Thank you for a wonderful month!
"Stupid questions make more sense than stupid mistakes."
Greetings everyone,
May was an exciting time for us, we hope you all enjoyed the events and all the excitement that was had!
Here’s what happened during the last month.
As I said, busy month!
We consistently review surname reservations on a daily basis. Each month we like to share a few from the past period that caught our eye.
Favorite declines:
Most attempted: Villains from Batman series
Standouts:
As a new feature to our Community Journal, each month we'll spotlight one or two of our favorite memes that were shared via the forums or Discord.
This month, we share 2 favorites. One is an example of a fan-made fan starter pack, the other shows the creativity our community members have.
"This is why we cannot have nice things:"
Forever Alone.
Wanted: 9 raiders who are trustworthy, dedicated, and fearless!
This month Caelestius interviewed veteran moderator Artsykidd, who some of you may know as Lucifer on Discord.
Here's what they talked about:
Q: You’re known as Lucifer on Discord and ArtsyKidd on the official Forums – why two names, and where did they come from?
A: "The name Artsykidd is one that I’ve been using for nearly ten years now. I’d always used really stupid names like, ShadowIceFlame or…SonicxFlame… Being a creative individual; a musician, writer and former artist, I thought it fitting to use the word Artsy. The ‘Kidd’ came from the basketball player, Jason Kidd, cause…you know, I had to be cool and all that jazz. Now, though the name Artsykidd is more characteristic, it’s not really fitting for the name of a character. I always felt the name Lucifer had too much of a bad rep despite it having a good meaning, which I find sort of unfortunate. I also enjoy explaining that the meaning of the name is the complete opposite of how they associate it. I was mostly inspired to use it by the anime ‘The Devil is a Part-Timer’ cause Lucifer (Hanzō Urushihara) is one of my all-time favorite characters."
Q: Cats or dogs?
A: "I can’t really say. I’ve only ever had a cat, and the few experiences I’ve had with dogs haven’t exactly been…pleasurable, but they both have their qualities. I’d say cats for their solitude and independence and dogs for their loyalty and friendliness."
Q: Favorite thing about being a mod?
A: "I like how involved we get to be in the community. We may not be members of the studio, but we get to be instrumental in a lot of the changes that take place and the It’s what I like best about working with Serp; he doesn’t just tell us what to do, he seriously considers our input and it really makes a difference, both for the team and the community."
Q: Least favorite?
A: "There are some people who make me want to go bang my head on a wall for a few hours, but that’s just the way it goes."
Q: Kanye or Childish Gambino?
A: "Assuming that question actually needs to be answered, totally Kanye. (That was sarcasm.) Yeah….no, Childish Gambino of course–I don’t even understand how that needs to be said."
Q: iOS or Android?
A: "While I use Android, I really can’t stand it. If I had the money, I’d go back to iOS in a heartbeat, I love Apple and I’ve never had a problem with it."
Q: Favorite color?
A: "Purple – always has been, always will be."
Q: What’s your ideal vacation?
A: "I’ve always wanted to visit Italy, it’s a country so awash with culture and simply beautiful. However, I’m not sure it’d necessarily be my ideal vacation. I’m more keen on travelling throughout East/Southeast Asia—something I intend to do in the near future; countries so deeply rooted in tradition, awe-inspiring landscapes, and beautiful languages. I can’t wait for the opportunity, although I’m not certain you’d call that a vacation… If not, then still Italy, I guess."
Q: What are you most looking forward to in Chronicles of Elyria?
A: "Everything, really. On paper, CoE is the game that I’ve been waiting for my whole life. I’ve never really like MMORPGs because they were always so linear. I’ve always felt that I might as well be playing a single player game if my experience was just going to be the same as everybody else. The beauty of CoE is in how each player’s story will be unique and rather than fitting into a pre-determined mold like most MMORPGs do, I get to decide who my character is, for real."
Q: Where’s the furthest you’ve been from home?
A: "I think Florida. My high school band would tour throughout North America during spring break, so we visited a lot of cities, but I think Florida was the furthest we’d gone."
Q: Favorite video game of all time?
A: "Legend of Zelda, hands down. I love the whole series, but Twilight Princess if I have to choose. The first time I played it on Game cube, I spent days finishing it and it was probably one of the most fulfilling game experiences I’ve ever had. After finishing it, I spent hours on end listening to the soundtrack and ultimately, the Legend of Zelda series was what inspired me to become a film/video game composer."
Thank you Artsykdd for letting us get to know you a little better!
Each month we spotlight an organization from our community. Previously we alternated each month between a kingdom and a guild or association. With only so many of these Journals remaining, we decided to double down and now we’ll be covering both a Kingdom and an Organization each month.
We have many creative members who are building amazing groups in Elyria, and this is one way we can make sure you know about them.
We spoke with Sigurd Ragnarok, leader and creator of the group. Here's what he had to say:
Official Organization Name: The Crows
Server Location: EU - Selene
Kingdom Affiliation: Kingdom of Tryggr
When and how was it founded: "The founding of The Crows lies deep in the shadows of Selene’s history. All we know is that it was many, many moons ago because my father and his father’s father throughout the ages have always been Crows."
"The crest of The Crows can be found in many history books, chiseled or carved into historic buildings in shadowy places. The Crows true legacy tho is the legends that have spread about the organisation. The impressions imprinted on the minds of its victims."
"What we do know is that you can’t learn the way of The Crows. It comes from within, it’s in your soul and when the time is right it will show itself."
Who leads the Organization?: "Myself and Baroness Skuld Ironside are incharge of all units within Nova, but each unit does have a head, The Crows head is PlagueCrafter. Even though every major decision has to go through me or Skuld, I trust PlagueCrafter to be incharge and make the right decisions when myself or Skuld is not around. He already has played a major role already with things such as recruiting and the day to day runnings of The Crows. I made the right call in promoting PlagueCrafter to the Head Crow position and we will only grow stronger with him at the helm."
What are the goals or purpose of the group?: "Our goal is to keep on learning the ways our forefathers wanted us to, advance our knowledge in the ways of skillful assassinations, collecting economic and military intelligence and then using that intelligence to create create cells that can carry out missions to disrupt our targets economic and military plans. Ideally, one of our most important goals would be to set up a counter espionage service that will help detect and thwart out enemy agents that not just wishes Nova harm, but the whole Kingdom of Tryggr."
Is there a group mantra/motto/value/proposition?
A jeweled eye pierces the night
A murder rustles, and takes flight.
And softer than a feathers fall,
With barely any sound at all.
The inky night parts at her feet,
A poison, subtle,bittersweet.
Seeps in to every single vein,
They slumber, not to wake again.
Faces veiled, behind black wings,
Bring the end of living things.
Harbingers of the longest sleep,
Will take all you aim to keep,
Rending secrets from the heart,
With swift blade or subtle art.
Crimson tears falling on snow,
What you reap, is what you'll sow.
Fun fact about the Organization: "The Crows was supposed to come from Odins Huginn and Muninn, but it turns out I was silly and didn't do my research properly as Huginn and Muninn are Ravens and not Crows, surprisingly the name stuck and here we are!"
(I would like to give credit to Eltanin Vanagandr for creating the poem and Recurve for drawing The Crows logo.)
Discord server link: here
Forum Thread: here
Thanks for sharing Sigurd!
Thank you Dleatherus for providing us this insight!
Official name of Kingdom: Bordweall
Server: NA-E, Luna
Leader: Dleatherus
Kingdom Colors: Red and Green
Kingdom Crest:
Goals of Kingdom: "CoE is a game centered around military, economic and political conflict. As the underdog on the NA-E server one of our goals is to create a culture where our members realize that it is far more advantageous to have fun practicing these aspects of the game outside of our borders rather than within them."
"Join our Discord to find out what some of our other goals are!"
Fun Fact: "On a daily average in our discord, 7 cookies are thrown, 3 people are bitten by dragons and 36 cups of coffee are consumed - stop by to find out why!"
Link to recruitment thread: here
Link to Discord: here
To learn more about Bordweall, reach out to this community via the links above.
Special thanks to Noslim for collecting this info for us!
If you'd like a chance to get your community content featured, send your submissions here.
We'll need lots more of your creations throughout the remainder of 2018, so whatever you come up with that is CoE-related, we want to see it!
Remember, If your submission wasn't featured this month, we may still use it in the future.
Here's a sampling of community made projects that were submitted to us for your consideration:
Fenrer's sketch of a tree castle and some servant housing.
To see more, Fenrer shared their "half-assed art" which includes the above image via this forum thread.
Count Blackshoes of Mirrorvale shares: "If all the world is a stage then a Mannequin Mann of Elyria is always at the center of it. For a modest fee based on time and risk, A Mannequin Mann will (with your consent and a valid contract) take your place for the agreed on event or length of time."
"Services can be negotiated in a wide range of applications which include:"
"With plans for playhouses on NA-West and East we aim to be available to fulfill any reasonable contract."
For more details, visit their site here.
Speaking of Mann-art, or in this case, Womann-art, Eyes of Cimeies shared this:
Chimaera Corbeau (Eyes of Cimeies on Discord) was commissioned to design this beautiful in-game portrait of Matriarch Morrigan.
Duke Hajime of Oceanus shared his "The Complete Guide For All Your Medieval Apothecary and Herbalism Needs."
Compiled from a variety of sources including his professional knowledge and expertise, it contains a plethora of contemporary pharmacopoeia and pharmaceutical formularies. To learn more, check out the post.
Thanks for all the great submissions!
Hellmoon and Mickdude opened up recruitment on the official CoE SubReddit in May. There are two threads that cycle throughout the month:
Normal subreddit rules apply otherwise.
Domain recruitment has been quite busy since this started, but we'd love to see more organizations take part. If you're keen on free promotion and witty banter, head over to the CoE SubReddit and participate, you never know what interesting discussions you'll find yourself in!
Lastly, we need a third MOD on our SubReddit, so if you are active on Reddit and think you've got what it takes, contact Mickdude or Hellmoon today!
New this week is TheoryForge. This veteran team of streamers began a new show on Friday, May 10th, focusing on Chronicles of Elyria. The current hosts have all purchased packs with Alpha I access, and are excited to become more active members of the community. "We are drawn to CoE because of its unique mechanics, and the migration of the Revival community."
Follow them here so you can stay up to date on their upcoming shows and schedule! https://www.twitch.tv/theoryforge
The BBC (Bordweall Broadcasting Company) livestream deep dives into the latest developments from Soulbound Studios. Watch and discover what has them so excited about CoE, then join them and their guests in the CoE Discord voice afterparty and find out why they believe CoE is going to define a whole new genre in online gaming! They stream live every other Thursday at 8pm Eastern/5pm Pacific. Watch the CoE forums for their announcements! Link to livestream channel: https://www.twitch.tv/bordweall
The Town Crier is a live informational show/podcast featuring Morbis (Duke of Vornair), Adam (King of Vornair) and Mickdude (Count from Alésia). The topic is typically the latest goings on with the game or in the CoE community, theorycrafting about things Caspian says, or watching them blunder around with recurring technical difficulties with all the grace of a three legged giraffe. Super entertainment!
You can catch them live every Wednesday at 3PM (PT)/6 PM (ET)/10 PM (UTC) on https://youtube.com/c/MorbisMIA
We love running contests and promotions for our players, but it turns out our players love running them as well!
To aid you in keeping track of all of the different contests or events at any given time, we've summarized them into one directory and stickied it in our General Discussion forum.
Keep submitting your recommendations on who you feel would make a great Community Ambassador. Find the details on what it entails and how to nominate someone today!
Note: If you were nominated but didn't move forward into the voting process, do not be dismayed. This simply means you have some improvements to make before you are considered. Some of our existing Ambassadors didn't make it in on their first try, so never give up, keep learning & growing and you'll be nominated again! If you have any questions about any of the Ambassador program details, you can ask a mod, or contact Serp!
This program launched earlier this month, with 5 types of experts requested during the 1st round of this new program. Of the areas we seek involvement, 13 applications were submitted to us and are currently under review.
Additionally, 15 more applications were submitted that do not currently meet the criteria we are looking to engage with at this time. We kept them nonetheless and will utilize them at a future date when those areas of interest are in need.
Thank you to everyone who has agreed to participate thus far, I expect to start reaching out to those 13 whose apps are under review in the 1st two weeks of June, we appreciate your patience!
To learn more or to apply with your knowledge, click here.
There are always a ton of things happening here at Soulbound Studios. To keep you informed, here are a few updates:
Keep yourself in the know via the forums or Discord so you don't miss out on any of the exciting events planned for the next few months.
Until next time,
More to come...
"Stupid questions make more sense than stupid mistakes."
Hey look, that's me <3
Good job serp with the monthly updates. I always look foward to a good read.
heh, had to share that forever alone meme :)
Good times, good month of updates and interaction with everyone at Soul Bound. Hope y'all continue to meet with us and keep the motivation going.
Kudos to whoever tried for She Nan'igan
Friend Code: B8ADDD
This is an automated message to let you know we have received your request to reserve the surname She Nan'igan. Please allow up to two business days for us to review and approve your surname. When we have finished, you will receive a PM with the results of our evaluation. Thanks! - Soulbound Studios
Had to give it a try, I Have run RP servers under that name for years :S
My roommate was Dragangsta, I can't believe we made history.
Posted By monkB at 5:31 PM - Thu May 31 2018
This is an automated message to let you know we have received your request to reserve the surname She Nan'igan. Please allow up to two business days for us to review and approve your surname. When we have finished, you will receive a PM with the results of our evaluation. Thanks! - Soulbound Studios
Had to give it a try, I Have run RP servers under that name for years :S
<3
"Stupid questions make more sense than stupid mistakes."
Im Gasm.. ive used the same name for 20 years in dozens of mmos and paid all this money to reserve a name for what?
Do all the names really have to be RP names? if so, you might want to say so in your guidelines.
Are you going to enforce this on launch? i highly doubt you are going to process thousands of names as people make them, or is there going to be a waiting/approval period to create a character?
Posted By Wargasm at 10:23 PM - Thu May 31 2018
Im Gasm.. ive used the same name for 20 years in dozens of mmos and paid all this money to reserve a name for what?
Do all the names really have to be RP names? if so, you might want to say so in your guidelines.
Are you going to enforce this on launch? i highly doubt you are going to process thousands of names as people make them, or is there going to be a waiting/approval period to create a character?
On the surname generator page, they list the rules, including this tidbit:
"The surname reservation and name generator tools we've provided are meant for you to creatively express yourself in the world of Elyria. But at the end of the day, we think it would be a poor player experience if vulgar words made it into the surname pool, as well as names that break the sense of immersion. So here are a few rules that are built into the surname reservation tool."
They want names that reasonably fit into the world to not break the sense of immersion. That means 'RP' names, or names that you'd expect an NPC to reasonably have as well, names that fit in the world. They definitely mention it!
Posted By Wargasm at 9:23 PM - Thu May 31 2018
Im Gasm.. ive used the same name for 20 years in dozens of mmos and paid all this money to reserve a name for what?
Do all the names really have to be RP names? if so, you might want to say so in your guidelines.
Are you going to enforce this on launch? i highly doubt you are going to process thousands of names as people make them, or is there going to be a waiting/approval period to create a character?
My understanding is that surname reservation adds your name to the population. If you don't have a custom surname, or a friend that will allow you to use theirs, you'll choose to be part of a NPC family that already has a surname that has been created by SbS. At some point, buying a custom surname will be removed from the EP store. In other words, SbS is indeed controlling every surname that makes it into the game.
This isn't your average MMO, if you haven't already guessed. This will be a living world with a history and family trees.
Posted By Wargasm at 12:23 PM - Fri Jun 01 2018
Im Gasm.. ive used the same name for 20 years in dozens of mmos and paid all this money to reserve a name for what?
Do all the names really have to be RP names? if so, you might want to say so in your guidelines.
Did you even bother reading them?... Guess not!!
Well, I for one am glad they didn't let you in with the name "Gasm", and I'm looking forward to a game with the backbone to actually enforce a mature naming policy rather than letting crap like that in. It's sad, really, all the childish names people register in MMOs because they think they are being funny or cute or whatever. Get into the spirit of the game and be glad for the immersion they are actually trying to provide!
Friend Code: 729115 