Historical "Fiction" means you don't have to do research, right?

We've been doing a lot of playtesting on our spherical shooter, and it's safe to say that we've "found the fun." People enjoy playing, even though the game's currently flailing away without any sort of scoring or win condition. We're in a good place; all we have to worry about is not losing the fun while we fill in the little details like "goals" and "story" and "intuitive controls" and "more than one type of enemy."

Speaking of story, we've got one of thems now! The game's all about defending a Renaissance-era human settlement (the only one in the world) at the North Pole from giant monsters that rise from the South Pole. Now, that's already historically and geographically inaccurate on too many levels to really think about. So we went whole hog on the made-uppedness and came up with this story:

1000 years ago, in 1459, The King of Europe decreed that all the citizens of the world must relocate to the green and fertile plains of the North Pole, to escape the fearsome creatures that rose from the south. Since then, the pact he forged with Queen Margaret of the mermaids has kept the human stronghold safe from all seafaring invaders.

But now, in 1654, the tides are turning. The currents are granting passage to the underdwelling beasts of the South Pole, and a new King rallies the naval forces of his kingdom to drive back the approaching monstrosities.

It doesn't quite have the velvet perfection of John Hodgman's richly textured historical dishonesty, but it's a spirited mendacity nonetheless. I'm particularly proud of its assertion that one thousand years passed in between 1459 and 1654.