Fondent region

The Fondent region is a small coastal country in the The World, dominated by mega-corporations, called Pillars. Of these, the most prominent and powerful is the news and entertainment media monopoly Omnichannel. It is the location of two proposed plots:

• The Spyder in the Cathedral, where five Pillars are scheming together to take full control of the region.
• Qiangong2's plot, where Omnichannel has total control and the other Pillars do not exist.

Name

The region is named after "fondant", the icing on wedding cake, and the "fundament" (the Heavens, referring to the Cathedral). The towns and cities in the region are named after wedding anniversaries.

Other names proposed by Apollonius:

Ancient names of the Nile: Fiaro, Iteru, Neilo, Shihor

Chinese-inspired: Jingdi, Jingsho, Jangjo, Tiensha (I can explain the meanings, if you like)

Anagrams of “libre”: Lerbi, Lirbe, Berli, Birle

Locations

Town mottos in brackets.

• Paper Town
  • Daycare Centre
• Route 1
• Cotton Town ("A growing force")
  • Art Shop
  • Omnichannel HQ
  • Dryad's Grove
• Route 2
• City Park ("Proof that beauty and mining can co-exist")
  • Achievement Maniac's Hut
• Leather Town
  • Museum
  • Battle Pit
• Route 3
  • Shaft HQ
  • Wayfarer Inn
• Route 4
• Flower City
  • Nimrod HQ
  • Pet Shop
  • Side Route A
  • Mansion
• Route 5
• Timber Town
  • Dojo of the Five Elements
  • Scoop HQ
  • Walled Garden (endgame)
• Tunnel B
• Route 6
• Candy Town
  • Hospital
  • Greenwash HQ
  • Private Garden
  • Art Critic's House
• Sea Route C
  • Dragon's Cave

Original layout

The original map was spread out.

Town features

Scoop Stores

These combination fast food and retail stores sell items, and will also heal your tuxemon - for a fee, or if you sit through an ad from one of their sponsors.

They offer other services that are slowly made redundant by Team Bazaar:

• Banking
• Renaming
• Contacts
• Badges
• Healing

Team Hideouts

In each city, Team Bazaar, the hackers and free spirits, find hideouts where they can avoid the Pillars' scrutiny. They're a place for battle and healing, as well as scoring new open source apps that Team Bazaar programmers have developed.

Examples include:

• An abandoned Mansion they're squatting in
• Cafes

Challenge Circles

Before each city or town's hideout will accept you and give you free healing, you have to defeat a bunch of them in battle.

Apps

• Bank App
• Renaming App
• Contacts App
• Map App
• Booster Tech

Riverboat Stations

Once reopened, they allow you to travel immediately and safely to any city or town that you have already been to.

Organisations at the time of The Spyder in the Cathedral

see Cathedral

Organisations at the time of Qiangong2's plot

see Qiangong2's plot

Healing

Healing in the Fondent region comes at a cost - initially we were thinking the player would have to sit through an in-game advertisement (for Greenwash Graze-X or Miaownolith Milk or something, not a real product). But another option would be to actually charge the player each time.

The fee might be $1 per HP - or double that if there's a "call out fee" - i.e. if the player blacked out.

Players could also buy private health insurance which might save them money - but it would come with a hefty cost both in terms of the fee and the excess. It would also have a long list of terms and conditions which the player could read - but which would take a while, and they'd keep getting prompted to quit reading.

Centre dialogue

Would you like to heal your monsters?

All done. That will be $x dollars. [Or: Plus a $x call-out fee since we had to send the ambulance to collect you.]

Oh, you can't afford to pay? No problem. We'll add it to your bill, plus 10% interest. [Interest charged on all money owing not just new debt.]

When you win money, we'll take a share [50%] until you've paid us back. Easy peasy!

AMBEARANCE COVER - PRIVATE HEALTH INSURANCE OFFERING

After every few lines, the dialogue prompts: "There's X more pages. Keep reading? Y/N"

Private health insurance offering for one (1) person (hereafter, the "licence holder"), applying to up to fifty (50) monsters captured, traded, bought, won or otherwise possessed by the licence holder. This offering is only valid between 1 January and 31 March of this year. Ambearance Cover Ltd can withdraw the offering at any time.

Ambearance Cover is available for all persons between 15 and 65 years of age. It pays medical costs for a licence holder's monsters at all approved hospitals, approved allied health facilities and approved vetinerarians and specialists (whether administered in their office or on-site).

For the avoidance of doubt, Ambearance Cover does not apply to:

• Treatment of a licence holder's own injuries, sickness, disease, disability, etc. or any other medical or health procedure relating to any human.
• Any prescription or non-prescription medicines, pharmaceuticals, prosthetics, crutches, wheelchairs, therapeutic devices, or other items, whether deemed necessary or unnecessary for the treatment of a medical condition otherwise eligible under this policy.
• Cosmetic or other procedures.
• Providing any items or support for a monster to morph.
• Renaming, retraining or otherwise modifying a monster in any way.
• Breeding, fertilisation, "day care", fertility treatment or other reproductive services.
• Incubation, delivery or other birthing services.

Licence holders may not capture, trade, buy, win or otherwise possess other humans for the purpose of them qualifying as "monsters" Humanoid "monsters" are eligible for healing only at Ambearance Cover's discretion.

Ambearance Cover is a progressive scheme that is charged in proportion to a licence holder's ability to pay. Ambearance Cover Ltd will receive the first 5% of all the licence holder's earnings from any source ("licence fee"). Ambearance Cover Ltd reserves the right to unilaterally modify this rate without notice if its deems that the policy has been "abused".

"Abuse" of the policy includes but is not limited to:

• Trading or otherwise receiving monsters for the exclusive, part or potential purpose of bringing them under the insurance policy of a licence holder.
• Waiting until multiple monsters need treatment before seeking healing in order to only pay the excess once.

A licence holder that fails to report, fails to accurately report, fails to pay or otherwise withholds any part of Ambearance Cover's licence fee will be liable for three times the amount withheld, plus 10% per month compounding weekly.

Excess is $100 in all cases. The excess can be modified at any time without consultation or the licence holder being informed ante facto or post facto.