RafiRomero wrote:I think my wizard comes from Limbo and is going into Realms.
Could you give me a primer on Limbo and the Realms, and their relationship to each other.
What happens to a wizard king/queen when I "kill" him/her (back to Limbo - if so, can they just go through the same portal I used and recapture their realm)? What have I gained by doing this (territory - are the Realms weakly held versus land in Limbo?)?
I can give you so information now. I'm hoping we'll publish more on the website soon.
Limbo is not a very nice place. Its the remnant of the old world from before the Schism, trapped in the eye of the magical vortex. Journal off the Gifted One explains some of the properties of Limbo. I am working on more stories that describe other places and ways to become a wizard other than through the Tower of the Star (as mentioned in the Journal).
Some wizards return to Limbo when defeated owing to the defensive wards woven into their armour and robes. Others have different sanctuaries, but Limbo is often used as the artificers and alchemists there are able to repair equipment without danger, taking advantage of the limitations of magic whilst there. This restriction also ensures Limbo remains neutral territory.
Limbo is also the place where most of humanity still resides, apart from those recruited by a wizard to populate a realm when they are able to fashion one.
Wizards do not like being in Limbo. Their magic does not work well inside the vortex. They want to explore the Fractured Realms and shape them as their own domains.
The Fractured Realms themselves are outside of the vortex and are bathed in its energies. This is what empowers them.
The stories of the realms themselves (i.e. what happens when you defeat the wizard king/queen) is a little trickier to define owing to the game's story based reward mechanic and the way in which you don't actually 'take over' the realm, only plunder it. I would advise realm designers to think carefully about this binary and the reason the wizard (player) has arrived and what they are trying to achieve in relation to what the realm's owner is doing. I'd suggest writing the realm story to incorporate this element and perhaps even to incorporate the enforced exit of the player wizard.
Stories that make more immediate sense might revolve around you defeating the realm's wizard king/queen just in time to stop them doing something else (tapping energy from the vortex, attempting a great spell to absorb vortex power, etc).
However, you can think of it another way if you like. The Chaos Reborn universe is a continual fluctuation between expressions of power and constructions of power. If the realms were not invaded by rogue wizards, the vortex might become static and the realms, become barren.
There is no absolute answer here, I'm intrigued to see how realm designers tackle these issues as they are the biggest divergences between character and player experience/narrative. Julian and I discussed this at length and have some further ideas about it, which we'll talk about in due course.