Elemental: The Tragedy of Procipinee

image This Summer we are hoping to put up some flash movies on the site to help introduce players to the lore of Elemental. The movies would be organized as a timeline starting at around 10,000 years before the Cataclysm.

Elemental: War of Magic, takes place approximately 100 years after the cataclysm.

The upcoming Beta 1G (due “real soon now”) begins to incorporate actual “game” stuff.  So I thought this would be a good opportunity to discuss and begin introducing people to the actual world of Elemental.

The Fall of the Immortals

Men referred to the immortal beings who dominated their world for thousands of years as the titans. The Cataclysm brought their dominance to an end but at great cost.

When players begin Elemental: War of Magic, the world is utterly ruined. Even though it’s been 100 years, the devastation is still nearly complete. Fertile land – i.e. land rich enough to grow food even with the benefit of Channelers sacrificing their own life-essence into the land is pretty rare.

Don’t expect a happy soundtrack at the beginning of the game. In fact, don’t expect to hear music at all. The background music for all Kingdoms and Empires is very subtle. Some of this will start going in during the Beta 1G cycle.

The Channelers

The number of people who can actually cast magic is nil in the world. That is because thousands of years prior, the Elas’nir known as Tar-Thela used her ability to gather the magic of the world and put them into the shards that her kind had brought with them. Unexpectedly, those shards became rooted where they were making their locations strategic ever after.

However, for a long while, the titans were pleased with the results – the mortals were no longer a threat to them magically.

Then, some mortals were born with the ability to channel magic through the shards and they became individually powerful enough to rival the titans.

In Elemental: War of Magic, players are one of these Channelers.  There are 10 default factions to choose from (or you can create your own).

One of the factions is called Pariden and is led by the beautiful Sorceress known as Procipinee.  She is the daughter of Emperor Amarian III.  In the final battle that led to the cataclysm, he rose up against his immortal masters and helped slay Curgen, the lord of the Dred’nir. 

In the aftermath, he led the remnants of his people west. It was he that learned how to cast the spell “Revival”. He sacrificed his own essence in order to provide this knowledge to all Channelers wherever they may be in order to one day revive the world.

His daughter, Procipinee, was one of those Channelers. Despite her best efforts, she is looked on with suspicion by the Kingdoms of men because of her family’s close associates with the now reviled titans of old.

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Reply #1 Top

I really like the backstory element that are put into these games, and for elemental it is very important.  Glad to see you all think that as well.

(edit)  Also, "due real soon now"?  A week out soon, or sooner?  The anticipation begins to mount.

Reply #2 Top

In Elemental: War of Magic, players are one of these Channelers.  There are 10 default factions to choose from (or you can create your own).
10?

Anyway, about fashionable time that we got more lore/history/story stuff. I enjoy a lot to read such things. Thaaaaank you very much.:thumbsup:

Reply #3 Top

Procipinee is too difficult to pronounce. She shall henceforth be known as Porcupine.

Reply #4 Top

Uhuh, that is some very much detailed fantasy blaaaaaa that I am absolutely not interested in. Amazing though to see that you guys put so much thought into this for those who care about that stuff. Getting really excited to see beta 1-g here. :)

Reply #5 Top

Uhuh, that is some very much detailed fantasy blaaaaaa that I am absolutely not interested in.

I beg to differ I think all the backround and story makes the world of Elemental. You cant just jump in and play without knowing what made the world of Elemental whut it is.

Reply #6 Top

Can and will. I dislike any campaign that tells me what I can and cannot do. I want this game for the sandbox exoperience and I will ignore the campaign. I would not want any campaign that tells me I cannot build building x this mission, or that I cannot train unit x because I have 'learned' enough for this mission. I want to mess around with each and every feature.

In the end, becoming a solid player is very much intertwined with knowing how the game mechanics work. In the edn, all you need to know about the game is an endless series of numbers. The more you understand, the more detailed you can decide what you need to do. All the background nonsense is very much unimportant. It may add to the atmosphere of the game and it may explain why certain things are why as they are, but in the end I care only about the mechanic and not why they are as they are. I want to understand them and completely forget about the logic behind them.

Think of it as a boardgame like Risk. To be competent, you need experience and make good calls in terms of doing those things that help your cause. If Risk had a background story it would be completely irrellevant to read it. You need to play the game and nothing else.

Reply #7 Top

Quoting Shurdus, reply 6
Can and will. I dislike any campaign that tells me what I can and cannot do. I want this game for the sandbox exoperience and I will ignore the campaign. I would not want any campaign that tells me I cannot build building x this mission, or that I cannot train unit x because I have 'learned' enough for this mission. I want to mess around with each and every feature.

In the end, becoming a solid player is very much intertwined with knowing how the game mechanics work. In the edn, all you need to know about the game is an endless series of numbers. The more you understand, the more detailed you can decide what you need to do. All the background nonsense is very much unimportant. It may add to the atmosphere of the game and it may explain why certain things are why as they are, but in the end I care only about the mechanic and not why they are as they are. I want to understand them and completely forget about the logic behind them.

Think of it as a boardgame like Risk. To be competent, you need experience and make good calls in terms of doing those things that help your cause. If Risk had a background story it would be completely irrellevant to read it. You need to play the game and nothing else.

The TL;DR would be "Make it only a spreadsheet, Stardock". XD To each his own and that's fine. Some people just prefer to have some sausage on their numbers. :)

 

Edit: Hmm No egads in the last hour more or less... Suspicious.

Reply #8 Top

Making the game nothing more than a spreadsheet is of course pushing it, but there is some truth in what I say, or at least there is to me.

Let me tell you about a friend of mine who was a huge fan of Europa Universalis. He would tell me with a passionate fire about how everything interacted and how things worked. He would constantly say 'look at how the AI responds when I perform action X' and 'my people really respond when I do Y'. Then he wanted to demonstrate something - I forgot what he wanted to do. Anyway, in order to do this action he wanted to show, you need stability 0 or higher - I think. He had just performed some action that dropped his stability to -3 and he was absolutely annoyed that he could not demonstrate this cool thing he wanted to show me.

So now to the point of this story: in the end it is very nice that you are absolutely enthralled by the way the game functions. A nonsense game is not very much fun after all. What is more important though is having game mechanics that make the game enjoyable. If the game has a nice story but the gameplay is infuriating, it will be annoying to play. We need to be able to understand the mechanics so we can plan ahead and decide what it is we need to do to get ahead. Having a story that acts as gravy for the suckers for the fantasy lore is fine, but I just want clear mechanics and being able to understand what will happen if I perform action X or Y. That way I will no be surprised like my friend was in EU and it will make the game enjoyable for me.

Reply #9 Top

Rather than get drawn into what may well become a titanic flamefest, I'll just say that lore is a matter of taste, and it doesn't really do any harm if it's in there. However, this crop looks pretty interesting (I can actually see the game diverging from GC2 to a wide degree here, which reassures my science-line-breack early warning systems to a fair degree), and I demand MORE!!! Especially metaphysics!

Reply #10 Top

LOVIN IT!! :grin:  *Mcdonald's soundtrack starts* Especially the pretty mage... :blush:  

Reply #11 Top

Cool stuff but wait... 10 factions...? I thought is was 12? o_O

 

Cant wait to hearing all the music you guys are cooking up.

Reply #12 Top

I am usally unintrested in backstory beyond that needed to make hero A different from hero B.

But i must say with these guys they do a really good job on it and i enjoy it. I really enjoyed GC and GC2 back stories as it added to the feel of the races.

I will agree totally on one point i really dislike campaign mode and 99.9% sandbox as i want all features when i play. If i do play campaign it is usally first game or two as a sort of warm up.

Reply #13 Top

Nicely done. Got me hooked on the story conecept already.

Reply #14 Top

This Summer we are hoping to put up some flash movies on the site to help introduce players to the lore of Elemental. The movies would be organized as a timeline starting at around 10,000 years before the Cataclysm.

I don't know what you plan on doing, but don't do anything too fancy. I don't like sites that use so much flash and other programs that the sites stop feeling like websites.

One of the factions is called Pariden and is led by the beautiful Sorceress known as Procipinee. She is the daughter of Emperor Amarian III. In the final battle that led to the cataclysm, he rose up against his immortal masters and helped slay Curgen, the lord of the Dred’nir.

In the aftermath, he led the remnants of his people west. It was he that learned how to cast the spell “Revival”. He sacrificed his own essence in order to provide this knowledge to all Channelers wherever they may be in order to one day revive the world.

His daughter, Procipinee, was one of those Channelers. Despite her best efforts, she is looked on with suspicion by the Kingdoms of men because of her family’s close associates with the now reviled titans of old.

You got my interest. I'm curroius about her, and her faction. I'll keep an eye out for news about her.

 

Reply #15 Top

Oh yes the lore. I love it. This game is going to be so amazing. Every bit of info or lore I read just gets me more excitied. As for other people who don't like lore, thats cool and all. To each his own, but for me it just makes everything that much better with a great story and such details about everything. On a slightly different side note, the artwork is great. I'm really digging the pictures that are posted with everything. They are very awesome. Thanks a bunch for the post Frogboy.

Reply #16 Top

I saw "porcupine" too.

I didn't really see any tragedy in her story though.  "Looked upon with suspicion"?  Maybe "dishonored and cast out from the mortal realms" or something a little stronger.

Reply #17 Top

I didn't really see any tragedy in her story though.  "Looked upon with suspicion?"

Her father killed himself to give her a power and a responsibility she probably didn't even want.. Also everyone hates her and she just wants to be loved... she says she didn't even know the titans but no one believes her.. how would you feel? 8C  Lol I don't really know if that's the case or not of course, but that would be tragic my friends.. Tragic indeed :pout:

Reply #18 Top

Will someone please tell me how Procipinee is supposed to be pronounced? Everything I come up with sounds vaguely obscene........ and if it's said the way I currently think it's said, it should proabalby be spelled Procipine .

Although that looks even more like porcupine.

Ahh well....

Reply #19 Top

I'm thinking: Pro Sippy Knee, sort of like Persephone.

Reply #20 Top

Quoting Splitshadow, reply 19
I'm thinking: Pro Sippy Knee, sort of like Persephone.

ME TOO!

Reply #21 Top

I'm glad that my spelling totally sucks!:O Prosipaini!:X

Still waiting for the 10 faction retcon confirmation? The quality is always better than the quantity but I feel curious.

Reply #22 Top

Quoting Wintersong, reply 21
I'm glad that my spelling totally sucks! Prosipaini!

Still waiting for the 10 faction retcon confirmation? The quality is always better than the quantity but I feel curious.
Last I checked, it was always 10?

 

:fox:

Reply #23 Top

Ten factions is fine by me as long as they are unique as is claimed. Many games simply have pretty much identical units with differant skins just for the sake of balance. Sins of a solar Empire was guilty of this imo. I don't pretend to know anything about making games but a little imagination surely would give the factions a more unique feel. Company of heroes was a good example of this(even though it needed regular patching it was still great fun and felt you were playing sides with real differences in strategic and tactical doctrine).

 

How many factions were originally planned? 12?

Reply #25 Top

Still waiting for the 10 faction retcon confirmation? The quality is always better than the quantity but I feel curious.
  Yeah, in looking over the backstory we found two races that weren't really being mentoned, so we decided to trim the master list to a nice even 10.  This gives us time to really polish the experience with those 10 AND put extra time into the 'customize your race' features, since I can see a lot of players going that path rather than play our creations.