Meridian: Shadowbania Interview

Meridian: Shadowbania Interview

Shadowbania.com’s Exclusive Interview of Meridian (March, 2001):

1. Could you please describe how the writing process worked on this project. Did Warden, Varios and Arcane give you an overall script of the things they wanted to see? Did they provide a rough outline of events and you filled in the details? Was this a collaborative effort? Were certain key elements “must haves” while others seen as “pleasant surprises”? Examples and insight into this process would be greatly appreciated.

Quite a question to open with! When I was first approached to write for Shadowbane, Warden already had the general outline of the World’s history and cosmology in place. He knew about the Turning, and the High King, and the All-Father. Scorn also had quite a bit to say in these discussions, and he contributed the origin of the Sun, probably my single favorite piece of history. Once we had a general sketch of the history and theology, there were lots of names and details to fill in. Basically, Warden explained to me the type of tone and atmosphere he wanted for the game, and made it clear that he wanted our backstories to resonate with Earthly myth, history, and classical fantasy literature. We went over sources, and then he let me run free.

The Discipline descriptions were where I began, and as they progressed lots of other details began to fall into place. In terms of the writing process, Warden is the Grand Poo Bah of Game Fiction - he has the final say on what goes. I’m very fortunate to have known Warden for so long, and to share so many common interests with him (movies, novels, games, you name it). As a result, he and I see eye to eye on what’s cool and what’s stupid more often than not: while there are some elements I might have taken in different directions, most of Warden’s ideas are perfectly sound.

So yes, the process is collaborative to a pretty high degree. So far I’ve been fortunate that our ideas have coincided so often - I’ve only been sent back to the drawing board two or three times. Plus, Warden doesn’t have a hard and fast opinion about every little thing. Many times, when I’ve asked him for details about a certain event or concept, he’ll simply say “don’t know,” to which my response is “can I make something up?” I’ve yet to be told no -he trusts me to make up the details, and to keep them straight.

Generally, I end up flitting back and forth between all sorts of things based on what’s on my front burner. One week race descriptions will make me generate a lot of history, while weeks later I will return to it and revise it. The histories of the World’s various cultures are all growing nicely, and the more details fill in, the more intricate they become. My goal is to create a logical history that’s also suitably fantastic, but that also allows for the game as it plays now. Where did all the races come from? What sources does magic derive from? Why is everyone so upset at each other? There have been lots of fortunate accidents - I love the way the game universe has developed its own symmetry. At points, parts of the Theology and history almost wrote themselves. Look out for threes… It’s all about the number three.

2. Which of the racial backstories are you most proud of? Which was the most difficult to formulate/write?

I’ll answer this one backwards. Each race presented its own unique challenge. For some, the trick was reigning myself in and actually keeping the entries short (I could have easily said twice as much, if not more, about Elvish and Irekei culture). For others, physical descriptions were very troubling (Human… let’s see. Well, they look, y’know… Like Humans). Some races gave me fits when trying to characterize their cultures - Aelfborn, Shades, and Half Giants can hardly be said to have cultures of their own. The same sorts of things go for the histories of the various races. I’ve really liked the way the Human description turned out, and I’m also fond of the Irekei and Aracoix.

3. Are you also in the process of writing backstories for other “hidden” playable races? Or hidden disciplines? Can you give us an idea as to the number of hidden disciplines at release? 2-3? 5-10? 15-20? More?

Backstories have been written for Disciplines that aren’t on the list. That’s all I can really say. In terms of how many hidden disciplines we’ll have at release, that’s not for me to tell… I honestly don’t know how (or even if) any of them will be used.

4. On Shadowbane’s website, it was always made clear that we were given three “complete” discipline backstories (Black Masks, Werewolves and Rune Casters). Will we only learn the additional histories/mysteries of the disciplines as we progress through the “ranks” of a given discipline? Can you describe this “education/revelation” process?

This is something we’ve been tinkering with quite a bit lately. The higher rank write ups were originally intended to impart information about the powers or gifts of the discipline as well as giving lots of historical and mythic flavor. Considering the nature of Beta and the amount of tuning and balancing going on, a lot of that material is highly fluid, and will stay that way for at least a little while.

The main issue, however, is how to dispense the info in game. Should we make players read the new story each time they rank up? Most will probably just click “okay” or whatever and move on. Should trainers quiz them or something? That hardly seems fair (or particularly fun - it smacks too much of the old copy protection in the old PC fantasy games). Right now our primary goal is to streamline the process to some degree. The historical data will probably end up being released in other ways. Ideally, people who read it closely will get hints that can help in quests and meta-plot events. In terms of how characters will actually get powers, disciplines, and advance in ranks, that’s not my department.

5. Which of the backstories of the disciplines were the most difficult to write/formulate? Which are you most proud of?

The hardest Disciplines to write were the ones that are most analogous to other disciplines or classes, or the most seemingly mundane - how can you build a Huntsmen story and keep them interesting when you’ve already done Druids and Rangers? How can each shapeshifting discipline remain distinct from the others in outlook? How can I make Blacksmithing exciting and “sexy?” These were the most challenging backstories to write. The ones I’m proudest of are the ones that manage to evoke a mood or a character in addition to simply dispensing info. I’m probably proudest of the Rune Mastery story (ironic, since it was the first one I wrote) - it’s clearly derivative of Norse Mythology (the Elder and Prose Eddas, as well as the Volsungasaga), but I like the way it takes the mythic elements and binds them to Shadowbane’s World. I must also admit that so far “Northman” is my favorite ‘writing voice’ (I know that’s not a real term, but I think you take my meaning). I also really like the Wyrm Slayer and both of the Dwarf Disciplines. That old dragon slayer seems like he’d be a cool guy to know. Oh yes, by the way - the phantom Poster discipline that got posted on our OOC Forum made me laugh until I wept. Great stuff! Like any good parody, the style is so on target that it hurts.

6. I believe that there has been some confusion between “archons” “gods” and “patrons” by some of the fans and media. Can you clear up exactly what each word (used in various places) means? Perhaps there is a hierarchy which hasn’t been revealed yet? Perhaps the words are interchangeable? [The only named “archon” I have found is Hedrusiel which strongly reminds me of Christianity’s Angels (like Seraphim referenced in the Wings of Seraphim exalted power). Various references to “companions of the All-Father” exist as well as other gods (including Malog and Vashteera, neither of which appear in the races’ list of available Patrons.)]

Okay - here comes Divinity 101:

In the Shadowbane universe there are Gods, divine beings of near limitless power. The All-Father is the most recognizable of them, and easily the most famous. Other Gods include the All-Father’s Companions (Malog, Thurin, and Kenaryn), as well as the Three Queens - Braialla, Saedron, and Volliandra, goddesses of the World, the Silver Moon, and the Golden Moon. All of the other gods seem to be lesser in power and stature to the All-Father, but have been worshipped at various times throughout history. We also have Demi-Gods, who are typically semi-divine beings with some divinity in their blood. The Titans, who are the first Humans ever created (the ones the All-Father actually animated) fall into this category, as do the Sidhe, the first generation of Elves who were physically born of Braialla. Torvald (also spelled Torvalt) is a Titan. So is Ardan. Draethen Trueson, though not a Titan, is a son of the All-Father, and therefore also a Demi-god.

Now we come to the Archons. Archons are basically angelic beings, creatures of Light and Law who do the All-Father’s bidding. Their origins are unknown, but most suspect that the All-Father either met them and bound them to his service somewhere beyond the Void, or else simply created them as extrusions of His thought. Like earthly angels, Archons tend to be aspected towards a specific idea or concept - thus we have Hedrusiel, Archon of Strength. More Archons will be named soon. In the wake of the Turning, the Archons are the most direct link people have with the divine, since the All-Father is either dead or absent.

Conversely, we have Dark Lords, also known as the Chaos Lords, beings with the power of Demi-Gods who rule over the Chaos that seethes outside the Void. They’re bad news. They have legions of twisted, demonic Hellspawn that do their bidding, the infernal counterparts to the Archons. It is as yet unclear whether Chaos has its own equivalent of Gods and Demi-Gods.

Lastly, there are some cultures who worship different pantheons altogether - most notably, the Beast Lords, Primal spirits of great power who tend to embody Cosmic forces and manifest in animal shapes (at least, these are the forms the limited minds of mortals give them). Are they Gods? Nobody is quite sure. Wolf, G’Harron the Bear, and Vashteera the Panther are some good examples of these.

And, of course, even this might not be the entire picture…

7. There also may have been some confusion with regard to the “Far Wanderings of the Great Father.” Is this the parable of a “Great Father” of the Elvish race (not the All-Father) “whose name shall never be known” but who was chiefly responsible for the emergence or development of Elves? It’s clear that his two companions in that story (Thurin and Kenaryn) are patrons of the Dwarves of the Centaurs respectively but the identity/role of this “Wand’rer” is unclear. When this tale is read together with Chapter 5 of the Book of Staves, it seems to point to the “Wand’rer” being either the All-Father or Malog the Warrior.
Can you clear up this confusion?

The Wand’rer of the poem is indeed the All-Father, and that title is the one that the Elves have given Him more than any other throughout their history. The Elves have a very different relationship with the All-Father than the Humans do. For one thing, the All-Father to them is just a parent, one of two, instead of the be-all and end-all of all creation. Note that according to the Elvish epic, the All-Father didn’t create the World, he merely found it and reawakened it. You get a very different account in the Book of Staves, written by the Sons of Men. The Elves have always seen the All-Father as being much more fallible than any Human would: they’ve seen Him make mistakes, and do not believe Him to be omnipotent. Now, about Malog… He’s an interesting one, whose character has definitely developed over the course of the writing process.
The Warrior was originally one of the All-Father’s three Companions who came with Him across the Void - Thurin the Smith and Kenaryn the Hunter are the other two. So why does the Elvish poet make no mention of him? Well, from the very beginning Malog was a bit of a troublemaker, and some of his later deeds caused the Elves to renounce him completely. They wrote him out of all their epics, and to this day refuse to speak his name. The Humans have kept him around as an adversarial figure to be reviled and opposed. One last hint about Malog - over the course of the Ages, many of the gods have undergone profound transformations of character. Malog is still around, but he’s not who he used to be…

8. “Gorok the Strong, Eldest of the All Father's children” who was said to have crafted the dwarves has obviously been replaced with Thurin the Shaper. Has the name “Gorok” been retired or does he still exist elsewhere?

Gorok was an original name already in use when I came aboard. It changed to Thurin very early on, and has been Thruin ever since. It’s a neat name, but I probably won’t pull it out of retirement, for fear of raising undue confusion. But you never know… Gorok could be the name the Giants give Thurin in their language.

9. Will we be able to “worship” gods other than those prescribed as our racial patrons? A Shade worshipping The Dragon, Terror of Terrors, a Half-Giant Ranger worshipping Braialla, a Centaur worshipping Saedron, the mother of Cenaturs?

I’m not really certain how to answer this one. I’m told in EQ that each character gets to click a God name off of a list, based on race. We’re probably not going to do that. Worship is a matter of expression. Do you want to worship the Dragon? Go sing his praises to whomever will listen. We’re not going to restrict this sort of thing at all, to my knowledge (although be warned - any decent feature character would certainly think twice about trusting a Dragon worshipper or a devotee of Morloch).

10. Besides the possible role and influence of Feature Characters, will the choice of Patrons have any in-game consequences? Impact skills/powers available? Influence relationships with NPCs? I
nfluence which armor/weapons/items are useable?

I really can’t give a detailed answer to this right now. Ideally, each God would get its own discipline, but I’m not certain if time and resources will allow that to happen in initial release. Prelates and Confessors are both (to borrow a term from DnD) “specialty priests” of the All-Father, while Druids worship Braialla. Some of the Ranger’s and Huntress’s powers derive from the Beast Lords. Beyond that, a Priest is a Priest. Worship who you will.

11. Have you formulated specific background stories for each of the “patrons?” Can you give us a brief background of some of the presently unknown patrons: The Dragon, Terror of Terrors; Ardan, Gatherer of the Dead; and Morloch, Lord of Chaos? Are there any other gods/patrons that exist that you can tell us about?

Yes, histories and profiles of each of the divinities have been written up. They are one of a legion of things I hope to dispense at some point in the near future. Each has a pretty complex story, but I’ll give you a brief on the ones you asked about:

Ardan was the firstborn of the Titans, the first Human created, and he ruled over the Lost Realm of Ardan, which bore his name. When Ardan the nation was destroyed, Ardan the Titan took the brunt of the blow, and died saving Humanity. Somehow (legends differ as to exactly how), Ardan managed to return to the Universe from the Black, alive yet dead. He became a guide of souls into the lands of Death after that.

Morloch - This is actually the name Malog is currently using. Always a bit of a troublemaker, Malog has always been jealous of the All-Father’s achievements. He finally attempted to betray the All-Father during the War of the Scourge, and ended up getting trapped on the wrong side of the Chaos Gate when it was finally shut. Chaos warped and blackened him, and Morloch was born. The Orcs, Grobolds, Trolls, and Ogres (the chaos warped remnants of Morloch’s mortal followers) worship him as a God. Since Morloch busted back into the World, the Minotaurs have come to venerate him as well.

The Dragon, Terror of Terrors? Well, the Dragon simply is… By the time you’ve finished the Legend of Shadowbane (coming soon! No, really!) you’ll have a much clearer picture of the Dragon.

This is enough cats to let out of the bag for now, I figure.

12. In the original description of the Shades, Wolfpack stated that Shades were “Labeled a perversion by the Church of the Sun.” Is the Church of the Sun another name for Temple of the Cleansing Flame? An earlier “version” of the TotCF? Or is there another religion we haven’t heard of. Is the “Church of the Sun” a term still being used as a part of your fiction?

Over the course of the writing and development process, various concepts have changed, and more than a few names have been changed as well (the above mentioned Gorok is a good example). Early on, the Temple of the Cleansing Flame was known as the Church of the Sun and the War Temple. The name has since changed, but the Temple’s iconography still incorporates the Sun as a primary symbol of light, fire, and purity. The Temple’s Confessors use the Sun as their symbol, while the Templars use the Sun with a sword interposed over it as their badge - a nice reconciliation of the sun’s prominence with the symbol of the Temple, the Flaming Sword of Malorn.

But to answer your question succinctly, “Church of the Sun” is not going to be a name I’m going to use for the Temple any longer. It also helps ease confusion - the Holy Church, the Church of the All-Father, is going to be “the Church,” and probably the only organization you’d call a Church. To refer to Malorn’s followers, always use the word Temple.

13. Will the “true” identity of the Betrayer ever be revealed, or do you see his/her identity as something that will always be clouded in mystery or conjecture?

Ideally, the truth will come out over the course of play once Shadowbane has been out for a while. It might take a while, though... My goal (and Warden’s) is to create an entire roster of potential suspects, each with their own motives, stories, and opportunities. Each of these potential Traitors will have their own agenda, and will have ongoing interaction with the rest of the World. The names and identities of some suspects will be forthcoming soon. It’s going to be a tangled web. Ideally, discovering the Traitor’s identity will prove to be of vital importance in the over arching meta plot. If the Story Board does its work well, when the Traitor finally does show his face, it will be a surprise.

One thing I can say, though - the Traitor was alive during the Turning. That means he’s still out there somewhere…

14. Is Osiric the Bold, ruler of the Safehold of Vander’s Keep the same person as Osiric of Landenhall mentioned in the Berserker story? No, actually he isn’t. Historically, Osric the Bold comes along later than Osric of Landenhall, to the tune of a few centuries. Osric of Landenhall died valiantly saving King Theoderic’s bacon from the Northmen, and that happened long before the Turning, so he didn’t ever come back. Osric the Bold was probably named after the original Osric, though - in that part of the World it’s a popular name due to the legendary connotations. That’s why we have two prominent Osrics.

That, and I’ve always really loved the name Osric. For me, it all goes back to the movie Conan the Barbarian and Max von Sydow’s performance as King Osric the Usurper. Conan is one of those primal sources I always draw inspiration from, and it’s one of about five movies that I could watch a hundred times in a row without getting bored.

15. There are numerous references to the “Ten Kingdoms.” Does this term describe 10 “worlds” that were split apart by the Sundering? There happens to be 10 regions of Aerynth, are these the “Ten Kingdoms?”

The Ten Kingdoms were Human realms that arose after the War of the Scourge, early in the Age of Kings. Note that the Ten Kingdoms were not the only Human kingdoms - they all did, however, share one culture (basically our Western European Medieval analog). Cambruin united them to create the High Kingdom, and after the Turning they devolved into the Petty Kingdoms.

Each World fragment is going to probably have remnants of one or more of the original Ten Kingdoms on it, and you may find references to the region that was once the Kingdom of Whatnot, one of the Ten Kingdoms. Bear in mind, however, that these old realms are dead, and new states will rise thanks to the actions of the players. The fact that Aerynth has ten regions is a coincidence - some of the regions used to be portions of the Ten Kingdoms, and some didn’t.

16. In a recent post on the Official Forums you discussed racial conflicts and revealed the existence of a “dwarven war,” can you give us some of the background on that conflict?

In time, each racial description on the website will be updated with a section of Their Lore, dealing with racial history. The whole Dwarvish story will be told there, but I can give you a bit of a preview and a hint or two… We already know from the Giant Killer description that at the beginning of the Age of Days Thurin told the Dwarves to go collect the Runestones, the fragments of the Weltwyrdangssaga. The Giants went to war with them over the stones. Now, when the saga was broken, fragments went flying all over the place, so lots of Dwarves roamed all over, rune gathering. In the beginning, the other races were happy to trade runes for knowledge of smithcraft and other goodies. But - looking at the Sorcery description, we discover that the Elves figured out how to tap the power of the stones. Once that happened, folk became very reluctant to hand over their runes (and the power that comes with them) to inquiring Dwarves.

One of the greatest virtues of the Dwarves is that they tend to follow Thurin’s orders without question, by any means necessary… When the people of the World stopped handing over Runestones, trouble followed.

17. In that same post you discussed the Book of Swords and Book of Staves and their differences/histories. Do you have a “complete” Book of Swords and Book of Staves written (each with at least 12 chapters)? If so, will either of these works be made available in their entirety or will they be revealed piecemeal in the game?

So all the Discipline, Class, and Race descriptions aren’t enough, you want both the Bible and the Koran too? Just kidding - No, these books don’t have a real, concrete existence at present. I have a pretty good idea what they’re about, and the types of stories they need to tell, but in terms of the game and the World development, they’re far more useful to me as a big unknown work that new excerpts can be drafted from as needed. It’s sort of like the Necronomicon in the Cthulhu Mythos - a genre I’ve also been known to write for. (A side note - NO, I don’t think that the Necronomicon has ever ‘really’ existed, despite what Avon Books might have done to prove otherwise. It’s not a debate I’m interested in having. Any Lovecraft scholars reading this will know what I’m talking about) To set the contents of these books in stone denies me potential future uses of them, and whatever I was able to produce would definitely fall short of how cool it ought to be. Besides, if I did sit down and write the things, how many players would actually stop to read them? Piecemeal revelations are much more effective.

18. The Blade Masters’ parable comes from the Book of Swords. In light of the St. Malorn’s authorship of the Book of Swords and it being the cornerstone of the Temple's ideology, is there a special relationship between Blade Masters and the Temple of the Cleansing Flame?

No, there isn’t really any kind of special relationship between the Jen’e’tai and the Keepers of the Flame. In the early sections of the Book of Swords, Malorn gives many parables like the Draethen story, which he collected from both inside and outside of accepted Church lore (the Draethen story, for instance, is an ancient fable never mentioned in the book of Staves). Malorn had a very distinct agenda when he wrote the Book of Swords: he wanted to demonstrate that there was more to Truth than could be found in the liturgy of the Holy Church, and that he (Malorn) was the only one qualified and enlightened enough to reveal it. The story itself serves as a nice grounding point for his ideology: here we see the son of the All-Father subduing a Beast Lord and legitimizing a Human king. And, by no coincidence, the symbol of that legitimacy is a sword.

The story fit Malorn’s plan, and that’s about the end of it. In practice, I think the Jen’e’tai are always too busy looking inward for perfection to ever have any real accord with followers of the Temple, who are too busy looking outward at the World’s problems. There are bound to be the occasional exceptions, though. Templars can become Blade Masters, after all.

19. You also made mention of the “Thirteen Articles of Faith,” I assume you meant the “Twelve Articles of Faith” or have the Confessors added a new Article? Will we be able to read these Articles of Faith any time soon? I believe a lot of Templars and Confessors out there who are presently writing stories and character backgrounds would love to have this critical piece to their characters’ faith.

Oops! My mistake - there are indeed TWELVE Articles of Faith, not thirteen. That’s what I get for posting so late at night… As we gear up for release, too much of my energy is being diverted to documentation and story board concerns for me to guarantee production of the Articles anytime soon, but they are a favorite pet project of mine. The trick is to give them an air of legitimacy and historical realism while still making them exciting to read. That, and they should ideally be easy to intone or shout at the heathens…

It’s nice to make them analogous to real world religions, but that’s dangerous, too. I mean, a good first article might be “There is no True God but the All-Father, and Malorn is His prophet.” Nice, I suppose, but that’s really disrespectful to Muslims - plus, given the militant nature of the Temple, any implied link to Islam will just feed the Western stereotype of Middle Eastern religion as nothing more than a vehicle for Jihad and holy war. There’s SO much more to Islam than that. While tension, strife, and prejudice are definitely part of the World of Shadowbane, I hope that our stories can stay removed from any of the stereotypes and prejudices that plague our real world.

20. You recently took over the job of creating “Beta Journals” to give us sorrowful non-phase 1 Beta folk a glimpse into the exiting world of Aerynth. You revealed that the terrain was deformable (pc created paths) and I am sure that many fans were immediately intrigued by this concept. Can you reveal whether other areas of the terrain will be deformable? Will we be able to dig moats, tunnels, etc.? blow up mountains, destroy trees, or plant trees? Will the terrain “go back to green” with less frequent use?

If a small group of beta testers can transform green grass into dirt highways, I assume that the level of traffic needed for deformation will go up enormously for commercial release (where thousands will be trampling the ground, not hundreds)? We wouldn’t want a brown world within a week of release. [As a side note, we have yet to see any clear screenshots of a number of classes or races including: Dwarf, Aracoix, Bard, Confessor, Fury and Warlock. Any chance this can be arranged as a part of your Beta Journal?]

Yeah, the paths and roads did make quite an impression. Beyond the fact that they exist, I really don’t know ANYTHING about the process beyond what I reported. As far as I know, things like moats, tunnels, and mountain levelling are not in the game, though I have seen buildings deform terrain when they lay down their foundations. That’s all heavy code stuff, though, and waaaaaaaay past me.

As a final note, thanks for the questions - they were well thought out, and required depth in the answering. I hope I’ve not only answered some fiction/material questions but also given you a feel for how much thought and care is going into our backstory. I know we’ve been slow to reveal it, but I’m told that will soon change.

Until next big release, I’ll be in the shadows, scribbling…

Meridian, Loremaster and Chronicler of Shadowbane