The Quarterstone Chronicle Issue 15

“What lies hidden…must be crushed” House Torque member


Welcome to issue fifteen of The Quarterstone Chronicle; the newsletter for the Spellborn community. This newsletter is also available in German and French.

As you can see, the layout of this newsletter has changed. Of course it is still made to keep you up to date about all things concerning Spellborn, but we want to do that with a different twist. This newsletter introduces a new format, one designed to read like a newspaper. You’ll find different sections and different articles, exactly like you would find in a newspaper. In more concrete terms, it includes an in depth article (In-depth Look), a “sneak peek” section and many others…


Citizens of the Enclave like to read about what’s currently going on in the world. Our reporter team, out adventuring in the Spellborn world, is dedicated to bring you the freshest and most accurate news. So go fetch yourself a mug of coffee, tea, or soda and sit back, relax and enjoy the latest edition of our newsletter. Our reporters have been working hard and have confronted many dangers to gather some exclusive material.

In-depth Look

This in-depth look is the outcome of our “shard-trotter” journalists’ work. They have been traveling to Shards to study the books available at the libraries, quizzing the elderly locals to find out more about folklore and the legends of the world.
In this edition, you’ll read more about a specific episode of The Chronicles of Spellborn’s Lore.

The Nocturnals - During the Time of Night’s Dawn the first signs of chaos and instability in the Empire of the Eight Demons revealed themselves. The Eight seemed to have become bored with running their cyclopean fiefdom and left the day-to-day affairs of the empire to the Vailyrians. Their last major undertaking was the creation of the Nocturnals, and in doing so they unwittingly sowed the seeds for the rebellion that would bring their reign to an end.

The Nocturnals were among the very first Daevi that were born in that age: they did not resemble the Daevi we know in the current world. They were powerful and sinister creatures, resembling their immortal parents more than their human ones. Not all Daevi of that first generation were Nocturnals, just a select few were assigned this status in the hierarchy of the Mumia. The Nocturnals were bestowed with fierce and terrible talents and had access to all manner of powerful spells and weaponry that had been created by the Eight.

The reason for their creation seems to be that the majority of the Eight were, at this moment in time, amusing themselves by pestering their Vailyrian servants. No clear logic seems to have played a part in the establishing of this separate caste of servitors, just an apparent desire to harass and annoy the draconian creatures that had served them for many thousands of years. The Vailyrians, as well as the Vhuul and the Urvhail, were greatly angered by this development, but had to abide by this change in the hierarchy of the empire.

The Nocturnals weren’t only given access to powerful magic and weapons; they were also given a separate, independent status, and many projects to fulfill. A lot of these assignments revolved around the construction of new temples and monuments to the Mumia, but a few were different: the Eight wanted a series of intricate structures built that would function as prisons but which could also be used to physically and mentally train crack troops or simply to torture important prisoners. The Nocturnals did what was asked of them, and over the course of several hundreds of years (up until the end of the Era of Black Chaos) they built many such edifices as a tribute to their masters.

After the rebellion had managed to get control over the heartlands of the empire and the great citadel of Tanugramai had fallen, the servitors of the Eight were busy preparing for a protracted guerilla war against the rogue High Houses of the daevi and the humans. They tried to store away as many of their arcane weaponry in hidden places were the rebels would be unable to find or get to them. The majority of the Nocturnals were tricked into helping the Vailyrians at Meonfelos [What is now known as the shardrealm of Coldspur], and were murdered there, or entombed alive. Certainly some of the Nocturnals managed to escape, but their caste was wiped off the face of Mummujoxuru several years before the armies of the rogue High Houses would reach the Field of Black Horns and cross over to Deiquonril [Quarterstone] to destroy the Altar of the Undying. Though they had been among the most powerful of the Mumia’s creations, the might of the Nocturnals was broken and dispersed during those final years.

Behind the Scenes

Thanks to our infiltrated undercover team, you can feast your eyes on some highly confidential and “work in progress” material coming from the Spellborn HQ.

Looks like we have some new people in the Spellborn’s world. The Daevi youth is exposed thanks to the work of one of our daredevil journalist. Daevi kids tend to develop their intellect slightly faster then regular humans. At an early age they can be found all over the Enclave's cities planning games of mischief.



The Daevi sure know how to craft weapons that take advantage of their slightly different body and muscle structure. Take a look at the designs of some of the crafting recipes guarded by Daevi families for many generations.

Community Q&A

About statues, what if a group of 8 players manages to down one unique boss. Who will earn the statue? The party leader? The one who dealt the killing blow? All the party members?

Statues are the representation of high achievements performed in-game and can be earned as individual or guild efforts. These efforts can be of both PvE and PvP (tournaments) nature, giving the ability to be rewarded with a permanent or time limited statue. Guilds are more like a single ‘longer lasting’ entity which we can much more easily give a reward to then an ephemeral entity like a group.

Will TCoS feature a menu, option, tool, giving the possibility to quickly switch to one predefined set of equipment? Like a set for “indoor” and a set for “outdoor”?

A “Wardrobe” feature is an element we would like to implement in the game. This would give you the ability to switch easily and rapidly to one of several equipments sets you would have set beforehand. Yet, we cannot assure you whether this feature will be implemented for release for now, as we would want it to be fully integrated and functional.

Are there specific destinations other than Shardrealms within the Deadspell Storm, such as Raft Yards?

The Deadspell Storm is a part of the Spellborn world by itself. You’ll be able to travel to different Raft Yards -ranging from small to very large scale- as some quests chains will take you there, and also as certain “dungeons” are located on Raft Yards. Of course Shardrealms are also a destination, but there are also very special places and locations in the immense Deadspell Storm that are neither Shards nor Raft Yards.

Will there be puzzles to solve in the TCoS’ universe, puzzles that are interactive with the world (moving objects, switches etc.) or will we still see more of the static kind of quests in todays mmo's

We are working on something containing puzzle elements which will find its way after release. The issue with puzzles is balancing. It mustn’t be too easy –what’s the challenge, and it mustn’t be too hard to solve –otherwise you end up being blocked in your progression. Certain encounters or zones will have “puzzle” gameplay elements, in a way where you actually need to trigger some specific things before unlocking the big challenge. Regarding interactivity, Spellborn features many items players can interact with. For example you’ll see doors opening before you, you can climb ladders, and resource nodes are interactive as well.

What will be the "high end content" (the content for people of the maximum level), considering items are mainly cosmetic? In another MMO I've played, high end content was mainly item farming and PvPing, will that be any different in Spellborn?

We have many plans for “high end” content, but in a general way, once you reach the level cap in The Chronicles of Spellborn content will revolve around a balance of PvE and PvP. This is done in a way in which gameplay is not restricted to only one of these two. PvP and PvE are in fact linked in a real symbiotic way. We have designed these gameplay elements having in mind that PvP or PvE shouldn’t be something implemented to simply please one specific kind of players. Of course you will still be able to venture all over the world to gather crafting resources, or to hunt for the one sigil that would be the perfect addition to one of your skills or weapons.



Latest news on TCoS.com

The TCoS website is updated on a regular basis. Some of the more recent news items can be found below.

- Project Update
- Christmas Competition
- The Howling game trailer

Community network

(*) Spell-born.de (GER)
(*) TCoS JeuxOnline (FR)
(*) TCoS @ Gamesrider.it (IT)
(*) Spellborn-Welten.de (GER) 
(*) Spellborn @ GameAmp (EN) 
(*) TheChroniclesofSpellborn.nl (NL) 
TCoS @ MMOz.com (EN) 

* indicates Members of the Recognized Fansite Program. If you want to join our Recognized Fansite Program, contact us at tcos-fansites@tcos.com. We’re looking forward to counting you as a partner in our community network.



CM Note

Another year of development has passed. It’s incredible how fast time flies. When I look back at the project a year ago, and see how far we are now, I can feel the joy and impatience growing in me. We still have some work to do, that’s for sure, but seeing the team, I can hardly be more confident about the game. We’re almost there, with some last 'crunch time' left before the real fun starts.
But until then, stay with us and hang on to your hat. 2007 will be the finish line for Spellborn and it will be filled with surprises, cool news and other things you’ll be amazed about. It’s not so strange that I am already looking forward to the new year ;).
For now, I’d like to wish you all a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year. All the best to you, your family, your friends and don’t forget to tell them about Spellborn!

Pierre-Yves "*Mirage*" Deslandes

Closing Comments

That’s it for this 15th Quarterstone Chronicle Issue! I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as we enjoyed making it. During the Holidays, our reporters will run up and down throughout the world of Spellborn to keep you up to date, gathering the latest developments wherever they can get their hands on it.

Until next time!

Oh and don’t forget: “What lies hidden… must be found.”