Wizard Wednesday Episode 55 Transcription

Wizard Wednesday Ep. 55, September 14th 2022

=

Elf: [00:00:00] It is Wednesday. We are wizards and warriors. And today is Effing Wizard Wednesday, channeling in with

Cult Member: quantum style through the quantum downs. This is

Elf: elf and Doda

Cult Member: and bear. There

Elf: you go.

Cult Member: That's what I've been waiting for. Let's battle.

Elf: Battle. Uh, that's, that's a, uh, that's a great point bear because, uh, today, uh, is the day that.

Gold and quantum weapons are being distributed among the universe. Rare as they may be. Today is the day of the great forging. It's also the day of the ether merge, but nobody really cares about that. Yeah,

Bearsnake: merge. What? Merge

Elf: more like Serge. Um.

Bearsnake: I'm feeling softy today. I'm

Elf: just gonna say that. Good. [00:01:00] I li I like a saucy bear on a wizard Wednesday.

Um, yeah, so today is a, is a big show. We've got a few updates. We're gonna talk about the forge. Um, we've got some excellent cult content to go over. Um, but, uh, yeah, Doda, how are you feeling today?

Dotta: I am so excited to see the new Warriors drop. Um, you mean the new weapons? Well, I can't wait to see more of them.

Yeah, exactly. The and the. Um, well, it's good to finally get us some sacred flames off the market, so Yeah.

Bearsnake: In, in your EverQuest, uh, to get all of them used. Yeah,

Dotta: exactly.

Elf: Um, yeah, I, you know, I, I gotta say like, I think the first one I saw today was acid eaters, uh, pirate warrior. And, um, she just, she [00:02:00] amazingly got a rain spell with her pirate warrior.

And I mean that was just a beautiful piece of quantum synchronicity for the first forge. I thought.

Bearsnake: Yeah. Can we, let's, I mean I wanted to, I know we were gonna do this anyway, but like, let's give our one and only Cosmo some serious love. I think he's been heads down, heads down for way longer than you wanna know doing this.

So, cause yeah, you're a

Dotta: champion. So we have. Of course, you know, elf creating the, uh, original weapons and, uh, especially the names of the different weapons and spells. Um, but it, I would say the lion's share of the upgrades of these golden weapons, painting the weapons, the quantum weapons, and then the animations, uh, was largely done by, uh, Cosmo under ELF'S art direction.

So, yeah, well done. Cause. [00:03:00]

Elf: He, he did that and all the spells, he animated all the spells. Um, Cosmo is really good at animating particle effects. I'm really bad at it. So, um, I was so glad he took the spells on as well. And we were,

Bearsnake: we were talking about it in, in, uh, the company server. Like when I think Jitsi brought it up, like the first time we saw one of Cosmo's animations, we were all like, huh.

And I was like, we need that guy. Yeah. We need, we need that

Elf: guy. Yep. And then, and then we would be remiss if we also didn't, um, uh, mention Nis and Isha, who, um, also were integral in the forging, um, Doda. That's more your territory. Can you speak to that? Yeah, a hundred percent. So

Dotta: there's a lot of, uh, kind of new technology that we've built, uh, behind the scenes for this.

Um, so, you know, part of what happens is there's contracts that sort of take the, [00:04:00] um, the, the lock and the sacred flame and then record on chain that the forging happened. Um, and then as well being able to seamlessly link up, uh, whichever. Warrior was forged with a new upgraded weapon, and then dynamically layer on the spell, um, is a non-trivial task, um, in real time cuz we don't know who is going to, uh, who is going to forge or which weapon is going to be forged, uh, or which spell goes with that lock is what I mean.

And so, uh, yeah, so it is very, very interesting set of architecture that we have for really what's our first foray into, um, dynamic NFTs, right? So what we had here was a case where folks upgraded, uh, the metadata. Of their warrior. Um, and I think that all these pieces that we have, we'll be able to kind of use in the future for some, some really interesting ideas.

I, I actually think this might, well, I guess this wouldn't be our first animated, right? [00:05:00] Because the Sacred Flame itself was animated, but, um, I think it's our first animated characters. Is that right? El

Elf: uh. It is. And what else makes it unique is like the Sacred Flame was all just like one layer, whereas these are several layers that need to be put together at runtime.

I I, I guess so. It is. It is way more complicated than the Sacred Flame. Yeah.

Dotta: And it looks really good.

Bearsnake: Um, oh, Panico had, panko had a good comment. B zero is, is technically animated. There isn't eye

Elf: blinking. Oh, true. That is a good point. Yeah, that's true. S good point. Yep. Yep. Panco

Bearsnake: always, always keeping us, uh, on our

Elf: toes.

Yep. Um, so yeah, I wanna dive back into the forging, uh, later, but I want to get a few, uh, announcements out of the way. Um, At the top, probably the most important announcement is today is not only the great forging, it's not only the Ethereum [00:06:00] merge, it is also the birthday of Jitsu. And why Sam?

Dotta: Woo. Yeah.

Elf: To you. A happy birthday

Bearsnake: two to you. Birthday. Wait, wait. We, we didn't work on our harmonies beforehand. We need to work on a three part harmonies

Dotta: and y Sam.

Elf: Yeah. Happy birthday. Would've

Dotta: two two of the greatest cobalts would share the, uh, the, the same birthday

Elf: birds of a feather, I guess. Yep. Yep. More quantum synchronicity.

Um, and then I also, another announcement I wanted to make is, uh, so artsy and Daniela Esra, uh, they are making a comic. Um, they DMed me and wanted me to make an announcement that they are looking for community members, [00:07:00] um, wizards, warriors, and souls to appear in this comic. Um, And, uh, let's see. So, so the comic is being told, uh, through the point of view of a tavern barman, uh, which in my opinion is always a great place to hear these kinds of tales.

Um, and then I think every story plans to incorporate about 12 community members. So there's a lot of room for a bunch of people to be involved. Um, and I think artsy is, is making the selections, uh, just based on the traits of the characters, like the ruins and the familiars, um, just to ensure that the, the storylines are complimentary.

Um, so please DM rt. Uh, about this, if you wanna be included in the comic. Um, we all know that Daniela is an amazing illustrator. I'm sure this comic is gonna be phenomenal, so I would love to see as many [00:08:00] cult members as possible involved in this. Um, yeah. Any comments on that? Did you guys know about this Bardo?

No. Uh, yeah, I

Bearsnake: don't think so. I feel, yeah, I, I just learned

Elf: about it recently. Um, okay. So that's that. And then another announcement. Uh, so we've had a, a kids' art contest going on and the contest is officially closed today. Um,

Cult Member: and who's

Bearsnake: voted who, who, who gets to vote on the winner?

Elf: Well, uh, me,

Bearsnake: so like, so how many kids are you willing to make cry today?

I know, right? Yeah. No, this, this is a no win, no no win

Elf: situation. No, exactly. Uh, no, you're, you're already hitting on what I'm about to talk about. So, uh, uh, yeah. So, so, so Snoop Doug asked me, asked me like a month ago if I would, I would judge this and I agreed I would, um, And yeah, I felt, I felt some [00:09:00] trepidation about, about judging this contest.

Um, just cuz in general, I, I'm not a fan of art contests, just cuz fundamentally the idea of judging artwork is, is flawed. Um, there's, there's just no criteria upon which to base a judgment. Um, there's just countless intangible qualities that make artwork good, good or bad. It's all totally subjective. Um, so I just, you know, right at the front, I just wanna say, Even though I'm choosing a winner, it doesn't mean the other pieces of art are bad.

Um, it's just, uh, I, I had to choose one. Um, and, and then also I just, I actually really love children's drawings, um, cuz you can see such a thought process in all of them. Uh, it's just so raw. Um, you, you can literally see like a, a child's brain at work, um, like the editing process that they go through, when they choose what elements to draw and what to leave out and how to draw them.

And it's just really [00:10:00] fascinating seeing the solutions they come up with. Um, so example, for example, uh, v Mark's child drew a hyena and they drew the hyena's body with this like simple dome shape. And it's just, it's such an interesting choice to, to draw the, the, the hyena that way. Um, Ingrid, uh, made a very interesting choice of, uh, not to use any outlines when she drew the character.

I think this is, uh, sp Z's child. Um, she, yeah, she just like scribbled these, these generalized shapes with color blocks. That was a really interesting technique. Um, Dora's child drew an entire world around her characters. Uh, just it's like a total complete landscape with a road sign and objects in the ground.

And it just makes me wonder, like what was going through her mind when she thought it was important to, to put those things in her drawing. Um, crucifers Child Alphi did a really beautiful. Just this wild rendition of a cobalt warrior. Um, these, these chaotic [00:11:00] scribbles are just, they were so befitting of a cobalt that, you know, the technique fix fits the character and then Noah and Adam and Davy and Scout and les's Child w and Wavy child, they all submitted really great pieces.

But I had to choose one. And, um, I based my choosing not on technical proficiency, uh, I, I based it on, you know, which artwork made me the most curious about what was in occurring in the, the young artist's head. Um, you know, which artwork really pushed the boundaries of boundaries of the creative process.

And for me it was Theo's piece. Uh, which was this, this multimedia piece that incorporated, um, painting and sculpture into one statement. Uh, it's, it's just such a strange, wonderful creation. Um, like it's, it's, to me it's just like really the result of, of, of true artistic thinking. Um, [00:12:00] And it's just, uh, yeah, that, that's so, so I chose that piece.

Um, so congratulations, Theo. Uh, you are the winner of the first Forgotten Ruins, uh, kids Art Contest. Amazing.

Dotta: I

Bearsnake: actually voted for everybody to win, but, but Elf, shut that down. Wait, who'd you

Elf: vote for?

Bearsnake: Everybody? I wanted everybody to win, but, um, you said no. There needs to be one winner and. Yeah, you've always wanted to make a kid cry, so

Elf: congratulations.

Uh, no, I, I, I Snoop told me that, uh, all the participants will get a prize, so, um, so hopefully everybody is happy, but, but yeah. Congrats to you. It was a really interesting piece. Um, so yeah, that's the, uh, the kids art contest. So

Dotta: Cool. Yeah, the sculpture on painting that is some out, out of the box thinking for sure.

Yep.

Bearsnake: S B Z, SB Z. Thanks El. You've broken my little girl's heart. That's okay. She'll [00:13:00]

Elf: forgive you someday. I'm never judging a contest again.

Bearsnake: That's funny cuz we're having a full adult art contest and you are the sole judge, so we'll get that kicked off.

Elf: Awesome. Great. Um. Okay. Then, uh, let's see. Well, we could chat a little bit more

Dotta: about the Dream Master

Elf: Bot.

Yeah, I spoke about the Dream Master bot this week, but don't, it sounds like you had like some insight into it this week. Yeah. Well, you know, I think one of the

Dotta: things that that really kind of spoke to me as we've been doing it is we definitely start to see around the edges some weirdness, right? Like what's really amazing is how it's able to create anything at all.

And then once you start like accepting that the machine can create this artwork, then the next thing is like, okay, well how do I get it to be something delightful every time? And how do I get it like more complicated? How can we do ponies? [00:14:00] And then how can we do. A recognizable wizard on top of like riding the pony in a way that like looks like an actual scene in a location.

And I don't really think that actually the model that stable diffusion has right now will, um, is that sophisticated yet? And I, it's actually quite a lot of work to be able to, you know, in the same way that I feel like when we watch people that are like from an older generation try to find something on Google and it's just like painful, right?

To like watch your, like grandparents try to search for something because they don't understand how to be specific enough or they don't understand like how to avoid the advertisements or like, You know, it's just like, it's actually a skill that we've kind of internalized by being online all the time.

And I think that like traversing kind of the, like latent space of these AI generated models is actually gonna become, its a skill of its own. Um, yes, it's almost like, uh, from the human side, it's almost like a, a like a coding type skill to be able to coax these out. And at the same [00:15:00] time, I also think that, um, You know, we have thought a lot about creating the, about these creative primitives for our world, right?

So we created 2D, um, turnarounds and then walk cycles and now, now 3D models and these concept arts and, um, and we're trying to create these assets so that you can build out the world. And I realized actually that like the text descriptions of our traits and of our characters and animals and world are actually almost like word pixels.

And that like, The data that we craft that can sort of coax out a recognizable wizard from the AI is actually only gonna be more and more important as the years go on because the AI is getting better as we get better at describing what we want from it. And so, you know, you really can imagine in like five, five years probably, I mean, honestly even next year.

Um, but certainly within 10 you're gonna get more and more sophisticated sort of, um, Art out of the machine, right? You'll get 3D models and maybe like comic [00:16:00] panels or, um, uh, primitive animations. And so, um, yeah, I, I just basically think that like, being able to create these prompts around our data is just another way of being like, prepared for the future metaverse.

Elf: Yep. Yep. For sure. Yeah. I, I sat with Woz the other day just like picking his brain about how this thing worked and I, I. I think, yeah, we definitely need to develop this and, and, and just make it more comprehensive and thorough and powerful and, and accurate. Um, it's, it's just a very exciting tool that just kind of came outta nowhere, but it's so perfect for our project.

Yeah. And for

Dotta: our bot, like locally, so the, like, the near term improvements, um, we're working on souls right now, uh, maybe even ponies. And um, and you know, I noticed that there's some things, some issues around, for example, skin color or gender that don't seem to like work automatically and like, [00:17:00] yeah, we're basically just kind of putting more.

Like work into it and tools in place to help us iterate on it more quickly. Add new prompts, add new styles. So yeah, if, if you try to put your, your wizard in or warrior in and it just didn't really feel like it's working, I. You know, I, I think that's basically what I'm saying is we're working on like, taking it seriously because it feels like telling the AI what you want to see is just like, growing in

Elf: importance.

So far, the, the best, um, I think iteration is the, uh, the potato wizards, right? Yeah. Yeah.

Dotta: Well, so good. So good. Surprised we don't have cucu

Elf: dog wizards yet. Yeah. Feels like an oversight. Don't give them any ideas. Priority number one. Jitsu. What's up man? Happy birthday. Happy birthday. Thank you.

Bearsnake: I just, we were

Elf: talking about the wabo and so I was super excited because like Woz won't come up here and talk about it, but I wanna give like full credit to his idea.

He like messaged me, I don't even know at one point, and he, like, we were talking about it and I just like, remember this like [00:18:00] overwhelming sense of excitement because it just made so much sense in my head. Like make it accessible and easy to do, like a prompt and on the back end you don't see anything that's happening and we just build it up from the ground up.

And it's just like so exciting because you might have had an idea of what your Wizard of Warrior looked like. You might have an idea of what the soul will look like and then you really couldn't put like pen to paper, which I can't, maybe this is why it's so exciting cuz I have to go commission people.

But like this becomes like a mood board. It becomes a prototype, it becomes something that I can envision and it's like beyond exciting. And so I'm super happy to keep on working with was and be able to build this up. And it's just gonna keep on going. Like Doda was saying, I just had to hop on and say cuz it like, I can literally feel the excitement in my body about it.

Dotta: Yeah, I was thinking about that this morning, which was like, I wonder if community commissions have gone down since we've. Started since like sort of stable diffusion became popular and I think. In terms of absolute numbers, the answer has to be yes, because just the market has [00:19:00] slowed down so much, and I feel like when, you know, ETH is going up and up and up, it's like you don't think that much about spending, you know, whatever 0.05 or 0.1 or 0.2 for a commission.

But like when everything's going down, then it starts to sting a little bit more, you know? And so, Of course if the market slows down, we're doing fewer commissions. But I mean, like, I wonder how much kind of these kinds of bots eat into what we otherwise would do as commissions. And I think, you know, whatever we had this discussion before, which is, it's not the same thing really at all.

Um, you know, there's like, uh, stable diffusion cannot create Tanya del Rio's comic pages. Yeah. And so

Bearsnake: I think it ultimately will how it to more, I think it ultimately will be, I think so too if all things, you know, if, if weather's the same in terms of like general market dynamics, I think I. I think it's just more people get to participate in art creation.

It's just in a different way. Yeah.

Elf: It's a stepping stone too, like right, if you invest enough [00:20:00] time in something, in anything in a story or a character. Right. And let's say you, you have like this first image from the bot that you can really attach yourself to and create a story like that's not enough anymore.

And then you can start commissioning works of art. These are commissioning things. It's almost like the first stepping stone into what it can be, in my opinion. So even though like right now it might feel a little bit low, I think with enough time it's only bring more commissions and more creativity to our, to our entire ecosystem.

Full stop. Sorry, I'm

Dotta: ranting. No, it's true. It's like, like did the iPad cause there to be like fewer painters and it's like, well maybe because like. You don't have to pay for paint because you can use your tablet to just like draw pixels on your digital canvas. But like, did it open the door for people who like didn't have room to set up a giant easel like yes,

Elf: right.

Bearsnake: I think the biggest thing working against, uh, AI generated are probably his two crows. Cause he hates it so [00:21:00] much.

Elf: Right?

Cult Member: Why do two crows hate it?

Bearsnake: Two crows. Two crows hates machines. He hates machines. He fair enough? He hates washers and dryers and. Dishwash, he does all of his dishes. He has no electricity in his house. Actually. He's, he lives underground in a little, in a little bike, uh, dirt cave. Yeah. This makes so much sense.

Elf: Yeah. Doesn't two crows have like giant bird feet on the bottom of his house?

Bearsnake: Yes, yes. His house

Elf: walks around.

Bearsnake: It's all true. Yeah, no, this is, um, this is, and this is a time for anyone to come up on stage and start making up fiction around two crows as actual

Elf: real life.

Dotta: Yeah. I don't even see him in the audience, so

Bearsnake: Yeah, I, I see him in the secret tower.

He's, as long as he's here not to defend himself, we will constantly talk

Elf: about him.

Dotta: Does he fear the pony

Bearsnake: in real life as well? Oh yeah. Big time.

Elf: Um, yeah, [00:22:00] so look, look for more from the dream, but master. But if you're not following that account on Twitter, I highly recommend it. Cause there's just some amazing dreams coming out of it.

Um, you, you know, I, I'll say one more thing. It's, it's funny how like, one of the things that the bot consistently messes up is hands and arms and legs. And it, it's, you know, it's funny that that's. That's the one thing that it's just like, can't get right yet. Um, and like, you know, I, I, I keep wanting to compare it to dreams, but what's funny is like, that's, that's kind of the way dreams are.

Look also like they, there's like certain features that dreams just kind of blur out or distort. Um, and like as, as I see AI develop over the years, I'm like, it's. It just reminds me of so much of how the human brain is, is developing as well. Um, like I used to work at this studio that, uh, did a lot of [00:23:00] AI experiments and this one guy on our team was teaching a computer to talk so, Um, and, and when I say that, I don't mean like type something and then it just recco and then it just, uh, re repeats it.

He was like literally teaching this process of speaking to this computer and he showed me some of the first tests and it, it sounded like this, like drunk baby trying to form worse, um, worse. And so it was, yeah, it was like, it was like this, this, this prototype of a brain learning the. The concept of speech.

Um, and so I, I, you know, I'm kind of seeing that with these AI art generators as well. Like, there's just like these crucial details that it's just getting confused. Um, so anyway, uh, but yeah, the Dream Master Bot, go follow it. It's, uh, it's, uh, we're gonna keep working on it. Uh, let's, um, let's go over a little bit of a cult, a little bit of cult content, and then I actually wanna jump back into the Forge cause I think there's a lot more things to say about [00:24:00] it.

Yeah,

Bearsnake: I had something to say about the Forge, but We'll, yeah. Let's circle back in a minute.

Elf: Go ahead. Sweet. Um, so one piece of really great cult content I saw, uh, was from Matsui. Um, and he just posted this like, This, uh, these, these photos of just like, like a, um, a big collection of like physical, uh, items that he's received from cult members over the last few months or whatever.

And it's just like so much cool stuff. He's got like a little doll of, of, of, um, uh, mag Devin of the quantum downs. He's got some mushrooms. Uh, the, the trading card for Maple Dad, um, Sammy Kitty's Sacred Frame Flame Lighter. Um, oh, the doll was made by Sweet Bread. Um, and it's just, we've, we've just got so many cool things being built and I haven't, I haven't really seen it, like brought together in a collection yet, um, until this, this tweet by, uh, Matsui.

[00:25:00] Um, so

Bearsnake: that was awesome. I need one of those lighters so badly.

Elf: Brilliant. It's brilliant. Um, and then of course, uh, r y f retired, retired farmer posted another work in progress from this comic, this mysterious comic that nobody knows about. Um, but damn, it's looking good. Um, and then, um, Lin Wa posted a character design, uh, from, with a, a Huntress wizard.

Um, just a beautiful character design. Um, one of the, the things that made me smile the most this week was Sammy Kitty's GIF of her Warrior Aspir, hitting one of those, um, I don't even know what they're called. What, what's the thing at the carnival where you hit

Bearsnake: it with the hammer? A strength. A strength like sledgehammer thing?

Yeah. Yeah, that's, you need to get one of

Elf: those at the bear cave. Yeah, totally. [00:26:00] The rest of the.

Um, but yeah, it's, it's really cute cuz like her warrior is just using one arm to, to hit it instead of two arms. Um,

Dotta: I'm sharing these in the space, by the way, if anybody wants to see

Elf: them. Yep. And then, uh, another really awesome piece was, uh, from Shark Child Orbis, uh, this amazing illustration of a, of a, like a, a, a furo, uh, a Phnom soul or like a zombie Phnom.

Um, really awesome. Take on, on the, uh, on a horror themed fur. Is this the

Bearsnake: one with like the flute nose? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. And gr Yeah. Gremble didn't think that phenoms had flutes for noses, but I disagree. I think it's a great little

Elf: twist. I think the zombie version definitely has a, has flute for a nose because the original nose just fell off and so [00:27:00] he replaced it with a flute.

Um, and then, uh, color Master is, looks like color master's working on some kind of interesting project. Um, I'm, I'm seeing like a, uh, a map, uh, and I don't know much about it, but it looks very interesting. Um, and then, uh, another piece is, so I think this happens maybe while I was on vacation, but there's this account called zero X ai.

Um, does anybody know what that is? I feel like No. I know. Mm-hmm. I, I think this is something maybe lock set up. Um, but anyways, zero x ai has been doing a lot of really cool, uh, forgotten ruins artwork. Um, And there was one that we re retweeted just this week. Um, and then, uh, cosmic ma Erni of the forest has done two really great pieces with her Warrior.

[00:28:00] Um, what's really fun about this warrior is, is it's one of those ones that only has a shield but no weapon. Um, That right there is, there's an interesting story behind that to, to me. Um, and, and in one of the posts she even said, uh, she says, the gym is just as important as the Armory when it comes to the success on the battlefield.

Um, so I mean, that's, that's a great take, uh, on, on a Weapon Less warrior. Um, so really good stuff. Uh, another new account that I'm seeing post really great stuff is called Everyday Ruins. And Yeah. Did, does anybody know who is doing that? Is

Bearsnake: that the one that did like the remake of the A team music?

Trailer or no? Is that something

Dotta: different? No, it has like the COBOL bowl of rice and then the like Bill Gaines coffee with a rubber band.

Bearsnake: Oh, yes, yes, yes. I have a strong guess, but I won't say. Mm. [00:29:00] Suspect.

Elf: Um, very cool. Uh, and then, uh, there was a really beautiful piece I saw this week, um, by, uh, Glen Animation or something.

Um, And it's just this really great little short gift slash video of, um, this Purple Hat Witch with her cell phone and, and, and a cat. And what, what I love about it is, is the vibe. And, and I, I, I love seeing universe characters in contemporary settings. Um, Because that's what this project is all about.

It's, uh, we're not exporting magic to other worlds. We are importing magic in, into our world. Um, and this, this piece really just felt like that. Um, Emma's

Bearsnake: also been crushing, uh, the magic parts.

Elf: Oh, Emma Emma's magic cards. Yeah. Just

Bearsnake: nonstop.

Elf: Amazing. [00:30:00] Yes, for sure. Um, I can't wait to see the one she does for me.

Mm-hmm. Um, and then, and then, yeah, then finally I have, uh, ma friends, uh, did this really great illustration of sage sellek going on a trip. Um, it, uh, it reminds me of those like old rat fink illustrations with like the eyes bugged out. Um, super fun style, really great color palette in this one. Um, so yeah, excellent cult content this week.

Um, And now maybe let's, uh, jump back to the forging.

Um, so of course I have a lot to say about the forging, but, uh, do you, do you guys wanna open with anything?

Bearsnake: I know there was something that like, you know, I think something wanted to bring up was, and I know we've talked about it, is this idea, um, this idea that like, you know, [00:31:00] When we do an event, who is it for?

Who's it benefiting? Who's it, who's not included? And I think, I think something that, you know, everybody probably knows that like we're trying, there's a lot to balance here, right? And like every time you release a set of tokens, you need to look at, um, what those do down the line. And, and so I think. For me, I just like, like I don't have a lock.

Um, and, and so, and I don't have a flame and, and I so badly wanna participate and I can't. Um, and so I, I, I'm sure that some people feel that way and it's totally understandable, but I just, you know, I, I felt like it, it, it made sense to like, take a moment and just say like, all of these pieces, like, it, it's all part of a bigger hole, right?

So like, yes, there's only 42 locks and a small subset, but I. I think the, the point is, is like there's go, there's, it's always going to be, um, a balance and sometimes things will be for a smaller [00:32:00] subset. I think we have a ton of stuff lined up that in the next, like this year, that will be more broad and everybody can participate.

And, and so I don't know if I'm like asking for patience, um, or just letting everybody know like, this is. You know, it's just like there's many things to do and, and so some of them will feel and look and smell different than others. That's all.

Dotta: Yeah, and we, um, and we talked, so one of the things we forgot to mention is that there will be an event, um, in a couple of months that will release, um, 14.

New pieces of gold, um, akin to the locks. Um, they won't have spells attached to them like the locks do, so they will be a little different. But if you're factoring in, uh, the number of locks into your calculation, there will be 14 more, uh, [00:33:00] possible gold. Weapons as a part of this process, but there's no plans for the locks to do, um, anything else.

So, you know, some people are saying, oh, should I hold my locks so that way I can, like, you know, the locks will be used for something else down the road. Like there are no plans for that. The locks are used. Uh, for the great forging.

Elf: Yeah, it's, let me, let me uh, combine both of what Baron Dota were saying cuz we, we had a huge discussion in Magic Machine today.

Um, like just that number Dota throughout 14. Like I was trying to push that number much higher cuz I wanted more people to use it. But then Dota wanted to keep it actually lower. Because he was considering tokens and then, you know, bear was just talking about like all these different variables we constantly have to balance with everything we do.

Um, So I, I guess my only point is like, great thought and consideration goes into all of this stuff. Um, so yeah, if you're not able to [00:34:00] participate in the great forging today, there will be a chance, uh, later on for 14 more people to do so.

Dotta: And I also think too, to follow on what, what, with what Bear was saying, which is like, I think a small number of gilded weapons, uh, for, for warriors is like important, right?

This idea that we only have, let's say, on order of 50, um, that's, that's makes each one like very special. And there's more than that in terms of number of weapons. I don't know the exact number of weapons of warriors, but I think there's like a hundred something. And so that there's enough kind of room for each of these weapons to be unique.

Um, that said, I think it's more fun when we have events that everyone gets to participate in, not just sort of the, uh, uh, uh, a few dozen. And so we have not one, but two, uh, events on the horizon where, uh, everyone will be able to participate, uh, as long as you're a holder and then some, and then [00:35:00] some.

Elf: Yep.

Um, so yeah, I mean, I, I, so I wanted to talk about one important component of the forging today, which is just straight up world building. Um, and, and I've got a few different things to say about this. So, you know, one was, uh, red in discord. He asked, um, if the forging was planned when we created the locks.

And then, um, I said all of the elements in the rno reverse have been in development since the dawn of humanity. And I, I wasn't just trying to be, um, obnoxious and cryptic and, and philoso philosophize. Yeah, exactly. Um, no, I, I really meant it. And you know, I just, you know, I, if you want Alpha on Forgotten Ruins, just, you know, like I always say, look at the archetypes, look at the monomyth, look at the recurring tropes and memes and meta narratives that defined human experience.

Um, so, you know, with this, we, we even like talked a few months ago about how the Warriors are not magic mu. [00:36:00] Not, not, uh, magic users, but we all agreed that the caveat would be that wizards could enchant the Warrior's weapons. And th this is like something everybody in the cult like intuitively knew, uh, before we even said it.

Um, and so, you know, with the great forging this, this trope has become a reality. Um, And, uh, you know, so, so that, so that's one part of it. Um, but you know, it, it's, it's, it's, it's good to remember like where these locks came from in the first place. Um, you know, I, it was super fun because cuz to get them, you, there was, there was teamwork involved.

Um, this was during the unlocking of the gate to the seventh realm, uh, which was our beast auction. And. You know, the Beast Auction is, it's, it was ostensibly a Wales game, but, but everyone in the cult had a way to participate. Um, so essentially what we did was you were able to get a lock if you teamed up with another [00:37:00] cult member.

Uh, to do a series of events. And so it required one wizard with a key and one with a spell. Um, and so if you managed to do that, each of you, uh, received a lock with a spell on it. Um, and so, you know, what I loved about this event was just, you know, like I said, the, the, the teamwork, um, Because one crucial element of world building is connection.

And, and I, I mean that in two ways. Like one is the obvious one where it's like to build a world, you have countless characters and lands and beasts and all these, all these fragments swirling chaos. Um, and, uh, the building doesn't happen until you connect them and give them meaning. Um, but then two, what I mean by connection is, uh, Forgotten ruins goes a bit further.

We, we, we, uh, we make connections in our community, um, because that's how the strongest [00:38:00] worlds in i r L are built. Um, it takes a community to build a world. Um, and, you know, as we all know, the RNO verse is a world that straddles both meta space and meat space. Um, so you know that that's, that, that's the thing I love about this forging.

Um, And, uh, you know, it like Cosmo spent all this time on these weapons and spells. Um, and then, uh, I spent a ton of time naming, uh, every weapon. Uh, and man, some of the names are so much fun. Um, it's, it's a damn shame that like, not all of these will ever see the light of day. Um, but anyway, that, that's, that's my, that's part of the magic.

What's

Dotta: that? That's part of the

Elf: magic. It true, true. Yeah. I totally agree. I,

Dotta: I posted

Elf: earlier in the, the secret tower there was the, um, the,

Dotta: there were some leaked beta

Elf: ROMs for, um, Pokemon Gold and silver. These, they all the way back to like 1998. So in those ROMs there were [00:39:00] actually some Pokemon that never kind of were supposed to see the light of day.

And it's really interesting cuz those Pokemon, they were, they were pretty much buried and lost for like about 20 years before some, before those leaks came

Dotta: out. And

Elf: you get to kind of see like some of those, like the design processes and like some of like the name schemes and stuff that they came up with, they were never supposed to be revealed.

So like, there's tons of designs in the back of like, pretty much every IP you can think of that I'm sure never gets seen to the light of day. And, um, nobody expects 'em to be seen and there's tons of cool stuff to be found in there. So That's great. Matto. Um, you know, it, it's funny you mentioned that cuz there's actually a few, uh, And maybe like, there's even like an animal companion that never for some reason got filtered into the generator for the, for the Warriors collection.

Um, yeah. I, I guess I won't say what those are, but they, they were, they were awesome. Um, maybe we'll find a way to fit 'em in someday. Yep. [00:40:00] Um.

Oh, sorry. Go ahead. What's up? What's up? Oh, no, go ahead. Yeah, sl. Hey. Hey. How's it

Cult Member: going? Oh,

Bearsnake: I can't wait to tune in tonight.

Cult Member: Yes. I just wanna, yeah, slur. Tell us what you're doing, by the

Bearsnake: way. I just wanted you to, if you picked up on that pun, tune in tonight. Tune base. Base tune. Exactly. Just thought about that.

Cult Member: You should quit your job and be a standup. Yeah. No one wants that. Trust me. I think there's a niche of like wizards and warlocks who would pay a lot of money.

Bearsnake: Little dad. Dad joke, standup. Okay.

Cult Member: Yeah. So tonight right after Wizard Wednesday, we're gonna be, uh, burning the death spell lock. On Twitch and I'm gonna melt it onto my bass for Dr.

Slur. Um, so Cookie Tree and I from MiFi, my fiance, we're gonna be doing a stream, like we're [00:41:00] gonna be doing a live concert. She's doing analog glitches. I'm gonna be doing music, playing a real bass and like looping and playing a ton of synthesizers. And we're gonna just have a ritual while we burn the lock and make a new bass, hopefully.

So, oh, amazing. I just retweeted it. I dunno if you guys can share that or

Elf: I just shared it up. Yeah, I just shared it up in the space.

Cult Member: Yeah, but it's gonna be a pretty fun ritual. We have a lot of surprises planned. So, uh, tune in. Can't wait to see you all there. It'll be on Twitch, Twitch slash mycelium fidelity.

So, And then right after this? Yeah, as soon as Wizard Wednesday ends, we're gonna start the stream. Probably start like a couple minutes before just in case y'all wanna join.

Bearsnake: Oh yeah, absolutely. We want to join.

Cult Member: Cool. All right, well we'll see you there. We'll see what happens. Ho

Elf: hold on. I have a few questions.

Uh, number one, will you be playing death metal?

Cult Member: No, but I [00:42:00] will be playing like death drone music and like death. Death, mushroom acid music. Oh, sweet.

Elf: I've never heard of that genre, but I can't wait to do

Cult Member: that. I feel like all music on mushrooms is like death in the best way. Yeah.

Dotta: Good Dad, it's. The one who rings just told me that, uh, the stable diffusion team is releasing an audio model soon.

So that seems like something you'd totally be into.

Elf: Yeah,

Cult Member: that stuff's pretty crazy. It'll be cool to see how the neural audio stuff has progressed since last time I. Messed around with it. Like for that kinda stuff, for like the ai, for like music. Like I'm more interested in seeing stuff where like AI actually is like responding to other music and also like being able to like compose and midi and then turn the midi into like whatever you actually wanna synthesize.

But it'll be cool to

Elf: like Song two song. Yep. [00:43:00] Yeah, cool.

Cult Member: Or like, kind of like, um, human awareness where like people listen to music and then they respond and improvise, like getting the computer to like, simulate those awarenesses and use that in their response. Some cool stuff.

Elf: Slurp is an AI doctor, if you guys didn't know in, uh, in real life, um,

Dotta: an AI

Bearsnake: doctor.

Yes. Can you prescribe me AI medicine

Cult Member: prescribed your computer? A really good test.

Bearsnake: Okay, sweet. Lemme hit you up.

Elf: Uh, but by the way, um, Cosmo and I just both agreed, um, a few days ago that the death spell was one of our favorites. Um, yeah, I wasn't gonna

Dotta: say that, but yeah. I'm glad

Elf: you did. That's cool. I, I debated on whether I should say it, but I, yeah.

It's a magic

Dotta: machine favorite, so yeah, yeah,

Elf: yeah, yeah. It's fine.

Bearsnake: It's fine.

Elf: Yeah, it's fine.

Cult Member: I'll, I'll, yeah, I'll, I [00:44:00] won't make you say anything else about it, cuz we'll see it in like 20 minutes.

Elf: Okay, great. You wanna say hi? Hey everyone.

Bearsnake: Uh,

Elf: um, just also here, setting up my gear. Super excited for this ritual.

I don't know, I'm kind of curious what's gonna happen, so,

Cult Member: All right, thanks y'all. Well see you in

Bearsnake: best. Exciting. Yeah,

Elf: I'm just gonna say that, uh, based on Cookie Tree's name and the sweet tone of her voice, I'm expecting some horrifying death music

Dotta: you guys play

Cult Member: horrifying.

Elf: Uh, cool. Um, so Doda, we asked it, uh, as we always do if the in the discord, if the cult had any questions. Do you, um, do you recall any questions that we needed to answer?

Dotta: [00:45:00] No, I don't. We, people we're just so good at answering questions that we,

Elf: everybody knows everything we're thorough.

Dotta: Know. Yeah.

Bearsnake: I'm scrolling, I'm scrolling through right now.

Elf: Uh, Uh, Brennan dot eth asked, um, why we didn't allow Warriors with no weapons to, uh, forge and, um, Cosmo gave a great answer. He said, uh, Because they don't have a weapon.

Bearsnake: Yeah, but did you see what he just posted? Yeah, he

Dotta: just posted

Elf: like a golden hand with a gift. I mean, he created the original,

Dotta: so I, that might be

Elf: provenance.

I'm not sure. Yeah. Yeah. There you go. Very cool. Um, yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm looking through the discord and I'm not seeing any other questions. I, I guess we're just so thorough

Bearsnake: or just boring. I don't know. Yeah,

Elf: no, that's definitely not it. Um, bear, do you have any [00:46:00] updates from the bear cave? I you've been up to a lot just from the bear

Dotta: cave.

Bearsnake: Bigger, bigger, small. I,

Dotta: I feel like Well, we've got the comic.

Bearsnake: Yeah. The comic. Oh yeah. We're gonna share. Um, We're gonna share some, uh, art from issue number one, which is technically issue number two, but we're calling it issue number one cause we started with issue number zero. Um, so you'll be seeing some of that.

I feel like all of my updates are super annoying because, There are things that will make people, ah, I don't know, like I do boring stuff in the background that ends up blooming into something great, but it, it just feels too early and I hate like, yeah, no,

Elf: it teasing shit, you know, stuff. A lot of the things you do just take a long time to play out because, That part of the industry is just slow.

Bearsnake: Yeah. And you know, there's stuff like near term also, but I don't know. I, I feel like we, we [00:47:00] always, maybe, maybe this is good or bad. Like we tend to like really stay away from like over hyping things. Um, And maybe we need to get better at that. Actually, that'd be a good question for the col. Um, but should we, the point is, yeah, should, should we, should we just, like, should we just be hyping and playing the N f T game and say things that we're never gonna do?

Uh, I mean, sounds it, sounds fun. Sounds fun. I don't think anyone, anyone's gonna really appreciate that in the long run.

Elf: Yeah. Yeah. Actually we have one fun thing. I don't even know if I'm supposed to say this, but I'm gonna say it. Oh God. Um, Bear and I are gonna appear on, uh, the YouTube show, altcoin Daily.

Um,

Bearsnake: oh, I think Jonah's coming too. That's fine. Yeah. Altcoin Daily. Okay. Sweet,

Elf: sweet. Yeah. I, I'm a big fan of Altcoin Daily. I've been watching them for like two years now, and we, uh, we're going to appear on their channel. Yeah, that was fun.

Dotta: [00:48:00] Oh.

Bearsnake: Go ahead. No, no, no. Go, go, go. Well,

Dotta: and I also did, um, an article with Axios.

I did a interview, um, with, uh, a fellow named Brady over there, and he's really cool. I've talked to him a bunch of times. I had a really nice conversation with him. Super pleasant. Um, and then when the article came out, some of the magic machine team, a K A L, Uh, told me that they thought that it was like really just far too negative.

Uh, and so, you know, you know, uh, I don't know if there were other people who felt that way, so I, you know, I figured I could talk a little bit about it. So the article, when he reached out to me, he basically was like, I. Hey, I'm doing a piece on like servicing your N F T community, like after the drop, right?

Like, you know, people are doing, doing NFT drops and then like, I think creators don't really realize that there's, there's gotta be like more work that you have to do after you sell a set set of NFTs, right? And so can, can you hop on the phone and talk to me about that? And so, yeah. Um, [00:49:00] and so we did. And um, yeah, I really like Brady.

I've had had a few conversations with him. He's written about us a lot, so he's. You know, someone to be a good friend with and, uh, he's really pleasant. Uh, but then, you know, the article was definitely more about kind of like, almost like founder to new founder, which is like, you need to be careful before you start a new project.

Right? I called it a Faustian bargain, which is like almost the definition of starting an N F T project. And so far as like you make this deal with the devil who like gives you kind of riches in fame, but then like you sold your soul to the devil and like now you can never quit. So like what I told Brady was like, If you're gonna start an N F T project, you have to make sure that like you have something more than just like the drop, right?

That you have to actually be trying for kind of, um, some higher goal, some higher purpose, right? And I think that's what we're aiming for here, is to create this world. Um, that all of us contribute to, and that all of us can kind of like, uh, play in and own and benefit from. And, you know, we talked quite a lot about forgotten ROEs on that call and he might write about [00:50:00] ROEs a bit more.

But, you know, I think the angle of that article was definitely around sort of like, uh, the challenges you're gonna face if you do a new drop. Uh, and I didn't want it to come off as like, you know, some sort of like resentful commentary on how I feel about the cult. Of course.

Bearsnake: Yep. No, I, I appreciate that.

Yeah. I think it, it was a, it was a great article. Um, it was a

Elf: great article.

Dotta: Yeah. He captured lo not floor and about how, like what's different about us and I felt like he got like a lot of the super things right about how we think about our community. You

Bearsnake: know, it's interesting. It like, kind of brings up a good point and I don't know if we have any lower readings this week to close out, but like, you know, we talk a lot, we talk to a lot of people.

I spend a lot of time on the phone with people who, you know, they, they almost like, they almost like don't believe that we have the best intentions and like I find ourselves having to like [00:51:00] defend. Like defend how we operate the business in a lot of ways. Um, and, and like people almost like don't believe our core intentions.

Um, and while it can be frustrating sometimes, I think it also just goes to show that like we're doing something a bit different. Um, and our, our, our like guiding principles, I feel like, um, I don't know. I just feel like they're pretty aligned with, with what people should be doing in the space. It's just, it's just amazing.

Like we, I, we talked to a lot of people who are just like, really revenue focused and just business focused. Call it web two, call it, whatever. Um, but I don't know. I, like, every time I get off the phone, I'm just, I just feel good about what our, what our guiding principles are and sticking to

Elf: it. Definitely.

Yep. Yeah, it's, it's a challenge. Um, I mean, this could be a whole other conversation, but [00:52:00] one thing I, one way I've been describing us to certain outside parties is like, like in the state of California, you've got two major power centers. You've got Silicon Valley, and you've got Hollywood tech and entertainment, and they have never really understood each other or cooperated with each other or even cared about each other.

Um, and I feel like Forgotten Ruins is like, what makes us so unique is we are building a bridge between these two factions. Um, cause we've got the intent side and the storytelling, and then we, it's like the whole core of what we're doing is, is based on this revolutionary tech. And, you know, so many partners we talk to, they only understand one or the other.

They can't quite grasp the bridge. Um, so that's, that's kind of been a

Bearsnake: challenge. Yeah. We've kind of put ourselves right in the middle of like this begrudging relationship that the two have had. Right. I mean, like, [00:53:00] especially look at the past 10 years since like Netflix launched, uh, original content and streaming.

Th they disrupted the entire entertainment industry to the point where every single major media company was like, oh, we're gonna like, just drop everything we were doing and chase after Netflix and like do streaming and get subscribers. And so you can only do that with like amazing new tech stacks and, um, software and, and so yeah, like we don't really fit into a box.

I tweeted the other day, like, You know, if you don't fit in a box, like build your own damn box. And I feel like that was almost come, that was almost just coming from how I was feeling about ourselves. It's like if you don't fit into. Any box. Yeah. You might have like a really hard road ahead of you, but that probably means you're doing something a bit different.

Yep. And, and I think, you know, what's doing something easy, like the, the only thing worth doing is doing something that's really [00:54:00] hard, um, and meaningful. So, you know, we'll, we'll carry that weight.

Elf: Yep. Um, So Laura Punk, what's that? Laura

Dotta: Punk offered to read a poem, but maybe you could give everyone their homework first.

Elf: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Homework assignment. Um, no, not really, but kind of. So next week, um, I want to talk about, uh, two amazing world building projects that are happening right now, and I'm referring to. The show on Amazon called Rings of Power. And then I'm also referring to the show on HBO called House of Tarion.

I don't know if anyone here has heard of those shows, but, um, of course I'm joking. Uh, but if you haven't seen them, I would've very much encourage you to watch at least the first episode of each of those. Um, though that said, I will also say that each of them progressively get better the more you watch.

Um, and they're just, [00:55:00] they're just like really fascinating, uh, case studies in world building, um, because they're both very different. They both have strengths and weaknesses. Um, but yeah, I am, I am enjoying both of them for very different reasons. Uh, and yeah, I think that's all I'll say now, but yeah, so, so next week we'll, we'll dive into these and if anybody wants to come up on stage and give their take, uh, totally welcome to do so.

Dotta: And

Bearsnake: does that also, is it just those shows specifically or is it the kind of thing where you like people can just bring up other fantasy

Elf: shows? I mean, I guess they could, but just for like to keep the conversation focused, I would say let's just stick with those.

Bearsnake: So I can't talk about how much I hate Witcher.

Elf: Not unless you want, uh, uh, a certain cobalt, um, to, uh, you see coming after me. Exactly. I don't know [00:56:00] how you, God damnit bear. Okay. I'll

Dotta: talk about

Bearsnake: I, okay. I admit I only watched the first like 30 minutes, but I almost had to off myself. But we can talk about

Elf: it. Yeah. Uh, okay. So next week we'll talk about rings of power, house of Tar, and then we will watch Baron Jitsi fight about the Witcher.

Yeah.

Bearsnake: Game. I'm gonna hate, I'm gonna hate binge the entire series game on. Perfect. Good. Bring it. Let's go. Happy birthday. You're

Elf: going without Awesome. Um, Laura Punk, what do you got for

Cult Member: us?

Elf: Um, well, I just wrote some lo while I was listening to Wizard Wednesday. Um, Dr. Slurp fun if you're, are you still here?

Because I've written a poem about the melting of the deaths headlock, and you are very

Cult Member: welcome. I'm here and I'm listening.

Elf: Wait, Margaret, did you just like write this in the last like 15 minutes? I wrote it in about four minutes. [00:57:00] Amazing. Okay. And that's sort of, yeah, it's one of my

Cult Member: songs. It's what I'm paying by the hour.

Elf: No, this one's a freebie. So here we go. All right. Death is part of life. The warlock said the first in Wai music of the spheres that set a crown of thorns upon death's head and carried the beat forward over years. Decay of age. The vicious sting of chants that slices, stabs, disintegrates the flesh. Each golden bushel that the sickles thresh make bread nail.

Yet leavening a dance is one by one. The players do to part in walk into the shadow. Death is grace. When only pain and fear dwell in the face a quick goodbye and hears within its art. Some force beyond all music in [00:58:00] all talk. Oh, I am ready to destroy

Dotta: the lock.

Elf: Oh, I love that last line. Fun. Thank you. Very cool.

You're very welcome. Um, I'm gonna try to listen to your twitch or watch your Twitch. I don't think I've done it before, so I will try to tune in. Very cool. Um, well, I guess, uh, Donna Bear. Anyone else have any last minute comments?

Dotta: No, that's all. Thank you.

Elf: Wait, bear, I, you like the witcher or you hate the Witcher?

I can't remember what it was. Oh,

Bearsnake: no. I, I, I hate, love it. I hate.

Elf: Chits, you're

Cult Member: going down. All

Elf: right. Uh, channelling out from the Quantum Downs. This has been Elf Doda, Margaret Lunk, bear Snake

Cult Member: Chits, Dr. Slurp,

Elf: uh, and the entire [00:59:00] cult of Forgotten Ruins, gn, everybody.