Cheers!
"Stupid questions make more sense than stupid mistakes."
Salutations everyone!
Domain and Settlement Selection has completed, huzzah! Most Monarchs, Dukes and Duchesses, Counts and Countesses, and Mayors have chosen their settlements. It was an exciting time in the community, and it isn’t over yet. Before we get into what is coming, let’s recap September:
That’s a wrap of all major announcements made during September. We hope it was useful for you!
A new feature added recently by Discord gives server communities more perks to spruce things up!
You can learn about the benefits the varied levels of Server Boosts provided at the link above and, since you can only choose one server to dedicate your love towards, we'd like to thank the following members whose boosts helped us gain or maintain our perks in September! (Note: Boost verified on September 29th, 2019 - the number in parenthesis indicates how many times you’ve appeared on this list.)
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.
Random declined surnames:
Most attempted surname: Intentionally misspelled Arthurian surnames
Random standouts:
We now consistently review domain name submissions now that D&SS is underway. Here are some examples of ones that were declined and a few of our favorites.
Random declined domain names:
Most attempted theme: Famous places in Italy
Random notable domain names:
As names are still being reviewed, you should expect this list to be as notable and lengthy next month, too! We hope you enjoyed this sampling of names we found worth sharing.
We continue to review names at a breakneck pace, and are making headway. We expect to see an increase in the velocity of reviews moving forward. We greatly appreciate your continued patience as we get through the list!
Each month, we'll spotlight a few random memes that were shared via the forums or Discord.
Ironzerg shares their understanding of settlement sustainability during D&SS:
Our next selection, brought to us by Hawarth Hugiz who has now graced us with favorite memes two months in a row, shows what happens with hybrids:
Jacob Jacobsen, Neran, showed us what many title holders felt like after staking claims during D&SS:
And finally, we are sharing a 4th meme this month as there were just far too many good ones not to. Zander Blackford, and those of us who have been in the community a while, saw this one coming a mile away:
If you'd like to see your meme highlighted, share it with us in our Discord or forums, and it may show up here one day!
A new column in the Community Journal, this section will highlight and provide answers to interesting questions submitted to us by the community.
This month our question comes from Countess Leilah Lothian, and they asked:
"You talked about food preservation and the need for it. So my question is along the same line regarding food, will CoE have an in-depth cooking system similar to games like Wurm online? Where cooking is not just throwing a slab of meat and veggie together it's more involved.”
Snipehunter says:
”Absolutely – like all of our crafting experiences, the cooking system seeks to capture the feel of real cooking, so you will be taking ingredients, processing them (e.g. mixing them chopping them, blanching them, etc.), and then cooking them together in multi-step recipes.”
”While it's not an arcade like experience, games like “the Cooking Mama” series are a good example of how the tactile feel of cooking will come across in CoE. Not so much the way those game's "cook to the timeline bar," but the way that they’re several steps and each step is a physical action that the player has to take.”
”How well you perform those actions, and your choices in which ingredients you use, combined with your skill and knowledge will help determine both how good your cooking is and the unique properties and effects your food will carry in it. A good cook knows not just how to process ingredients and prepare a meal, they also know from experience when to use one spice instead of another, or to use one type of protein over another to elicit a particular flavor or feel.”
”This is an important aspect of what sets one chef apart from another: The system should allow for them to have their own unique styles and flavor palettes making their dishes signature dishes unique to them.”
In lieu of the Meet a Dev column this month, we added a 2nd Ask a Dev question and answer:
Greyshade asked: ”What exactly does a "notable person" offer to players, that have the same profession as the "notable person", for example a blacksmith.”
”They can teach us, do they compete with us? Would it be a demerit rather than a good thing to have an NPC blacksmith in the village while we also want to be blacksmiths?”
Snipehunter says:
”That's a really interesting question. Some would argue that more competition drives innovation and growth. Others might argue that the competition isn't as important as the variety of knowledge concentrated in one place that having more members of a trade would provide a settlement.”
”There are potentially overarching benefits like more production capacity for large projects, more availability for training new smiths, and clout in your kingdom as you concentrate expertise in your settlement. Really though, whether or not more smiths are an advantage or a challenge depends on how you decide to go about achieving your goals. Good luck!”
Thank you to both of you who asked, and to Snipehunter for taking the time to provide answers!
If you would like to submit a question for the Ask a Dev column in hopes it will get answered in a future Community Journal, use this form.
Our volunteer Moderators are not only bastions of peace in our community; they are a helpful hand whenever you need assistance.
They are very knowledgeable about Chronicles of Elyria and provide valuable feedback that helps keep our community amazing.
Each month in the past, we provided a little insight into who they are and what makes them tick.
Since we’ve interviewed all of our current Moderators, this column will return next month.
Peruse our previous Community Journals for all of the previous interviews from the current and former mod team members...
As you may already know, our volunteer Moderators and Super Moderators spend countless, often tedious hours supporting and helping the community to ensure peace and happiness across all of our platforms.
In September, Recurve was invited to join our team! You can read the announcement post here. We are stoked to have her as an official Chronicles of Elyria Moderator!
If you want to talk to a Moderator, you can find them in the forums with a Moderator title, or in our official Discord server in purple (Moderator) and gold (Super Moderator).
If you have an interest in becoming a Moderator for our team, please, don't call us, we'll call you! There is no application process; we constantly seek out capable, kind, considerate, helpful, and supportive individuals who have a reputation in the community of being upstanding players who are honest and have integrity. If that sounds like you, and you are present in our community, keep up the efforts! We'll find you!
Each month we spotlight an organization from our community.
We have many creative members who are building amazing groups in Elyria, and this is one way we can help bring them to your attention.
Today, we introduce you to the Opus Alchemica, a German/English research organization and school founded by Florin Goldenfeld.
Official Organization name: The Opus Alchemica
Server: Selene (EU)
Kingdom affiliation: Tryggr
How did you form? "We formed about a year ago when I was looking for research oriented organisations, but couldn't really find one that satisfied my needs.”
"Then I thought to myself, "Why not create one myself", and with the help and support of my ingame family, the Goldenfelds, I started to plan out the Opus Achemica."
"That was back in the day when we were still a small settlement in Nirath, just upgraded from our original plan to be farmers on a small ranch. Good old days."
"Now, thanks to some "questionable circumstances,, namely our count and family head, we're located in the family run quintuple county in Tryggr named Kernothia and are ready to begin researching."
Tell us about the leadership: "At the top of our school is the chancellor. He's responsible for making sure that everything runs at peak performance. His job is to talk to our deans, each responsible for a specific department such as alchemy or leatherworks, and listen to their research and teaching needs."
"The deans in turn works with the teachers and researchers in their department."
"In conjunction with the chancellor, they form the school council which decides on the skills and recipes that are safe and worthwhile teaching to the students of the school."
Organization purpose: "It's purpose is to research new and helpful items to support people. We want to ensure that everyone has fun in the world of Elyria and can pursue their chosen destiny."
Motto/Slogan: "It's not science if nothing blows up."
Fun Fact: "We are not required by current law to replace limbs lost in the pursuit of SCIENCE!"
Discord: Here
Recruitment thread: Here
Thanks Florin for sharing these details about your organization!
The Meet a Kingdom column is on hiatus until next month: stay tuned!
To be considered for this spotlight, submit your content here.
Thank you for continuing to send us your wonderful creations!
Important: Continue to share your creations. We need more of them. Please utilize the link above so we can show off your efforts to all Elyrians!
Remember, even if your submission wasn't featured this month, we may still use it in the future.
Audrey Fain provided ”It's a Neran fortune teller with tarot cards! I love divination and am excited about the magical possibilities in Elyria.” You can also comment on this art as it was posted to the forums here.
Athorias submitted his monthly iteration of his domain in what he calls ”Presenting a recreation from the D&SS map of Porta Inferni!”
Our next submission was sent in by our very own Hellmoon and is a commission for Ardolenor.
Lastly, the CoE community's resident Dras artist Chimaera Corbeau shows one of his favorite characters “Morose” being cheeky:
More submissions are needed!
If you have art, songs, poems, or any creation that relates to Chronicles of Elyria you'd be willing to share in a future CJ, find the link at the top of this section, submit, and maybe you will be spotlighted!
Thank you to all of those who submitted your fan pieces!
To help you get to know our team better, we try and interview one developer each month, or as often as is possible.
As we were super busy this month, this column will return next month with a new interview.
Chronicles of Elyria has a Reddit community, lovingly managed by Hellmoon, Mickdude, ImbuedGreen, and SirApetus.
We continue to be amazed by our community members, even those on other sites such as Reddit. Thank you for all of your help to spread the word about Chronicles of Elyria!
If you are interested in joining our subReddit, find it here
Recently our policy has changed in terms of who has access to share their events with the community in our official Discord.
In order to:
Utilize our #community-events channel to promote CoE-related shows or content or
If you are interested in gaining this role, please see this post for all of the details.
Thank you to all of our content creators that have already quickly moved through the process to become official. We appreciate you!
The Chronicles of Elyria community is a busy one and has been for a long time now. It’s so active that there are many live shows hosted each month. To help you be aware of them, and attend these enlightening and often revealing events, we've summarized those we know occur consistently each month. If you host a show on CoE and want to be included here, please contact us at [email protected].
As a recent change, if your channel hasn't added any new content in the last 90 day period, we'll remove it from this list. If you feel your show was removed accidentally, please contact us or reach out to Serpentius.
Ser Medieval's Channel is a place to find regular monthly news videos dedicated to recent Chronicles of Elyria news as well as any additional news for the game included in my monthly MMO/MMORPG news updates. It is also a channel that hopes to cover several different aspects of gameplay and create guides, reviews, and even more news videos. Livestreams will be a very big part of the channel with the arrival of release, and they will aim to create a community that's able to experience the game in all it's glory - together!
Learning Elyria is "a series hosted by Jason and Ryan from Jbros (forum names Duyo and MeltedWater). We are a new weekly show that covers different topics from Chronicles of Elyria as well as starting a weekly lore show."
Run by Anibal and co-hosted by our Spanish-speaking Ambassadors and long-time community supporters, Gammea and Daedhel, Taberna Elyria is "a monthly podcast in Spanish where they introduce *Chronicles of Elyria and its news to spread the word to all Spanish-speaking gamers."*
"Join Anibal, Daedhel and Gammea in this new adventure!"
"The Arkadian Herald focuses on creating presentation videos for CoE from the Kingdom of Arkadia in different European languages to help people that don’t speak English or speak very little, to learn about the game and its major features. As of now the covered languages are: English, French, Italian, and Russian. A new series of videos exclusively in English, focusing on debating on specific matters regarding the game, are being worked on right now. We hope to see you soon to help us spread the world of CoE to the World!"
Conclave 360 is “a community based discussions channel that seeks to help people find their home in the larger Elyrian community. Videos focus on topics ranging from introducing local community leaders, guilds, associations, and schools to discussions on how the mechanics “as described so far” will impact those people and institutions."
"Free at 1pm PDT/4pm EDT on Sundays? If you're looking for a home in Elyria, tune in to Face the Conclave and find one!"
Oceanus FM is "a collaborative broadcasting effort hosted by Alleykat and featuring all OCE Kings including Aequitas, Lor Voskara, Caprakan, and Tylsia as regular co-hosts. The channel was created to provide an Oceanic time zone live stream and video series, to talk about issues relevant to the Oceanus server of *Chronicles of Elyria."*
"Oceanus FM does not follow a strict broadcast schedule due to shift work. Watch out for announcements!"
TheFew @ Twitch.tv - "A streamer passionate about highly immersive games. New to Chronicles of Elyria and excited to learn more about the game over the coming months. Enjoys discussing game mechanics with the community and having guests on to talk about the aspect of the game they look forward to the most."
Streams Chronicles of Elyria on Tuesdays at 5:30 pm Pacific Time.
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 at the link below, they are live every other Friday at 9pm EDT, 6pm PDT.
A Pirate's Guide to Elyria. It is "an interactive Lore and RP based CoE Talk Show, hosted by Captain Seli and Zigsmash, where we casually dive into the world of Elyria and talk about its lore! Each episode will cover a range of topics from the Tribes of Mann and their Religions, to the solar system and everything in between. Chat from the audience is highly encouraged, and we'll discuss theories and fan lore as well!"
"Show times are determined by how much rum the crew has had the day prior, so stay alert for announcements of when (Generally Tuesdays around 2PM Eastern, but could happen any day and time)!"
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 after party and find out why they believe CoE is going to define a whole new genre in online gaming!"
They stream live every other Tuesday at 8pm Eastern/5pm Pacific. Watch the CoE forums for their announcements!
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 Thursday at 3pm (PT)/6pm (ET)/10 pm (UTC).
A CoE Talk show from and for German speaking community members is online, hosted by Olaf Biebelix, Loki and Creamas.
"In our CoE Talk we discuss the latest CoE news, previously prepared topics and answer questions from the viewers. All of that in a fun atmosphere. We want to bring this awesome game to a group that isn't able or willing to translate everything on their own so they can be a part of an awesome community. It's hosted every Wednesday at 8 pm."
We love running contests, promotions, and events for our players — but it turns out our players love running them as well!
To help you keep track of all of the different contests and events at any given time, we've summarized them into one directory and stickied it in our General Discussion forum.
There are a ton of talented artists in our community, many who share their creations in our forums and on our Discord server. Recently, some of those artists (including our super awesome Hellmoon) have created an official Chronicles of Elyria group over at the ultimate web destination for all art: Deviant Art.
Explore the creations, add your own or just support the creativity of our members in the CoE Deviant Art group!
Each month we'll get to know one of our esteemed Ambassadors, as well as let you know the status of current nominations and votes!
This month we met and chatted with Strawhat, also known as "FrappeLatte". Let’s find out more, shall we?
Q: Tell us a little about you! What is your daily life like? Whereabouts were you born and have you moved on from that place since?
A: "I'm living a pretty average life for the most part. I'm 23 and finishing school for business management, marketing, so my days consist of classes or work, if it's during the summer, and aside from that I'm gaming or hanging out on the internet with all my good internet people. Born and raised in Montreal, Canada and still here currently. Although I would like to travel and even try my hand at living somewhere else in the world eventually."
Q: What is the funniest thing that has ever happened to you?
A: "If I was forced to answer this question this meet an ambassador would never get done. I am unable to answer these types of questions; what's your favorite movie, favorite book, happiest moment, funniest thing that ever happened to you ... I can't they're just my kryptonite, so you guys might have to go without this one 😉."
Q: What was your first and/or most significant gaming experience?
A: "My first gaming experience was really just watching my brother play Classic WoW as a kid, and I remember at that time the most basic things would blow my mind, like him getting his first mount and riding tiger ... to me that was insane and the coolest thing in the world. I think when it came to gaming, my brother ended up being the greatest salesman of all time because I was hooked for life."
Q: Imagine that tomorrow you wake up to find you have won 10 million dollars. What would you do with that money?
A: "I always told myself if I won the lottery or somehow ended up getting a large amount of money for whatever reason, that I would be the person that "was smart about it". I'd spend some of it on basic things like a house, I'd help the people I felt had a positive impact on my life, but for the most part I'd invest some and stick the rest in a savings account so I can be jobless while I play CoE all day. Nothing crazy or over the top, and don't worry SBS you'd find a little Xmas bonus coming your way 😉."
Q: When talking to people about Chronicles of Elyria who know nothing about it, what information are you most excited to share? Pitch us your best!
A: "Ooof .. that is literally how I always start: "oof," but a good oof, like where do I even want to start this time around? Talking about CoE is one of my by far favorite pastimes. It's the easiest way to become my best friend, just start asking questions about CoE and all of a sudden we're closer than family. I always try to cater the conversation to the person. If I know them, I already know somewhat of their interest and I try to explain CoE in a way that would best fit their play style because CoE is a game that caters to many peoples different play styles: PVP, PVE, RP. It doesn't matter, there is a version of CoE that fits perfectly for you, which often also becomes one of my biggest selling points when talking to people that are new to CoE."
Q: So… How do you feel about the cannibalism mechanic?
A: "I love the idea personally, brings a unique feel and adds a social "taboo" that really comes with a trade off of pros and cons, which to me says it's a great feature because it really makes you consider if you do or don't want to partake in it. And that's what in-game decisions should be -something that forces someone to really weigh the option before doing it."
Q: Imagine you’re actually from Elyria. What would be the weirdest thing about finding yourself suddenly living on Earth?
A: It would probably be a sad sob story of a man who was separated from his phoenix companion and his journey searching this new world for them, in the end he never finds them, but makes all sorts of new companions he happened upon during his journey."*
Q: Where did your nickname come from? Strawhat and Frappelatte are very different things? What’s the story there?”
A: "Strawhat has been an online alias of mine for what seems like forever. I watched the anime One Piece as a kid and so when it came to picking names for accounts and games it was just a natural pick to represent me being a fan, and it just stuck for years and years I guess. Frappe latte on the other hand was a name that started off as more of a joke. I had a friend who worked at Starbucks, and one day I had told them to "stop talking and go make some frappe lattes" to which they replied "That's not even a thing." We argued for a while of the legitimacy of frappe latte being a real drink or not and to spite them I changed my name to Frappelatte so they would have to look at it everyday, and once again it kind of just stuck."
Q: What keeps you awake at night?
A: "The thought of the afterlife scares the absolute sht out of me. Something about the unknown is what I really think does it in for me, and if I ever happen upon this thought before bed I find myself needing to do something to take my mind off of it before sleep is even a possibility."*
Q: Can you share any aspects of what you plan to do in Elyria after game launch?
A: "I have a lot of things I'd like to do in CoE, but I've dedicated my first life to trying my hand at being one of the best smiths of my time, all while helping run a blacksmith and mining guild. So you'll most likely find me writing contracts or slaving over a hot forge for the first year 🙂. However part of why I fell in love with CoE is the amount of ways you can play and experience the game, so I plan to eventually take full advantage of that."
Q: What do you like about being a Community Ambassador?
A: "I love that being a Community ambassador helps me do what I already like to do. Even if I wasn't an Ambassador, discussing CoE would still be my favorite pastime; I'd still answer any questions directed at me or theory craft on any and all topics. The fact that I now get to do that with extra resources and people who love doing the same thing as me just makes it that much better."
Q: Anything you dislike or would change about the program?
A: "I think the program has evolved since it had first begun, and I believe it will continue to do so, but at the same time I think that is great. It’s a group of people who are there to help the community and SBS as their needs change. Having a group that is flexible to fill the roles that are needed as we all partake on this journey of what is CoE is amazing, so currently there isn't anything I dislike. Just be sure to keep the program flexible to best serve the community and the studio as times goes on."
Q: What would your perfect Kickstarterversary stretch goal be?
A: "I think it would be really cool if a possible stretch goal was to add in 1 biome/tribe specific profession kit to people Bloodline+, This would be similar to the current EP profession kit, but would add some useful and flavorful touches based on the biome the person is in. For example mining in the swamps may look very different than in the alpine tundra. It would be amazing if we saw that within the kits."
Q: If you could say anything to the entire community, what would it be?
A: "Dras are the true blacksmiths and miners of Elyria. Change my mind."
Thanks for answering our questions Strawhat!
We did get another nomination this month and if all goes well with the initial screening you can look for a vote in early October.
If you want to learn more about the current Ambassador program, or know someone you would like to nominate, click on the link! Thanks for your support, as always.
The Subject Matter Expert program allows players in the community to lend their expertise to the studio to help make Elyria the best it can be!
Now that the busy time of D&SS has passed, we anticipate this team will see more activity in the coming months.
Find our Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) in orange in our official Discord server, and identified as "Subject Expert" in the forums.
Learn more about the SME program here
The Kickstarter-versary is under way, but more is on the horizon:
Please note: We have removed a few bullets from the above list that have been included previously. They aren't cancelled, but they aren't close enough on the calendar to be listed here.
Domain & Settlement Selection was an amazing time to be an Elyrian, but more excitement is on the horizon. All of us here at Soulbound Studios are beyond ecstatic for the community achieving the milestone goals and rising to the occasion in support of Chronicles of Elyria.
Thank you all so very much!
Until next time,
More to come...
"Stupid questions make more sense than stupid mistakes."
Is there a reason why the DSS claims on Oct 7 are commencing at 9am PDT on ALL servers? Seems a bit odd that you would open selection for OCE at 2am for the eastern coast... :(
Posted By MishkaRae at 2:20 PM - Thu Oct 03 2019
Is there a reason why the DSS claims on Oct 7 are commencing at 9am PDT on ALL servers? Seems a bit odd that you would open selection for OCE at 2am for the eastern coast... :(
Because the studio is located on the west coast of the USA, and to ensure we have staff on hand in the event there are any issues or questions, we need to enable this at a time that is reasonable for us.
"Stupid questions make more sense than stupid mistakes."
So the picking for those not allowed to pick during their time allotted during DSS (due to Alesia restrictions) is going to be Monday at noon for those in NA-E. I know at least one fellow (trying to claim) Count that will be disappointed at that.
Seriously, would it have been so hard to allow DSS folks that were locked out due to Alesia restrictions to pick on the 6th? Limited to DSS time holders, and only allowed to claim in Alesia during that time. They should get the same benefit as any other DSS holder, rather than be tossed in the first come, first serve during working hours.
Posted By Juris Primus at 10:34 PM - Thu Oct 03 2019
So the picking for those not allowed to pick during their time allotted during DSS (due to Alesia restrictions) is going to be Monday at noon for those in NA-E. I know at least one fellow (trying to claim) Count that will be disappointed at that.
Seriously, would it have been so hard to allow DSS folks that were locked out due to Alesia restrictions to pick on the 6th? Limited to DSS time holders, and only allowed to claim in Alesia during that time. They should get the same benefit as any other DSS holder, rather than be tossed in the first come, first serve during working hours.
6th is a sunday.
Yes it is. And there are probably less than a dozen or so people affected by the prior block that prevented them from choosing counties, so it would be both manageable, and a light test to make sure the revised system works as intended come Monday.
I may have to take that Monday off work in order to be available at the opening bell. I'd be rather surprised if 90% of the Counts/Mayors remaining did not have their claims submitted before the devs go home on Monday.
you all can still assign proxies.... not a perfect option but a reasonable one.
also yay my town name is notable. that's pretty rad.
