Benthos

Before anything existed, there was only a void.

But then came the Worldweaver.

He spun the threads that shaped reality, and gave rise to existence.

Soon he brought forth his sons, the Great Weavers of the elements, with whom he made the land and all of its life.

That is how Benthos came to be.

It is thanks to the Worldweaver that we walk the land today. And so it is right to give him praise.

Benthos is a text adventure game, set in the fictional world of the same name. 

You play as Physa, a young woman and follower of the Church of the Worldweaver. She has pledged herself to the service of the Weavers, and therefore will be leaving her village for good in five days' time. 

See through her eyes, and guide her steps, as she appreciates the joys of her old life and prepares to take on a new role.

As the Church teaches, the Worldweaver shaped every person with a purpose. Physa prays for guidance along her intended path, and wishes nothing more than to follow it.

Do you?

The Story Behind Benthos

I originally made this game in late 2024, while I was attending Wofford College. I took an English class on game narratives, and for our final project, we had to create a text adventure game using Twine. Nothing super complicated; it just had to be somehow inspired by our college experiences.

Well, uh... in my case, this assignment happened to align perfectly with a fantasy world I had been dreaming up in my head. Things escalated from there, and I ended up creating a game that was way longer than the class required.

I got very positive feedback from my professor and classmates, and I remain quite personally proud of this story as well. So, now that I'm finished with college, I figured that I ought to share it with the wider world. 

This version of Benthos isn't exactly the same as the one I turned in for a grade. I've tweaked some of the text formatting and phrasing to better align with my vision for this story and its characters. That, and I've ironed out some of the more awkward word and phrase choices that made it through into my first draft. But the structure, plot, and overall experience of the game remain the same.

I hope you folks enjoy it!

Basic Structure and Content

This game has multiple endings to find, based on alternate pathways you can take over the course of the story. Finding all of them in one sitting would probably take somewhere between 3-5 hours, depending on your reading speed. Don't feel obligated to do that, though; the world of Benthos is meant to be explored at your pace.

The game is browser-embedded; no downloads are necessary. It's also purely text-based, so you can play without headphones or speakers. Alternatively, you could listen to your own music in the background, or whatever you might like to do while reading something.

In terms of content ratings, I would give Benthos at a T on the ESRB scale. It's definitely intended for older audiences, but there aren't any explicit or overly graphic scenes.

Thematic Notes

In terms of how my college experience factored into this game, the land of Benthos and its terminology draw from research I participated in at Wofford. That's all I'll say for now - I'd like to give people a chance to try and work out some of my inspirations on their own. I'll happily explain more if people have interest, though!

There is also one thing I would like to put out there: this game involves a lot of religious themes, and I could see some people interpreting it as an attack on religion in general. This is absolutely NOT the case. I myself am a practicing Christian, and I took inspiration from both positive experiences and faith struggles while creating the setting and story.  I'm not trying to condemn anyone for their faith - I promise.

Credits

Game made with Twine 2.10.0.0.

The photo used in the thumbnail and page banner is my own work.

In-game images are edited versions of images from Wikimedia Commons and other public resources. Full citations can be found in-game.