History VideoGame / SixAges

# ''Lights Going Out'': The second game, set in the apocalyptic Great Darkness. Currently in development for iOS; a demo was released May 4, 2023.\
'''Premise:''' Glorantha is dying, and your gods with it. Everywhere the earth is withering, monsters emerging, and sunlight growing dimmer day by day. Never before has it been so hard to survive. But you are Riders, and death is not an option. Somehow you will persevere through the darkness- as its stalwart foes, or [[LesCollaborateurs desperate servants]].

# ''Lights Going Out'': The second game, set in the apocalyptic Great Darkness. Currently in development for iOS; a demo was released in April 2023.\\

# ''Lights Going Out'': The second game, set in the apocalyptic Great Darkness. Currently in development for iOS.\\

* TriangRelations: The two Berens, best friends since childhood, both love Redalda.

->''Life Between Myths''

The sun god Yelm is dead, and the mighty empire your people once lived in is covered in ice. Your clan has escaped that fate and must now make a home in a new land, populated not only by fellow Riders but by their Wheel cousins and the barbaric Rams— worshippers of Orlanth, Yelm’s murderer.

Glorantha is dying, and your gods with it. Everywhere the earth is withering, monsters emerging, and sunlight growing dimmer day by day. Never before has it been so hard to survive. But you are Riders, and death is not an option. Somehow you will persevere through the darkness- as its stalwart foes, or [[LesCollaborateurs desperate servants]].

''Six Ages'' is a series of games [[ThematicSeries following up]] the cult classic ''VideoGame/KingOfDragonPass''. Like ''[=KoDP=]'', the series is about leading a clan in the primitive, fantastical world of [[TabletopGame/RuneQuest Glorantha]]. Every entry takes place in a different era of Gloranthan history, enabling players to [[OldSaveBonus import "their"]] clan into successive games and significantly customize its culture. If it survives, of course.

# ''Ride Like the Wind'': The first game, following a colony of Riders in the mythic Storm Age. It was released for [[UsefulNotes/IOSGames iOS]] in June 2018, and was ported to [=PC=] and Mac on October 17, 2019.

The sun god Yelm is dead, and the mighty empire your people once lived in is covered in ice. Your clan has escaped that fate and must now make a home in a new land, populated not only by fellow Riders but by their Wheel cousins and the barbaric Rams— worshippers of Orlanth, Yelm’s murderer.

# ''Lights Going Out'': The second game, set in the apocalyptic Great Darkness. Currently in development for iOS.

''Six Ages'' is a series of games [[ThematicSeries following up]] the cult classic ''VideoGame/KingOfDragonPass''. Like ''[=KoDP=]'', the series is about leading a tribe in the primitive, fantastical world of [[TabletopGame/RuneQuest Glorantha]]. Every entry takes place in a different era of Gloranthan history, enabling players to [[OldSaveBonus import "their"]] tribe into successive games and significantly customize its culture. If it survives, of course.

** The tribe's explorers can physically ''meet'' Nyalda if they search a particular cave on the overworld map.

* SliceOfLife: There are many subplots, but the main plot is simply "don't let your clan die" and, several generations after the game begins, "[[spoiler:achieve the marriage that is necessary for the above]]". This fits Elmali mythology, which idealizes defensive war and tradition. It also makes the game easier than ''King of Dragon Pass'', in which you constantly had to assert your tribe's supremacy and make highly risky, specific decisions in order to get anywhere near victory.

* StayInTheKitchen: The Wheels (more formally known as the Samnali) are distinguished from your people by refusing to allow women to fight or lead, in addition to driving chariots rather than riding horses. [[spoiler: One storyline includes a Wheel tribe "marrying" off their [[TheLadette rebellious woman]]--who will [[GoingNative embrace Rider culture and even become a noble]]-- into your tribe just to get rid of her]].

[[folder:General Tropes]]

->"We have granted many mercies. Now may the gods grant us one."

''Six Ages: Ride Like the Wind'' is the long-awaited [[ThematicSeries follow-up]] to the cult classic ''VideoGame/KingOfDragonPass''. It is set long before the earlier game, in the mythic Storm Age, and deals with an entirely different group of people — the Riders, or Hyalorings.

The sun god Yelm is dead, and the mighty empire your people once lived in is covered in ice. Your clan has escaped that fate and must now make a home in a new land, populated not only by fellow Riders but by their Wheel cousins and the barbaric Rams—worshippers of Orlanth, Yelm’s murderer.

''Ride Like the Wind'' is the first of a potential six games, which will allow the player to continue their clan’s story through six ages of Gloranthan history. It was released for [[UsefulNotes/IOSGames iOS]] in June 2018, and was ported to [=PC=] and Mac on October 17, 2019.

The second game, ''Lights Going Out'', is currently in development for iOS. A third game, ''The World Reborn'', is also tentatively planned.

The game has a website [[https://sixages.com/ here]].

!!This game provides examples of:

* AncestorVeneration: Everyone—Riders, Rams, Wheels, and even nonhumans like the trolls—has to uphold their ancestors' ways or suffer the consequences. For the player clan, this means that your ancestors will reward you for striking against their foes or following their example when it comes to adopting outsiders, and curse you if you do the opposite.

* CharacterPortrait: All the nobles of your clan have these—most chosen at random, but your preset heroes always have unique faces. Their expressions don't change, but they do age over time. [[spoiler:And if Beren loses an eye, he gets a new portrait set reflecting that.]]

* TheComputerIsALyingBastard: Your clan circle members serve to give you advice on how to handle certain matters, but there's no guarantee their advice is good. The quality of the advice is affected by their skills (e.g. someone who has no skill in trading is unlikely to give you good advice on the worth of a Treasure) and their personalities, including personal prejudices (e.g. someone who hates the Wheels will almost always tell you not to trust them, and someone obsessed with goats will usually just ramble uselessly when asked about a matter involving cows).

* GodIsDispleased: You can lose the favor of the gods in a number of ways, ranging from participating in a Wheel rite that doesn't sufficiently respect your shared goddesses to sacrificing clan members to an outlaw god.

* HeroicLineage: Those descended from gods are often TheChosenOne by default, even if their godly ancestor wasn't all that noble. Apparently they have more possible destinies open to them than most people- which is not to say that those destinies are all ''good''.

* MoraleMechanic: Your clan's mood (ranging from Grim to Jubilant) influences how likely the people are to cooperate with their leaders' decisions. A bad mood can trigger special events in which members of your clan demand satisfaction. And morale has a role in battle, too: confident clans can pull off risky strategies, while less confident ones can't even try them and have a chance of running away from the enemy rather than fighting.

* NoStatAtrophy: Averted for Combat, the one skill that measures physical ability—after age 50, there's a chance that characters may lose Combat skill rather than gaining it. Played straight for all other skills, however.

* PracticalCurrency: Once again, cows.

* ShoutOut: It's possible to find a magical artifact called [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask Mojara's Mask]].

* CoolHat: Rider gods have long conical hats that droop at the end. Yes, they're as funny as they sound.

* AnyoneCanDie: Including TheChosenOne[=s=]. And [[spoiler: the demi(?)goddess who singlehandedly restores the valley's flora]]. In fact, part of playing the game is getting the stats of future ring members high for when your current ring members die off. A successful player will have seen several generations pass in-universe.

* EverythingsBetterWithCows: One thing that the Rams and Riders (well, except the Pure Horse Clan) can agree on is that you can never have too many cows. They're a visible measure of wealth as well as a source of food in a world where food can never be taken for granted. Of course, the bigger your herds get the faster they'll wear out your pastures, but the cow goddess can help you with that.

* MulticoloredHair: Beren's hair is mostly brown, apart from a single blond lock.

* BadassBeard: Except for shamans and tricksters (who try to project a more androgynous appearance, especially the former), Rider men wear beards; one of your more warlike nobles decorates his with a death rune, and another clan member dyes a fire rune into his. This serves to contrast with the Wheels, who are always clean-shaven, and the Rams, among whom only lawspeakers (experts in lore rather than combat) wear beards. (Many Ram men do cultivate dramatic mustaches, though.)

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!!Tropes in ''Six Ages'':

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* WhatTheHellHero: A particular combination of choices in the endgame can result in [[spoiler: ''Ernalda herself'']] calling your heroes out. [[spoiler: During the ritual "A threat to crops and forests", you can have Beren and Redalda first make peace with the dwarves and then betray them. Ernalda declines to curse them because it's their wedding day, but she is quietly furious and disappointed in their behavior.]]

** Some heroquest blessings last for the rest of the game, others for only a few years. You're not told this, or which ones are temporary until you pick.
** Many shamans look androgynous, which can be a problem if you've just started a heroquest that requires someone of a specific gender and [clan's best magician] turns out to be incompatible. (Heroquests cannot be stopped once they've started.)

** In Inilla's heroquest, she can prove her parentage by descending with Nyalda into a cave. This variant of the myth tests the quester's magic stat.