Dunkeltaler Forest
The Dunkeltaler Forest is a national park and forest in an undisclosed location on Earth, It serves as the main setting of Voices of the Void.
Description
Dunkeltaler Forest (Dark Valley Forest) is a large, mountainous stretch of forested land, broken up by a large river and lake flowing through it. It's perimeter is enclosed by chain-link fence and a security checkpoint, however the forest itself stretches far past this - with further woodland and sparse watchtowers outside of its boundaries.
The area is where an ASO facility is located, constructed by the W Ziegler corporation sometime in the 1970s. The area is known for its history of curses and superstition, such as missing people, cryptic sightings, and strange flying objects. During the events of the game it is where an ASO researcher named Dr. Kel both works and lives, however evidence shows multiple researchers have lived there prior to Dr. Kel's arrival.
For reasons unknown, It is the focus of multiple extraterrestrial and preternatural phenomena. The most likely reason for this abnormal activity is the cave that resides within the forest, which houses a Life crystal, an object of particular importance to a certain species and their allies.
Location in-universe
Dunkeltaler Forest exists on earth within the same shared universe as many of EternityDev's other games, taking place on earth at an unspecified, but assumed modern time on Earth. It is not known where on earth it is located, however Switzerland appears to be its general location, thanks to the signage and expansive list of languages used within the setting. The forest appears to be inhabited by at least several different native species of birds and deer as shown throughout the game's (currently unfinished) story, however what is native and what is of extra-terrestrial origin is difficult to pin down.
Locations of interest
Being the site of an ASO facility, It features 25 Satellite Dishes, 3 Transformers, 4 Wind Turbines, 1 Communications Tower and 1 Main Base, which all feed into the forest's current purpose of analyzing signals from space.
Other than these locations, the forest features many more locations which seem to imply many different things about the exact purpose of the ASO keeping the forest under their jurisdiction, ranging from mysteriously blocked off holes into the ground, facsimiles of ancient European architecture, temporal spaces, Battered and bruised ramshackle shacks and more.
A full list of locations can be found here.
Previous Iterations
Prior to the 0.8.0 Pre-Alpha of the game, Dunkeltaler Forest was a significantly different landscape than it currently is, primarily in terms of altitude and human interference. While gravel roads existed prior to this version, 0.8.0 massively overhauled how each dish connects to both other dishes and the main base, with much of the new terrain requiring the ATV to traverse in a fast fashion.
[TODO - get pictures of a top-down view of the map before 0.8.0 and after 0.8.0]
Gallery
Dunkeltaler Forest's sign.
Trivia
- Dunkeltaler translates to "Dark Valley" in German.