An screenshot from NightOwlBirdman's parody of how many times Magic Machine is asked about the Runiverse land drop. (January 2023)
After about 4 weeks of being put off, Elf kicked off the spaces immediately with long awaited lore on the Hue Hat Wizards. They have all the colors in their hat, aside from white. They are opposed to the reductionism of white, it consolidates expression into one color. Hue hats want to express all things at once, and seek to join different factions in harmony. Unlike purple hats, who embrace chaos and disorder, hue hats embrace ALL orders. They take on the ability to see the perspective of all orders at once.
ZayLaSoul commented on hue hats essentially being the emissary of all factions - capable of bridging all cultures, ideologies, and peoples. Hue Master's Pass, the rainbow bridge, is a representation of this idea, being built long ago by an architect with these principles. And Hue Master's Pass may not be the only rainbow bridge in the Runiverse. Elf mentioned other legendary bridges with similarities in mythology such as the Bifrost bridge which connects the Earth to Asgard. The bible mentions rainbows being a covenant between God and man.
Community Q&A
Ever since the TV trailer was released, Forgotten Runes fans have fervently wished for a full-length series.
NightOwlBirdman: When will we get to use our 3D models in VR and motion capture our wizards doing the impy shake?
Elf: All models will come with some premade animations. Impy shake will indeed be one. The models will also be built to be platform agnostic, and definitely compatible for VR.
Bearsnake: Overall, we're still in talks. Studios are hesitant to make deals right now due to the upcoming re-negotiation of the Writer's Union contract, potentially leading to a writer's strike. I was actually meeting with the head of the Writer's Guild of America just last night. It's possible for Derek Kolstad to write for the show without a union, which would put FRWC in a unique position of being able to produce even if there's a strike. This kind of arrangement would be more appealing to streaming services, and would give us a massive leg up in negotiations.Issue #1 is completed, but not printed or distributed (except for this preview page released a couple months ago).
Elf: Bear being someone with actual industry knowledge is very helpful in keeping the ball rolling. Many NFT projects seem certain that getting a show on Netflix or great game made will take less than a year, but in reality these things take time to get right. Bearsnake: Most other projects looking to make a show are still trying to find writers. Given that FRWC already has a prestigious writer (Derek Kolstad) and animation studio (Titmouse) on board, we feel we're currently in a good place and aren't worried about how things are progressing. An animation deal was ready to go since last year, with a potential partner looking to sign a contract with Magic Machine for the show, but we turned the offer down because we didn't agree to the terms of that contract. We want to get a deal that makes sense for web3.
Madotsuki: What's the current progress on Issue #1 of the comic book?
Bearsnake: We're actually able to sign a deal today for global distribution of the comics along with bonuses such as being able to distribute an omnibus of all 10 volumes. I'm trying to sweeten the deal more before signing.
Adiobox: What tokens will the staking mechanic be available for? Jmander: Is the concept of staking detracting from the ethos of "Lore not Floor", making the wizards feel more like financial instruments?
Dotta: For the foreseeable future, the plan is for just Wizards and Souls to be staked. The staking will be non-custodial, so you won't have to deposit your Wizards into a contract, they'll live in your wallet still. It will take the form of "quests" on the site. The idea is for these quests to be character building, it won't detract from lore not floor. There won't be an ERC20 given to questers, but there will be other ways to reward them (more details on this in the future). The quests will have story integration, so it will hopefully help inspire more Book of Lore entries.
Elf: I want to start by saying that there's no need to wait on me to make your own lore. My creative process is researching the archetype I'm thinking about. Ultimately, the idea is to capture concepts that are timeless. So in the example of the Tengu, I would look up why Japanese mythology came up with this long red nosed imp who sometimes is associated with crows, if any of those concepts are prevalent in other cultures, and what the core of that idea is. Another example is the Merlin archetype - whether it be from his mention in Harry Potter or in the original King Arthur story, all of those iterations of him feed into the larger archetype of what Merlin is. As creators, we can look through all those versions of him and pick out the parts that we feel best aligns with what we personally feel the archetype represents. So the process of creation isn't reliant on a single source, and you shouldn't be held back on waiting for me.At the beginning of 2023, the community was involved in the rivalry between the Hall of Cats and the Wolf Dungeon. (January 2023)
Snoopdoug: Are there more runes than those that appear within the collections?
Elf: The current runes are in categorical groups such as planets, alchemic symbols, etc. There's definitely more room for runes that aren't explicitly on any characters to exist!
Giveahoot: How does the team feels about their appearances on various Twitter Spaces this week?
MM: Overall they're glad they are doing them, and one of their goals for this year is to get more active in spreading FRWC to other communities and make what we're doing more clear.
Dotta: As great as they are, one of the drawbacks is sometimes spaces last 2 hours or more, and it's hard to tell if you're reaching a wide enough audience or not on them. But it's a learning process in selecting the right spaces to be a part of.
The House of Cats Movement Continues
Next the Hall of Cats got a shoutout. Emma and BiII Gains asked what MM thought of them. Dotta said there was internal discussion on whether or not the HoC channel should be placed with the other guilds, or if it should be placed below Sales chat as requested. The conclusion was cats get what they want. Bearsnake commented that the emojis to come out of the HoC are top notch and makes them want to redo the main Discord emojis. Qeshmar is running a contest (ends tonight) for forgotten runes cat emojis, which has been a huge success.
Magic Machines introduced the idea of "screelings", aka mini-goblins, with this GIF. (January 2023)
Samikitty came on stage as ambassador of the HoC to say that they've accumulated 70 emojis submitted so far, and they're extending the prize list to include treat boxes for 4th and 5th place because of the huge turnout.
How to Win the Battle for Goblintown
Next, Tania del Rio asked how to "win" The Battle for Goblintown. Dotta said that there is no "end" to the game. There's a leaderboard and having more map control is the goal, but there's not a defined stopping point. FRWC holders will get the airdrop crates that contain a settlement, road, goblin soldiers, goblin bosses, and cards. Cards have certain effects such as extra damage, healing power, etc. Those who participated in the Trick or Treat will get airdrops as well as some partners. To prevent over flooding the start of the game with resources and keep people on relatively even footing, the entire airdrop may be staggered or time bound. So maybe claim periods for an hour or 10 minutes, and then letting people play before getting more on secondary. The only component you'll need to start playing is a settlement, because you place that onto an empty spot on the board and begin gradually gaining resources. Those resources are how you level up, place more roads, more settlements, get soldiers, etc. You want to expand.
Flu asked about the Goblin Town airdrops from the Forgotten Runes Ledger, regarding how enough resources were reserved for 2k sales. Because about 500 of those were purchased, would the unclaimed excess be redistributed as drops to the 500 who bought? Dotta: No.
Community Updates & Cult Content Shout-outs
Styx the Efficacious, owned by Sharon, came out on top this week in the BlackSand Ether Cup. (January 2023)
Blacksand Racing update! Race 5 of the Ether Cup has completed. Elf lamented over someone from the Hall of Cats stabbing his pony as one of the interactive events of the race, which lost him points. An emoji of the act was even made for the Hall of Cats! See results on the sidebar.
Elf asked what Snoopdoug and his wife like about the cult as newcomers. They cited the range of quality derivative projects such as Forgotten Runes Babies, the aesthetic, and the feel that there's so much more to FRWC than just a pfp. The warm welcome they received felt special. They also mentioned that they were looking into projects that are actually trying to build a solid long lasting brand outside of NFTs rather than just building them out as financial instruments with ponzinomics.
Elf: While of course there's focus on returning value to the holder, there's very serious thought put into the balance within the ecosystem and ensuring the brand is stronger than just the tokens.
Dotta: Designing tokenomics properly is an art in itself. The idea is to create an incentive system that allows for creative people to gather together and work on building a powerful IP together. I like to see stories of people onboarding others into crypto because I want to see it become more normalized day to day. Having a laptop 20 years ago was more of a "computer nerd" thing, but nowadays everyone has a phone in their pocket.
The Enchanted Mirror is the focal point of the latest interactive quest from the Cabinet of Curiosities. (January 2023)Bearsnake: Bob Iger (who he calls "bobby boy") recently said NFTs are a hotspot of innovation that Disney is looking to get into. I met him briefly before in real life, but I didn't call him "bobby boy" to his face.
Shoutout to Cabinet of Curiosities, who's making a collaborative on-chain lore event in his own quest-line! It's up to to cult to find all the pieces in an interactive game, with wizards given as prizes. The pieces can be found in Discord, Twitter, and even Black Sand races. Everyone who participates in finding the shards will also get a prize to participate in a collaborative crafting event. Dotta even found a shard himself in one of MeepleDad's Treasure Trove boxes (Dotta also mentioned he loves the socks included and will wear them to church).
There was a friendly roast of TheOneWhoRings who's apparently working on something [REDACTED] and too busy to listen to Hue Master lore at the start of spaces.
A Special Performance to Close Wizard Wednesday
Finally the spaces finished off with an amazingly cute live musical performance featuring dotta and his kids. While dotta played guitar, him and his kids sang along to Kermit the Frog's Rainbow Connection. The discord cheered along, it was great and it's strongly recommended to at least skip to the final 5 minutes just for this performance.
