Is the totem appropriately named considering the theme of the game?

The meaning of a totem is
“a natural object or animal believed by a particular society to have spiritual significance and adopted by it as an emblem.”
Correct me if I’m wrong but boundless is a game about technology and machines. I was assured that the devs have no intentions on adding any type of magic or undead zombie/skeleton spell based content into the game and that it was a game of technology, NOT magic. That being said I feel that the starting tool would be better named something more fitting to the theme of the game. I hope I don’t offend anybody with this suggestion.

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I truly find the totem very fitting. To me it seems to be one of the things the Oort left behind, don’t quote me on that, I barely know any of the lore.

It fits the object with spiritual significance and adopted as an emblem. A game being based around technology and machinery, doesn’t have to leave behind the spiritual sense of the previous civilization, the Oort. If anything, any developed society holds a sense of spirituality.

It kinda also explains why the totem is so important for travelling far off planet, and why it doesn’t loses durability. Being a symbolic object of the Oort. To me it seems like someone is born with. That’s why I would love the option to customize it’s appearance at birth. Kinda like a birthday gift from the Boundless world.

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it also adds a nice mysticism to the shizo-tech feel of Boundless. they were a technologically advanced people, but they were still magical too

I think about it as technology based on quantum physics and knowledge of dimensions both time and space wise. Science that from our earthly post-newtonian point of view seem magical (travel through space-time dimensions, synchronicities, observer affecting reality and outcomes of events through collapsing waves, devices that merge artificial with natural, remote viewing and telepathy etc etc) is still science from point of view of more advanced civilization.

Post-Oortian culture of races we are about to embody can only partially understand and use that huge knowledge they inherited and might give the ancient technology magical and spiritual meaning reflecting its ability to comprehend the unknown. Thus terminology like totem.

I feel it perfectly reflects the collective mind of the new culture that is trying to adopt its own limited understanding of the universe to advanced inheritance of Oort.

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There is a slightly different meaning given on Wikipedia which I think better describes the use of the word totem in Boundless…

“A totem (Ojibwe dodaem) is a spirit being, sacred object, or symbol that serves as an emblem of a group of people, such as a family, clan, lineage, or tribe.”

This is how I’ve always thought of the totem, and the first incarnation of the tutorial seemed to work better in that respect for me … wherein you are gifted the sacred objects of the tribe, by an elder, and sent out into the universe to explore.

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The world at the junction of times

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“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic” - Arthur C. Clark

The player races in Boundless is best described as a primitive people on the cusp of their own cultural awakening. Our magic and our lore is based on the Oort, whom came before us and who’s relics and technology is the basis of our own. In Boundless, there is very little that we create that is of our own innovation. Everything is instead based on ancient tech fragments, components, or devices gathered from archeological remains scattered across the universe. The Totem, with it’s “Magical” ability to cast warp beacons across the sky and absolute indestructability is likely in fact one of the Oort’s relics, not the simple stick that it appears. As such, it would be considered a sacred object to our player’s race. Much like the Light Cube that we start the game with, the totem is probably a broken fragment of a much larger piece of Oortian technology.

So, in a way the technology in Oort is both highly advanced science and pure sorcery to the primitive people who wield it. I’m sure this will all become clearer as more bits of lore and ancient techs are added to the game. In the interim, I can assure you that a good bit of Oortian tech is either being withheld from the live and test branches or paused in it’s development to be released just before or on 1.0 launch. We have been teased in the past with images and concepts for things like Titans, Guardians, and Drones- constructs created and left behind by the Oort that will act as both the main protagonists, and defenders of Oortian hordes of technology and history like the Oort Temples.

It’s been a long time since we have been teased with any background lore to unravel, and as such I think many of the newcomers don’t realize that the lore of this game is based on discovering and decoding the lost secrets of the Oort.

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Well said…that is completey acceptable and believable. It makes perfect sense. As long as the game truly does stick to those roots and doesnt implement actual magic elements later. I really like the idea of tech being the focus of the game and I feel that spells and magic would taint the purpose of the tech…UNLESS…the said spell is simply a tech device that’s misunderstood by the oortians but we as the player know that it’s simply tech that’s causing the power. I love that idea.

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