Shroud of the Avatar Dev Hangout – April 30, 2013

The April 30th Google+ hangout with the Shroud of the Avatar development team featured Richard Garriott and Tracy Hickman discussing elements of the backstory of Shroud of the Avatar.

The hangout began with a brief mention of the runic language that will be used in Shroud of the Avatar, its logos and suchlike. Much of this development will probably be done in more limited discussions, in the private developer community.

Richard Garriott and Tracy Hickman have spent about a month so far working together, and that process seems to be going very well. There has ots of learning back and forth between the two men, which has tended to be a great sharing experience that has left Portalarium with a fantastic foundation upon which to craft the story of Shroud of the Avatar.

Hickman is looking forward to breaking some new ground in storytelling, to break out of the “lead by the nose” paradigm.

The World

The last time we saw LB, the world he lived in was being destroyed, and all he had worked for was falling apart. Sad as this is, it nevertheless represents an opportunity for the survivors to come together again, pick up the pieces, and for the creation of a new world.

Richard Garriott, of course, doesn’t just want to focus on what happens in the world, but on the heavenly bodies and their actions. Not unlike in Ultima and his other games, astronomical calamities have transpired in the backstory of Shroud of the Avatar. The heavenly bodies have been ripped asunder…with attendant destruction in the world, of course.

This great calamity in the past of course caused the fall of the old cities, the fall of the sky. There will be ruins in the game, and Hickman and Garriott want to look at why they’re there, what transpired to ruin them, and why they’ve been left as ruins.

Note that the game is not, strictly speaking, post-apocalyptic in the sense of being set immediately after the calamity. Society is rebuilding in Forsaken Virtues, and magic is resurfacing in a different form. The nature of magic in the world changed in light of the calamity; what became of the old ways, and what has changed now? There was always a connection, in Ultima, between astrology/astronomy and magic, and that theme continues in Shroud of the Avatar. The heavens are messed up, and magic has changed as a result. At the same time, this gives Portalarium a means of both referring back to familiar magic systems, while also allowing them to suppress powerful characters from before to allow a new pantheon of creatures to rise up.

As well, Richard Garriott feels that the name for the world of Shroud of the Avatar must be — needs to be — New Britannia. Note, however, that this is the name of the entire world, which will unfold and be revealed over the course of all five Shroud of the Avatar games. The initial continent hasn’t been named yet. Even so: for a new world founded by Lord British, the name New Britannia is a must, and as well it is a must for players to feel a bond, a connection to it.

Cities and Towns

Assuming society reverted to a tribal state post-calamity, it would stand to reason that city-states would emerge as people banded together. At the same time, institutions would likely be cast down in the social collapse. SotA happens several centuries after this, of course, so there has been much rebuilidng.

There will be a large city called Brittany near the middle of the continent, which will feel very “Britannian” (although there will also be some influence from “Lady British”, and her French heritage — will she be called “Lady British” in game?)

Valhold, Estgard, and Harvest are some of the north-western towns; you can detect a Scandinavian influence in these names.

Celestis, on the other hand, a town in Ancaria, the region in the south-eastern area of the continent in Forsaken Virtues. There is a bit of an Eastern (Persian?) influence to these names.

Port Graf is a location that Tracy Hickman came up with, but it also happened to be close to the name of a very fine jeweler in New York City, a friend of Richard Garriott’s wife. There is a big, ornate estate at that place in the game, as a result, as well as some of the finest gem mines in the land. This personal fragment of Richard Garriott’s own life made it into the game.

The calamity in the heavens that decimated the world still has effects at the time that Forsaken Virtues takes place, even though that is centuries after the initial event. Bits of terror rain down from the sky on occasion. The most recent happened at a place called Fortis, north-west of Britanny, in North Paledris. That “fall from the sky” is very key in the story’s transition from the dark ages post-calamity; it’s part of the creation mythology surrounding the return of magic and the emergence of a pantheon of new life forms. A nexus, a crux event that leads to new magic, and to an explosion of new life in the world.

What creatures exist in the world? Why do they exist in the world? Hopefully we’ll start getting a look at chapters of backstory in the next month or two.

The Role of Players

One thing from Spoony’s commentary on the Ultima games that Portalarium have taken to heart is that the arrival of the good guy in the Ultima games was often very bad for most people (if not everyone) in the end, regardless of how beneficial that arrival have been to a handful of people. The world in Shroud of the Avatar is stable, more or less. As such, the player, a visitor from another world, may not be treated as a returning hero, or even as welcome; he or she may instead be treated as a potential — and potentially disruptive — menace.

The world has a darker, grittier tone, or edge, in terms of the inter-player and player-to-character relationships. Expect heavier or more serious topics to come up. At the same time, a role-player looking for “a Hobbiton” will be able to find a quiet corner. It is probably best for said player, however, not to tell the locals therein where exactly he or she came from.

It’s important to both Garriott and Hickman that players to have a place that feels like home. The definition of what “home” is will vary between players from different locales and global regions, however. As such, Portalarium are trying to shape different regions of New Britannia and its continents accordingly, to ensure that there is a home (as it were) for everyone.

The character you play is your avatar; note the capitalization of the first letter. Richard Garriott wants Shroud of the Avatar to tell a multiplayer story, which kind of makes it difficult for any one player to be “the Avatar”. The new story gives a role to everyone, every avatar, every player that plays it.

In story terms, there are many avatars in the world, some or all of whom are returning to the world. To many of the world’s citizens, this return will be seen as unwelcome, an invasion. Things are, after all, going pretty well without the players.

Is there a destined one, an Avatar? Yes…and s/he is among the avatars. How that plays out in the game and its story is going to be part of its structure. There will be a reason why so many avatars are in the world, which will be seen as mostly a negative by the denizens of the world. It is an integral part of the story. Is there a destiny for an Avatar, or more than one? Possibly.

Not unlike Ultima, players are a person from Earth that get to New Britannia via a lunar rift. This might cause some physical transformations en route, it’s still the soul of the player living within that avatar. As such, players and their characters age in “Earth time” throughout all of the Shroud of the Avatar games.

How the players ended up in New Britannia has not been written yet. There may be multiple explanations eventually, each explaining how players discovered the lunar rift, but Portalarium will probably only write one or two initially.

That, or they’ll hold a contest: How did YOU find your lunar rift?

Other Notes

Unlike in MMOs, where you choose up front which shard to play on, everyone in SotA is playing in a single meta-reality, and Portalarium want to make sure that you can find your friends and cohort in the world regardless of geographical location on Earth. Portalarium want people from all languages and cultures to find a home and co-exist in the game.

There has been lots of discussion around life and death. From the view of a local that is not immortal, the presence of people who seem to come back from death is a sign of being…not one of them, not from the world. The actual system of “death cost” hasn’t been developed yet, and will likely vary based on where you are in the game, and how you have progressed through it. But the story will touch on the fact that death won’t be permanent.

How will the people of the world react to the body of an immortal (a player)? Might they revere it, or seek to destroy it, since they don’t know whether it’ll come back to life? Will this change how they deal with deaths among their own? How will player resurrection in the game impact the story? Portalarium is also attempting to answer these questions, and incorporate their decisions concerning them into the game. (It would, at the very least, be interesting to find that NPCs were moving player bodies to morgues — if not burying them! — upon death.)

As expected, there are big plans for Lord British as a character, and he’ll be in the game consistently. When Richard Garriott logs on, though, the NPC Lord British will probably get booted out of the world.

Tracy Hickman plans to participate a lot as well, and wants to wander and explore the world. His character is mostly set, and he looks forward to playing his role.

Recognizable Virtues will be present, but time may not have treated them well. This aspect of the story still being refined. The familiar Virtues won’t be “importantly distant” from their manifestations in Shroud of the Avatar, however. Virtues are at the heart of the story, if in a somewhat unexpected and frightening way.

Developer-level backers will be able to contribute to the story. There’s a lot of work to do, and Richard Garriott is shocked and stunned at the quality of the core audience. He singled out Hearth of Britannia in particular, praising the etched runic in the box, and the note for him that Rustic Dragon wrote in runic…brilliant, he praises it. He likewise has complete faith that as more backstory gets exposed, Developer-level contributors will be able to help a lot.

And yes: Hearth of Britannia will be in Shroud of the Avatar, in a big way; it will have a “deep role” in the game.

In like manner, Portalarium want to give people the chance to weave their own stories that add to Shroud of the Avatar’s story. (However, only Developer-level backers or above will be able to contribute meaningfully to the game’s backstory.)