Rasna - an Etruscan Game
"Rasna" is an historically accurate Etruscan tale: a legend as it might have been told in ancient times when people gathered around the fire in the evening.
Game Overview
"Rasna" is an single player open world game, in the form of an "Historically Accurate Etruscan Tale" meaning that it meticulously embraces historical accuracy, while immersing the player in a world teeming with mysterious places, magical creatures, and mythology.
In essence, we haven't aimed to recreate a historical fact but rather a legend as it might have been told in ancient times when people gathered around the fire in the evening.
“Rasna” is how the Etruscan used to call themselves. Practically “Rasna” means “Etruscan” in Etruscan language.
See the state of game development.
Historical Period and Setting
Narratively, the story is currently set in the late spring of 500 B.C., within the heyday of Etruscan civilization.
The setting is in a sunny, vibrant, and colorful May in Tuscia region...
Game Type and Game-play
The game is an "Open World, Single Player" experience. Game controls will be simple and intuitive, ensuring maximum playability and allowing players to immerse themselves in the story without having to learn complex button combinations to achieve results.
The protagonist will deal with two completely different types of foe...
Balancing Historical Reconstruction and Playability
Terrain
The game's setting is real. We've chosen a 36 square km area near the village of Barbarano Romano, 50 km north from Rome.
Here the water has eroded some ancient volcanic hills, creating a sort of canyon-land.
About 2500 years ago, the Etruscans built their cities in this area, among the canyons: using them as natural defenses, carving roads to cross them and building aqueducts to manage the water.
Learn more about the game terrain...
Necropolis and "Via Cave"
The Etruscans carved their necropolis (the city of the dead) into the solid rock of the canyon's walls.
In the game the Manthura's Necropolis has been reconstructed with the utmost accuracy: the main tombs are located in the game exactly where they are found today.
The same applies to the "Via Cave," which were drivable roads carved into the stone to connect the two sides of the canyons.
Learn more about this...
Architecture and Cities
The city and its main gate are located exactly in the original position.
The reconstruction of houses is more approximate: as the walls were made of clay and straw, we have very limited information. However, they made use of terracotta tiles and many terracotta decorations: those materials can be found in museums and were used in the reconstruction.
Etruscans were incredibly skilled in dealing with terracotta: we are doing our best to reproduce these top level creations in the game.
Learn more about architecture in the game...
Clothing, Weapons, Armor, and Physical Appearance
The goal is maximum accuracy. Thanks to sculptures and paintings, we even know what the typical hairstyles of the time were.
Characters will appear clean, and their clothing well-maintained. It is our intention to reject the stereotype present in many movies and games that depicts dirty faces and tattered, torn clothing. This stereotype is false for most historical periods but even more so for the Etruscan/Roman era, when personal grooming was considered of utmost importance.
Vegetation and Agriculture
We are putting great care into reconstructing the hilly ecosystem of the area.
Unlike most games with only a dozen tree models of one or two species, in this case, we've created over a hundred different tree models, including oak, mountain and field maple, hornbeam, holm oak, poplar, etc.
The agricultural area will be designed as it would have been seen by a traveler of the time, with ancient wheat standing 160-180 cm tall and grapevines grown on cords stretched between elm trees.
Discover our historically accurate agriculture or Learn more about natural vegetation in the game.
Traditions, Mythology, Costumes, Names
The creatures the player encounters come from the mythology of that era: fauns, nymphs, chimeras, household spirits, spirits of the deceased, etc.
The story is original, but we try to somehow remain consistent with the characteristics of all these creatures.
For religion, we refer to what little is known about Etruscan religion and the more archaic part of Roman tradition.
The game's protagonist is a young woman; we don't know if this would have been realistic, but among all the Mediterranean civilizations of the time, the Etruscans were by far the most gender-equal.
All the names of the various characters are real Etruscan personal names. The name chosen for the protagonist is Velia because it is the origin of the Latin name Julia, which is currently common worldwide.
Alphabet
Nowadays one of the most diffused alphabet (the one used in this document) is the Latin/Roman Alphabet. As the Romans derived their writing from the Etruscans, most of the Etruscan letters are easily recognizable to us. In the game we decided to use a font as close as possible to the original Etruscan Alphabet, see image below:
Green bg: original Etruscan alphabet, untouched
Yellow bg: the letters HPRU were slightly modified to became more easely readable
White bg: the letters GJVWYZ didn’t existed in the original Etruscan Alphabet and were created by us
Note: Etruscans used to write in the "bustrophedon" way: alternating every line from left to right and from right to left, starting the first line right to left.
To make texts more readable, all the writings in the game are left to right.
