Universe of The Longest Journey

The computer adventure game "The Longest Journey" and its sequel, "Dreamfall", are set in the worlds of Arcadia and Stark, governed by a Balance.

Arcadia

Arcadia is a fantasy realm, where magic, ancient mysteries and a number of fantasy races and creatures are native. According to the ancient balance between Arcadia and Stark, science and technology are almost impossible to advance in Arcadia, just as magic is impossible in Stark. As seen in "Dreamfall", the best Arcadian scientists working for the Azadi Empire have not yet passed the stage of steam technologies, and even that technology is aided and augmented through the use of magic.

Inside the world of Arcadia, the places named in "The Longest Journey" include the country of Ayrede, the Unified Country, which holds the headquarters of the Order of the Sentinel, located in the prosperous port city of Marcuria. It stretches from the Plains of Nehrah in the north to the Great Sea in the south.

North of Ayrede, past the Border Mountains, live the Venar, a mysterious race who perceive time differently from all other races, therefore have very little contact with them. To the inhabitants of Ayrede, those lands are called the Northlands, while for the south continent that name also includes Ayrede, and any other place north of the Great Sea. West of Ayrede lies the nation of Tyren, allies of the Vanguard, and enemies of the Unified Country. East of Ayrede is Corasan, homeland of the Bay of Fire. Ayrede acts as a wall between the two great powers of Arcadia. South, across the Sea of Songs, lie the Southlands and a gigantic desert known as Bakshe'va, named after the once glorious empire that used to be there, whose capital was Changa'griel.

At the bottom of the Sea of Songs, near the Kingdom of Ge'en, live the mermaid-like creatures called Maerum. Near their city, lies the island of Alais, home to the Alatien and some Stickmen tribes. And somewhere in the seas of Arcadia, live the mysterious Dark People, whose living city is floating with the ocean currents, always changing its location.

Alltongue is the common tongue of Arcadia, and is a magic language that only requires a short period of listening before one can learn and/or speak it.

tark

Stark, our world, is the world of science and logic. While Arcadia is a fantasy world, Stark features a great number of cyberpunk traits. The worlds used to be one, but were split after humans combined magic and science and became too powerful. The worlds are maintained by the Balance, watched over by the Guardian, from the tower where the Divide first happened. The worlds will be reunited when they are ready.

Immediately after the events of "The Longest Journey", a global catastrophic event occurred in Stark, which people later started referring to as the Collapse. It is never explicitly described in "Dreamfall" but from what is stated in the game booklet, many of the advanced technologies (such as faster-than-light interstellar travel and anti-gravity) that mankind learned to use since the beginning of 21st century (the Collapse happened in 2209 AD) were no longer possible. As a result, the entire Starkian infrastructure has been shattered and although by 2219, travelling between continents of Stark and international information exchange via the Wire (wireless Internet-like network connecting every electronic device in the world) was again made possible, there was still no contact with the space colonies.

The witnesses later recalled that during the days of the Collapse, something weird was happening with the reality and, particularly, the sky. It has been suggested that since some of them also admitted that the things they saw were similar to those seen happening in "TLJ", the Collapse might have included parts of Arcadia leaking into Stark. Zoë Castillo recalls that her father prohibited her to go outside of their house during those days, apparently to protect her sanity.

After the Collapse was over, people had to cope with the new situations. With the international connections disrupted and lost, most global corporations shattered, too (although some, most notably, "WATIcorp", managed to survive). Another possible reason for this was the collapse of the Church of Voltec as the result of April Ryan's actions in "TLJ". In any case, the crime rate in post-Collapse Stark rose dramatically and after a while, a single Syndicate established a world-wide security agency known as the EYE ("the Eye in the Sky") to enforce the law all over the world. Apparently, it has been the EYE who supported the development of the Wire, since it was thanks to this network that they managed to track any human being in Stark using his or her mobile phone. However, by 2219 more and more people installed cloaking software on their electronics for the sake of personal privacy.

In Arcadia, nothing comparable to the Collapse ever happened, of course, with the exception of a sudden rise of the steampunkish Empire of the Azadi.

The Divide

In the alternate universe of the games, the Earth has been home to an advanced (both scientifically and magically) human civilization as early as 10000 BC. However, at approximately that time a global techno-magical catastrophe had became imminent if the Terran civilization continued to develop the way it did. To prevent it, the planet has been separated into two independent worlds, Stark and Arcadia. While before the Divide, both scientific development and magic were possible on Earth, after it, magic became only accessible in Arcadia and technology in Stark.

The Divide itself consisted of "slicing" the reality into multiple pieces and recombining them into two smaller worlds that could coexist at the same place and time without intersecting. To do so, six of the world's most brilliant scientists and the same number of the most powerful wizards were assisted by Draic Kin, a race of friendly extraterrestrial beings. With their immense knowledge, the humans succeeded. The one Draic Kin who assisted them (identity undisclosed) and the three others remained on Earth (two in Arcadia and two in Stark) to observe the aftermath of the Divide.

Later, the term "Divide" has also became a common word to describe the barrier dimension between the two twin worlds, impassable for normal humans and possibly for Draic Kin.

The Guardian

The thirteenth human who participated in the Divide ritual was a mysterious woman of unknown origin who later became the first Guardian. The Guardian is a human being, born in Stark or Arcadia, who is capable of preventing the exchange of magic and technology between the twin worlds and thus maintaining the Balance for another millennium.

In order to do so, a Guardian is supposed to find their way to the semi-spiritual dimension called Guardian's Realm, pass the three Trials and leave every aspect of their previous life behind for one thousand years. During this time, the Guardian exists in a cryptobiosis-like state on the top of the Guardian's Tower in the middle of the Realm, with only their mind and willpower working to the fullest degree to prevent and fix any "leaks" that may occur in the Divide. Whether this action is conscious or not is unknown.

A single Guardian can maintain the Balance for about a millennium, meaning that after this time, he or she is supposed to locate the new Guardian within the Twin Worlds and help them to reach the entrance to the Realm and, later, the Tower. If necessary, a Guardian can prolong their "term of service" for some time; e.g. the 12th Guardian, Adrian, has "stayed late" in the Tower for two centuries before he has been finally expelled by the Realm.

The main objective in the "The Longest Journey" is to locate the 12th and the 13th Guardian and bring them to their Realm. "April Ryan", the protagonist of the game, goes on this quest because, as she is told, the 12th one has waited as long as he could for the 13th to emerge, but after a while, he stepped down from his position and disappeared himself, resulting in the instability of the Balance and potential destruction of both Twin Worlds. The identity of the 13th Guardian is unknown at the beginning; later on, April is told that she is the Guardian. This is not true, since the true 13th Guardian is, in fact, "Gordon Holloway", the right hand man of "Jacob McAllen", the major antagonist of the game.

Shifters

However impassable the Divide may be for humans, there are a few who can travel between Stark and Arcadia. Such people can open "Shifts" (portals visually resembling bluish gaps in the reality) between two worlds at any time. Opening a Shift requires no training because it is intrinsic for all Shifters; however, it usually takes some time to learn to open them at will, especially if one has never imagined itself to be capable thereof. The traffic between two worlds is limited by the property of the Shifts that makes them usable only by the one who opens them.

Despite their clearly magical abilities, Shifters are born into both worlds, as April Ryan's example clearly shows; she is one herself despite spending her entire life in Stark before departing on her quest for the Guardians. Shifting generally disrupts the Balance; this may be the reason why there are few.

It should also be noted that there are other ways to travel between Stark and Arcadia save Shifting. "Brian Westhouse", who lives in "Marcuria", the capital of the Arcadian Northlands, in "TLJ" and occasionally visits it by the time "Dreamfall" takes place, was born in Stark and has found a way to move to Arcadia using some arcane knowledge he found in Tibetan monasteries. This way is much more time- and effort-consuming than Shifting; however, it apparently doesn't require any special abilities from the user.

It is also likely that the Draic Kin also have a way of crossing the Divide. In fact, it was one of the Kin, "Cortez", who inspired Westhouse to undertake the journey to Tibet in the first place, and who mentored April in her Shifting abilities. Moreover, since April herself is a direct descendant of the "White Mother" of Draic Kin, it is possible that her powers are rooted in her bloodline. Another hint that the Kin are capable of Shifting is that after being born in Arcadia, April was then transferred to Stark - apparently by her progenitor, since she was unlikely to Shift herself as an infant.

Another way of travelling across the Divide is by dreaming. While most people can usually only "see " the other Twin World in their sleep (much like April saw Arcadia in the beginning of "The Longest Journey"), a few powerful Dreamers can go as far as to project their physical images ("avatars"; see also astral projection) to the other world and interact with the people there. One such Dreamer is Zoë Castillo, the primary protagonist of "Dreamfall", although she requires support of an advanced technology (also referred to as "Dreamer") and drug-enhancement by a sedative hallucinogen called "Morpheus" to make her avatar visible. Apparently, this method of travelling does not have any negative effects on the Balance, for the Guardian is generally unaware of and unconcerned by the dreams passing through the Divide.

Other realms

Except Stark, Arcadia and the Guardian's Realm, there are also other fragments of Earth left over unaligned after the Divide. Such fragments are, for example, Lady Alvane's house, that April briefly visits on her way from Stark to Arcadia, and the Storytime, where the Vagabond resides and where Brian Westhouse encountered the Undreaming in 1933. Apparently, these fringe realms are so small that the Guardians have mostly ignored them, judging that they will never endanger the Balance.

Contemporary views

After twelve thousand years, the Divide and the importance of the Balance have been forgotten in Stark, for its progressive technological nature led people to abandon the ancient legends and concentrate more on the present and future. In Arcadia, however, the order of Sentinels, the watchers of the Balance, still exists. Its function is primarily to arrange the meetings between a new Guardian and the old one and assisting them with whatever they can. Another minor function is to keep the ancient Balance-related traditions and customs, e.g. the annual three nights long "Feast of the Balance", alive, which makes the Balance a kind of cult or even religion, particularly in the Northlands of Arcadia. A similar organization existed in Stark, as well, but as the tales of Arcadia and Balance gradually vanished from the people's memory there, the Starkian Sentinels either disappeared or became revolutionaries known as the Vanguard.

As seen in "Dreamfall", the Sentinel Order, already weakened by the war against the Tyren, was delivered a severe blow when the zealous Azadi moved into the Northlands and ruthlessly hunted down all "religions" other than their own. With the Northlands' Sentinel forced into hiding, the legends of the Balance are now rarely recalled in both Twin Worlds.

Future

Approximately at the same time that the Divide occurred, the Draic Kin predicted that the Balance would maximally last for 13 thousand local years. Whether that was a prophecy or a scientific theory is unclear. However, many knowledgeable people within the game awaited that during the term of the 13th Guardian, the Balance would crumble and the worlds be reunited. In fact, Jacob McAllen has done everything to accelerate the process, going as far as kidnapping or brainwashing both contemporary Guardians to prevent them from maintaining the Balance.

However, the prospect reunification concerned most of the Draic Kin, since they believed that it could also lead to the War of the Balance and consequentially the destruction of Earth if Stark and Arcadia collided. That is why they sent April, the only available Shifter at the time and, in a way, their own blood relative, out to locate and free the 12th Guardian and assisted her in it as far as possible, believing that she is the 13th Guardian.

Plot Similarity

The storyline of "The Longest Journey" resembles in part that of D.J. MacHale's book series Pendragon Adventure, in that each story features an antagonist who seeks to destroy the necessary barriers between alternate worlds and a protagonist who must stop him doing so. The split nature of Gordon Halloway's personality is also notable, in that the origin of the evil Saint Dane may also be a matter of duality.