Dotta: Contracts are live on Rinkby, shoutouts to niski and tv. There is still some web development to be done on the website to prepare. If you are a React developer, and are interested in participating, DM me.
ElfJTrul initiates a local sticker campaign in Los Angeles CA, circa August 2021.
Elf: The Book of Lore is a very special feature coming up. It is a book on our website, where any Wizard holder can contribute writing, artwork, poems, etc. to be attached to their wizard. After some time, we’ll have a compendium with the history of all our wizards. I have had a lot of community members DM’ing dotta and me about lore they’ve developed. A lot of questions about how to reconcile the fan-developed lore with the “official” lore. Behind the scenes, I am writing the lore. I would say, don’t worry too much about the overall world and meta-narrative. Focus on your individual wizards’ stories. I can look at your wizards’ stories and have that shape the metanarrative. The canon metanarrative will appear in the official FRWC media expressions (games, comic books, tv shows, etc.) I am waiting for the Book of Lore to be created, so I can flip to anyone’s page, and see if it fits into the meta-narrative. This is a very experimental, loose, decentralized way of creating lore.
dotta: When I think of for example, Harry Potter fan-fiction, there are non-canon creations that still become part of the wider lore. Everyone I’ve seen has pretty good taste of what this world can be. The official canon will be released in due time. Elf: Yes, to repeat, releasing a huge Silmarillion outlining all the details of this world is not how I want to do it. We have a lot of fun ways we are going to deliver this information.
Animation Update
Elf: Not too many details can be given yet, but we are having very exciting meetings with partners right now. Very likely we are going to get some kind of animation content. Not in the next month, but it looks like it will definitely happen.
dotta: Getting a full show is very tricky. If you go to sell a show directly, if you don’t have enough demand, you give up more than you want to. So we are going to do shorts first, and we’ve gotten meetings with our first choice of animation studios that are underway.
elf: This studio does adult animation shows that you already know. It will look awesome.
Part of the Twitter exchange that led to rampant speculation about a collaboration between NFT TCG project Parallel and Forgotten Runes. (August 2019)
Game Update
dotta: No ink on paper yet, but we are meeting with gaming partners. Elf and I have built indie video games in the past, which did well, but not at the scale of a AAA game. We are meeting with one publisher/developer in particular that appears to be bullish on us. They have console games in retail stores like Target. We are talking about doing a FRWC metaverse. Very exciting, but still in the discussion phase for now. The map should be something where we can walk around, own property, go on quests, hang out with friends.
Elf: That would be the “official” Forgotten Runes game, but we are looking at putting games in other metaverses. I’m still working on the turnaround sprite sheets. Also, this is my last week at my day job, Friday is my last day. This means an extra 40 hours a week that I can use on Wizards, so this is going to be huge for Wizards.
One of a series of promotional images tweeted by the Forgotten Runes account to signal the availability of the "GM Generator", allowing any Wizard-holder to generate a similar image with their character. (August 2021)
The Kobold Horde Emerges
Elf: This is just fascinating to me at so many levels. This speaks to the underlying philosophy behind Forgotten Runes. This is not just a meme coin, it can’t be quantified into a market cap. Wizards are poems, lore, art, KOBOLD HORDES. Someone made a club with Kobolds, which aren’t that rare, but suddenly they’re in demand! And other people can start similar hordes or offshoots.
dotta: There’s already a group identity with them. Already heard from someone that got a kobold to join this club, and their reception in the general chat was palpable. Even when we talk about the metaverses, with the Wizard’s metaverse, wizards could have their private property, but even groups like the Horde could have some kind of clubhouse.
Elf: I love seeing stuff like this. You guys blow my mind every day with the stuff that you do. I can’t wait to see what else is coming.
The Team Talks Stickers
Wizard-holders overwhelmingly voted that Ian McKellen (who played Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings movies) should be part of the FRWC community.
Elf: A lot of people see stickers as a marketing operation, which they are. Traditional marketing thought is that you need to put your image out there, but also a website or other contact info. But I want to follow an alternate approach. Think of the Andre the Giant face stickers, where for a while nobody knew who it was, for years. And then suddenly people realized who it was, it was like a lightbulb. So I’m not going to put a website or even any text on them. I just want to see wizards everywhere. The other thing I’ve learned with this is that wizards are stronger as a cult rather than individuals. When you see wizards together, it’s more significant than wizards alone. We mean so much more when we’re together. I know it’s just stickers, but there’s really deep meaning behind what they are. We will make these available, and I’m excited to see what you all do with them.
Parallel Collab?
Elf: Kalos and I are both interested in a collab, but not sure what it would be. So we want to ask you guys what the collab could be. One of the issues is that Kalos doesn’t want to put wizards on cards, because it doesn’t really make sense for their universe. But we are open to ideas.
Johnny Mnemonic: Maybe instead of the card game, there could be some other way of fighting each other. ZayLaSoul: We would probably need to world build a bit more first. Johnny M: Maybe specific wizard props could have different strengths/weaknesses. Or maybe “joke cards” that are not used in game, more of a collectible. Nard: maybe if you own both a wizard + Parallel cards, they could get pre-release access to new card drops.
An image of Holy Arcanist Illuminus of the Salt, as portrayed in the storyboard, "Illusions in the Sand," which was released in August 2021.
Additional Updates from the Forgotten Runes Team
Initially, a SoundCloud account was used to store Wizard Wednesday Twitter Spaces recordings.
Art gallery for Forgotten Runes art. Elf: After this session, we are going to look at the gallery space for a FRWC art gallery. We want to have an IRL meetup with LA-based wizard holders!
Commercial IP. dotta: Still in talks with lawyers. We are looking to grant broad commercial rights to wizard holders, up to $1 million, and then after that, royalties need to be paid, to divide between devs and the wizard holder community. Elf: you have a huge community with 10K other wizards. Everybody’s projects are going to boost each others’ efforts as well.
GM generator. dotta: We liked rolling this out over the past day. And we want to get the attention of Sir Ian McKellen, see if we can have him adopt a wizard for a day. Elf: We published a quiz on our twitter. We have a team helping with our Twitter, and someone misspelled Gandalf’s name. Please be assured that this person was fittingly punished. So let’s all definitely work together to wish Ian McKellan a good morning.
Recaps. dotta: Madotsuki replied to someone’s request of “what’s new” with a list of 10 things that had happened even in the past day. So much is happening. So it would be great to have a “daily wizard” recapping what is happening across the community, maybe even published in the wider web. Madotsuki: Maybe we can get a couple people in a guild, and take turns publishing the daily updates.
An infographic developed by community members Sharkchild and ymcrypto to help explain the concept to new Cult members.Storyboards. Elf: We released one over Twitter this week, and I want to do more. Someone asked me how I choose the wizards to include. It’s completely random. I will say that the more you use your wizards and use them in lore, they might stick out to me more. I want to include as many wizards as possible into these things, all 10K eventually, although it may take many years. Madotsuki: Well, we will have the Great Burning… Elf: Absolutely, we won’t have 10K wizards after the burning. But the burning itself will need its own story.
Ask Me Anything (AMA) with the Forgotten Runes Team
Lorepunk: Wanted to let people know that they have a right to put my poems in the Book of Lore or other derivatives. I would be so excited to see the poems in the Book of Lore, can’t wait to see all the creations in there!
Elf: Yes, Margaret is our official bard and spellsinger, love continuing to see the poems coming out.
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Rev Miller: I’m really active in the events. In Lisbon, there is a blockchain week in October. I’d love to contribute or organize some kind of marketing effort there. A meetup of wizards would be great as well. I think it starts on October 20.
Elf: Yeah, we want to have stickers ready ASAP for things like this. The wizards in the ‘hood pictures that were shared was just me stickering my neighborhood. It also helped me color-correct some of them, increase the contrast before we release them officially.
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tv: Is every wizard eligible to be burned? Like can we burn Dotta or the Sacred Key Master? Any restrictions?
dotta: None that are ineligible. It’s really around community participation to determine how it goes.
Elf: I will say that there is going to be a cap on the amount of wizards burned. I won’t say what it is. And burning a wizard comes with significant risk. You may love what you get back, and you may NOT like what you get back. So you may want to think twice before burning a really awesome wizard.
tv: is there going to be a mechanism to burn the wizard resulting in gas wars. Perhaps a queue system?
3D Wizz DeeZe, an honorary Wizard given to NFT influencer DeeZe. Although a 1/1 unique Wizard, DeeZe has his own strengths AND weaknesses relative to other wizards.
dotta: I haven’t spec'd it out yet. We want to be thoughtful about that. I am mostly concerned about the site crashing. I have seen some proposals for fair launches, a mechanism being worked on where anyone who wants to do a transaction has a window to initiate it, and then a lottery system chooses who can use that window. I’ve also seen people talking about setting a max gas price. I’m interested in hearing what strategies people have for limiting gas wars.
Margaret: Not a coder or a blockchain expert, but possibly we could use some lore and cool graphics to create a minting explainer to help newcomers. I work with other projects, and people are willing to work with the gas wars if you help people understand and manage expectations.
Magus T: There were witch trials in the past that resulted in different execution methods. So will there be multiple themed “burnings”?
dotta: It will be a solemn occasion, not looking forward to doing it more.
Elf: Extrapolating, could you resurrect one that had been burned? Not committing to anything, but fun to think about. <some discussion of alternate minting methods used by other projects>
dotta: Yes. First off, I am including more docs on the website for new wizard owners to help answer the questions we typically see, so they can understand everything that’s going on. Also working on a new roadmap. So many things are happening, but not exposed in the roadmap. For Warriors specifically, I am so excited to launch new characters. When you look at the map, you can see so many possibilities for more types of characters. Like doing a drop of fur gnomes would be so fun. But we also want to be considerate of existing holders. So if we drop a new 10K collection tomorrow, we wouldn’t like if that tanked the floor price for wizards, for example. Your purchase of a wizard is NOT an investment, and the Book of Lore allows you to build the value of your wizards. But I do want to be careful about when to launch the Warriors. One clear marker for me is the idea of the game. We don’t want to limit the game to 10K people. It might be like Fortnite, where you can play, but the wizard skin only exists for the wizard holder. We do need to have other characters in this world, but don’t want to rush it before its time.
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A pixelart animation of Sorcerer Harley of the Veil, created by community member Tad. (August 2021)
O: Any insight on whether the affinities would figure into a game?
Dotta: Affinities are very likely to be related to the powers of your wizard. If a wizard has a strong affinity toward fire, they might be more effective with fire spells.
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ZayLaSoul: Anything special about the unique wizards not having a rune or familiar?
Dotta: You want to have balance in the world. Uniques are unique because that is what they are. The Deeze wizard is awesome, but shouldn’t have power over all other wizards. Each wizard should have strengths and drawbacks.
O: Maybe the unique wizards could be in the same affinity class as certain related wizards.
Dotta: There are going to be specific game mechanics for each game. For example, in the Legend of Zelda series, the essence of Link is in each game. I want to make sure we maintain that feeling in all our media properties.
Community News
Contest winners (a couple re-spins were needed due to non-verified wizards entering): Arcanist Celeste of the Moors, Bloodsh0t, Flo93, teddyfrosh
