Arcana

In the Year 2XXX, a new gate appeared on Earth. Unlike previous incidents like Skyfall and Maxion’s Gate, there was no sign of invasion or any threats. The EA and CYRUS sent their expedition teams to the new gate. The new gate leads to desolate lands where vegetation is within sight, but there’s no sign of sentient beings, let alone civilization. The EA called this land Arcana. The EA established the Frontier base around Arcana’s Gate and began to explore Arcana.

The Arcana: Land of Mystery

The campaign takes place in the land of Arcana, which is physically similar to Earth. Arcana has a variety of terrain where out-of-the-ordinary vegetation and glimpses of civilization can be found.

According to theories by CYRUS researchers, Arcana is supposed to harbor high-end civilization and technology; Arcana’s Gate is prominent evidence for this theory. There are ruins—another evidence that some kind of civilization used to live in Arcana.

Despite the similarities with Earth, Arcana is a land full of unpredictability: a freezing tundra side by side with a vast and scorching desert, a massive sea of giant trees, canyon formations with metal-like characteristics, plains with lightning strikes without rain, and many abnormalities that increase the difficulty of fully exploring Arcana.

Main Areas

Thunderwild Plains: Large open plains where lightning can strike without a cloud in the sky. It is a dangerous place to travel through in the day; however, nighttime lightning strikes are less frequent than in the day.

Ecliptic Sandsea: A large desert split between the Frostpyre Tundra and Scouring Desert. Its temperatures are a pleasant middle ground between the harsh temperatures of its neighboring regions. Scouring Desert: A hostile desert where even EXAMAC s are not safe from the desert's vicious sandstorms. Most wildlife prefers to live underground in vast cavern networks.

Frostpyre Tundra: A vast glacial plain that got its name from the tall glacial spikes with glowing bases that are strewn about the locale. Its snowstorms can freeze even the most well-insulated EXAMACs solid.

The Arboreal Sea: A truly massive forest that spreads for hundreds of miles in every direction, with one truly massive tree known as the First Tree in the center of the forest. All kinds of vegetation similar to those on Earth can be found growing in the Arboreal Sea.

Razormaw Canyon: A large canyon whose bottom and sides are covered in massive and deadly, razor-sharp rocks. One misstep can badly damage an EXAMACs.

The Frontiers

The Earth Alliance’s objectives in Arcana are to unravel the mystery behind Arcana’s Gate and to explore the land of Arcana for the possibility of colonization, given the similarities between Earth and Arcana. Aside from the forces from the EA and CYRUS’s Arcana branch, the Frontiers also employs various PMC groups; this helps the EA to focus on research while the PMCs explore the land of Arcana.

The discoveries: the energy source of Arcana's Gate is located in the middle of Arcana. Most minerals found in Arcana have the same properties as minerals on Earth. Arcana has unique radio waves that disrupt long-distance communication and navigation systems. The Frontier established smaller bases throughout Arcana, with the EA forces centralized in the Frontiers and the outpost bases managed by the PMCs.

The Encounter

During an exploration mission, EA forces encounter unpleasant yet familiar figures: EXAMACs of the Byron and Maxion forces. Arcana’s Gates did not appear on Earth exclusively; they also appeared on both Byron’s and Maxion’s planets respectively. The mission objective changed from exploration and discovery to a race between three forces to discover the lost technology and civilization of Arcana.