Wizard Wednesday Recap, 2022-10-19

A preview of the Souls head turnaround animations, released by Magic Machine. (October 2022)

A concept animation of the Rainbow Bridge to Cuckoo Land, released by Bisonic. (October 2022)

Magic Machine / Runiverse Updates

• Elf shouted out Niski, TheOneWhoRings, Kneeshaw , and Cosmo as key contributors to the Halloween trick or treat event, which is less than 2 weeks away! Dotta is in full “programming mode”, working hard to ensure the high quality holders have come to expect!
• Elf announced that Souls full walk-cycle art is completed, and will be released by Halloween! Bearsnake shouted out Elf and Cosmo on the art; RealPixelShop (via Tad) also came in to help with the walk-cycles.
• Near the end of the Wizard Wednesday, Dotta mentioned that he would like to release map-building tools, so community members can add more locations to the Runiverse.
• Also, Madotsuki had an update on the Runiverse game - there was a production update blog released last Friday with some good updates.

Cult Q&A

• Nahuua asked "Will there be a snapshot of FRWC holders for the Halloween event?" Dotta: I don’t mind arbitrage or script-writers, so we won’t do a snapshot. There are enough trick or treat tokens to account for all the eligible FRWC tokens. Although someone could hypothetically sweep vaults like NFTX for more partner tokens to trick or treat, most partner projects don’t have a lot of tokens is such vaults.

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  One of several preview screenshots of the forge interface within the upcoming Runiverse MMORPG. Released by Bisonic, October 2022.

  Elf regarding plans for Forgotten Ponies: Nothing super solidly planned for Forgotten Ponies at this time. They were a free token airdrop. Dotta: On the Runiverse game roadmap, ponies are on there as mounts, although not for initial launch.
• On plans for Beast spawn: Beasts, and maybe spawn, will have a role in the upcoming on-chain P2E game in development.
• Questions on the naming structures for the Warriors (ponylike-names, the mendicant names). Elf: Sometimes the Quantum Shadow does strange things, & inexplicable items happen as a result. Dotta: Aella the Sassy in particular was named by someone on the Magic Machine team.
• TV show alpha? Elf: The legacy entertainment industry is slow. Magic Machine can push itself as hard as it can, but when 3rd parties are involved we have to work with their pace. Derek Kolstad is still writing & delivering show episode scripts. Bearsnake: We should have more clarity around the timeline within the next 3 months.

Community News

• Radagast, a cult member and founder of The Damned Pirate Society, came up and talked about his project, which is offering their new metaverse game for people to go and play in while they wait for the Runiverse game to be released. The artwork for the initial collection was created by Ozzz, and Niski is advising them on the smart contract side of things.
• MeepleDad came up and talked about the Runiverse Game + Wizard Workshop collab; they are doing Spooky Workshops all month, Thursdays at 9 PM EST. The special guest for this week will be none other than Elf, to talk with the Cult about spooky stories.

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  The 1st page of a comic story released by Tollan Worlds. Forgotten Runes Wizards have been integrated with the lore of the project. (October 2022)

  PVA came up to talk. He will be airdropping something to people who bought his poster previously. He has recently joined the Tollan Worlds project team. Tollan Worlds will be releasing a gaming adventure experience this Friday, and teasers/preview art is available on their Twitter/Discord. PVA will create his signature comics for them, but he plans to create more Cult Content also.
• Henry Boyd came up and talked about an initiative around Murphy of Goblins. This is a collaborative lore experiment, and he invites all aspiring lore masters to come and check it out in a private Discord server.

Comic Book Update

Joe Rechtman, the writer for the FRWC comic book issues, came up today to speak. Elf has read the scripts for Issues 1-4, and 1-6 have been written (this isn’t counting Issue 0, which already came out).

Elf rehashed the purpose of the comic, which is a relatively quick way to publish the Cult stories and characters for a wider audience. And in these first few issues, 20-30 Cult characters appear, from in-jokes, dialogue, references, & cameos, all the way to storylines.

Joe admitted that at first, he wasn’t sure how he was going to include this many characters in his stories. But as he continued to read through the Book of Lore, especially after the search feature was implemented, he began to get inspired. Search was crucial, because Joe needed to search for Wizards that fit specific scenarios or traits that he was seeking. Sorting through lore with images was helpful too. Even Wizards with images and no lore can spark the imagination and are more likely to get included.

Dotta attracted some attention when he commented on his experience visiting the Moonbirds members-only Discord server. He gave more expanded thoughts on it all during Wizard Wednesday. (October 2022)

Elf stated that there are over 4K entries in the Book of Lore by this point. When asked to shout out specific stories, Joe shouted out Pyromancer Jameel of the Quantum Downs (5900), who has interacted with Magus Wazir and played a prank on the dream masters of Dream Master Lake.

Bearsnake mentioned that he and Elf had worked with Joe on other projects in the past, and are happy to renew the working relationship. Joe said that he was new to working with “decentralized storytelling”, but after Elf explained the concepts to him, he was fully onboard. The next issue release date isn’t set in stone, but Bearsnake predicted Q1 2023. Joe also recently wrote a movie script that was produced. The movie is called, The Unborn, and was released on the streaming service Tubi.

Dotta Visits the Moonbirds

Next, we heard about Dotta's Moonbird adventures. Dotta talked about how they narrowed down the list of partner projects for the Halloween event. They picked the top 10 communities based on sales volume on OpenSea. MM hopes to attract attention from their holders. Dotta picked up a moonbird that looks like Link from the Legend of Zelda. He was inspired because A Link to the Past is one of his all-time favorite games and he hopes to replicate that style of game with Forgotten Runes one day. This was an opportunity for him to check in with another blue chip NFT project. This project only allows holders into their Discord server, so Dotta had high expectations going in.

He was warmly welcomed when he first joined, but some holders didn’t like being reminded that a premium Moonbird that had previously sold for 50E, now “only” sold for 15E Their main chat channel was having some of the same discussions as lower-cap projects, comparing themselves only with projects with even higher floors with theirs. Dotta was surprised, and said that in their chat, reminding them that they are a top 10 project. The tone and content of the conversation was also a lot more “degen” than he was expecting, at not as family friendly as he would have liked. Dotta is still bullish on moonbirds, but prefers hanging out at FRWC. Dotta noted that some “sub-parliaments” within MB are cool.

Elf Talks About the "Why" of Wizard Hat Colors

The Runiverse game aspires to capture the essense of the prototypical Red Hat Wizards with their assets for the Red Wizard Capital. Preview from Bisonic, October 2022.

Elf reminded us that although we are called a “Cult”, it is different from other Cults in history, since Cult members are not expected to blindly follow the leader & accept all dogma. Here, you have full control over how to develop your characters, and it’s your opportunity to put your Rune on the Door.

Elf segued into another (abbreviated) lore drop. Elf rehashed that there are 7 Wizard political factions distinguished by hat color. They are archetypes of human organization, the principles around which humans form culture. They are intended to be a story-telling tool. It’s good to know the background and history of your character when you are writing for them, and this applies to the entire world as well. But at the end of the day, it is up to you as the creator to decide how and whether this background applies to your character.

The hat colors on your characters aren’t meant to be rigid structures. For example, the Red Hats organize around the principle of love of money. In our world, these are the capitalists, people who work in Wall Street and parts of crypto. You can find virtuous and villainous examples of this mindset in literature and media. For example, Batman uses his wealth to do good. Or the Crowleys from Downton Abbey. But on the flip side, you have Patrick Bateman from American Psycho, & the Lannisters from GoT.

Cult Content Shoutouts

• Heroes of Cumberland previewed a platformer game.
• Derek shared a video of himself eating a donut with no hands in record time. And Marcofine.eth released some beautiful character designs.
• Mmaize.eth did some “Forgotten Toads” - wizards in cryptoads style.
• Tania del Rio has kept up with daily Inktober drawings.
• Tania also created an illustration of the three MM founders around a fire.

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  A preview released by the Heroes of Cumberland companion project, leading up to Halloween 2022.

  Magus Ixar of the Hills released a meme-filled music video, and also a dramatic re-enactment of sacrificing a jelly donut.
• CastamereXB made an illustration with a key-holding wizard.
• Another excellent Joan Danger artwork commissioned by Cosmic Mage Adrienne of the Forest.\
• Cabinet of curiosities, by Mafriends, which is sitting by the Carnival Pass.
• Emmaleigh continued to release multiple memes.
• Sorcerer Hadrien of the Quantum shadow with a KFC meme.
• Shaman Voidoth created an excellent carved jack o’ lantern.
• Tad made a pixel animation that was shared.
• Artxie/Daniela Illustra with an illustration in progress of the Nightmare Imp.

Lore Reading

The lore reading this week was by Sharon, reading about Hydromancer Soran of the Psychic Leap (5564), owned by wizdaddy, who also participated in the live reading!

In a moment reminiscent of the summer of 2021 Discord town halls, Elf allowed “Vladmir Putin” to come up and speak to close out WW. Putin promptly giggled then gave the Cult a hearty “FU” as the ending music rolled.