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CAMELOT UNCHAINED


Re: DAOC 2

Message par darkrain » Mer 29 Mai 2013 18:11

Informations sur le jeu
Mark Jacobs a été très occupé cette semaine, mais a pu répondre à quelques discussions sur le forum des fondateurs. Voici les informations que nous avons glanées en parcourant ce forum :

le gameplay
les races
les serveurs "Jeux de Rôle"
L'information sur le gameplay concerne la vitesse de déplacement. Un sondage traitant de ce sujet a été lancé sur le forum des fondateurs. La question était de savoir si la nature du terrain devait influencer sur la vitesse de déplacement. Mark Jacobs a participé à ce sondage et a donné son avis. Il espère pouvoir faire en sorte que les types de terrain ainsi que la météo influeront sur la vitesse de déplacement (pluie, boue, neige, marais, pente, etc...). Le but n'est pas de faire dans le ridicule par contre ! Mark pense que cela peut ajouter du réalisme et du fun si c'est bien fait.



Suite à la demande des joueurs durant la campagne Kickstarter, Mark avait confirmé qu'il y aurait des races de petite taille. Il est revenu sur ce sujet et a indiqué que ces races auront une hit-box plus petites que les autres races. En contrepartie, ces races auront aussi des désavantages associés à cela. Tout est une question de choix. Le fait d'avoir une race de petite taille ne doit pas apporter que des avantages.



Le dernier point abordé a été celui des serveurs RP. Lors de la campagne Kickstarter, MJ a indiqué qu'il n'étais pas contre le fait d'avoir des serveurs RP (il était même plutôt enthousiaste à cette idée), mais que pour cela il devait y avoir une population de joueurs minimum pour que cela soit viable. Le but n'étant pas d'avoir des serveurs quasiment vide. MJ a indiqué que son avis n'avait pas changé et que CSE passera du temps à travailler sur la création d'un vrai serveur RP (s'il doit y en avoir un).

Mark a donc lancé les idées suivantes (elles ne sont pas définitives bien évidemment) :

Payer un supplément par mois. Pour les personnes jouant sur un serveur RP, elles devront payer un abonnement un peu plus cher. Les personnes ayant un abonnement offert devront aussi payer un petit quelque chose. CSE veut bien prendre en charge le coût pour développer un serveur RP dédié mais un serveur dédié RP coûte cher. (voir point concernant les GM). Le but n'est pas doubler l'abonnement non plus !
Avoir des règles sur mesure pour les serveurs RP uniquement
Avoir des règles strictes
Avoir des GM dédiés pour les serveurs RP. Ces GM devront faire respecter les règles, faire des événements, vérifier les noms, vérifier les chats public, etc... Les GM de ces serveurs ne seront pas des volontaires mais des employés
Mark Jacobs affiche donc clairement qu'il veut des serveurs RP de qualité !



Des news fraiches

Programme de la semaine prochaine


CSE a déjà annoncé une partie du programme de la semaine prochaine.

En premier lieu, toutes les personnes ayant participé au financement du jeu auront accès au forum des fondateurs à la fin de la semaine au plus tard ! Pour information, il risque d'y avoir une suppression des messages du forum quand la bêta du forum sera terminé.

Michelle et Sandra ont travaillé toute cette semaine sur des nouveaux concept arts. Ces concepts seront publiés dans la semaine.

Pour finir, il s'agit aussi des derniers jours de la campagne paypal. Il sera toujours possible de participer au financement du jeu au court de son développement, mais les tiers seront moins intéressants.
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Re: DAOC 2

Message par darkrain » Mer 29 Mai 2013 18:13

Des news fraiches


Informations sur le jeu
Mark Jacobs a été très occupé cette semaine, mais a pu répondre à quelques discussions sur le forum des fondateurs. Voici les informations que nous avons glanées en parcourant ce forum :

le gameplay
les races
les serveurs "Jeux de Rôle"
L'information sur le gameplay concerne la vitesse de déplacement. Un sondage traitant de ce sujet a été lancé sur le forum des fondateurs. La question était de savoir si la nature du terrain devait influencer sur la vitesse de déplacement. Mark Jacobs a participé à ce sondage et a donné son avis. Il espère pouvoir faire en sorte que les types de terrain ainsi que la météo influeront sur la vitesse de déplacement (pluie, boue, neige, marais, pente, etc...). Le but n'est pas de faire dans le ridicule par contre ! Mark pense que cela peut ajouter du réalisme et du fun si c'est bien fait.



Suite à la demande des joueurs durant la campagne Kickstarter, Mark avait confirmé qu'il y aurait des races de petite taille. Il est revenu sur ce sujet et a indiqué que ces races auront une hit-box plus petites que les autres races. En contrepartie, ces races auront aussi des désavantages associés à cela. Tout est une question de choix. Le fait d'avoir une race de petite taille ne doit pas apporter que des avantages.



Le dernier point abordé a été celui des serveurs RP. Lors de la campagne Kickstarter, MJ a indiqué qu'il n'étais pas contre le fait d'avoir des serveurs RP (il était même plutôt enthousiaste à cette idée), mais que pour cela il devait y avoir une population de joueurs minimum pour que cela soit viable. Le but n'étant pas d'avoir des serveurs quasiment vide. MJ a indiqué que son avis n'avait pas changé et que CSE passera du temps à travailler sur la création d'un vrai serveur RP (s'il doit y en avoir un).

Mark a donc lancé les idées suivantes (elles ne sont pas définitives bien évidemment) :

Payer un supplément par mois. Pour les personnes jouant sur un serveur RP, elles devront payer un abonnement un peu plus cher. Les personnes ayant un abonnement offert devront aussi payer un petit quelque chose. CSE veut bien prendre en charge le coût pour développer un serveur RP dédié mais un serveur dédié RP coûte cher. (voir point concernant les GM). Le but n'est pas doubler l'abonnement non plus !
Avoir des règles sur mesure pour les serveurs RP uniquement
Avoir des règles strictes
Avoir des GM dédiés pour les serveurs RP. Ces GM devront faire respecter les règles, faire des événements, vérifier les noms, vérifier les chats public, etc... Les GM de ces serveurs ne seront pas des volontaires mais des employés
Mark Jacobs affiche donc clairement qu'il veut des serveurs RP de qualité !
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Re: DAOC 2

Message par Silma » Mer 29 Mai 2013 19:29

Suite à la demande des joueurs durant la campagne Kickstarter, Mark avait confirmé qu'il y aurait des races de petite taille. Il est revenu sur ce sujet et a indiqué que ces races auront une hit-box plus petites que les autres races. En contrepartie, ces races auront aussi des désavantages associés à cela. Tout est une question de choix. Le fait d'avoir une race de petite taille ne doit pas apporter que des avantages.


Lurikeen Power !!!!

<Cette cible est hors de vue>
- M'enfin y a rien devant, comment la cible peut être hors de vue ?
-Bah, y a un brin d'herbe....

Image
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Re: DAOC 2

Message par darkrain » Mer 29 Mai 2013 21:55

J étais sur que tu rebondirais sur ce sujet :?
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Re: CAMELOT UNCHAINED

Message par darkrain » Dim 11 Août 2013 23:46

pour ceux qui ne suivraient pas l'actu de Camelot enchained parce que non inscrits et non fondateur , je vous link ici les news . J'essaierais de mettre à jour selon emploi du temps perso

LES IMAGES ET/OU VIDEOS DE L'ETAT D'AVANCEMENT DU PROJET NE PEUVENT ETRE LINK
Dernière édition par darkrain le Lun 12 Août 2013 00:05, édité 1 fois.
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Re: CAMELOT UNCHAINED

Message par darkrain » Dim 11 Août 2013 23:53

N°44


Our 30-day journey has ended but our real journey has just begun. It has been an exhilarating roller-coaster ride that has seen us weather the power of the ServerStorms, illness and injury in the studio and the usual trial and tribulations of our first Kickstarter campaign. We have all made many new friends along the way and while we will take leave of you tomorrow, the parting will be very brief. When we return after some much needed R&R, we will be back hard at work with one of our first goals to get the Backer Forums up and running.

Sometime after the Kickstarter closes we will prepare a survey for each of you. We will ask you some questions that we need you to answer carefully (like your email address for example) so we can ensure that you will be able to join all of us in the forums. So, frankly don’t take too long or we will be deprived of each other’s idears! :-)

The creation of Camelot Unchained is our goal but along the way we will all share in a great adventure. As our backers, you will be part of a creation process unlike any other MMORPG’s creation to date. Up to now I have shown you that we can “talk the talk” while Andrew has proven that he can “walk the walk” but again, this is only the beginning. If the Kickstarter process is like a roller-coaster ride, then what’s coming next is the greatest thrill ride of all time. Scary, yes but in the end we will come through safely and we can say that we did it together. And we would rather have you guys along for the ride than anyone else we know! From all of us at CSE you have our most humble thanks and deepest appreciation. We won’t let you down.

-Mark Jacobs & Andrew Meggs
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Re: CAMELOT UNCHAINED

Message par darkrain » Dim 11 Août 2013 23:55

N°45

Folks,

Today turned out to be a lot longer day than I expected (plus, I fumbled the video portion of this update more than the NYJ’s Mark Sanchez on a Sunday afternoon) so I decided to do a more informative and much less painful text update.

First, speaking for everyone at City State Entertainment, thank you so much for your support of Camelot Unchained. It was a long, difficult but ultimately satisfying campaign and we couldn’t have done it without you! We eagerly look forward to working our collective ducktails off to deliver a great game.

Second, over the next few weeks our studio’s main goals are opening up the Camelot Unchained forums and also finishing up the ports of March on Oz™ to select Android devices, including the Kindle and Ouya. We will of course extend the same benefits to those that buy the Android versions as we did to the folks who bought the iOS version when it comes to extra FPs. As those goals are met over the coming weeks we will begin migrating people back to both Camelot Unchained and the Smackhammer demo/game.

Third, we have begun putting out initial feelers and fielding inquiries for new additions to the team and we will be actively looking for certain qualified individuals over the coming months. We will post our job listings so if you are interested in coming to work with us on Camelot Unchained, check the listings!

Fourth, I’m working my way through the current email queue and I hope that by the end of the day on Friday I will have personally answered everyone’s email. If you haven’t heard back from me by Monday though, please feel free to send me another email. However, please do not send me an email asking what I think of any "ideers/idears" because I can’t respond to them individually at this point and also have any hope to get any other work done. Our forums will be up soon and that is the best place for such discussions going forward. Also, after Monday please send any support questions to kickstartersupport@citystateentertainment.com as I will turning my focus (hopefully) to our backer forums going forward! I'll still be reachable through here but it will not be the most efficient way to reach me.

Fifth, during our Kickstarter we received support from some wonderful other Kickstarter projects as well as certain individuals. I’d like to return the favor by telling you all about another project and a team that intrigues me. These are the fine folks at Cryptozoic Entertainment and their project, in case you haven’t heard about it, is HEX: Shards of Fate. They are creating, in their words, “The first ever real MMO/TCG for your PC & MAC”. I was fortunate enough to meet their CEO, John Nee, back in the old Mythic Entertainment days and he also happens to be working with our valued partner and friend Curious Factory and Ayaka Hahn. These guys make the World of Warcraft TCG so if you haven’t checked it out yet it’s worth a visit. BTW, I’m also backing their Kickstarter project. Their project can be found here.

Finally, and most importantly, we hope to have our forums open on Monday for friends, family and select ducklings. I’ll be sending out invitations through KS to some of our most active posters so that they can join us in our efforts. Once we are sure that the forums are relatively stable I’ll send out the Kickstarter survey and get all the information that we need to get all of you into the forums. Please do not send me an email asking for early access to the forums, it both won’t help me get through the email pile any faster and it won’t get you in any earlier. We just need some warm bodies to throw at the forums and confirm that our code/updates to the forum software we are using isn’t making things go boom! I don’t plan on spending much time talking there until after the forums open to everybody.

That’s it for today’s update. Once again and as always, my thanks!

-Mark
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Re: CAMELOT UNCHAINED

Message par darkrain » Dim 11 Août 2013 23:56

N°46

Folks,

It’s been a couple of weeks since my last update but that doesn’t mean things haven’t been happening here at CSE. Here’s a rundown of all the fun and frolic we’ve been up to this month and especially the last two weeks.

First, our forums have been up and running nicely since we began inviting our Kickstarter Founders in small groups. As of tonight we have sent out over 3K invitations to our Kickstarter Founders to join us as we try to break the forums. It’s our first foray with forum software and even though none of our programmers are very experienced with HTML or CSS, they did enough to get us up and running. I appreciate the patience that almost all of our backers have been showing so far but please know that we have to do things at our pace, especially when it comes to the forums. We had a problem with our ISP (they thought our first email was spam-tastic) and with our password recovery system. As much as we wanted to invite everybody to join us, it would have been a disaster if we had. If tonight’s invites go well, it should be smooth sailing. Over the next few days/week we hope to invite everyone for a pool party, bring your own ducks. We will also be wiping and reorganizing the forums so don’t worry now about the nasty layout.

Second, Scott, our lead animator, has spent about a week working on some new animation cycles for our Tuatha De Danann model to prep them for inclusion in the Unchained engine. These animation cycles were developed to figure out approximate timing, core game play, and cape interaction. They are far from finished but the progress from the last cycles is readily apparent and, considering the time spent, quite good. FYI, no MoCap was harmed in the making of this video.

Third, Michelle and Sandra have done their usual spectacular job with concept art. I asked them to continue where we left off with a sound/music class and work on some Banshee concepts with a couple of interesting (well, I thought they were interesting) directions. Well, here are 4 of the concepts we have so far. Big smiles from all of us on all four of them. They’re all different and very interesting and some are quite creepy.

Fourth, I’ve been rather busy doing some business development stuff that has taken a fair amount of time already. It’s just part of the job so...

Fifth, we’ve begun the recruiting process for the studio as well as working on preparing to move to our slightly more spacious digs (across the hallway in our building). We’re a close-knit bunch but if we don’t want to be THAT CLOSE to each other as we expand the team. Thankfully it will be an incredibly easy move. While we’ve begun interviewing people as well but so far, no new additions to report. We are going to be very careful who we let in the door over the next few months.

Sixth, we are almost ready to get our Free+ version of March on Oz in testing mode for the iPad. We also had some great news from the Unity world as their latest update got MoO back up and running on Ouya, Kindle and some other persnickety devices/OS flavors so that’s good news and as such, Android here we come!

Seventh, we will be taking down our PayPal donation page in the next two weeks. We’re extending the initial period an extra few days as we’re still getting lots of “I hadn’t heard about this game before” emails but it won’t be staying up much long. So, if you know anybody who might want to get in at the Founder’s Level, now is the time. After we take it down we will move to a new set of rewards, Backer’s Level, which will be good but won’t have Founders Points (or anything like that) and most of the really special items (LL, islands, etc.) will also not be available. Once that happens we will begin working on a way for our backers to merge/update/upgrade their pledges as well.

Work also continues on some of the models you have all already seen but nothing all bright and shiny to show off right now (hopefully next week).

I’m sure that there’s stuff I’m forgetting but hey, it will go into our next update.

Speaking of updates, over the next month we will try to get back into a regular rhythm in terms of updates. Just so we are clear, we won’t be trying to update every day but we will be shooting for one Kickstarter-style update per week. Realistically, the forums will be the best place to get small updates and we’ll save the big updates for the really cool stuff. We plan on being very communicative on the forums and I think that will go a long way to keeping everybody in the loop. Please remember, our day job as developers of Camelot Unchained needs to be our main focus and as much as we would love to spend a ton of time on Twitter, Facebook, and our forums we need to ration our time carefully. We will be looking for a Community Manager as well to help us over the next few years.

As always, I and everybody else at CSE thanks you for your support, patience and backing of our project.

That’s it for now!

Best,

Mark
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Re: CAMELOT UNCHAINED

Message par darkrain » Dim 11 Août 2013 23:58

N°52

Folks,

Today's update has lots of goodness in it. First up is a new render of the St'Rm in a full and glorious animation test. Not finished by any means but this test shows you a wee bit more than we did the last time and that's a very good thing. I hope you like what you see and I promise that if we can ever get one of her race to join us in our studio, we'll hook her up to MoCap and do even better. :)

Secondly, it's storytelling time here! For today's tale, I'm happy to present a small piece of the origin story of the Dvergar (Dwarves). The tale was written by me, which means that it has some good ideas, some very mediocre writing and a bit of humor. Fortunately, and most importantly, it is accompanied by some awesome early concept art from Michelle and Sandra. In looking at our concepts for the Dvergar, please keep the following things in mind:

1) We are not looking for create "Generic Fantasy Dwarf V9999999" and we hope that the vast majority of you feel the same way. Just like some of the other concept pieces we have released so far, our Dvergar harken back to their legendary roots but through the power of the Veilstorms, they are evolving into their own unique race. Different from most "traditional" dwarves, yes but I believe in a direction that fits the world of Camelot Unchained and the game we are creating.

2) The art is, as usual, in its most embryonic form so remember when the discussions/critiques begin.

3) Each piece of concept art is numbered. Please feel free to discuss this update on our forums and use the numbering system when referring to which ones you like, don't like, etc.

4) I'm not a talented/great/good/etc. novelist or writer, etc., just a guy who likes to tell some stories. Like the concept art, this was a fairly quickly written and edited piece and nothing in it is final. It's simply a "concept story" as it were and nothing more. It isn't, dare I say it (dare, dare!), set in stone. :)

I hope you enjoy the St'Rm animations and the Dvergar concept and and art. For the tale, if you aren't grabbing pitchforks and tar and feathers in protest of my writing, I'll consider that a win. :)

That's it for today!

-Mark

The Becoming™: The Tale of the Dvergar (Dwarves)

The Piercing of the Veil unleashed the power of the Veilstorms to inexorably alter life on our planet. While the raw power of the Veilstorms wreaked terrible devastation, it also combined with humanity’s vivid imagination to bring forth a torrent of new flora and fauna to our world. Additionally, it also transformed many of the world’s relatively few surviving inhabitants into everything from walking nightmares to impossibly heroic and legendary beings. As a result, many of the player races of Camelot Unchained began their existence eons ago as something different and evolved/changed over time into what they are today. This change is known as “The Becoming” and the Dvergar or as they are more commonly referred to, Dwarves, are a perfect example of how the interplay between power, dreams and survival brought a legendary race to life, albeit in a rather unique way.

Before the Piercing, there were no Dvergar. While it is true that some of humanity toiled away in mines as they always had done, the Dvergar were just another mythological race whose story evolved and changed over the centuries. When the Veilstorms first descended on the world, many people were trapped in labyrinthine mines in which they worked while many others sought shelter from the storms fury deep within mountain caverns and/or underground. While most of those who fled to such places died for a variety of reasons, some isolated pockets of humanity survived within them. However, while the mines did provide shelter from the worst effects of the storms, the power of the storms still found its way even into the deepest reaches of the world. Over the centuries the humans who sought refuge in these places adapted to not just survive but to prosper in ways that they would have hereto thought unimaginable, unconsciously using the power of the Veilstorms to aid that survival.

The Becoming brought about evolutionary changes to the survivors in much the same way that changes occurred in what used to be referred to as “the natural world” but at a much faster pace. Each generation of humans found them changing both physically and mentally and these changes were passed on to their offspring who then in turn, passed on their changes to their descendants. These changes were driven not only by the need to adapt to survive in the new world but some of these changes were also driven by the stories and lore remembered from the old world. Additionally, the survivors felt grateful for the earth that saved them, which then created a feedback loop in which not only the survivors were changed but also the mountains, mines, etc. that nurtured and protected them from storms that ravaged the earth’s surface. These places evolved along with their inhabitants, creating an underground world that is as different from its previous appearance as the Dvergar are from their fully human ancestors. Forget boring and cold mines and/or lifeless caverns but instead imagine an underground world where life is now expressed in a myriad of creatures and sights that truly have to be seen to be believed. Remember, this is a fantasy world and magic, well, it can allow creatures to live that would otherwise have no chance for survival in the “real world” or in a world dominated by the physical laws we understand today. Life in the caverns of the Dvergar may be driven by magical forces but that doesn’t make it any less real. OTOH, it does make it a lot more interesting.

As the centuries passed the Dvergar became more content in their “inner world” and lost interest in the changes that were also taking place in the “outer world” beyond their caverns. The exits and pathways long forgotten, to the Devergar, the outer world became just as much of a place out of legends as the Devergar were to humanity prior to the piercing. As the Dvergar’s bodies, minds and abilities became more suited to living in their world, the desire to live or even explore elsewhere greatly diminished. That is until a young female Dvergr decided to defy the “Ascended” (the leaders of her Node) and set forth to find her way to the outer world. While her story is quite a tale itself, for now it can be best summed up by the way her tale ended. Using her abilities to transform and absorb solid rock she broke through the last barrier to the outer world. Immediately, she felt the rush of hot water and sunlight on her face as the earth opened up and she found herself interrupting a group of Vikings as they bathed in an outdoor hot spring. Needless to say, it was a rather eye-opening experience for both she and the bathers. It is said that the startled screams of both parties are still echoing through the caverns of the inner world and the lands of the Vikings alike.

Thus ends the first tale of the Dvergar.
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Re: CAMELOT UNCHAINED

Message par darkrain » Dim 11 Août 2013 23:59

N°54

Folks,

Hey Hey Hey! It’s time for a big update from your friends at City State Entertainment. Today’s update will talk about some hiring news, lots of new and awesome early concept work, a lengthy Becoming™ piece and an update on Smackhammer. So come on in, sit a spell, take your plate off and y’all listen up, y’hear!

First, Smackhammer performed very nicely over the weekend. No crashes or major hiccups on the server side and we’re currently looking at some of the very few and scattered crash reports on the client side. Andrew should have the next version of it ready to go in the next 48 hours (with the new network code) so we’re definitely off to a good start. We are also starting work on a patching system that will also be used for Camelot Unchained. As per many other aspects of SH, doing things in this manner will allow us to “build the foundation” for a lot of technical aspects of Camelot Unchained before we even have our first internal test for the MMORPG.

Secondly, it looks like we have our first new hire since the closing of the Kickstarter. We’ll be making a more formal introduction once he signs the paperwork but we now have a producer for Camelot Unchained on board. He also happens to be a very experienced and talented environmental artist (we love people who can multi-task) and he’s currently being fitted for his personal two-hander that he will use to keep us all in line as we Camelot Unchained works its way out of pre-production. We think he’s a really good fit for the studio and we think you’ll like him as well.

Third, today’s content update will be focused on the Tuatha Dé Danann. Attached to the update are lots and lots of early concept art for their homeland. As I said last week, I asked our artists to come up with some interesting concepts for the forests of the TDD and that’s exactly what they did. These concepts run the gamut from the slightly different to a BSC idea of theirs for a rather novel (but grounded in nature) city defense mechanism. As always, this is early concept art but I hope you will enjoy it. BTW, these are only a sampling of what they came up with, there are lots more in the pipeline.

Finally, today’s origin story covers some of the lands of the Tuatha Dé Danann, more information about the Veilstorms and one possible playable race, the Hamadryads. Hopefully later in the week we will have another update with some really cool Hamadryad concepts as well.

Enjoy!

-Mark

The Becoming™: Hamadryads

It has been said that “great storms announce themselves with a single breeze” and so it was with the piercing of the Veil. At first, the Veilstorms did not savage the world of Camelot Unchained but rather, the earliest whispers of power from them brought about slight alterations and changes to a very limited range of the world’s flora and fauna. Some people interpreted these changes as evil signs and portents of destruction while others simply ignored them. However, eventually these changes became so widespread and conspicuous that even the most skeptical and/or oblivious of human beings recognized that indeed, something they were indeed a harbinger of a coming apocalypse. In response, humanity reacted, as it always tends to do, in widely divergent ways. Some people panicked, new religions popped up, some people went to hide in mountains, others held parties, etc. One group, the subjects of this tale, left their homeland and set out to find the deepest, darkest and, they thought, safest part of a great forest and build a new life therein.

While this family had always been close and respectful of nature before the Veilstorms, they now took that to an entirely different level. They chose a spot near an old and majestic oak tree for their new home, carefully using only the wood from dead trees to build it. Their food came from what they could grow, gather and scavenge and they took a vow never to harm another living entity unless in self-defense or for survival (such as growing plants for food). As the world changed around them, their enclave remained virtually unchanged. Attributing their safety to their piety, devotion to nature and gratitude that they also believed that the great oak tree was also protecting them. Other people, hearing stories of this enclave, made the difficult journey to visit this family, seeking their advice, support and blessing. Of those that reached them, many stayed on to help build a settlement while others, who found their devotion to preserving life to be a bit too restrictive and harsh, went out into the forest to form their own enclaves. While the forest did offer some protection from the storms, unfortunately, the safety was only transitory.

As the intensity of the Veilstorms increased, even the family’s enclave began to suffer from their effects. Whether it was from the energy of the accompanying winds or the mutative powers of the storms, the great forest was eventually reduced to a mere grove of trees and then to the one great oak tree. With their forest being laid bare around them, the family and many of their followers held strong to their beliefs. And when the first of the “Malevolences” (a mutative, destructive storm that is accompanied by a “light show” of dark energies) hit, they didn’t hide within their buildings, instead they used their own bodies to shield the base of that one remaining oak tree. As the storm reached its zenith, they took the full brunt of its fury. As the storm surged around them, they sang, chanted and begged to be given the strength to protect this one last tree. Sadly though, their devotion was no match for the power of the Veilstorm. When the storm finally abated, all that was left was the trunk of a dead oak tree and no trace of the tree’s valiant defenders. That is at least, until one year later.

As terrible as the Veilstorms are one thing is true about them, they can be quite predictable. Whether due to an alignment of the stars, the earth’s rotation or some other unknown reason, one year after the first Malevolence, another one hit the same spot but this time, the effects were quite different. As the storm pounded the seemingly dead trunk, it is said that the trunk itself screamed, not in agony but in anger, one simple word, “enow.” Magical veins then began to appear on the trunk and the tree began to be regrown not of wood but of raw power. This new tree wasn’t harmed by the power of the storm; it was absorbed the storm’s fury. It was as if two powerful beings were battling for supremacy with one of them taking every blow that was delivered by its opponent and then coming back for more. Moreover, the tree channeled the storm’s power into new roots that emerged from the trunk even as the storm continued to lash the tree mercilessly. Fed by this monumental source of power, these roots began to spread through the former grove and beyond. When the storm finally exhausted itself, the scene in the enclave was quite different from what it had been hours before. Instead of a dead trunk, an even more magnificent tree stood in its stead. Not oak, not ash, nor any tree that had ever been seen on this planet before but rather the first of the “Great Protectors”, a tree that could absorb the power of the storms and redirect it elsewhere. Other trees, equal in number to those of the defenders that had tried to protect the oak tree one year earlier, surrounded it. With the grove restored, life began its slow return to the area.

Decades passed and this enclave became a place of worship as the story of the oak and of the heroic family spread across the land’s survivors. Additionally, the root system brought forth other Great Protectors throughout the forest and for a while, this enclave was quite serene and tranquil. That is, until one day when a youth went up to largest of the ring of surrounding trees, placed his left hand upon the tree and whispered something to the tree. When he did, power flowed through him into the tree and moments later, a being emerged. Neither human nor tree, neither insect nor animal, this being was one of those brave defenders, forever changed by the magic of the Veilstorms, the power of sacrifice and faith and the touch of the youth. In a former life the being was known as Hamadryas and she was the mother and leader of the first family. Bowing gratefully to the boy and with a knowing wink, she then touched every other tree in the grove and her family and the other defenders emerged, all greatly changed as well, from their long sleep. These beings became known as Hamadryads and they have never forgotten their vow to protect the forest and especially their own “birth tree” from harm. They also helped to build the bulwark that protected and nurtured the Tuatha Dé Danann. Hamadryas is respected by all the Tuatha Dé Danann for her leadership, bravery and devotion to her family both in her past life and current. It is said that she still walks the Stormlands looking for survivors and doing battle with the Stormwrought and any that would harm her family.

Thus ends the first tale of the Hamadryads.

As to the boy, well, one day he would pick up one of the three swords but his tale is for another day.
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