From Dust™ | Ubisoft

Trees & Plants
Cosmos
Geology
Tribe

The coral plant

The Coral Plant

Regularly, the fire would ravage a valley. One scrawny plant managed to hide in the earth. There, its roots imprisoned the breath of fire, which enveloped the plant with a fireproof hide.

The coral plant grows on the naked earth, but does not encroach upon other vegetation. It will not grow on water or rock. Fire is extinguished upon contact with it.

The palm trees

The Palm Trees

The first animals came into existence on a new island. But there was nothing but the earth, arid and barren, and that is why they all perished. As soon as the palms grew, the animals prospered and men settled in.

The palms grow on the naked earth but do not encroach on other vegetation. It will not grow on either rock or water. It is inflammable.

The prickly

The Prickly

The earth created the islands, on which the sea constantly nibbled until none remained. So life gave the earth "the prickly." The plant covered the islands with a blanket insensitive to the assaults of the sea, but so barbed that all other forms of life would become its prisoners.

The prickly grows on the naked earth but does not encroach on the other plants. It does not grow on water or rock. The fire consumes it. It stops men and animals alike, except for the destroyer who can charge right through the prickly.

Knowledge

The Ancients knew that the men disappeared over time, while the knowledge they gained on their journey had to be preserved. This is why they engraved the undulations of the music of knowledge on the stones.

The stones of knowledge possess a special form of protection. The men must go and retrieve the knowledge, and once they have obtained it, the man who was sent by the village paints the knowledge on a kite, then comes back. The knowledge thus takes effect. Each village can share the knowledge they possess with the other villages by sending a man there.

Music

The world was created with a sound. The sound snaked and music was born, and with it all the elements: the sun, the water, the earth, and life. When the music fluctuates, so do the elements, because all is movement and music is the reflection of this movement.

The trees of water vibrate naturally to the music of water, the trees of fire resonate to the music of fire and so forth... As for the men, they have the ability to learn each of the melodies of the world. They do so by obtaining a power.

Spirit

It is by playing music, the shaman tells us, that we discovered the breath of the tribe. The breath is what makes us men. And through the breath we can act upon the world and apply the powers of music.

Every creature and every element, without exception, possesses its own breath. To know its music is to master its actions. Thus, a tree of fire possesses the breath of fire. The power of the breath of man lies in its ability to acquire all the music of the world.

The earth

The Earth

Upon its creation, the earth compared itself to the rock and envied its hardness. Earth was like soft flesh on solid bone, and the rivers gouged wrinkles into it constantly. Feeling useless, the earth retreated; and all that its entrails contained was swallowed by the sea: the sources and the buried relics... And everything that the earth held up was carried away by the waves: rivers, plants, creatures, and villages alike. Nothing remained but the bare and desolate rock.

The earth was the first element that the breath of the tribe was able to manipulate. The plants and trees grew upon it. The water formed ravines. Fire cannot not spread on the naked earth.

The rock

The Rock

The breath of earth and the breath of fire came together at the bottom of a volcano and a fountain of lava was born of their union. The breath of fire escaped from the lava; but the lava hardened, emprisoning the breath of earth inside. This is why rock seems so hard and immutable.

Rock is the most resistant of all elements and serves as the foundation for the islands and continents. A tsunami cannot break rock, but the sea can erode it when tempests are in season. Fire cannot propagate on its surface. When it cools, lava turns to rock. Only the explosive tree can harm it.

The sources

The Sources

The water wept as it flowed ever downwards. It sent streams to learn the music of earth in order to move more freely along its surface. But the earth sensed it and absorbed these watery serpents. Some hid beneath the earth... From time to time, the serpents emerge from their nest: these are sources.

The sources flow of their own volition and may be liberated by digging through the surface. They carry earth all along their course. And a silt-rich source will deposit earth at the bottom of its riverbed, forming a delta.

The volcano

The Volcano

In the beginning, the sea was lonely, all spread out in the middle of the universe. The sun came near to console the sea. But it shrunk back and the sun sunk to the very bottom of the sea. Its ardent fire warmed and revived the rock, which broke through the surface of the seawater: the first volcano was born.

When the volcano awakens, it can spew cinders and bombs. From its mouth spills a river of lava, once or repeatedly, depending on its mood. The lava burns and destroys all in its path, but once cooled, it congeals into the most solid of rock.

The masks

The Masks

Before, the members of the tribe made music with bare heads, but the sounds that sprang from their instruments differed each time, and the power was altered. A shaman made white masks, and the music, this time, worked. Because those who play with a mask are no longer man nor woman, nor aged, but the breath of the tribe in its entirety. A mask is the intermediary between the wearer and the instrument he plays. Each child receives a mask at his, or her initiation, and will not set it aside until his or her death. Thus, the members of the tribe can play at any time. These masks are the only crafted objects they take on their journey.

the men

The Men

In the beginning, the men were good at nothing. They did not burn like the lava, nor did they sprinkle like the water, they could not build dams like the dyker and had not the appetite of the destroyer. So, the breath of life gave or offered them the ability to learn and to transmit the music of things.

The men know how to find food for themselves in nature. They live in tribes, wear masks, and have a shaman. The quest of the Ancients guides them across the world.

It may be that they will find their own music.

the village

The Village

The men journeyed endlessly. Since they suffered from loneliness, they decided to populate the lands they came upon. They performed the ritual around the totem and built their huts.

A village serves as shelter and as a place for men to survive and carry on. When a village is created, vegetation propagates all around it. A village is vulnerable to numerous threats; fire, flooding or rampaging destroyers, but the powers can protect the village from all of these. Sometimes a village can be moved. Around the village, the men sculpt statues where they consign their knowledge gained through experience.