Lore

Tribal Review – Culture and Lore

Concept art showing the tribes of Chronicles of Elyria.
~ victoriarachel ~ Leave a comment

While the Echo has been quiet for the last few months the Soulbound Studios team have been exactly the opposite. They have all had their noses to the grindstone. Hopefully, you have been following the comprehensive updates they have released on their progress. So comprehensive in fact there was little for me to add. (That and I had my hands full with a new addition to the family!) However, over the last couple of weeks the team have been dropping information on the Tribes we will see in the game and with that has come juicy lore which I am going to compile and speculate on here! This first article just rounds up the basics about the Tribe system and looks at the impact of player actions on their lore and culture. Continue reading →

Akashic Records – Celestial Sisters and the Virtori

~ victoriarachel ~ Leave a comment

Soulbound Studios have a released a new layout for their updates and I was happy to see one of the topics they will cover on a regular basis is lore. In fact, this week’s KickStarter update did indeed include some more gorgeous concept art of the characters in the games story and an explanation of who they are believed to be. Though that is not all we have for you this week as we managed to get Jeremy ‘Caspian’ Walsh to drop some lore over in the IRC channel too.

One important thing that Caspian also confirmed was that the lore we are getting is just a part of the overall fabric of Elyria. There are many different religions in the game, in fact, he confirmed there would be five of them! They all have different beliefs of the world, different explanations for what is going on. Neither we as players nor our characters know which is the ‘true’ story of Elyria. For example:

Only the Qin recognize the Qindred, per say. Their belief that all Mann-kind has descended from Qin is a belief held by them alone.

Speaking of Qin, why don’t we meet two more:

Concept art showing Anelica and Luna, from Chronicles of Elyria. Continue reading →

Akashic Records – Ring of Erathor

~ victoriarachel ~ Leave a comment

There have been many big announcements coming out in the final hours of the KickStarter. Significant partnerships seem to be the theme of the day. Partnerships between Soulbound Studios and Improbable, developers of SpatialOS which is the most outstanding technology (which I will not cover because it goes right over my head apart from being utterly great news). We had a World Interation Video that not only demonstrated the way we connect with items in Elyria, but also the partnership between the thief and the shadows. And now we have lore describing what might be the most heartbreaking partnership I have read of for some time.

This lore also came with art. Deamon, the God of Fire. Or perhaps we should refer to him as the Qin of Fire now that we have some more information about the different religions of Elyria and a slight update in the spelling of Kin seen before. The art depicts his terrifying form forging a ring, a ring that has a deep story to it.

Deamon, Qin of Fire, concept art from Chronicles of Elyria. Continue reading →

Akashic Records – Lore Video

~ victoriarachel ~ Leave a comment

We have had gorgeous videos introducing us to the world, the team and some of their technical capabilities. Now though we have had the video that really matters, Lore. The topic of the video is rather apt for this series of posts as it is the Akashic Records themselves. What are they? Why do we go there? More importantly, where do we go from there?

Finally, we do not have to read what Anara Starsong has to say, we can hear her tell us herself.

So now you have watched that on repeat, for an hour if you are anything like me, let’s see what we lovely lore we have learnt! Continue reading →

Akashic Records – The Burning

The Burning, from Chronicles of Elyria.
~ victoriarachel ~ Leave a comment

Lore is what brings a world alive for me. Chronicles of Elyria does not yet have enough lore revealed for me to really sink my teeth into, but, I am not worried. They have good reason not to expose everything yet. Soulbound Studios are looking to employ a Story Director, attracting the best talent means leaving them space to do their job. Why become Story Director of a finished story, where you cannot leave your mark? The team has built up the lore over the last 10 years, it is not that they are lacking in it, it is just that it is not final. They hear our cries for lore though and they have responded! Just be aware that this is subject to change.

This image is not our view of Elyria. Do not worry this has not suddenly become a Sci-Fi game! That is art made by an Elyrian to represent a cataclysmic event they believe to have happened in the past. The artist follows the same religion whose name we do not yet know, as Anara Starsong. The image shows us the effects of the Burning. Continue reading →

Akashic Records – Anara Starsong

~ victoriarachel ~ 6 Comments

Often all we get of lore is a snippet, a few lines to tempt us in and then nothing more. I am over the stars, to tell you that is not the case today! Today I have a story to share with you. The story of Anara Starsong. The Seer we have heard about on the forums before. A woman who has had some interesting times over her young life. This background story was shared by the Lore Master himself Jeromy ‘Caspian’ Walsh.

Anara is a noblewoman, the youngest daughter of a warm and caring Duke. At the tender age of six she started having strange nightmares that eventually turned into waking dreams. Initially, her family just thought she had an active imagination, but before long they realized she was having memories and flashbacks. Memories… that were not her own. Continue reading →

Akashic Records – The Seer

~ victoriarachel ~ Leave a comment

Welcome back to the Akashic Records. A series of posts about the lore of Chronicles of Elyria. Yet again we turn to words from Anara Starsong, the Keeper of the Chronicles and the character through which we are slowly learning the story of the world. It turns out she also goes by another name, the origin of which has been revealed in a lore post over on the official forums.

Perhaps they all resigned to their fate. Perhaps they’ve just been hiding, biding their time. Nobody knows for sure. In either case, it’s been eons since anyone has seen the ancients – the true Ancients. Sure, there are those who claim to be descendants, but even their blood is diluted by now.

Continue reading →

Akashic Records – Developers and the Lore

~ victoriarachel ~ 1 Comment

Welcome back to the Akashic Records. A series of posts about the lore of Chronicles of Elyria.  In this post, we are not going to look at a certain feature of the lore but instead, focus on a post made by the developers about their attitude to lore as a whole.

There are several parts to lore in my opinion ‘background’, ‘progress’ and ‘engagement’. Soulbound Studios seem to have already considered them all as Jeromy ‘Caspian’ Walsh told us in a thread about In-game Lore started by Luccheno. He started by talking about some of the backgrounds for the game:

To me, the lore of a world is a combination of cultural norms, religious beliefs, mythology, cosmology, and ancient history. All of these exist in Chronicles of Elyria. Continue reading →

Akashic Records – Immortality

~ victoriarachel ~ 7 Comments

Welcome back to the Akashic Records. A series of posts about the lore of Chronicles of Elyria.

Earlier in the week, our favourite Jeromy treated us to this snippet in response to a post about possible ways to stay young by community member Burdock:

“There is rumor of an ancient relic handed down by the Antepyrovians that suspends the normal aging process. But what length would the Children of Mann go to, to obtain such an object? Would anyone be safe wearing something so coveted?”

Anara Starsong – Keeper of Chronicles

There are a couple of things about this that set my mind racing. Continue reading →

Akashic Records – Souls

Chronicles of Elyria Akashic Records
~ victoriarachel ~ Leave a comment

I have been wondering what to call a series of posts about the lore of Chronicles of Elyria luckily a sneak peak into next week’s Developer Journal has provided the solution. Welcome to the Akashic Records.

Jeromy ‘Caspian’ Walsh shared with us some of the first screenshots/concepts of the game. Quickly community member DerryFH had spotted some interesting details in one of the screenshots. Was that the map of Elyria? A place for magical teleportation? Continue reading →