1: As always, Kingsisle expressed its creativity in finding ways to bring Malistaire back, this time in perhaps the strangest way that could possibly be thought (Get it?). What brought this one about?
2: What brought about the Reverie? How long has the development team wanted a dreamworld (As I'm sure they did)? And what brought about your persona, The Curator?
3: What brought about the inspiration for each of the individual Myth Monsters?
4:If Emperya is at the center of the Spiral, and Husk is at the center of Emperya, and the Broken Bough is (seemingly) at the center of Husk, doesn't that mean we battle the Aethyr Titan at the very middle point of the Spiral?
5: What brought about us being the Scion? Is that power, hidden inside us, the reason we've been able to make changes everywhere we went on our travels? And what are the Springleaves?
6: By now everyone knows (and hates) Belloq, so it was only fair the team brought him back one more time, right? How did this inspiration come about?
7: This might be strange, but are we Baretleby's Child?! Or more likely, as the Scion, some power and relationship that's almost identical?
Hello there, I have some questions and concerns relating to the 3rd arc
. At the end of Polaris, Ivan said that if we needed him for another adventure, we should call him. After following the story line, there were diffidently moments we could of needed his strength, so it was kind of disappointing that we weren't able to revisit his character for the finale. What happened with Ivan?
. At the end of Mirage, the disappearance of Sandiago was very un-satisfying with me and I thought his mysterious personality could of progressed the story more, so what every happened to Sandiago?
. In Polaris, the bat is described as a brilliant shape shifter and has a heart as black as the night. Is the heart bit metaphorical? Because throughout Empyrea, the bat is portrayed as a protagonist with good intentions instead of an antagonist. Also we don't see a lot of shape shifting throughout Empyrea. Maybe if met a friend in the beginning of Empyrea and towards the end of the world, the friend would reveal himself as the bat or something.
One continuity error I noticed was throughout the game play, we always had the narrator that narrated our thoughts out loud so what happened to the narrator in Empyrea?
All in all, I really liked the 3rd arc and the creative story lines added. It's good to have a game like whirly-burly so that not every quest is an old defeat and collect quest
Calling Ivan during Mirage and dropping a polar bear into the middle of a desert would have been just cruel. As for Empyrea, we had enough characters running around that we kept ally/accompany characters as few as possible. But the old bear may yet return...
We are not done with Sandiago yet. We like him too.
As I stated above, the thought was always that Bat was using his shapeshifting to sneak into places like Athannor. Sadly, as the story changed and tightened up we ended up never showing it on camera. The heart as black as night was a little metaphorical, but Bat's outlook changed since that description of him was formulated - in Reverie we see the first twinges of conscience that would lead him down a new path.
As for the narrator, if you listen to her closely you'll recognize the voice. Given the events of the story, you might see how that voice might not be associated with the Wizard anymore. Also, we thought taking away the benevolent narrator would be a subtle way to increase tension - a comfort from the past is suddenly just gone. As to narration in the future, we have a few ideas...
The timelines question is very intriguing. I'd love to get back to that sometime, or perhaps even have some event characters return.
Comics Thanos with the Gauntlet pretty much trumps anything. He beat Eternity AND Infinity, after all.
@Blaze03554 -
We love Merle, and intend to keep using him. I don't know about a long quest with him - that seems a bit much. It was good to see him act as more than a kindly mentor, like he did in Khrysalis - there's room for more of that in the future. But even though the Wizard has graduated and deals mostly with the Arcanum now, we don't want to lose Wizard City from the story.
What happened to Medulla? I feel like we might see him again. He by far is the best character from Empyrea haha.
Will the story take us back to Old Worlds/new areas of Old Worlds moving forward? I would love to having to visit familiar places in a more Pirate-esque vibe, but don’t want to miss out on new places too!!!
That’s what I mean as far as why I didn’t like the Star Trek references. Spark, Beans and Pork are all meant to be important to the story, but because they are all parodies I feel like it undermines the gravity of the situation. Even Mellori’s humor/sass is too much.
I agree that more exposition/dialogue is needed. I think what might be better is instead of a wall of text. Use a cutscene like we had with Mellori and Raven on the Astral Plane. That was totally epic but I think worth the extra time and effort. I would prefer another cutscene to Whirly Burley.
I am not privy to the details of Whirly Burley, but I feel like this passion project of someone’s was not necessarily the best use of resources. It is still hard to understand the rules and to see what you’re doing. And the fact you have to be level 120+ to even get to the Arena is a little Troubling.
Why do the Primordial Trees all look like Sybil? I thought School Trees embodied more of their School? Like Bernie and Ashley looking Fiery.
Are we going to learn more about the School Trees? Why are they important? Where did they come from? (Mortis says Ambrose brought him to Wizard City from Darkmoor?)? Are the ones in Ravenwood more significant than others? How powerful are they? What happened to Morris the Doom Tree (Shadow)
Are there other schools of Magic?
Is my theory that all magic is magic and that the schools are like specialities correct? Hence why a Diviner can cast a Fire Dragon, but can much more effectively cast a Storm Lord?
Are Bats Children part of him like how Mellori was part of Raven’s heart?
How do the Immortals play a role in all this? Are they Raven’s children?
Medulla was hauled off by a bunch of antibodies to be dissolved. Ordinarily that would mean the end of things for him, but who knows - movie and comic book villains have a nasty habit of escaping certain doom...
As to cutscenes and whirlburly, bear in mind that the two use an entirely different kind of resources - the creation of WB did not cost us any cinematics. Also, if we deem WB a success we might find ways for more people to get to see it... As for more dialogue, it seems my fear of dialogue overload may have been unfounded. Good to know.
You might well ask why Sybil looks like the Primordial Trees. How did the Arcanum get her, and from where? And were there other Trees in the grove that weren't tied to a school of magic? There's more tale to be told here.
The School Trees are definitely a source of potential story. To say more would be telling.
Other schools? Maybe...
I don't want to get pinned down by making sweeping statements about what the ultimate meta nature of magic is. But the way I've always looked at it, the schools are refracted manifestations of magic, like a spectrum refracted from white light. But I could be wrong...
Again, I'm hesitant to pin down the true nature of Spider's children, but I think it's safe to say that they're similar.
The immortals and the animal spirits from Pirate are indeed interesting entities. I'm content to leave their specific place in the cosmology as vague as possible until we need to be specific.
1: As always, Kingsisle expressed its creativity in finding ways to bring Malistaire back, this time in perhaps the strangest way that could possibly be thought (Get it?). What brought this one about?
2: What brought about the Reverie? How long has the development team wanted a dreamworld (As I'm sure they did)? And what brought about your persona, The Curator?
3: What brought about the inspiration for each of the individual Myth Monsters?
4:If Emperya is at the center of the Spiral, and Husk is at the center of Emperya, and the Broken Bough is (seemingly) at the center of Husk, doesn't that mean we battle the Aethyr Titan at the very middle point of the Spiral?
5: What brought about us being the Scion? Is that power, hidden inside us, the reason we've been able to make changes everywhere we went on our travels? And what are the Springleaves?
6: By now everyone knows (and hates) Belloq, so it was only fair the team brought him back one more time, right? How did this inspiration come about?
7: This might be strange, but are we Baretleby's Child?! Or more likely, as the Scion, some power and relationship that's almost identical?
Since most of your questions deal with Reverie, I'm not going to go line by line for this one.
We'd had the idea of a dreamworld/mindscape area from the get go - we latched onto it from the inception of Empyrea. As the story firmed up we really latched on to the idea that you'd go into this otherworld to get Mellori back, a Persephone in Hades situation. Having Mellori be there on a journey of self-discovery practically wrote itself, and made her arc really come together. So that raised the question: what's it like there?
We wanted it as trippy as possible. We loved the idea of seeing old places and events from different points of view, and through new eyes. Watching the dreams play out, yet having the people there break the fourth wall and acknowledge the Wizard as the observer was too good a chance to pass up. Also, it was a perfect chance to see familiar faces, in the midst of the 10th anniversary.
As Reverie came into focus, the idea that kept coming up was turning things on their head - flip the rules, defy expectations, make this a wonderland where logic is iffy at best. Thus we fight Merle, and meet Malistaire but as an ally. Originally we'd looked at an Inception type arrangement where the Wizard's memories of Malistaire and Morganthe began to spontaneously manifest and menace the Wizard (very Inception), but that ended up being impractical. Having Spider throw the Wizard into a closed loop of their nightmares worked just as well, and gave us the chance to get really crazy. We approached making that up with relish.
I will happily admit that I took a poll around the team - who's the most annoying boss? What are the most annoying places? And we totally went with those. That's why you're on Marleybone rooftops (and there's even a spot where it's almost impossible to avoid the circling mobs! Bwahahahahaha!). Of course we had to use Belloq. How could we not?
Reverie needed a guide, a psychopomp to lead you through it. Thus we hit on the Curator. He was fun to write.
I must admit, I was a little worried about Reverie. It was an experimental space where, at the end of the day, you go to mostly see other people talk to each other. There are fights, but it's far from an ordinary space. It was a risk. But it worked marvelously - it achieved every goal we had for it, and exceeded my personal expectations. I love it.
The myth monsters got pulled a bit from old folklore (blue oxen, snipes, that kind of thing), but we blossomed out from that into crazier spaces. Artists got free reign to find their look, and I love what they found. The Frogs were there because in a world based on Myth, Humongofrogs MUST be represented.
The springleaves are the first leaves the Trees produce in Spring. They offer important magical connections to the trees - offering them up with a lock of your hair is what reveals whether or not the seeker in the Arboreal ritual has a spiritual connection to Bartleby and the Trees. As for the scion - it's the Wizard's destiny, your place in the cosmos. You are the metaphorcial "child" of Bartleby - in the grand scheme of things you occupy the same spot as Bat or Mellori - the offshoot/representative/champion of one of the cosmic triad. From a story standpoint, being Scion gives the Wizard a seat at the table, a place at that ultimate resolution. It's a manifestation of how ultimately special the Wizard is.
As to the center of the Spiral, yes - that final showdown at husk is at the very crux of everything.
Reverie needed a guide, a psychopomp to lead you through it. Thus we hit on the Curator. He was fun to write.
I must admit, I was a little worried about Reverie. It was an experimental space where, at the end of the day, you go to mostly see other people talk to each other. There are fights, but it's far from an ordinary space. It was a risk. But it worked marvelously - it achieved every goal we had for it, and exceeded my personal expectations. I love it.
The myth monsters got pulled a bit from old folklore (blue oxen, snipes, that kind of thing), but we blossomed out from that into crazier spaces. Artists got free reign to find their look, and I love what they found. The Frogs were there because in a world based on Myth, Humongofrogs MUST be represented.
The springleaves are the first leaves the Trees produce in Spring. They offer important magical connections to the trees - offering them up with a lock of your hair is what reveals whether or not the seeker in the Arboreal ritual has a spiritual connection to Bartleby and the Trees. As for the scion - it's the Wizard's destiny, your place in the cosmos. You are the metaphorcial "child" of Bartleby - in the grand scheme of things you occupy the same spot as Bat or Mellori - the offshoot/representative/champion of one of the cosmic triad. From a story standpoint, being Scion gives the Wizard a seat at the table, a place at that ultimate resolution. It's a manifestation of how ultimately special the Wizard is.
As to the center of the Spiral, yes - that final showdown at husk is at the very crux of everything.
Wow. That's a lot. Thanks for taking your time to answer these!
(P.S.: The Reverie has quickly become my favorite place in the Spiral. You're completely right!)
1) How old is Bartleby? According to Baba Yaga he is even older than the First world, is this true? If so, would that mean he is older than the concept of time, as the First world was the beginning of creation
Is the astral plane timeless/Does time flow in the Astral Plane? It was stated to be in a space between existence and nothingness, and later said to be nothingness
How fast are the God Tiers such as Raven, Spider, The Divine Paradox and Bartleby? Are they faster than the speed of light?
Why did bat not tell us about dynt when we first met dynt if he helped bat get into empyrea in the first place?
Bat never met the captain of the ship that took him to Empyrea - he stayed below decks. Thus he knew the Admiral was the one taking him there, but never set eyes on him.
1) How old is Bartleby? According to Baba Yaga he is even older than the First world, is this true? If so, would that mean he is older than the concept of time, as the First world was the beginning of creation
Batrleby is plenty old. I'm not sure even he knows how old he is. He's got his eye back so the memories are clearer, but things still get fuzzy if you look back far enough.
As for your second question, the Astral Plane isn't absolutely timeless, but its link to spacetime as we see it is... strange. Sometimes subjective time passes much faster, so that an astral voyager would return to find that what seemed like years there was only minutes in the normal world, and vice versa - a journey that seems to take minutes to the voyager returns years later. It's a mystery many scholars have pondered over the years, and some suspect that the voyager and their will have some effect on it - that someone could, in theory, control the rate time passes if they knew what to do. It's a safe bet Raven knows exactly what she's doing.
Do you think there is a place in the future to revisit the order of the fang? I know there once again may be an issue with voices, but to work with the old krok sages again would be a privilege!
How fast would you say the God Tiers (Bartleby, Spider, Raven) of Wizard101 are? Faster than the speed of light? For gods of their stature I would assume they could travel from one side of the universe to the other in almost an instant. It's tough to gauge since the primary focus of movement in the game is teleportation.
I liked Empyrea, and I'm glad that it gives us confirmation on the old debate about whether the Player Character is from Earth or not. However, I think it should've/could've been expanded upon.
Earth at its current state is nothing more than a plot device which was used to give the Player access to a certain place, and we're left with more questions than answers. Maybe that was done on purpose, for future expansions, but I still have some I'd like to ask.
How did Zander know we were from Earth? Did he read our minds, or did somebody tell him? If he read our minds, how? Maybe I misunderstood it, but I thought Raven herself wasn't even able to read our thoughts due to our connection to Shadow.
Secondly, is it safe to assume that Earth, as it's presented in the game, is mostly similar to the Earth we live in? Do they share a similar history, with small changes here and there? I suppose the reason I'm asking this is mostly due to the gigantic amount of "similarities" (easter eggs) to Earth culture in the game. It's obvious, from a player standpoint, that the references are just that. References. Napoleguin is an obvious reference to Napoleon. But with Earth existing, this leaves me confused as to how there could be so many similarities between the Spiral's many inhabitants and our own fictional/real life counterparts. Is it all one big, cosmic coincidence, or is there something we're missing? I don't expect an answer to all of these questions, but I'd greatly appreciate a response! Thanks.
BenStormDust's questions really caught my eye, And now I have some, too
Do we have any memories from Earth? In ten years of Wizard101, it has never really gone into detail about where exactly we came from or how we got here. Are they maybe locked inside us, like Raven's memories inside Mellori? And we appear to have never told anybody about it, just like we never seem to have told anyone we're the Scion. On both occasions, the only one who know are Ambrose and the Scholars (and Bartleby, Raven, and Spider for us being the Scion). I don't think even Raven and Spider know we're from Earth. Will we ever get into our own past?
I'm always looking for ways to bring old characters or organizations back. Given my background in archaeology, Krok is definitely a good place to go looking. So no promises, but I'm really open to the idea.
@Logann12 -
As far as speed, I'm thinking they just manifest where they want to go. I don't know about faster than light, but if they did actually want to travel between destinations they'd be really fast.
@Andrew Goldenflame -
No, I'm afraid they're beyond mortal linguistics.
@BenStormDust -
One of the things we wanted to do in Empyrea was cap the arc by affirming again what makes the Wizard so special - why they've been the center of momentous events for 10 years. A reminder of your origin beyond the Spiral was one thing that makes the Wizard so cool, and being the Scion just confirms it.
As to Zander knowing the Wizard is from Earth, I figure Zander is in touch with the vibrations of Life as they resonate through the Spiral (he and the Kalamar would get on great, I think). As such, the Wizard "reads" differently to him. Someone in the Arcanum reading the Wizard's mind with telling you? They'd never do that... would they?
As to the similarities between Earth and the Spiral, it's a theme we could pick up later, but I'm happy to let a be a question to be contemplated for the near future at least.
Has there ever been any discussion about extending an old world? If not, is that a possible thing?
I know we got a little more in Marleybone with Barkingham Palace a few years back. But what about something like Avalon part 2 or something like that. I could definitely see Wysteria getting added to, even though it’s just a side world.
Thank you for responding to my questions. If you don't mind, I have one other question. I've noticed that a few of the Empyrean monsters are able to cast different variations of the King Artorius spell, most notably the Snipe (Ice) and Vigilant Sargun (Life). My question is, is this canon, or just part of gameplay? When we first receive the King Artorius spell, we're told it's because of our special bond with the Sword of Kings, which I'd thought implies that only we would be able to summon him under these circumstances. So, if it is canon, how are they able to do it? Is it possible that we could run into enemies which could cast the Scion spells against us in the future?
Hello, I want to start off by explaining the amount of thought and wishes I put into the smallest areas and details of the game! I wasn't 100% sure if this thread was only about the Empyrea stuff exacly as i have seen you answer to things outside of the subject!
1. Empyrea is for sure one of then most beautiful experiences of all of Wizard101, Reverie of course, being my personal favorite part
2. I wanted to bring up a possible idea for lore and returning to parts of the past stories that I've always wished to come true. My main being a travel through time to Celestia before it was taken beneath the waves. I do not know what the story reason could be for returning but I just want to see Celestia's city before it was destroyed! It is such an experience to ponder what it truly was, and it is questionable what truly is the most powerful side magic, although shadow magic may have its forms and power, Astral magic has something far more that the wizards have yet to behold, look at what the Celestians were able to create with it, even a titan thought it too powerful for any others to have. I just think it too be such a unique and cool possibility to have a medium sized story to return to the City of Celestia in its full glory, updated graphics for Celestia for this would be so cool! As well as to get to learn a bit more about Astral magic and why the powerful and wise people of Celestia were brought to a sudden and disturbing end. (District of the Stars and Trial of the Spheres best places in the entire world!) I have let this idea spill out of my mind too far, apologies! But in the course of thoughts and response, I'd love a critique!
I'd like to start out by saying I really love your work on pirate101, and what you have done on wizard101 so far! I'm really glad your taking the lead on wizard101 and really excited to see where the story will go from here! I was wondering about two things.
1. Will raven and spider be parts of the story in the next arc? I really like both of them and would love to see them used more.
2. Are we going to get a new world next year? Or can you not say anything on it yet?
It is SO obvious the fanbase as a whole prefers 5 world arcs, so why does Kingsisle insist 3 is the best path? Also, why are we down to less than a world per year, with worlds shorter than ever? It used to be where I could spend $10 and get an actual month of Wizard101 per year. I paid $10 this year and finished Emp2 in a week. I agree with the previous posts here. Empyrea left so many loose strings that could've been tied up with two additional worlds. The characters don't feel unique anymore; They're pop-culture rip-offs. I hate to be so negative, because I enjoyed the world overall (and the arc), but I really wish I could get some answers (and more content).
i enjoy the dialogue more in pirate101 because it makes me laugh out loud, its short and gets directly to the point.
i did not enjoy the story dialogue as much in this round of empyrea as it seems to go on and on...i do appreciate the complexity of characters and having to combine all their stories into one story line...boggles my mind...kudos to you and your team...i just don't understand why they all had to be there.
i was ticked off that mellori messed up and i had to battle merle...i understand the concept of team but, seriously, having to battle merle was a real kick to me brain. I still feel shattered to have killed him. Is he dead, injured or was that just some kind of mind boggling school test?
i did get annoyed with the treky characters...just a little too much info...the tag along characters annoy me as well
I am very Happy to see you are reading and answering some of the messages. I would like something to be done with PVP. I have put several ideas on the message board, but do not Know if anyone with KI is reading them and taking it into consideration. This is a dying part of Wizard101, so many wizards are afraid to pvp. Something needs to be done. The juju was made unusable in pvp, so that took the Jade Juju's out, but we still have the Jade Angels. Also facing a Warlord of any level with a rating of over 1001 is not fair. They are not facing wizards with the same experience they have. Give the Warlords over 1001 a new podium to play in, take them out of ranking. All they are doing is making us lose rank, which discourages us from PVP. I have 5 Warlords at this time, but do not PVP with them, for this reason, I dont want to take rank from anyone for just points. Someone needs to look into getting these wizards to pvp again. Like the old days we used to have several 4v4 going on at times, now we dont see any
). What brought this one about?
