Paper World

Calm

A gentle world folded from paper. Mind the fire, and mind the water.

At a glance

Kind of world	Calm
Serum in the arrival Box	2 ampoules
Native Serum stand-in	Paper Pulp
Quests	None

Screenshot comingpaper-world-hills

Folded green paper hills under a paper-white sky, cardboard-trunked trees, a paper crane flock overhead and the little town of Foldham below

What happens when you arrive

Everything here is paper. The hills are folded green sheets over cardboard, the trees are cardboard tubes under paper crowns, the water lies still and blue, and the sky is the white of a fresh page. Cranes wheel over the hills, and nothing living wishes you harm. Right beside the Box is Foldham, a little paper town whose folk will greet you, and whose mayor will tell you their one law: no flames. Not a candle, not a spark.

The rule: fire and water

Two things destroy everything here.

Danger	What it does	How to deal with it
Fire	Runs across paper faster than across anything else in the game. Any paper block next to fire, lava, magma or a lit campfire catches (most of the time). A hillside can be gone before you can run.	Never light anything. No torches, no campfires, no flint and steel.
Water	Soaks the paper it touches into Soggy Paper, which slumps and falls like sand. Shores crumble, and a careless bucket opens a sinkhole.	Place water only where you mean to.
The good news	Soggy paper does not burn. Water is the only firebreak there is.	Keep a water bucket handy in case someone else strikes a light.

Nothing here catches fire by itself: there is no rain (so no lightning), and no lava in the caves. Every fire is a traveler's. What burns stays burnt, including Foldham.

Screenshot comingpaper-world-fire

A wall of fire racing across green paper hills, cardboard trees going up, a soggy grey shoreline left untouched

The creatures

Only folded paper creatures live here. Fire hurts them three times over and sets them alight at a touch (a burning wolf can set a hillside going). Soaked in water or rain they slump grey, slow to half speed and can't fly or burn; left in water, they dissolve. Out of the water they dry again.

Creature	Behavior	Drops
Paper Crane	Wheels over the hills in small flocks. Harmless; scatters when struck.	1 to 3 paper
Paper Stag	Shy: watches from a distance and bolts if you come close without sneaking.	1 to 2 Cardboard and 1 to 3 paper
Paper Wolf	Roams in packs of 2 to 4 and only fights back: strike one and the whole pack turns on you. Their bites are weak (under a heart through iron armor).	2 to 4 paper

A creature that dies soggy leaves Paper Pulp instead.

Foldham

A paper town of eight houses, built near the Box the first time anyone arrives. Its folk stand outside their homes and talk as you pass, each with a few lines said in turn, and they cry out if fire comes near.

Who
Mayor Ream	"Welcome to Foldham, traveler! Mind your elbows."
Letty Envelope	The post. "Nobody has ever written to a traveler. You could be the first."
Old Vellum	Keeper of the archive (which is also the chair).
Warden Dampwick	Foldham Fire Watch. Has never filled his bucket.
Bram Cardstock	Builder of every house in town.
Tilly Tissue	Two-ply, and startles easily.

...and a few more. The walls are dyed paper, the roofs are paper shingles, and the windows are cut-paper screens.

Screenshot comingpaper-world-foldham

Foldham's paper houses with shingle roofs and cut-paper windows, the paper folk outside, the arrival Box beside the town

What to bring home

Find	Where	Why it's worth it
Paper Pulp	Break Soggy Paper (a shovel is quickest), or from a creature that dies soggy.	Grinds into Lotus Pulp: your Serum stand-in. Also smelts back into paper.
Paper Block, Green Paper, Cardboard	The hills (an axe or your hand tears them).	Light building blocks. Four paper make a Paper Block, and a Paper Block breaks back into four paper.
Foldham's paper	Craft it.	Red Paper, Blue Paper, Yellow Paper and Pink Paper (a Paper Block plus a dye), shingles and their stairs, Cardboard Stairs, and Paper Screens (six paper make six), the paper world's windows.

➜Mortar Station➜

➜

Paper Block (Crafting Table)

Making pulp on purpose: pour a bucket of water next to some paper blocks away from town, wait for them to go soggy, then dig up the grey slump with a shovel.

Serum and getting home

• The arrival Box's cache holds 2 Serum Ampoules.
• Native stand-in: Paper Pulp. It replaces the Pale Lotus: grind it in the Mortar Station into Lotus Pulp.
• Don't put a torch in the Box. Seriously.

Tips

• Leave your torches, lanterns and flint and steel at home, or at least in a chest.
• If a fire starts, dump water around it, not on it: soggy paper is the only thing that stops it.
• Never hit a Paper Wolf unless you mean to fight the whole pack.
• Sneak to get close to a stag.
• Bring a Mortar Station and you can make pulp, and then Lotus Pulp, without leaving.

Birds

Birds you can photograph for your bird log here. Open one to turn it round, watch it move and hear its call.

• Kite Swallow: common
• Scissor-bill Skimmer: rare

Everything this world adds

18 blocks and items (click to open)

Paper Block

Green Paper

Cardboard

Soggy Paper

Red Paper

Blue Paper

Yellow Paper

Pink Paper

Red Paper Shingles

Blue Paper Shingles

Red Paper Shingle Stairs

Blue Paper Shingle Stairs

Cardboard Stairs

Paper Screen

Red Paper Flower

Yellow Paper Flower

Blue Paper Flower

Paper Pulp

The traveler's tape

Every arrival Box has a chest by its door holding a cassette: the last traveler reading their journal of this world aloud. This is what they say. It gives a lot away.

Read the journal (spoilers)

Everything here is paper: the hills are folded green sheets over cardboard, the trees are cardboard tubes under paper crowns, and nothing living wishes me harm. I struck a light on my first night, and the hillside was gone before I could run; fire goes through this place like it was waiting for it. Water is gentler but no kinder: the paper drinks it, goes soft and slumps, and the shores and riverbanks crumble into grey pulp. That pulp is useful, though, for the Mortar grinds it down as fine as Lotus Pulp, and wet paper will not burn, so a bucket of water is the only firebreak there is. The weathered Box stands near where I woke; no torch inside, if you are wise, and the Serum still in you when you close the door. The animals are folded too: cranes that circle all day, stags that will not let me near, and grey paper wolves that leave me be unless I strike one, when the whole pack comes. A spark ends any of them, and a wolf in a river goes soft and comes apart.