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The frontier does not want to be settled. A narrative roguelite where your choices build a settlement, shape its story, and seal its fate. Every run ends. Every obituary tells a story only you lived.
No offers tracked in PLN yet.
We Were Here Before is a narrative game first. You'll spend more time deciding who you are as a governor than managing resources. Story arcs present you with choices that have no clean answers — and every choice you make, every compromise, every thing you sacrificed to buy more time, gets remembered.
At the end of every 20-25 minute run, the game assembles an obituary from everything that happened. Not a score screen. Not a death message. A document that reads like the specific story only your run could have told.
There is a lot to discover. With 24 unique story arcs that have multiple potential outcomes, the game has over 120+ different final settlement disposition endings. You get to see 4 of them a run, meaning even after twenty runs you can find something new.
The Bureau has prepared a briefing for incoming governors.
Department of Ongoing Concerns — Frontier Operations
FRONTIER DISTRICT SEVEN: CONSOLIDATED ASSESSMENT REPORT
Classification: Restricted — Not For Governor Distribution Filing Reference: BFSAPD-7441-ONGOING Date of Compilation: [REDACTED — See BM&PR Filing 7441-T for temporal dispute]
The frontier exists. This much is agreed upon.
Beyond the Empire's established borders lies a territory of considerable administrative complexity. Settlements have been chartered, funded, and staffed. Reports have been filed. The Bureau has, on numerous occasions, dispatched auditors to assess progress.
The auditors have filed their reports. The Bureau has reviewed them. The Bureau has then referred the more unusual findings to the Department of Metaphysical & Philosophical Research, where they remain under active discussion.
(Note: Active discussion has, in this context, averaged fourteen months per filing with no resolution established. The Bureau remains optimistic. — Senior Assessor Hollis, Dept. of Ongoing Concerns)
Settlements on the frontier are subject to a number of environmental pressures not observed in standard imperial territories. These pressures are measurable. They are documented. Their cause is, at present, a matter of some disagreement between this department and BM&PR.
The frontier does not want to be settled. The Bureau's official position is that this is not a meaningful sentence. It is noted here regardless.
The following incidents have been compiled from governor and auditor reports across multiple settlement attempts in Frontier District Seven. They are presented here for departmental awareness.
The Bureau wishes to state, for the record, that the following does not constitute evidence of anything.
INCIDENT CLASS: HORIZON PHENOMENON
Multiple governors have reported a measurable atmospheric pressure they have designated "Horizon." Governors describe it as a permanent condition of frontier existence — present at settlement founding, present at settlement loss, present in the interval between. It does not escalate. It does not recede. It simply is.
Several governors have attempted to characterize the Horizon as a boundary. This department does not endorse that characterization. Several others have characterized it as a presence. This department does not endorse that one either.
What this department can confirm is that the Horizon appears in every filed settlement report. What this department cannot confirm is what it is doing there.
(This filing has been with BM&PR for eleven months. Their most recent communication consisted of a single word: "Yes." We have not responded. We are not sure what we would say. — Senior Assessor Hollis)
INCIDENT CLASS: MISCELLANEOUS REALITY CONCERNS
Settlers report memories of events that did not occur. Histories shared between people who have never met. Children grieved by mothers who cannot prove they existed.
Several settlements have reported contact with an organized external group possessed of knowledge they should not have. Governors who partnered with them report operational benefits and some personnel irregularities. Governors who removed them report that the group did not entirely leave.
Multiple governors have discovered settlement records predating their own arrival. Ledgers. Birth registries. Infrastructure assessments. In several cases the handwriting matched the sitting governor's own.
The Bureau's position is that these are, respectively: mass delusion, standard diplomatic complexity, and a filing error.
The Bureau is aware these are not satisfying positions.
(All three referred to BM&PR. They have been in discussion for eleven months. Last week they requested additional filing space. I have stopped attending the meetings. Again. — Senior Assessor Hollis)
Frontier District Seven remains an active settlement zone. Charters continue to be issued. Governors continue to be appointed. Reports continue to be filed.
The Bureau continues to read them.
DISPOSITION OF THIS DOCUMENT
This consolidated assessment is classified Restricted and is intended for departmental circulation only. Its contents are not considered relevant to the day-to-day operations of a frontier governor and will not be forwarded as standard briefing material.
New governors are reminded that the frontier is a land of opportunity, imperial progress, and measurable economic potential.
New governors are not reminded of anything else.
BFSAPD-7441 — New Charter Approved. Classified briefing documents are not standard issue for frontier governors and will not be forwarded. The Bureau wishes the new appointee every success.
Filed in triplicate. — Bureau of Frontier Settlement Assessment & Proposal Division, Dept. of Ongoing Concerns
