Well! Easter was kind to my spare time and motivation, so here’s Preem just in time to participate in the fan art contest.
My last image before the launch of the game was Knugen the mutant moose, but this time around I wanted to go into more detail and form a backstory which would influence the drawing.
Preem never remembered much of his childhood inside the walled paradise Eden. Forcefully taken away by someone who presumably is his father, they had to survive in the wastelands together - even if he never called him by anything other than “kid”.
His father’s fascination for the ancients knew no bounds, and he’d spend hours upon hours trying to decipher their written language. Over time, it became clear that survival was secondary to his thirst for knowledge. Preem quietly taught himself how to hunt, and did his best to keep the both of them alive.
After several months or possibly years, he finally began to call him by name - “Preem” - in honor of the petrol god. Preem suspected that the yellow hat he gave him picturing said god was just for his father to remember his name when he looked at him. But it was as good a name as any, and his father had a real hard time remembering the last five minutes to begin with.
During his travel through the wastes, Preem found a peculiar device - the Sony Walkman. A machine that spoke to him and weaved stories from nothingness. He kept it secret, listening it every night for comfort and scouring through junk on the regular for the metallic AA tubes that refilled its whispers.
His father’s search for ancient knowledge continued until the day he died investigating a “Ving” building. With a heavy heart, Preem walked past the corpse of his father and grabbed one of the small bleached pamphlets that displayed fantastical landscapes and fauna. With any luck he’d found his way there in death.
Preem buried his father outside the “Sybilla” site which was the closest to a home they shared during the years they spent together. The large amount of unopened cans of food in the basement was probably the only reason why they survived for so long in the first place. He decided to keep his father’s notebook which held all his research; a memento to remember him by.
Nowadays, the Sony machine is most useful in its radio mode which Preem uses to navigate the zone. Intently listening for voices in the wind, he hopes they will lead him back to Eden some day so he can reclaim his stolen home.
P.S. The sticker is Fria Ligan’s logo, felt appropriate!
