They’re not completely out of place either, as while it wasn’t as dramatic, the Mesozoic was just as well known for having some large insects, and terrifying oceans. I believe the reason they added in the cute little rodents was to give players a race to immediately identify with. Insects are an immediately alien species to us humans, and large ones may be especially tough to sympathize with at first. Kingsisle has been known to mash periods in history up before, most notably with Polaris’s French/Russian revolution, and Mooshu and Mirage taking elements from all over east Asia and the Middle East respectively. I don’t think this is necessarily damning evidence though. Mammals did not evolve until the end of the Triassic period, alongside the first dinosaurs, and thus would not have interacted with a Paleozoic world. There’s one major point that throws a wrench in this theory though the existence of the burrowers. The differences in climate almost perfectly mirror Laurasia and Gondwana. Compare this to the southern half of Khrysalis where we begin, with its lush forests and mountainous landscapes, and the northern half, with the arid city of Sardonyx, and the harsh landscape of the Kondha. Laurasia, being located more squarely on the equator than its southern partner, was the warmer of the two, while Gondwana had a more temperate climate. Unlike most other worlds, Khrysalis is two distinct landmasses, separated by an ocean - which immediately brings to mind the Paleozoic continents of Laurasia and Gondwana. Need more evidence? Think about how Khrysalis is laid out on the map. Marine reptiles were quite just beginning to evolve at this time as well. Early Paleozoic periods produced the ever popular trilobites and ammonites, as well as the terrifying sea scorpions while later periods produced some truly vicious fish: Dunkleosteus, with its horrifying fanged, bony skull and Helicoprion, the shark with a buzz-saw on its face to name a few.
By the later periods, life in the oceans had much more time to develop, and thus living in the water was far more competitive than life on land, at least at first. In the Paleozoic era, there are six major periods, and life did not find its way on land until midway through the fourth one.
It’s true that due to the horrible effects of the war in Khrysalis much of the burrower settlements are gone, but even when looking at a barren place like Silent Market, we don’t see any sort of ruins to indicate that what was there before is much different to what’s there now.Īnother major parallel manifests itself in the oceans. Compare these to the small burrower and hopper villages in Last Wood and Kondha Desert, and it’s easy to see who the more advanced society is. Even the mantids have a pretty spectacular city in Sardonyx, and while the centipedes aren’t the smartest, they’ve definitely got a very orderly, warlike culture. The spider arachna seem to have hoarded most of the power for themselves in the Hive, and the bees hold an absolutely gigantic hive of their own in Moon Cliffs. This brings the most immediate parallel with Khrysalis to light the giant, sentient bugs! Not only that, but on Khrysalis, the insects are clearly the dominant races. Meganeura, the dragonfly with a 3 foot wingspan