Chapter Concept: Beings of the Deep Part 1

icemancat

Note: Due to this post initially being too long, I had to split it into two separate parts. Part 1 will include a survivor, Burhan Nikon and killer, The Clawer, while part 2 will include the second killer I intended to include, The Devourer.

Overview:

This is a special chapter, containing one new survivor, two new killers, and two new maps, making it the largest chapter by means of content if it ever happened. Each killer is tied in with their own separate realm, the two realms being the Red Forest for The Clawer and the Backwater Swamp for The Devourer. Like all of my chapter concepts, this will be a long post, so feel free to skip to parts that you find more interesting than others. 

New Survivor: Burhan Nikon

Background:

Burhan Nikon was always a risk taker at heart, putting his own safety at the end of the line. Between his older sister and his younger brother, he was in an odd position as his parents often preferred his sister to be a role model for the youngest out of the three. Burhan felt a distaste with that decision and often found himself spending time away from his family. 

During his time at school, he never found anything to be of particular interest until he got involved with a particular English class. He became increasingly interested in the subject that others would begin to pick on him at school and call him the ‘teacher’s pet’. Burhan didn’t care. 

One day, his teacher introduced the class to a collection of stories that they would be able to read together as a class. However, there was a catch. The class would all vote on the story to be read. The teacher presented the class with three different books to read together as a class; an action/mystery novel with a detective on a murder case, a tragedy novel of someone unable to cope with death, or a cryptic novel showcasing many urban legends. Without hesitation, Burhan immediately voted for the cryptic novel, wanting to learn more about the possibility of multiple creatures and monsters. Once the votes were tallied, Burhan was extremely saddened to see that he and only two others voted for the cryptic novel, leaving the action novel the victor.

Burhan went home from school that day thinking about the possibility of being able to get his hands on the book his teacher showed him. He was even more intrigued with the detail that the book didn’t look normal, looking to him like a book from a museum. As he went to the dinner table with his family, he told them all about what occurred in class. Suddenly, his entire family began to laugh at him, something that made Burhan lose it. Burhan immediately ran to his room and mourned over his interests being laughed at. While he could manage a few jabs of plain slander at school, it took him to a new level when his family became involved in the destruction of what he truly wanted to pursue.

Burhan remained quiet for a long time after the incident with his family. He would never say much else in school and would generally keep to himself. However, he continued to keep his eyes on that book on the shelf. It reached the point where he became obsessed with the book that he began to make a plan.

On the last day for his class, everyone seemed to be in a very relaxed mood. However, Burhan was waiting in anticipation to make his move. He pretended to take his time packing his things as everyone waited by the door and watched his teacher try to hold his fellow colleagues back. In one quick motion, Burhan got up and slipped the book into his bag, not getting any attention in the process. However, Burhan immediately felt a jolt of pain in his head, causing him to be brought down to his knees. A few people looked at him in a weird way, but he managed to lose interest as the time for his class was up and everyone rushed out, leaving Burhan behind. Burhan smiled and exited the classroom, knowing exactly what he had done. 

Once he got to his car and began to drive away, he looked back at the building to see his teacher watching from a distance. Somewhat unnerved, he slowed his speed to get a better look to confirm if it was his teacher. His teacher’s eyes began to open wide and her smile crept across her face in a split second. Startled, Burhan floored it out of the area and back to his home. 

Once Burhan made it home, he ran immediately up to his room, knowing that his parents were still at work, his older sister still at her college, and his younger brother still at school. This is exactly what he was looking for. He took the book out from his bag and took a deep breath, finally able to realize what was inside this tome. 

Whenever Burhan opened the book, he once again was brought to his knees, this time feeling the floor beneath him shake rapidly. His heart beating at a quick rate caused him to become all the more intrigued with the book. He opened the page and was greeted by a hideous monster on the page, ripping apart a human in half. Under the view of a regular person, they would stop reading, but Burhan continued, his head beginning to get heavy. 

Burhan read about a monster being able to see the realities of thousands of worlds at once to ensure that the life it takes will be extinguished and to make sure that no reality would exist where it’s prey survives. Burhan was a little on edge to hear a storm coming as he reached the end of the information about this monster deemed, “The Eraser”. Wanting to learn more, Burhan flipped the page and felt a vein on his face pop, with blood beginning to leak. Burhan paid no mind and continued to read.

The next page displayed another hideous being, capable of drowning entire planets with water, causing catastrophic floods and then feeding on the drowned corpses of life on those planets. This monster, known as “The Devourer” had no qualms snuffing out the life of others, human or otherwise. Burhan was suddenly thrown across his room as the entire house began to shake. As Burhan attempted to get back on his feet, the house began to collapse, causing Burhan to black out.

Burhan woke to his senses as he found himself surrounded by darkness. He began to run in a random direction until he heard numerous shrieks. He felt his chest begin to palpitate as he collapsed onto the ground only to be picked up violently off the cold ground and flying through the air. Burhan screamed louder than he ever had before and woke up to find himself in a forest with a campfire not too far away. He noticed a few people sitting by the campfire and began to quickly make his way there to tell them about what he had experienced, only to find that he could not remember what he had experienced. 

Survivor Rundown:

Burhan Nikon is an invested learner, able to gain valuable knowledge that can be used to save his own and others lives.

His personal Perks, Open Mind, Informed Learner, and Death’s Morality, allow him and others to avoid danger and to learn from mistakes.

Open Mind:

Foreseeing danger has never bothered you and you are ready to take it on. While using a Map and within 4/6/8 meters of a tracked object, the Killer’s Aura is revealed to you. “You have to believe me. The second I laid eyes on that book, I could sense a danger. A danger that I didn’t mind dealing with though and a danger I knew I could be comfortable with.” - Burhan Nikon

Informed Learner:

Your willingness to learn unlocks potential in your Aura-reading ability. While you are the Obsession, when a Survivor fast-vaults a Pallet or Window, their Aura as well as the Killer’s Aura is revealed to you for 8/9/10 seconds. If you are not the Obsession, this effect only lasts for 3/4/5 seconds. Informed Learner has a cool-down of 60 seconds. Increases the odds of being the Obsession. The Killer can only be obsessed with one Survivor at a time. “These...things, these...killers, they can only stop us if we learn from our mistakes.” - Burhan Nikon

Death’s Morality:

In the end, everyone will be hunted down, so it is only a matter of time until you need to pass the torch. If you are the Obsession, once you begin a chase with The Killer, you gain the Haste Status Effect, moving at an increased speed of 5%/6%/7% for 10 seconds and your Aura is revealed to all other Survivors for 4 seconds. Once you are hooked, one random Survivor will become the Obsession and Death’s Morality’s effects are transferred to them. Death’s Morality has a cool-down of 80 seconds. Death’s Morality does not stack with other instances of itself. Death’s Morality is deactivated for as long as you are not the Obsession. Increases the odds of being the Obsession. The Killer can only be obsessed with one Survivor at a time. “It’s no longer my responsibility. Now, it’s his.” - The Teacher

Trivia:

• Each of Burhan’s perks tell the story of his past in the order in which they are unlocked.
• Originally, I was planning on having Burhan be a deep web explorer instead of being interested in writing. However, I thought about it and noticed how computers and the internet are not super involved in Dead By Daylight’s universe. Also, I feel like being some anonymous hacker character is overdone.
• It is possible that Burhan’s teacher was The Teacher, a killer that was meant to be the first DLC killer, but was instead replaced by The Nurse.
• The book that Burhan stole from his teacher was a Tome, one of many books that The Observer reads. However, it is unknown which Tome Burhan had.
• The monsters that Burhan read about in the Tome, “The Eraser'' and “The Devourer” are also “Old Ones” or also known as an “Ancient”. This means that these two monsters are/were at the caliber of The Entity.
• The name “Burhan” means “proof” in Arabic and the name “Nikon” means “victory”. Therefore, Burhan’s name could mean one of two things: 1. Proof of victory. 2. Victoryproof. The second meaning displays the irony in that there is no known escape from The Entity’s Realm.

Author’s Notes on Burhan Nikon

Burhan Nikon was a character that I enjoyed creating. From his background as being a quiet and reserved man and his interest in cryptic monsters, to his perks, I believe that he could make for an interesting character in the game. I find it very interesting that I was able to add in a few “Ancients” that I feel are scary in a very interesting way as well as adding in a neat addition for The Teacher, a killer that I feel a lot of people may have forgotten about. I think Burhan’s backstory has a lot of potential.

For his perks, they all seem to be information-based, something I believe more survivor players are looking for in a solo-que experience. I understand that some people may think that this is the incorrect way of doing things, with fixing problems with perks, but I believe it would be smart to test the waters with these abilities as perks first before implementing them as base mechanics. Nonetheless, survivor players are looking for an improvement to playing alone, so hopefully, these perks may help by making the experience better. 

Burhan’s first perk is Open Mind. This perk shows you the aura of the killer whenever you use a map and within a certain range of a tracked object. I like this perk’s design because it can freshen up the use of a map in a new way and increase the overall usage of maps as they are most likely the least-used item survivors will bring into a match with them. Open Mind also has an opportunity for great synergy with other perks such as Streetwise and Built to Last. 

Burhan’s second perk is Informed Learner. Informed Learner shows the aura of a survivor who fast vaulted a pallet or window as well as the killer for a certain duration. This perk is meant to be used to preemptively learn how the killer thinks by watching the behavior of the survivor in a chase and the killer. However, it still has a weakness as a reckless survivor may constantly fast vault over windows and pallets. This, however, should not be too big of an issue as you will still be able to see the killer’s aura no matter where they are (unless they are undetectable). 

Burhan’s third and final perk is Death’s Morality. Death’s Morality is a complex perk, increasing your movement speed at the start of the chase as well as showing your aura to all other survivors provided you are the obsession. I believe Death’s Morality is a great way to pass on information from one survivor to another as well as serving as a nice boost at the start of the chase. However, in-depth understanding of all of the effects is highly recommended before using it. Also, knowing what all of the negative side effects are for this perk, I believe it balances out the strengths.

Overall, I believe Burhan Nikon is an incredibly interesting survivor with perks that I think players would be interested in using in main builds and niche builds. With Burhan Nikon having been discussed and reviewed, it is time to go over both of the killers, starting with The Clawer.

New Killer: The Crawler

Background:

The cool, fresh sea of the deep is where The Clawer prefers to stay, wishing not to be disturbed. Its fellow kind come and go, feeding on small prey. The Clawer is happy, knowing that it is at the top and that there are no such things as predators. However, The Clawer sometimes wants to take more than it usually prefers.

On bright nights, The Clawer rises up from the depths to take on more challenging prey. It lurks through the woods and sees a bright light and the beings from above. Now ready to feast, it lunges at the being, clawing through its flesh. The screaming of the being only makes The Clawer want to kill it faster as it tears the being limb by limb. The others begin to run from where The Clawer initially came. The Clawer feels a sense of entertainment, playing with its food. Knowing that it is essentially a guarantee to catch its prey, it follows them to the waters. Attempting to find its prey, it peers through the thick forest and fog, trying to make out its prey in the distance for confirmation of their pathing. However, it only sees an even brighter light than what it initially saw before. The Clawer makes its way out of the forest and is traumatized to see a massive fire around the entrance to its home.

With blazing destruction coming across its home and its kind, The Clawer makes a desperate attempt to dig an exit route for its kind to escape the demise. Digging as fast as it can with its claws, The Clawer witnesses dozens of meteors and other devastating weather come across its home. Hearing the cries of its kind caused The Clawer to weep in sorrow, knowing that it has lost all of its family. As the dark sky opened up, the thing of legend began to descend, wanting only it to obey in exchange for safety. The thing from the sky captured The Clawer and displayed an example of what happened as it watched a figure spectated by a handful of beings be tortured by the thing, causing an orange substance to ooze out from its body. In fear for itself, The Clawer obeyed.

The hot, destroyed home of the deep is where The Clawer preferred to stay, wishing to save its family. Its fellow kind killed by the one they trusted, causes grief. The Clawer is saddened, knowing that it is a servant and that it was captured like prey. However, The Clawer sometimes questions something. Why was it in particular captured instead of one of the other thousands of its kind?

Design:

(Pictured above is what I imagine The Clawer’s face would look like. I’m no artist so this is the best I’ve got. This is the image of The Clawer mask from Payday 2.) 

Killer Rundown:

Base Stats

Movement Speed: 4.6 m/s

Height: Tall

Terror Radius: 32 m.

Power: Burrow

“As the last of its kind, The Clawer was forced to adapt to avoid its demise. Its practice with burrowing the surface is now used against the beings.”

Right click to burrow underneath the ground. Doing so will allow The Clawer to dig itself underneath the surface after a short time. While underneath the ground, The Clawer can move at a considerably increased speed and grants increased concealment. The Clawer is able to travel underneath any and all surfaces. However, The Clawer can only remain underground for a limited amount of time. This is The Clawer’s Oxygen Limit.

While underneath the surface, The Clawer’s vision is different, with the sky being green and its surroundings appearing to be more wired. The Clawer cannot see Survivors while underground, but Survivors can see The Clawer within a certain range.

If The Clawer burrows on a top floor without any underground beneath it, The Clawer will dig through the ceiling of the top floor and then drop down to the floor beneath it. The ceiling will shortly close back up by The Entity.

Special Ability: Ditch Dig

The Clawer can create a certain amount of Ditches with a translucent colored water. The Clawer can hide in these Ditches, granting itself the Undetectable Status Effect and launch itself into the air for a Special Attack, travel between Ditches, or exit the Ditch. Traveling to a Ditch will destroy the one you initially entered. Activating a Special Attack will destroy the Ditch you used for the attack. Ditches cannot be set too close to pallets, windows, Exit Gate Switches, and hooks. Ditches can only be set on solid ground. 

A Survivor can fall into a Ditch, forcing them to succeed a series of Skill Checks before being automatically caught by The Clawer. After a short period, the Survivor must succeed three Skill Checks to pull themselves out of the water. These Skill Checks will be back to back after each one is succeeded with the second Skill Check being a Reverse Skill Check. If the Survivor misses a Skill Check, then the Skill Checks are reset and the Survivor suffers a short penalty. If The Clawer reaches a Survivor that fell in a Ditch, it can automatically catch them by interacting with the Ditch they are in or travel to the Ditch the Survivor is in.

Power Trivia:

• It takes 1.5 seconds to burrow underground and 2 seconds to return to the surface. During this time, The Clawer cannot move.
• It takes 4 seconds to dig a Ditch and 2 seconds to enter a Ditch.
• It is impossible to place Ditches if you are within 4 meters of a pallet, window, or exit gate switch, and 16 meters of a hook.
• The Clawer moves at 7.3 m/s while underground.
• The Clawer’s Oxygen Limit is 60 seconds (charges) and depletes at 1 charge per second while underground and .5 charges while hiding in a Ditch. Charges replenish at a rate of 1 charge per second.
• The Clawer can still see grass and other certain pieces of the environment move if it is right below it.
• The time it takes to travel from Ditch to Ditch is between 2 to 5 seconds and is based on the distance between the two Ditches. 
• If you run out of Oxygen and underneath an object underground, you will automatically be pushed out in the nearest open area.
• Survivors can see The Clawer’s burrowing effect at a maximum distance of 24 meters.
• Launching itself out of a Ditch for a Special Attack will launch The Clawer 15 meters into the air.

Perks

The Clawer is a focused Killer, able to quickly reach its destination with its Burrow and set up a deadly playing field with its Ditch Dig.

Its personal Perks, Hastening Itch, Legendary Ruling, and Heedless Prize, grant creative methods for both offense and defense.

Hastening Itch

You get an itching sensation when you look at the source of the prey’s escape. While looking directly at a Generator within 48 meters of that Generator for 3 seconds, your movement speed increases by 1% up to a maximum of 15% each second you maintain eyesight at the Generator itself or its Aura. Looking away for 1 second removes the speed bonus. Hastening Itch has a cooldown of 80/70/60 seconds. “Its itch for freedom shall encourage it to obey, like it has with countless others.” - The Company

Legendary Ruling

Accepting a curse may also bring a blessing sometimes. Whenever you are Stunned or Blinded, gain 5 Tokens. Your next action’s speed is increased by 15%. These actions include breaking a pallet, breaking a breakable wall, vaulting, damaging a generator, missed attack cooldown, successful attack cooldown, pick up, drop, and hooking. However, your Stun and Blind duration is increased by 50%. Increased Stun time, Blind time, and Tokens only replenish and occur when this perk has zero Tokens. “Its failings before must be discarded, but we are not invariably cruel; particularly with this one.” - The Company

Heedless Prize

Your prey will be punished for trying to escape, you’ll make sure of it. When a Survivor completes repairs on a Generator, any Survivor within 8 meters of the completed Generator suffers from the Hearing Status Effect for 20/25/30 seconds. Any Survivor that misses a Skill Check on Generator repairs are affected by the Hearing Status Effect for 15 seconds. “How laughable… who could fathom these hideous b*stards who seek home... The Reprobate, The Blight, and now this… thing?” - ???

Trivia

• The Entity forced The Clawer to watch Talbot Grimes become The Blight to pressure it into doing its bidding.
• In The Entity’s Realm, The Clawer shares the same home turf with The Huntress and The Plague in the Red Forest. 
• The Clawer sees The Entity as some form of judge due to its second Teachable Perk’s name being ‘Legendary Ruling’.
• The first and last paragraphs of The Clawer’s Background are polar opposites.
• It is unknown whether The Clawer was tortured by The Entity or if it is just features of The Clawer’s face. 
• The quote from the perk, “Heedless Prize”, is meant to taunt killers whose ultimate goal is to return home, those being an unseen killer ‘The Reprobate’, ‘The Blight’, and ‘The Clawer’. 
• The speaker of this quote does not know what to make of The Clawer as it refers to it as a ‘thing’ in disgust.

Author’s Notes On The Clawer

After spending a decent amount of time designing The Clawer’s lore and abilities, I believe it would make for a very exciting and interesting killer to play as and against. However, I understand that everyone in the world does not have the same opinions, so it was also important for me to make an ability, perks, and lore that I think many would find entertaining. 

Starting off with the lore, I think The Clawer’s background further expands on a few additional things already existing in the game’s lore, giving players a better idea of who or what these people/things are like. It is already very intriguing for me that The Clawer is a creature like The Demogorgon and not a human, something I think players are looking for more. Also, although vaguely mentioned in the paragraph with the ‘handful of beings’, The Company and The Blight make an appearance in The Clawer’s background, another very interesting touch. While there is a lot more I would like to discuss about The Clawer’s lore, it is often better to leave mysteries with eldritch creatures' backstories for others to try and discover (yes, there’s more to The Clawer than I think many would realize).

For The Clawer’s power, it is a very mobile-focused ability, allowing The Clawer to have a firm grasp on the map control/mobility department for killers. Not only does its burrow ability help with mobility, but The Clawer’s ability to travel from ditch to ditch is another excellent tool for The Clawer to use. Since this is the case, the rest of The Clawer’s kit will have to be limited, only having a decent surprise attack and minimal tracking with its undetectable status effect while hiding in a ditch. 

I understand that players are looking for killers to have powers to handle looping and chases, but for the past few killers, that is all we have gotten. Therefore, The Clawer’s burrow ability is not meant to be relied on to help with chases and overuse of its burrow will be punishing. Also, players may be confused as to why they are unable to place a ditch next to a pallet or window. The reason behind this is that The Clawer is not meant to be a trap-based killer, but instead a mobility-based killer. On the topic of the ditches, I liked the idea of having a distance limit for placing ditches next to a hook of 16 meters to avoid camping playstyles.

Overall, I believe The Clawer’s ability is a strong, but balanced mobility tool, used for covering great distances. However, reckless use of its power will leave players with low oxygen levels throughout the entire game.

I would like to discuss The Clawer’s perks next. With The Clawer’s perks, I think they can all hold a place in peoples’ builds, with two in particular being great perks and one of the perks possibly meant to be used in perk combinations. 

The Clawer’s first perk is Hastening Itch. Hastening Itch is a perk that allows you to cover more distance whenever you maintain eyesight with a generator. I believe this perk would be an interesting alternative to Tinkerer and a decent combo with Pop Goes The Weasel. It can also be used for general mobility as well if the player expects to not find anyone at the specific generator. However, I can see why some people may call it niche.

The Clawer’s second perk is Legendary Ruling. Legendary Ruling grants increased action speed at the cost of increased stun time. I feel like this perk would have many chances for synergy with other perks and would be very interesting to see in-game. Even if players were to use this perk alone, it still holds a lot of utility and could really spice up the meta without needing to add another game slowdown perk. Its synergy potential includes perks such as Brutal Strength, Fire Up, Save The Best For Last, Unrelenting, Bamboozle, and even a few perks that I made concepts for in the past. 

The Clawer’s third and final perk is Heedless Prize. Heedless Prize punishes survivors for missing repair skill checks and renders their hearing capabilities whenever they are close to a completed generator. To me, this could be an interesting perk. Usually, everyone is used to the undetectable and oblivious status effects to put survivors on edge. However, by reintroducing the Hearing Status Effect, it could make for some interesting gameplay. Heedless Prize can also encourage killers to go after generators whenever a loud noise notification pops up more often now. The Hearing Status Effect may not be as effective as the Undetectable or Oblivious Status Effect, but we can only find out if we try (the hearing status effect only made one appearance, in the Of Flesh and Mud Chapter with The Hag and in one addon).

Overall, I think The Clawer would make for an enjoyable experience in the game. The Clawer’s ability serves as a strong map control/mobility tool, with a fair drawback for reckless use. The Clawer also has a little bit of tracking as well, but players will have to remember all of the experience they have gained in general chases or else they might struggle due to The Clawer’s ability not meant to be 100% reliable in a chase. Like Burhan, The Clawer’s perks and lore have potential and I think players would be interested in them.

New Map: Hunted Grounds

The hunting grounds of many beasts, man or otherwise, now hunted by an unstoppable force. Creatures of all sorts, big and small, roamed these grounds. Old caves and puddles used for water and shelter now are involved in a sick game of life and death.

The Hunted Grounds would be an outdoor map similar to the Mother’s Dwelling Map. The map would have similar tiles contained in the Red Forest maps as well as a large cave for players to go through as well as water puddles to serve as hazards by creating noise for both survivors and killers. The size of The Hunted Grounds map would be around 11,000 m^2, similar to the other two Red Forest maps

End of part 1. To read part 2, click here: https://forum.deadbydaylight.com/en/discussion/269781/chapter-concept-beings-of-the-deep-part-2#latest