Issue nine introduction
How time flies… It’s already been two weeks since I last got the chance to write a few lines to the community through our newsletter. Before giving you an idea what’s currently going on in the office, I have to tell you that our former Community Manager Mathew “Corwynn Maelstrom” is no longer part of the Spellborn project. Mathew has taken the time to write a goodbye to the community. Head over to our forums and read up what he has to say. The current Community Relations team is determined to make the transition as smooth as possible and go above and beyond any expectations you may have.
So, what else is going on over here at Spellborn HQ? Well, we are going through extremely exciting times. While I write these lines, I can listen to developers discussing different areas of the game and a general buzz is in the air since people are working hard towards a new upcoming build. Seeing all the different parts coming together is something really special and extremely exciting… I can’t wait to have a look myself!
This newsletter will once again give you a sneak peak behind the scenes, as well as updates on our regular subjects.
What are you waiting for? Go ahead and start reading! You don’t want to miss out on all the interesting stuff below!
- Andreas “Thee Nailros” Bettermann
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TCoS Dev Chat 4
We’re going to bring you a Dev Chat every two weeks until release. The fourth session of the series is scheduled for Sunday the 11th of June at 21:00 CEST. Each chat will be held in Q&A format with our QAbot open to receive questions starting 18:00 CEST and during the chat. To participate or read along, you simply have to join #spellborn-qa on our IRC server: irc://irc.tcos.com. More details about the network and services are available on our website. A log from each Dev Chat will be made available on TCoS.com after each session.
The upcoming chat will focus on the three rogue classes in The Chronicles of Spellborn. Our Game Designer Coen “Co-N” Neessen will once again be available to supply answers to your most burning questions.
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Lore - The War of Shadow’s Hammer(Period: 632-654)
The following story is a continuation of the Enclave's history from the point of the lore published at the end of Teaser movie 2. The Enclave of the Five Sacrifices had just been founded.
In the years following the war against the Princess of Skulls and the founding of the Enclave, the shard Parliament was discovered and claimed for the Five High Houses who each established a stronghold there. It quickly became the center of all House politics and the administrative hub of the Enclave.
The hollows of Quarterstone were excavated further and the Temple of the Oracle relocated to the center of the city. Great tunneling projects were initiated that allowed Vailyrian steeds access to the city through docking corridors, and when the Oracle ordered the High Houses to create a shaft through the vaulted roof of Quarterstone, so that it could project its awareness into the DeadSpell Storm, the Five High Houses obeyed and undertook an excavation project that lasted for generations.
After many years, the expansion of the Enclave took flight as Ringfell was discovered. The Enclave experienced a time of peace and prosperity, which lasted for nearly a century before disaster swept through the Enclave once more.
Though it seemed that the Enclave’s peaceful age would last for ever, it was not meant to be. In time, the horrors of the war against the Princess of Skulls would be forgotten, but the search for new shard realms continued and exploration of the DeadSpell Storm moved ahead without pause. There, in those dreadful veils of enraged mana, did explorers find a new realm, almost a century after the initial discovery of Mount-of-Heroes. Called Carnyx, it remained silently embraced by the Undying Ice, untouched since the destruction of the Ancestor World.
The Enclave would bring the Barbarian Seal to this new realm and claim it as their own – and in doing so – release the Vhuul, a race of servitor creatures created by the Vailyrians, from their prison. They would forfeit the Barbarian Seal and a great war would be waged, claiming the lives of many.
Before those dreadful days however, the Enclave of the Five Sacrifices had nothing to fear. New generations of heroes and champions were born, forgotten lore and science rediscovered, and more effective construction applied to the Enclave’s realms. The High Houses had grown powerful and confident and in no other was this more evident than in Aryones Ithkari, champion of the High House of Scales; Torque. Where Graidlon Marrow had been a brooding youth, traumatized by the horrific circumstances of his existence and forced to surrender himself to a dreadful fate, Aryones was his polar opposite. He was light-hearted, joyfully blessed with a striking physique and a formidable array of talents and skills.
He was know as “Aryones the Golden” or “The First Light of Heaven”, and he would bring a great doom to the Enclave, almost destroying what Graidlon Marrow had tried to preserve.
Initially, upon discovering Carnyx, the Enclave’s explorers thought it unlikely that one of the three Lost High Houses had made its home there. The realm was completely covered by the Undying Ice and had not been disturbed by outsiders. This lead to a decision from Parliament to bring the Barbarian Seal to Carnyx, freeing it from the ice and start settlement immediately. Logurhadin the Woestriker, Champion of the High House of Ropes; Maul, had been selected to bring the Barbarian Seal to Carnyx, together with Lady Cormuthesta of the High House of Shrines; Rune. The procession, accompanied by hundreds of soldiers and workers, set out for Carnyx after a festive celebration in Quarterstone.
They did not return.
Several weeks later, the first Vhuul attacks against the Enclave began. Strange flying craft, forged from rock, bore vulture like creatures to the realms of the High Houses. The attempted invasion of Quarterstone was defeated with ease, as were those of Parliament, Mount-of-Heroes and Ringfell. But the creatures kept coming, increasing in number as time passed by, and growing more powerful by the year.
It was then that Aryones Ithkari decided to take the other High House champions with him to destroy the Vhuul and claim Carnyx, much like Graidlon Marrow had done a century before in Mount-of-Heroes (but Aryones was intent on coming back). So they took their Vailyrian steeds with them and their armies, readying themselves with powerful artifacts, weapons and spells, and descended upon Carnyx like an ancestral host of divine spirits.
But what no one could have know was that among the Vhuul there was a priesthood using ancient magic the Enclave had never encountered before. Among these vulture priests there was one who was an elder: a creature knowledgeable of the magic of the Mumia, like the Princess of Skulls had been. It was the leader of all the Vhuul and their priest caste, and was known as the “Archfell”.
As Aryones fought the Vhuul swarms and ships, the Archfell stole his soul, possessed his mind, and turned the “First Light of Heaven” against the other champions, slaying the entire retinue Ithkari had brought with him.
The High Houses waited in vain for Aryones to return with news of victory, but were instead treated to an even bigger horror. Ithkari, now a puppet of the Vhuul, attacked the Enclave as the general of their Swarm. After several battles against his former brethren, slaying the finest warriors the Enclave possessed, Aryones Ithkari became known as 'Shadow's Hammer', a tragic parody of what he once was. The doom that befell the peoples of the Enclave during his war against its shard realms made him much feared and hated.
A delegation of Torque warriors, sent by the Enclave to reason with Aryones, was completely corrupted and swayed to his side. He convinced them that he had been wronged by the Enclave and sent them back to wreak as much havoc as they could before they were found out. The slaughter perpetrated by the “Arionites” as they murdered nobles and commoners alike in Parliament and Quarterstone was something the Enclave had never experienced before. The shock was paralyzing.
Maul and Shroud came together and decided to act on their own volition - Torque had failed them and their trust in warrior-gods and paramount heroes had been violated. A staunch opponent of the patriarchical system of military rule, Muragh Kaizin of Maul gathered about herself the best assassins she could find, and aided by whatever secrets Shroud had manage to unearth from floating ruin in the Deadspell Storm, set out to find the Archfell and slay it.
So it came to pass that not a Torque champion, but Maulite and Shroud assassins were to deliver the Enclave from evil, infiltrating the Vhuul hive to its heart and slaying the vulture priest-king. None of them returned, overcome by the mindless Vhuul swarm bereft of its messiah, but the power of the vultures had been broken nonetheless. The attacks against the Enclave ceased.
Though Shadow’s Hammer was ultimately captured and executed, his followers remained hidden throughout the Enclave. Carnyx remained under control of the Vhuul swarm and both the vultures and the Arionites would haunt the Enclave for centuries to come.
Fansite corner
We have once again added another site to our exclusive Recognized Fansite Program. Our Dutch friends over at TheChroniclesofSpellborn.nl have been around for several months now to make sure our Dutch-speaking fans have a place to read up on latest happenings around TCoS in their native language. Just like every other RFP site TheChroniclesofSpellborn.nl will have a Dev blogging on their site exclusively. Talking about Blogs… We recently released a compilation of all available entries on TCoS.com, go and check them out.
FanArt Submissions
In this section we show you how you can get that immersive feel of TCoS’ universe thanks to FanArt submissions provided by our members. If you’ve got some creative juices flowing in you, make sure to submit your own work on the forums!
Hip-Hop and TCoS? Unexpected isn’t it? German Community member newakira created a groovy hip-hop track based on the TCoS universe. Named “Für das Orakel” (For the Oracle) and sang in German this first TCoS Hip-Hop track is definitely something you want to check, even if you are not a hip-hop fan. This great musical artwork of a new genre may be found here.
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‘Pattern Mastermind’ BigBadaBoom, is a multi-talented community member. After being one of the creators of the famous Avatar & Signature Builder, he now shows us his Wallpaper creation skills. Available in several resolutions, you may find these neat wallpapers here. |
Forum Highlights
Share your ideas and feelings for PVP incentives: Thread
Botting and use of other 3rd-Party Tools are problems for many MMOs on the market. Discuss the problem and possible solutions for TCoS: Thread
Recent News
The TCoS website updated on an almost daily basis. Some of the more recent news items can be found below.
Rogue classes explained on MMORPG.com.
Jesper Kyd interviewed on GameDaily.com.
TCoS.com artwork section updated.
TCoS Contest Newsletter Issue 6 and 8 Results
Every even numbered issue of our newsletters features a contest with great prizes! In Newsletter Issue 6 we asked you to tell us why you want to play TCoS. The three winning entries of this contest have been announced in a thread on our forums.
In Newsletter Issue 8 we asked you to guess how many triangles we used on the creatures named Cavedwellers. We have seen numbers ranging from 3 to several thousands, but the correct number was 536. Our French community member Arsaphes guessed 542 and has thus won one of our exclusive T-shirts. Congratulations! Be sure to check our next newsletter, as we bring you a contest with every even-numbered Issue.
Closing Comments
That’s it for our 9th newsletter! We hope you enjoyed the new insights you got and look forward to see you all at on our forums and chat! Don’t forget to tune in for our next Dev Chat on Sunday the 11th.
What Lies Hidden . . . Must Be Found.
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