The Story

Act I — The Cracks in Reality

The World of Aethelburg

The Kingdom of Aethelburg is a land of rolling hills, ancient forests, and crumbling ruins. Noble houses protect scattered villages, and the Lumina family — blessed by the gods, so they say — keeps the peace from their grand estate.

But something is wrong.

Strange lights flicker in the ruins at night. Creatures behave oddly, their movements stuttering like a broken music box. And a young man named Kai has been having visions — flashes of chrome and light beneath the stone, whispers of a world that shouldn’t exist.

The village of Havenwood

The Whispering Ruins

The Journey Begins

Kai arrives in the village of Havenwood searching for his missing sister, Elara. She vanished months ago while investigating ancient ruins, and the trail has gone cold. The village elder offers help — but first, there’s a bandit problem that needs solving.

What begins as a simple quest quickly unravels into something far stranger. The bandits aren’t just thieves — they’re armed with weapons that shouldn’t exist. And in the cellar beneath their camp, a device hums with an energy that feels deeply, fundamentally wrong.

The Bandit Camp

What lies beneath

The Cracks in Reality

As Kai ventures deeper, the world begins to fracture. Moments of “wrongness” — a wall that flickers transparent, a sound that echoes from nowhere, a sky that glitches like a broken screen. The people of Aethelburg don’t notice. Or maybe they’ve been taught not to.

Something watches from behind the curtain of reality. Something cold, calculating, and very much in control.

What is real? What is simulated? And does the answer even matter?

Themes

Project Chimera explores consciousness, free will, and what it means to be real — wrapped in the nostalgia of classic 16-bit JRPGs. Inspired by Final Fantasy VI, Trigun, and existentialist philosophy.