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Lore

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Ashes of Creation logo.[1]

Ashes of Creation is a direct reference to the storyline. Without giving too much away, the phoenix is going to be a persistent symbol throughout the first phase of the storyline, and the world that the players will be inhabiting is a long-lost world that has suffered devastating calamity.[2] – Jeffrey Bard

The Phoenix is the celestial avatar of the Goddess of creation. Her sacrifice protected the people of Verra during the apocalypse.[3] – Steven Sharif

There are different parts to the Lore in Ashes of Creation.[4]

It is about mythology and discovering what truths mythologies are talking about and finding out what really happened on this world so long ago; and that's part of that discovery process; and we want people to feel that throughout the game, not just in terms of lore but in terms of the world itself.[5] – Jeffrey Bard

Story arcs drive one or more storyline quests within the game.[6][7][8][9][4] Story arcs branch into different stories with multiple possible endings depending on the quest objectives that players complete during each chapter.[6][7][9]

We're keeping lore very close to the chest and the reason for that is because it is very rich. It is diverse. It will have applications outside of just the MMORPG. We intend to take it much further, but I want it to be something that the players get to reveal themselves, that's not just handed to them and then the experience is lost. They should feel when they're experiencing this that it relates to them on a personal level.[11] – Steven Sharif

Synopsis

Template:A great calamity

Ancient evils lie in wait for hapless adventurers.[12]

The world in Ashes lay devoid of civilization for centuries. Until now.[13]

What was once buried had risen again. The gateways had opened, reigniting the link to the ancient world.[12]

Adventurers arrive on Verra through great divine gateways.[12]

Vast expeditions were sent through the gateways to discover this beautiful and perilous magical realm.[12]

The world in Ashes has been void of civilization for centuries.[13]

Players arrive in Verra to explore, rebuild and repopulate their place of origin. Ancient treasures and wondrous adventures await those who dare to disturb the dark remnants of evil that inhabit this land.[12]

From now on, the choices of these adventurers will influence how the story unfolds.[14]

Pantheon of gods

"Planetarium" concept art by Ryan Richmond.[15]

The beginning of the creation of the universe that exists within Ashes of Creation was a result of a group of god beings. There were ten of them and there was a celestial struggle in this universe that resulted in a fraction of those gods. And there exists within this story two components of good and evil.[10] – Steven Sharif

The ten deities within Ashes of Creation formed a pantheon of gods that existed in a realm outside of the material plane.[16][17] There was a celestial struggle among the gods that fractured them into good and evil.[16][10] Some gods influence the corrupt side of beings that exist in the Universe.[18][16] It is possible through questing and player decision to join or worship those gods.[19][20]

The gods are an active part of the story; and each of the cultures have their own interpretation of the whims and desires and focuses of the Gods.[21] – Steven Sharif
  • The Others are three of the ten gods who embraced teaching all facets of The Essence (both good and evil) to The Ancients, and elevating them to the plane of the gods.[16]
  • The Seven gods' opposition to the Others resulted in a great celestial battle. The Seven were able to defeat the Others, banishing them and the Ancients to The Void. They went on to create four divine races and split their qualities between them.[16][10]

The Gods are beings of The Essence, which is a metaphysical energy or life-force of sorts that can be manipulated to create what could be viewed as magic.[16]

  • The Gods are capable of reaching into the material plane through the souls of their divine beings. In the case of The Seven these are the four great races and their descendants.[22]

There were these pantheon of gods that existed in a realm outside of the material plane that Verra exists in and they were really beings of what's called The essence. The essence is essentially this almost metaphysical energy or life-force that can be manipulated to create magic and/or what we would we would view as magic; and different planes have different degrees of strength when it comes to their proximity to the essence. The material plane is not the highest on that on that scale of being close to to the essence; and the gods exist on a plane that is the most connected to the essence.[16] – Steven Sharif

The Gods in Ashes of Creation represent different aspects of the Universe, and feelings as well.[23]

Each god... has a specific realm that they relate to in the world and its creation.[10] – Steven Sharif

We have a very rich lore on the pantheon of gods, but it's something that I want to make sure players discover in-game, not told about.[23] – Steven Sharif

Religion

Religious temple in a Metropolis node.[29]

We're talking about a pantheon here, not necessarily separate religions. They're all offshoots of who is the better god, or who is the god who identifies best with you.[10] – Jeffrey Bard

There are six primary religions as well as a Tulnar/Underrealm religion.[30][31][32]

  • Religion is intended to be a motivator, not an aesthetic.[33]
  • Choosing a religion enables players to walk a light or a dark path through their choice of questlines and other actions.[19][20][10]
    • Players will not be able to worship The Others at temples, but certain quest paths will allow darker forms of worship.[34]
There will be questlines. There will be certain actions that players are capable of taking to perhaps pursue the darker side of this metaverse so to speak.[19] – Steven Sharif

Sometimes games in the past have tried to shy away from heavy emphasis on religion because of the parallels that can occur between what is in the real world and this fantasy realm. I don't really subscribe to that theory. I think that religion plays a very significant role in the story of what Ashes of Creation is about and it is very much this almost monolithic idea of good vs. evil; so that is really at the crux of what the overarching narrative will be in the game; and I'm not trying to pigeonhole players into "everyone has to be good", like I said earlier there will be opportunities for players to deviate from that, should they so choose to roleplay in that regard.[30] – Steven Sharif

  • PvP wars between religions are not a planned feature for the game.[35]

The Tulnar religion is a combination of religious beliefs of the major races as well as pagan beliefs of the minor races over time as they coexisted together in the Underrealm.[36]

The progression of the Tulnar- while they are still the staples of what were once the primary deities of the good pantheon remained for the Tulnar, over the time they existed and evolved into the society that they are at the return to Verra. It's much more similar... to the way the Creole religions advanced, with using components of Christianity as well as Voodoo and other smaller, more "paganesque" religions; and incorporated them into one. To that degree, you can correlate the way that society around the Tulnar has this almost combination of what were pagan beliefs from the minor races as well as the introductions of the major beliefs and religions from the major races, because they all came together in the Underrealm and survived in that regard. So you’re gonna see naturally a combination of those two things.[36] – Steven Sharif

Dünheim

Alpha-0 Dünir Dünheim dungeon design by Michael Bacon.[38][39][40]
Dünheim concept art.[41]

Dünheim is an open-world dungeon in the Alpha-0 zone that was once a Dünir dwarven city.[42]

Dünheim history

During the great calamity that befell Verra, the inhabitants of Dünheim elected to remain in their mountain keep. This didn't work out well for them. In the wake of the destruction many artifacts and treasures were left behind.[42]

Dillia's diary

Dünir architecture.[43]

Dillia's diary.[41]

I was a child when they first appeared in the night’s sky. At first there were three distinct lights. Not quite the brightest in the sky, but they were bright enough. My mother told me that they were a sign from the Gods, that the world was about to change. She had a sense for these types of things. A long line of women in my mother’s family were Oracles. Written on one of the many tablets in the Great Halls of King Grimlaey, is the story of my Great-Grandmother, the Royal Court’s Regent Oracle, and how she foretold the rise of the Undying during the Great War.

As the days grew to months, and months into years, the lights in the night’s sky grew in number. The priests in the temples began to refer to the lights as Harbingers. Upon my graduation from the Master Stonecutters University, the lights numbered 16. Each passing month, the lights grew in brightness and size.

It didn’t take long for things to change in Dünheim. Families that I had grown up with, began to move away from the city in the heart of the Mountain. Travelers became less common, and temple services were filled every day with new converts seeking answers about the Harbingers and what they meant. My mother wanted to leave the city as well, but my father wouldn’t hear it. His auction house is what kept food on the table, and my brothers were both in the Council Guard. There was no way my father was going to be seen leaving the mountain. Honor and respect meant more than life itself, and my father had great pride in my brothers. Despite my mother’s persistence to leave the city, we stayed.

Read more...

Player driven narrative

One of the major goals I feel like we have is to allow player decisions to have consequences and to have meaningful results from the decisions that they make, so it seems like people can really create their own stories.[44] – Aimi Watanabe

The world of Verra will be the same on each server, but Nodes will develop differently. Different servers will have different narratives. Things that happen on one server may not happen on another.[45]

We want as many people as possible to experience the main server Narrative. These will branch at different scales, but largely at the personal level. Where things change is at the Node level – different parts of the story will be unlocked based on where and when Nodes grow. Unlocking a part of the story in a certain way locks out progression of the story in a different way. You’ll see different antagonists, different NPCs, and different calls to action depending on what’s happening with the server at that time.[47]

It redefines what the players will experience in an MMORPG to come into a wilderness that is devoid of really any structure outside of what the community creates themselves; and then what can be created can be changed, if they want to experience a storyline that's been seen on another server, but you're fighting a dragon because you're near a mountain and the other server's fighting a Kraken because they're near the coast and you want to fight that Kraken because of its drop table. If you want to meta it or because you just want that under your belt: to be the server first to take out that Kraken and you have yet to develop the node there, it's incumbent upon you to manifest that in the game.[48] – Steven Sharif

Legendary items

There is a small RNG chance of looting rare and legendary items or crafting materials from mobs based on the level, status and type of mob. This also applies to harvesting resources with a gathering profession.[49]

At each stage from Gatherer to Processor to Crafter you are required to have certain prerequisites before those elite types of materials can be essentially gathered, processed, or crafted.[51] – Steven Sharif

The amount of effort needed and interdependencies across the different types of players – between raiders and PvPers and crafters and even role players and the taverns and businesses: the processors and gatherers – all of those systems will likely have a component that lends toward creating or crafting that legendary item... We want to stay away from the highly RNGd system, and instead take our multiple progression paths that we are offering the players and put the construction components for achieving these legendary items within them so it encourages communities to work together because it's going to be difficult for just one person by themselves to gather everything. Not to say that they couldn't in an economic sense, by buying those components, that's possible. But achieving them from a time investment standpoint we want it to be considerably less RNG focussed.[52] – Steven Sharif

Certain legendary items may be limited to one per server at any given time.[55][56]

  • If the player character leaves the server then the item will become available for acquisition through whatever means it was acquired previously.[55]

There are absolutely legendary items and they're not items that are attained easily nor are they granted out in a volume. There might even be items that are single items that will exist on the server at any given time.[56]

A legendary weapon is easily distinguished by its visual appearance.[52]

It will be a very ornate and detailed weapon, more so than any other weapon or piece of equipment in the game. It will also include some awesome looking effects that won't too gaudy, they won't be too bright and shiny so that it doesn't look good, but they will be subtle and people will notice it and know wow that guy has this weapon.[52] – Steven Sharif

Legendary items are not intended to be temporary.[57]

The fact there is only one of them... or very very few of them depending on what it is. I think that in and of itself is a balance component right and you need to make sure that the players who are striving for those legendary things and who are devoting the time energy, resources in order to achieve them are accurately rewarded... We do not intend on having legendary items that are temporary.[57] – Steven Sharif

info-orange.pngSome of the following information has not been recently confirmed by the developers and may not be on the current development roadmap.

Discovery of legendary items will unlock further chapters of the Lore.[59]

Story arcs

Alpha-2 early preview of the story arc UI.[60]

Story arcs are like a pre-packaged tabletop campaign. They contain all of the NPCs and quests and monsters- all the things you need to make a cool fantasy story. They're not procedurally generated... We write all the dialogue and we construct all the narrative beats and everything like that, but they will enter the world dynamically depending on the state that the world is currently in; how players have built up specific nodes, what races control various nodes. We have plans to include lots of different things on top of that, but we don't have any quest hubs or anything like that in this game, because players build up all the cities. So we had to get a system that looks at what players are doing and can inject content into the world that makes sense for what they're doing.[61] – Skott B

The Blood Still Due story arc unlocking at The Tower of Carphin.[62]

When story arcs come online, they change a lot the environment. They update what monsters are in the world. They create quest NPCs... and then new Pathways can open up through the environment.[63] – Skott B

Story arcs are unlocked by multiple types of player activity within each server.[64][62][61][65]

Every stage a node develops it's unlocking narratives, storylines, it's changing the spawn population of the area around it, changing what bosses exist, it's triggering events where you may have legendary dragons attack the city. It's basically writing the story of the server based on the actions and determination of the players. So, you may experience a dungeon one month earlier and have a completely different story that relates to this location the next month, because something has changed either geopolitically or from the node standpoint.[65] – Steven Sharif
Even player driven mechanics will still have story components. There will be a reason why the player driven mechanic is available or required of the player; so every system that's created touches a story.[72] – Steven Sharif
  • If there are too many other major arcs happening at the same time in the same zone, a story arc may need to wait its turn, even if conditions are right for it to be unlocked.[64]
  • Story arcs drive one or more storyline quests within the game.[6][7][8][9][4]
    • Story arcs can branch into different stories with multiple possible endings depending on the quest objectives that players complete during each chapter.[6][7]
    • The developers will try to ensure that story arcs in future expansions flow on from existing story arcs, regardless of the different possible outcomes.[6]
  • There will be a variety of different types of story arc content at different scales, with different cooldowns to suit different types of players in the game.[75]
We must provide enough of this content at varying scales such that it isn't worthwhile or economical to control every single story arc in the world. Some will be smaller in scale and production value, and thus, will move faster and have shorter cooldowns before they're reintroduced.[75] – Skott B
info-orange.pngSome of the following information has not been recently confirmed by the developers and may not be on the current development roadmap.

Certain story arcs can be unlocked through the bulletin board system. Certain requirements would need to be met in order to access story arc quests.[79]

Scribes

Desk 3D render.[80]

A few different professions participate in the creation of enchantment scrolls. Those enchantment scrolls are primarily going to be interfaced on the profession side with scribe.[81] – Steven Sharif

Scribing is a crafting profession in Ashes of Creation.[82][81][83]

info-orange.pngSome of the following information has not been recently confirmed by the developers and may not be on the current development roadmap.
They want to be able to collect information about the events of the world as they see it from their point of view. For instance: Nodes leveling up, they want to be able to take that information down and be the one to distribute it.[83]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Ashes of Creation Press Kit.
  2. ↑ Interview, 2016-12-7.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 steven-phoenix.png
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 4.8 4.9 Livestream, January 18, 2018 (39:08).
  5. ↑ Video, April 5, 2018 (37:13).
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 Livestream, April 7, 2023 (58:39).
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 Video, March 31, 2023 (14:20).
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Video, March 31, 2023 (12:47).
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Interview, October 20, 2018 (2:36:25).
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 10.5 10.6 Livestream, May 26, 2017 (15:37).
  11. ↑ Video, April 5, 2018 (37:50).
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 12.4 Unreal Engine Interview, 23 May 2017
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Ashes of Creation - A world with consequences
  14. ↑ A reactive world - Nodes.
  15. ↑ May newsletter.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 16.3 16.4 16.5 16.6 Livestream, November 8, 2020 (0:00:00).
  17. ↑ Livestream, May 26, 2017 (10:58).
  18. ↑ Livestream, November 8, 2020 (11:48).
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 19.2 19.3 Podcast, November 15, 2020 (20:04).
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 Livestream, 2018-04-8 (AM) (16:50).
  21. ↑ Livestream, December 2, 2022 (1:18:26).
  22. ↑ Livestream, November 8, 2020 (00:49).
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 23.2 23.3 Livestream, 2018-04-8 (AM) (10:02).
  24. ↑ Interview, July 20, 2020 (13:33).
  25. ↑ 25.0 25.1 Interview, October 31, 2018 (6:00).
  26. ↑ Livestream, November 3, 2018 (0:01:18).
  27. ↑ Livestream, November 3, 2018 (0:00:20).
  28. ↑ Livestream, November 3, 2018 (0:06:56).
  29. ↑ Node series part II – the Metropolis.
  30. ↑ 30.0 30.1 Podcast, November 15, 2020 (29:23).
  31. ↑ Interview, July 19, 2020 (23:15).
  32. ↑ religions2.jpg
  33. ↑ Livestream, May 8, 2017 (44:51).
  34. ↑ Livestream, July 30, 2021 (1:13:11).
  35. ↑ Forums - Livestream Q&A 2022-08-26.
  36. ↑ 36.0 36.1 Podcast, November 15, 2020 (31:13).
  37. ↑ Livestream, November 22, 2019 (24:33).
  38. ↑ Livestream, January 18, 2018 (16:34).
  39. ↑ Livestream, February 9, 2018 (4:42).
  40. ↑ Video, February 24, 2018 (0:01).
  41. ↑ 41.0 41.1 Dillias diary.
  42. ↑ 42.0 42.1 Livestream, February 9, 2018 (13:47).
  43. ↑ Livestream, January 18, 2018 (21:18).
  44. ↑ Video, March 31, 2023 (28:11).
  45. ↑ Livestream, May 19, 2017 (37:03).
  46. ↑ Livestream, December 17, 2019 (1:10:30).
  47. ↑ Interview: Ashes of Creation on Building Their Virtual World, 2017-04-13.
  48. ↑ Livestream, May 22, 2017 (28:02).
  49. ↑ Interview, July 18, 2020 (1:00:15).
  50. ↑ Interview, July 19, 2020 (8:43).
  51. ↑ 51.0 51.1 51.2 51.3 51.4 Interview, July 20, 2020 (21:57).
  52. ↑ 52.0 52.1 52.2 52.3 Livestream, 2018-04-8 (PM) (55:49).
  53. ↑ Livestream, July 25, 2020 (46:08).
  54. ↑ Livestream, March 26, 2021 (1:02:06).
  55. ↑ 55.0 55.1 Livestream, March 31, 2022 (1:15:02).
  56. ↑ 56.0 56.1 Livestream, May 15, 2017 (38:08).
  57. ↑ 57.0 57.1 Livestream, July 9, 2018 (25:34).
  58. ↑ Livestream, 2018-04-8 (PM) (51:49).
  59. ↑ Livestream, May 19, 2017 (44:18).
  60. ↑ Video, March 31, 2023 (14:14).
  61. ↑ 61.0 61.1 61.2 61.3 Video, March 31, 2023 (3:32).
  62. ↑ 62.0 62.1 Video, March 31, 2023 (1:22).
  63. ↑ Video, March 31, 2023 (6:30).
  64. ↑ 64.0 64.1 skotty-story-arc-2.png
  65. ↑ 65.0 65.1 65.2 Video, April 5, 2018 (35:01).
  66. ↑ 66.0 66.1 66.2 66.3 Livestream, April 29, 2022 (1:05:37).
  67. ↑ 67.0 67.1 67.2 Livestream, March 31, 2022 (1:15:29).
  68. ↑ Livestream, April 7, 2023 (55:22).
  69. ↑ Livestream, March 31, 2023 (1:00:16).
  70. ↑ Livestream, October 28, 2022 (32:52).
  71. ↑ Livestream, June 1, 2017 (37:39).
  72. ↑ 72.0 72.1 Livestream, May 30, 2019 (1:18:16).
  73. ↑ Livestream, May 26, 2017 (15:37).
  74. ↑ Video, September 29, 2023 (2:59).
  75. ↑ 75.0 75.1 75.2 skotty-story-arc-1.png
  76. ↑ Interview, July 9, 2023 (47:05).
  77. ↑ Livestream, March 31, 2023 (59:10).
  78. ↑ Video, March 31, 2023 (16:42).
  79. ↑ 79.0 79.1 79.2 79.3 Livestream, October 31, 2017 (29:50).
  80. ↑ Livestream, June 25, 2021 (48:08).
  81. ↑ 81.0 81.1 81.2 81.3 Livestream, May 27, 2022 (1:20:00).
  82. ↑ Livestream, October 14, 2022 (32:38).
  83. ↑ 83.0 83.1 83.2 Livestream, May 26, 2017 (51:37).
  84. ↑ Livestream, June 30, 2023 (22:05).
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