Alterna (オルタナ orutana?) is a location in Splatoon 3 underneath the Crater and is the main setting to the single player campaign, "Return of the Mammalians".
Description[]
Alterna is depicted as an underground cavern lit up by a series of encompassing triangular LCD screen panels similar to that of the Octarian Dome. It's a mostly snowy arctic-like area where a rocket ship, statues resembling the moai of Easter Island, and a portable lab are seen. Fuzzy Ooze appears all over Alterna, blocking off many of the areas in Alterna until it is eaten by Smallfry. In the single-player mode, the New Squidbeak Splatoon, consisting of Callie, Marie, the Captain, and New Agent 3, are all present in the location.
History[]
Founding of Alterna[]
Following the Sixth Extinction event caused by the overambition of humanity, the surviving humans created underground bunkers to live out the rest of their short existence. One such shelter was founded within the crater of a Volcano, which housed a pool of accumulative sea water that contained the last surviving marine lifeforms. There, a council of esteemed scientists were tasked to maintain and care for the civilians of the shelter. They created many quality-of-life systems; from the AI caretaker O.R.C.A, to the thought-displaying sky screens similar to the one found in modern day Octarian Domes. The latter was made possible through the discovery of the liquid essence of the local squid population, which the scientists used to create crystals that could read and project a person's innermost thoughts, feelings, and desires.
Fall of Alterna[]
With rising population and aging leaders, the time had come to hand over the responsibilities and power over to the next generations of scientists. But this proved to be fatal, as the new generation's overambition and shortsightedness caused their demise as they ignored the older generation's warnings about the dangers that lurked outside of Alterna. When the younger scientists were about to launch their new rocket into space, the crystals within overloaded due to the tremors triggered by the rocket's boosters, starting a chain reaction that caused the surrounding cavern to collapse upon itself, killing off a grand majority of the human population. Those who survived the cataclysm died off soon after as food and shelter became inaccessible to them. However, the humans' legacy would come to live on in a new form...
Rise of the Inklings and Octarians[]
The crystal fragments left over from the disaster spilled into the pool where the marine life was living, resulting in them absorbing the fragments into their bodies. Because the crystals had retained all the humans' thoughts and desires, the sea creatures began experiencing a very rapid growth in intelligence, which in turn led to them undergoing an accelerated evolution. Now longing the same degree of freedom that the humans had, these new diverse groups of sapient lifeforms began searching for a way out of Alterna, and eventually they were able to make their way to the surface, claiming it as their own in the absence of mankind. Among the most notable of these groups were the very cephalopods from which the crystals originated; they eventually went on to become the progenitors of the Inklings and Octarians, thanks in particular to one particular squid who had risen to fame as a prophet of sorts and played a part in laying the foundation for modern cephalopod civilization.
Areas of Alterna[]
- Area 1. Future Utopia Island
- Area 2. Cozy & Safe Factory
- Area 3. Cryogenic Hopetown
- Area 4. Landfill Dreamland
- Area 5. Eco-Forest Treehills
- Area 6. Happiness Research Lab
- Final Area: Alterna Space Center
Gallery[]
