Wizard Wednesday Recap, 2021-09-01

Bearsnake's first ever post with his Forgotten Runes Twitter account, circa July 2021. Note that the wizard is different from the one commonly associated with Bearsnake later on.

Book of Lore is in Development!

The Book of Lore is a tool where any Wizard owner will be able to come and add songs, images, and animations into an online book, where every wizard has a page. This is a way where everyone can come together to create lore about their wizards and store it permanently. Dotta: said that the team will add a visual indicator to show which Wizards have lore, and which do not. They aim to co-create (with the community) a legendarium of stories and characters, and this is one of the things that sets FRWC apart from typical PFP NFTs. Dotta added that only the Wizard owner can add lore for that wizard, and even if you sell the Wizard, the original lore cannot be re-written as it will be written on-chain. This will be an immutable record for the story of the wizards. The coding guild is still helping with this. Niski is helping a lot, but could use one more React developer. 20 people have already reached out based on a Tweet that was sent out, but dotta is still looking. Elf said that based on a preview Dotta showed him recently, the Book of Lore is looking super cool.

Bearsnake Joins the Forgotten Runes Team!

Elf introduced Bearsnake as the third executive member of the FRWC team. He is helping open doors in Hollywood and leading up a great merch strategy.

After the Loot project took off in Late Summer/Fall 2021, the FRWC Coding Guild created a project, Spells (for Wizards and Other Adventurers) based off the concept. An example (Spirit Shroud) is pictured here.

Bearsnake: Hello all wizards, I really couldn’t be more excited about this opportunity and world. I’ve been fortunate to experience a few times something that became special. But I think there is something so unique about this space, and this project in particular. The wizards are a piece of IP that happens to be expressed on the blockchain first, but that doesn’t mean it stops there. I'm super happy to partner with Elf and dotta, I’ve known Elf for over 10 years and we’ve worked together before, big fan. Equally as impressed with dotta, as I’ve gotten to know him over the past few months. The NFT hype cycle is reaching a peak, based on the signs that are out there. Silicon Valley and Hollywood are paying attention. And I’m not so much opening doors in Hollywood, more so helping wizards get expressed through various forms of media, and I know a few people who can make it happen faster and easier. I believe this is a 100 year project, and I plan on my kids being into wizards and participating in it someday.

Forgotten Runes Merch Box is Announced

Bearsnake: As far as merchandising, it’s more than t-shirts and hats. We have a whole special delivery thing planned, and we’re towards the end of design and into manufacturing, you guys are going to be pumped. We have a great trusted partner with this, and it will have great designs. Also, this will be the last time we make this particular item of merch. We will put out a form in the next day or two to see who will want this. I think every wizard will want at least one, and it will just be for wizard-holders. Think of it as a “wizard basket”. Elf: There will be surprises inside of it, you won’t know everything that will be in there, at Forgotten Runes we like mystery and surprises. dotta: In the form, I will ask, whether you just want to buy it, or possibly have an NFT in the middle. I don’t want to play too many games with it, but at the end we ARE in the NFT space. Interested to hear people’s thoughts.

The FRWC Team's Thoughts on Loot

dotta: Loot is a project by Dom, who was previously the inventor of Vine, and has worked on other interesting projects. As I’m sure you’ve seen on Twitter, it’s a smart contract that generates a list of fantasy-based items, like amulet, sword, divine robe. And the robe actually has a ridiculous floor price. It’s doing so well because of its simplicity. It was almost an NFT game primitive, actually a free mint that you can build on top of. We see wizards as an avatar primitive. For example, one of the first pixel NFTs with walk-cycles, any game that supports sprite sheets can include wizards.

dotta: Anyone with coding experience can build on top of Loot very quickly, and we’ve already seen some projects built on top. It is really fun; it represents what we love about crypto. Similarly, we used pixel art because anyone, children on up, can build on the art. And Loot is a similar concept for programmers.

Elf: Is there an art component to it? dotta: No art in the base layer, just white text on black background, in an SVG format (vector file). But even the text is so memeable. Just so good.

Official Lore Drop - 4 Colors of Wizard Hats Explained

The FRWC team promising a lore drop about several of the color hat wizard factions in the next Wizard Wednesday. In the second half of 2021, such lore drops were a major drawing point for the weekly meetings.

This week Elf talked about the purple, green, brown, and white hat wizards.

Purple

Quintessential wizards. Talented in all areas of magic, especially around the cosmos. Much of their power comes from the Psychic Leap. Sometimes the magic controls them. Spells are often loud, explosive, colorful, and unpredictable. Their houses are often unorganized. Many times, it’s hard to tell if they are powerful or they’ve just lost their minds.

Strengths: Powerful, unpredictable, probably wise, know a lot of lore.

Weaknesses: Warped minds, chaotic.

Note: We don’t know where they live yet.

Green

The hippies of the wizarding community. They love the natural world. Their magic is old, older than the Quantum Shadow itself. They have become one with nature, and have great stability of mind.

Strengths: Very stable, long lifespans, can communicate with plants and animals

Weaknesses: Ecofascists, Slow to action, aloof, care more about plants and animals than people.

Brown

Rough and rowdy, prefer simple living. Love tradition and their families. Like farming, hunting, clean living. They enjoy a beer in the tavern with good friends in smaller towns. Like green hats, pumpkinheads, mushroom heads. Dislike kobolds.

Strengths: Reliable, loyal.

FRWC tweeting about it's cross-promotion with Avime, an NFT project that launched in Fall 2021.

Weaknesses: Resistant to change, somewhat xenophobic.

White

Zenlike mages who meditate for days on end. Suspected high power level. They never show off, unassuming. No one knows the source of their power, and some doubt whether they are actually powerful. They operate in secret. Strengths: Guarded, calm, secretive, deep wisdom.

Weaknesses: Unemotional, aloof, unapproachable.

Next week: Magic system explained!!! Elf: Remember that your wizard does not need to devoutly adhere to their faction’s attributes. Your wizards are individuals, and they may have their reasons for behaving differently for what is typical to their area/faction.

Two Surprises!

Surprise 1

Elf: This has not been discussed before. "The gate to the 7th realm on the map, will be opened in the future." Madotsuki: Do some wizards have the key to the 7th realm? Elf: Yes they do. This is not on the official roadmap, but it will be a major surprise!

Surprise 2

One of the first graffiti artworks created was for Hedge Wizard Lenora of the Realm in Austin, Texas, circa August 2021.

Dotta: The coding guild (aranair, niski, tv) is ready to release wizard spell Loot. Wizard spells are coming to Ethereum (transaction in progress during call). This loot drop is reserved for wizard holders. Go to the UI on Etherscan to mint wizard loot. Each wizard has one reserved for them. So look forward to it later this afternoon! Elf: is this limited time to redeem? dotta: If you own a wizard, you will be able to mint the Loot with the corresponding wizard number, at any time. Not aware of a time limit. This is not an official FRWC project, this is all coding guild. It’s a set of spells that they came up with, won’t spoil the rest!

LachnessMonsta Update

Elf: Lachness will run our contests going forward. Lachness: Thanks to everyone helping build our social channels and having fun with the wizards. Next contest is with Avime (@AvimeNFT). They are anime-inspired NFTs, that live on the blockchain just like Forgotten Runes. Three Avime will be given away, look for the tweet, we will announce the winner in roughly 24 hours. Madotsuki: Winners will get their Avime on Friday or Saturday. We were inspired by MMO RPGs, loved the customization options in those games. That we’re aware of, this is the first customizable, anime-style NFTs. You mint 6 traits, and you are able to trade, buy, sell one or more of the traits, and then mix and match them into a customizable fused profile picture. Planning an expansion pack in Season 2 with additional traits (fantasy/isekai theme). dotta: I’m going to try and mint some. Elf: Can’t wait to see Avimes walking side by side with wizards in the metaverses.

Additional Team Updates (Bite-Sized)

• The team has received help from Ozzz, tad, goodboygoodtimes, and ymcrypt on walkcycles (this is to help animate all the pixel wizards, so they can walk around other metaverses. Possibly Treeverse and a few others, as well as the Official Forgotten Runes metaverse). DM Elf if you want to join.
• Regarding DMs to the founders: Elf said that if he doesn't get back to your DM, please don’t take it personally, he gets so many, like 100+ per day. Elf: I'm doing the best I can. I am actually paying a friend to run errands for IRL stuff. But ultimately a good thing, because there is so much going on.

• 

  The first known Wizard-themed t-shirt was shared by chemical imbalance in August 2021.

  Murals: 1 coming up in Miami, LA, Oakland, and a 2nd one in Austin. FRWC team had sent out a form previously to see where wizards are located. They sent out another form to get updated locations. Also the website has instructions on how to commission your own mural. zaylasoul: Reach out to me if you have a good thematic cannabis potion wizard, I’m planning to paint a mural on the side of the dispensary where I work.
• Regarding a Twitter poll contest vs. fvckrender. Elf: We did not win the contest against them, but we got very close against a big artist with 60K followers. But fvckrender the artist actually bought some wizards and shouted us out, which was great. We exchanged some DMs with them about a collab. Nothing confirmed yet, but you never know.

Cult Content Shoutouts

• wise sam and Dr. Slurp - Video promoting The Coven faction. If you own a Hag or Swamp Witch, you can join!
• Ozzz released more excellent art pieces.
  1. Wizard holding a rose in the winter.
  2. Master of Spots Hunter, scene in his den with the results of a kobold hunt
• Chemicalinbalance with excellent memes, last supper with wizards. Also first t-shirt with a wizard on it.
• Madotsuki - new Magus Devon illustration made by sweetbread in the Avime style. Also a new character, the “Angel of the Marsh” received a great illustration + story. Finally, Mado became a new Sage (eg. moderator) for the FRWC community!
• Ogsmarkload: Tenzuyama of the Cosmos fan art
• Elden14 (aka Bread(baguette): Has been making a bunch of awesome memes in our Discord, go check it out!
• MagusTumbaj: Amazing Minecraft wizard, first one we’ve seen.
• Snick: Super talented glass artist, will be making a physical wizard likeness for a contest winner.

Lore Reading

Edward talked about their wizard, David of Xanadu (4689). Check out the recording for the full story! Also includes some info about Edward’s personal journey with the project, different from many other NFTs.