky enough to kill an Exonerator, there is nothing to celebrate, because probably, a few minutes later, a new one will fall from the sky ready to hunt you down. The Exonerators are a more evolved version of the Cleansers, both for purpose and methods. However, as the name “Exonerator” suggests, they are probably activated only against specific cases, something that probably needs to be judged by the Cylinder.

The night is high, and a terrified Trebhum is hiding in the grass while a nightmarish Exonerator is scanning the surrounding with its deadly light. Will the Trebhum survive the terrifying machine?

Liberator

A creature hidden under the ground, slumbering, waiting to be awakened by the Mathematician to fight its enemies. The Liberator can camouflage itself as metallic structures from the human world, specifically an abandoned playground. The Liberator has a humanoid body, missing the legs, moving around using two gigantic metal wheels. The creature is half-fused with mechanical parts of unknown function, especially the lower half of its body, while the gigantic wheels have the clear function of making it move around on every terrain. The creature wears a sort of golden Greek mask, a similar style as the colossal Mathematician (see below), which also works as a “visual organ,” while the disturbing grinning head lies down below on the neck. The Liberator will often generate a gravitational energy beam in front of it, attracting to its mouth every prey or object that finishes in the middle of it, which will be hopelessly dragged to the negative field in its mouth. Organic creatures will be damaged by the Liberator’s predatory field, but the gravitational beam is also its only weak point and can be exploited by clever Trebhum to defeat the large abomination. Because the Liberator is a fast and relentless predator, leaving to the Trebhum only the option to fight in order to survive. This Servant is always associated with giant rings hidden under the ground, which only the Mathematician can lift to awake the Liberators. Sometimes, Liberators are also summoned in the wasteland behind the Cylinder, if any lifeform is detected there. The Liberator is the Servant of the Cylinder with the strongest connection with the human world, especially since it is created from the metallic materials of a children’s playground, complete with slides and swings. The Greek-like mask is also a strong connection with the ancient human culture, another important sign that whatever is happening with the Eternal Cylinder has a connection with humanity. The name “Liberator” is one of the most pacific for the Servants, not a simple tool of subjugation or annihilation such as the Cleanser or the Unifier, but a more peculiar and unique being used as a last resort.

A close-up of a Liberator while activating its deadly gravitational beam. The giant wheels are well visible, and whoever will fall in the beam, will become a victim of the disturbing Servant.

The Hand of Fate

The biggest Servant of the Cylinder after the Mathematician, this gigantic abomination is also an exception since it is completely organic. The creature reminds of a human hand, but of gigantic proportions and with additional fingers all around, including an elongated tentacle-like mouth extending from the cavity in the middle. And if this is not creepy enough, this grotesque tongue shows also eyes and mouths full of teeth. The purpose of the creature is to protect the Cylinder by hunting, guarding, and destroying old artifacts that could endanger the existence and the path of the Cylinder. For example, the grotesque creature lies under the sand in the desert, protecting some ancient gigantic lenses in case they try to fly away. The Hand will grab the crystal with all its fingers, blocking it under a deadly grasp… including the Trebhum unlucky enough to be on top of the lens. The fingers and the tentacle-mouth can also overheat, generating deadly radiation not only on their skin but also on the surfaces that the hand is grabbing, such for example the gigantic lenses, causing even more problems to the Trebhum on it. Since the creature is based on human genetic material, it also follows the same rules, meaning that the fingers are extremely sensible if smashed, and this will be the key to defeat such gigantic Servant of the Cylinder.

The gigantic hand in all its disturbing size, captured while jumping out from the sands to grab the escaping lens.

Hopeless Trebhum trapped on top of the lens, while the Hand is grabbing it. The grotesque tongue-like appendix is visible below the glass.

The Mathematician

The biggest creature in the game after the Great Gaaahr (which we will see in a future article), the Mathematician is the most loyal Servant of the Cylinder, the leader and strategist of the other Servants. The colossus is the most complete humanoid creature between the Servants, with a pale body standing on two legs. Well, the right leg is not that humanoid since it is split in two, looking more like the entire body of another creature used as a leg. The face is probably the most peculiar detail about the Mathematician, a gigantic golden Greek-like mask divided into two separated halves, reminding the statue of an old philosopher or a God. Maybe Janus itself, since it almost has two faces like the God, or maybe just a mathematician from Ancient Greece, as the name could suggest. In the middle of the mask lies a portal, connecting directly with the mind inside the Giant Cylinder, used to collect information and materials that are of high importance for the Cylinder’s mission. The Mathematician is the closest thing to a God in the world of the Eternal Cylinder, and the mask is just a sign of it. A very mysterious detail about the Mathematician’s appearance lies in a sort of wound on its body. By looking closer to the wound, it is possible to see the face and the hand of a black statue-like woman trying to come out from Mathematician’s body. The Mathematician is the most important Servant of the Cylinder, fulfilling many purposes. For example, the gigantic creature can also directly push the Cylinder, or can destroy the columns which are retaining it. Sometimes, it will just climb and sit on top of the Cylinder, sending its Servants all around while peacefully watching the scenes. Other times, the Mathematician just jumps over from behind the Cylinder to scan and collect important materials, ignoring the creatures around. In general, the Mathematician is not directly harmful to the Trebhum, since they are probably just ants for this colossal being, but the more the Trebhum will advance in their journey, the more aggressive the Mathematician will become against them. At some points, it will also wield a spear, which the creature can throw with deadly precision. The name “Mathematician” is probably important to highlight the multiple critical functions that the creature must perform for the Cylinder, an agent studying and governing many of this alien’s laws.

The gigantic Mathematician standing in all its disturbing size while wielding the deadly spear. The terrified Trebhum are close to the camera, not knowing what to do to escape such a colossal enemy.

A hopeless tribe of Trebhum dragged like puppets inside the portal between the Mathematician mask. What mysteries will be hidden there? By closely looking at the Mathematician’s body in this picture, it is possible to see the statue-like woman coming out of its body.