Wizard Wednesday Recap, 2024-09-18
Introductions
After a bit of technical difficulties, the show begins as Elf, Dotta, and Entropy make their introductions along with Tad Major and Nalgene.
Cult Questions
Comic News & Dotta's Edits
As he notes Nalgene's presence onstage, Elf defers to Nalgene for a question about delivery of the next Forgotten Runes comic. Nalgene says that the "hardbound version" of the comic with issues #1-5 is likely to be delivered into the new year. He says the team previously thought distribution would be around the 2024 holiday season, but due to internal editing, the scheduling was pushed.
Dotta asks if this is due to his own edits, to which Nalgene says that the delay is more due to publisher Titan's schedule of "getting things in order." Dotta asks if his edit is public, and when Nalgene says that it is not, Dotta says, "Well, we should bring it up!"
Edits For Cleavage
Dotta explains that he believed the cleavage exposure of one of the featured Wizards on the cover of Comic Issue #5 was "inappropriate" and requested that it be covered up. He says it isn't something he would have given to his kids and thinks it could have potentially changed other parents' minds about giving the comic to theirs. Elf says that Dotta won this battle, because ultimately, it didn't add or detract to anything from the story.
They say that only the first run of Issue #5 will have the original, uncensored version of this Wizard. Elf tells listeners not to worry, as he has been given permission to write a Kobold sex scene into the TV show, which will be entirely uncut.
Dotta says, "It's true. Things got too heated in the Discord and I had to give somewhere."
When Shadow Hat Donut
Adam Hollander asks when a Shadow Hat Donut will arrive, noting that he was bumped to 15th on the Donut Points leaderboard this week. Dotta says that there may be some shuffling of Donut which are distributed, and that Shadow holders, who are currently receiving the same Donuts as holders of the ETH collections, will receive Shadownuts, but they will need a custom Shadow Hat Donut.
There is no date given for the Shadow Hat Donut, but Elf says that there will be a 3D Shadow Hat game rig available for Adam to use in the upcoming Halloween Event.
However, Dotta notes that the Beast Masters should now have received their special Beast Master Donuts.
Radagast
Then, Elf addresses Radagast, saying that he knows the Wizard is trying to get him to spill information about Darkling Characters—if that Character has a 1:1 Soul Head. He says it isn't that he doesn't want to give the information, but he can't give the information
Elf also notes that there was leaked artwork of Ultrarare Souls which sometimes gets resurfaced in the Discord, which he notes is obsolete art
"There are a lot of Ultra Rare Souls remaining."
Mode of Transportation
The team is asked about their transportation of choice if they lived in the Runiverse as they are now, not as their Wizard.
Elf says that he would travel by train, noting his affinity for trains and belief that many of the US's woes could be alleviated with a national rail system.
Dotta says that he would ride Josh (the Blind Pony).
Tad says he would walk or hike (or build a tiny train system).
Madotsuki says he would teleport, if that was an available means.
MeepleDad joins in to say that the Goblins who run the kitchen in the Blue Wizard Bastion have a train system that delivers all of the catering. He says there is some genned art of this in the Great Library Wizzypedia page.
A Primary Villain
Next, Elf answers a question about the Runiverse having a "primary villain, like Sauron in Lord of the Rings."
To start, Elf says that the comparison of the Runiverse to Lord of the Rings might not be the best, and that he imagines it more along the lines of D&D as a franchise. He says that the audience are literally roleplaying as their Wizards. Elf says that creation for Characters in the Runiverse is similar to creating for Characters in Dungeons & Dragons. He says that Forgotten Runes supplies its participants with materials and resources in a similar fashion to Wizards of the Coast, and he mentions that even Dungeons and Dragons has a few "big villains" like Tiamat, Beholders, and others in the Monster Manual. He likens these to the Beasts, the Lich Emperor Supreme, and the Zombie King. He says of these, the Lich Emperor Supreme is probably the closest to True Evil, but it's important to know that he was transmuted by the Sacred Flame.
"He is bound to it, as all Souls are. And that really means something for his moral driver."
He goes on to describe other antagonistic entities in the Runiverse such as the Shadow Hat Wizards (proponents of Dark Magic) and Beasts (kaiju-like beings).
Elf says that it's also possible to make your own Wizard an evil character and have other people in the community fight against them, and also mentions the inherent conflict between the Might of Warriors and the Magic of Wizards. He says he doesn't want to define one central villain because that isn't the nature of a decentralized world.
Dotta mentions that they would like to see the community create the villains, but also mentions that one of the things that separates the Beasts from the rest is their difference in size. However, he thinks there also probably exist Wizards that are physically bigger, with some being kind and others being evil.
Elf extends this to the versions of Wizards portrayed in the Comic, saying that Reilly originally asked if he had permission to draw the Wizards in different shapes or body types. He reminds the audience that the pixelated versions of the Wizards are only creative primitives.
"You can depart from that in infinite amounts of ways."
Lore Ranking
Dotta makes mention of Crucifore's lore for his Wizard Illusionist David of the Veil, which has become the second most ranked Lore in Dotta's Lore Ranking tool as of this week. Elf says that he has been reading Crucifore's lore recently, noting the professionalism of style.
Lore For Enemies In the Gold Canyon
Community Member and Recently Named Discord Sage, Sporkly asks about the enemy types in the Gold Canyon in the Runiverse game.
He says that the Gold Canyon and all of those enemies are a total Bisonic creation. However, he says that lately, he has been trying to look at all of the Bisonic documentation and try to align it much more to the Lore in the NFT collections, Book of Lore, and Wizzypedia.
"To answer your question about the Gold Canyon, I don't know."
Madotsuki makes mention of lore and art that was made for the Abomination boss in the game that was talked about internally at Bisonic. He says that the game is in its early stages and has room for incorporating good ideas.
When Runiverse?
Madotsuki says that the development team is still in much deserved R&R at the time of the show, but they are reviewing feedback from the Open Beta Test and categorizing bugs by priority.
He says they have been working with Elf on Lore so that the Runiverse feels more familiar when players jump in. Mado also says that the player level cap is planned to increase in the next Runiverse build along with new spells and specialization "thematics" for builds on the Lore side.
"We're pretty much at the point of wrapping up analysis...and starting to put the pieces in place for rolling out this upcoming build."
He says they will have more news in the coming weeks, and they still plan to have another build before the end of the year.
10KTF Collaboration
Elf says he thinks that's all of the Cult Questions, and wonders about another topic that he feels he may have lost.
Entropy chimes in to say that Forgotten Runes has an upcoming collaboration with 10KTF for a racing game, but he doesn't have much more information than that. All he knows is that he made some stickers for a car and Jitcy is a team captain.
Origins of Elf's Name
After Elf reviews some of the metrics shared by the Runiverse account on the Open Beta Test, he answers a question from Giveahoot about the name Elf J Trul. He says that it's an anagram of his real name, with the "Elf and the Trul representing a gnostic dualism and the J is the cosmic jelly that binds them together."
Lore & Cult Content Chronicle
Following this conversation, community member Nikolas Martinez shares a Lore reading about his Warrior, Kiyoshi Vanquisher of the Shadows.
Then, after Elf renews the call for Lore readings, the team close out the show by reviewing the Cult Content Chronicle—the creative contributions of the community at large—collected weekly by Tania del Rio.