Terra: A Journey
| “ | TERRA: A JOURNEY: Or, The Very First Book written by Prof. E.E. Erikson, F.R.V.A.S., wherein are shared by him insights that are only possible to be acquired subsequent to his twenty-three years of trekking the continent and his fifty-one-and-a-half years of tutoring at a university, wherein he looks for an audience who are completely and unmistakably all his fellow men, including especially you yourself; Or, A Compilation of General Situation Reports on Our Land. | ” |
| —Introduction of the book |
Terra: A Journey (Chinese: 《Terra: 大地巡旅》), full name TERRA: A JOURNEY: Or, The Very First Book, is an official artbook of Arknights published by Hypergryph. It is the first artbook that compiles further details regarding the worldbuilding of Terra such as cultures and histories of Terran nations along with natures of Originium and Terra's biodiversity.
In Arknights' story, this book is an existing one published in the year 1099 by the Lateran publication Mont-Blane Chestnut Basque. It is written by the renowned Victorian scholar E.E. Erikson who spent twenty-three years in traveling across the Terran continent exploring and recording Terrans' cultures. After lecturing in a university for around fifty-one years, he was encouraged by Kal'tsit to write down his account who, in turn, helps cross-check the old professor's accounts through her sidenotes in handwritten cursives as a research material to Rhodes Island operatives.
The book is currently only available in Chinese; whether it would receive an official Japanese, English, or Korean translation is unknown.
Table of Content
Preface—p. IV
Chapter 1: Originium, Catastrophe, Oripathy—p. 001
- Originium—p. 002
- Originium Arts—p. 009
- Catastrophe—p. 15
- Oripathy—p. 025
Chapter 2: Technologies of Terra—p. 033
- Originium Technology—p. 034
- Industrial Technology: Nomadic Cities—p. 042
- The First Modern Nomadic City—p. 051
- Weaponry—p. 053
Chapter 3: Beasts of Terra—p. 059
Chapter 4: Races of Terra—p. 079
Chapter 5: Countries and Regions of Terra—p. 107
- Introduction—p. 108
- Victoria—p. 110
- Righeacht na Temhair: Athbhreth nó Athrá?[note 1]—p. 121
- The Great Excavation and the Mad King's Moving Castle—p. 124
- Leithanien—p. 126
- Ursus—p. 138
- Founding of the Ursus Empire—p. 151
- Chernobog—p. 153
- Gaul: Legacy—p. 156
- War of the Four Nations—p. 160
- Laterano—p. 166
- Influence of the Lateran Faith—p. 179
- Iberia—p. 182
- The Silenced Edict—p. 196
- Ægir—p. 198
- Kjerag—p. 208
- Kazimierz—p. 218
- Columbia—p. 228
- The Columbian Pioneers—p. 242
- Siesta—p. 244
- Bolívar—p. 249
- Siracusa—p. 261
- Sargon—p. 272
- The Nightzmoran Conquest—p. 280
- Minos—p. 284
- Sami—p. 293
- Rim Billiton—p. 306
- Yan: A Fair Glance—p. 315
- Lungmen: Yanese Modern Predecessor—p. 322
- Higashi: Letters From the Farthest East—p. 325
- Kazdel—p. 333
Chapter 6: Organizations in Terra—p. 347
- Rhine Lab LLC.—p. 348
- Rhine Lab LLC.: An Addendum—p. 356
- Exclusive Interview—p. 360
- Blacksteel Worldewide—p. 363
- Karlan Trade Co. Ltd.—p. 368
- Rusthammer—p. 372
- Raythean Industries—p. 377
- Sunvalley Industries—p. 382
- Penguin Logistics—p. 386
- Lee's Detective Agency—p. 389
- Rhodes Island—p. 393
- Catalogue of Other Organizations—p. 409
Appendix—p. 419
- Timeline of Terran History—p. 420
- Postface—p. 423
Rhodes Island's Investigation Report on the Chernobog-Lungmen Incident
The Rhodes Island's Investigation Report on the Chernobog-Lungmen Incident is a special B6, 16-page booklet as part of the free gift of Terra: A Journey along with a group photo of the old Reunion member.
The booklet covers details regarding the Reunion Arc (Act initium and Act I of the Main Theme), spanning from the background of Talulah, the rise of Reunion, its downfall after Alina's death, to the aftermath of the Chernobog Incident. Furthermore, it provides some tidbits regarding the origin of Infected resistance movements on Terra which mainly focuses on the heroic story of the Exemplars that later gave rise to the Tempest Platoon.
Trivia
- A full Terran map could be found on the dust jacket of the book.
- According to E.E. Erickson, this book is the 23rd or the 24th version, and he is not backed down for further revision. He reviewed in his letter to Kal'tsit at the back blank pages that he had undergone multiple rework and rewrite in parts of the fifth chapters, and the rewrite was done after listening to advices from her and Rhodes Island as well as his interest to further explore Sargon and Yan in the future.
- At the back face of the book, there is an small thumbnail of an Originium shard with a Latin phrase: "Orisaxum edere possum; mihi non nocet," literally "I can eat Originium, it does not hurt me." This phrase comes from I Can Eat Glass, a 2004 linguistic project on the early Web by then-Harvard student Ethan Mollick.