SUNDAY MUSINGS - Which Flesh Is Your Flesh?

As always, the idea behind a Sunday Musings is that Adam takes a concept and times an hour and a half to write it in. This week, we get …… I have absolutely no idea…Vermied maybe?

“Inside the mist your ears hear nothing but your footsteps, but your eyes can distinguish subtle silhouettes slowly moving around you, if you walk towards them to find out who’s behind the fog, you will find nothing but a whisper, do not turn your back on the shadows”

There are spaces of time where the strategy guide was king, where 8-bit dungeon crawling was the best you could get in computer gaming, and where the fuzzy lines in-between conjured up far more fantastic mental imagery than could ever be placed on pixel or page. Those of us old enough to remember the joys of 8 and 16 bit gaming may well remember filling in the gaps on Ultima Underground, before the 32-bit generation came in and told narratives far grander than Alisia Dragoon ever could. Those gaps in memory, those leaps of logic are the cracks that Vermis sits in. A guide to a game that dosn’’t exist, a background book for an RPG that has never been, an exercise in sheer unadulterated worldbuilding. The only thing like Vermis are the books that came after it in the series, and boy, is it an experience.

I was going to write a Bloody Book review on Vermis, and have started it multiple times. The issue is being that it cannot be fully explained, rather than experienced. It’s an incredible production and needs to be lauded a lot more in these circles we have been drawn to.

Where to begin here?

Vermis is a secondary release to which there is no primary. It’s a lo-fi art book with a loose narrative worded like a playthrough guide for either a RPG or Computer game, with various stats and explanations of equipment, NPCs and enemies* whilst describing in dripping detail each location you, as the Knight, travels to. The remains of dead gods litter the landscape and ever increasingly unsettling creatures and corpses come at you.

Don’t look up the chimney.

The evocative nature of Vermis is irresistible, swallowing you whole from the get go. Placed upon the page like the starting point of the best strategy guides, we get to gain small gleams on information of who and what we are that being a Knight awakening in a cold wet grave. Cold, wet but pleasant apparently. The world unfolds with each turn of the corner, lifting us out of the grave and moving through each point of narrative tissue like intertwining veins. We are pumped forward in a slow, rhythmic pattern with heightened horror and sodden lows. If House of Leaves was a Dead Soul RPG, you’d get close to understanding how it feels. Theories come unbidden to your mind about the characters you come across as you are offered fleeting glimpses into the possibilities of before and after your acquaintance. Stories are there to be unfolded in the time it takes to put the book down and enter your own dreamscape.

Let’s refocus a little. Released by Hollow Press and designed by the artist Plastiboo, “Vermis is described as a pure act of world-building inspired by old dungeon crawler game”. It takes place in a world of very Dark Souls / Elden Ring grimdark, with every fetid environment, cursed item and foolhardy character having a glimmer of lore as deep as anything From Software created. Whilst you meet many a tragic man and terrifying monster along the way, Vermis guides you past each and every part with descriptions and advice (remember…this game does not exist) to allow the reader to get through to the next level, the next location.

Don’t forget to cut out the tongue.

We then come to the art. Whilst every part of the tale being told is gripping, it is held togetehr by the art and design. The presentation is dripping with layers of atmosphere depicting the dark, dank and crumbling of the world around you. Plastiboo has created a world that convinces the reader of itself, and of the depth under the page. The art is stunning to behold and feeds the imagination. It’s just enough to both call back to those muddy graphics from the Amigia era and leaving you to fill in the blanks, as well as providing the look of a world gone to ruin.

I cannot recommend this enough.

*The ratman. He’s a rat. Used to be a man.