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Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest news on Alpha Two.
Check out general Announcements here to see the latest news on Ashes of Creation & Intrepid Studios.
To get the quickest updates regarding Alpha Two, connect your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
Sanctus Lore - Fan Fiction for Phoenix Radio's Audio Dramas. (Unless Steven wants to chat)
Beck Altarr
Member, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
One of the major projects for Phoenix Radio Online is Radio Dramas, like back in the 40's before TV existed.
As much as we all LOVE to read, our lives are busy and it's often easier to listen rather than read/watch. This is what makes Phoenix Radio Online (PRO) such a great addition to the AoC community. You can play other games waiting for launch, or while working out on your Mountain Dew and Doritos Abs or anything else.
Since there is no Lore about Sanctus out side of there is no magic there and the four races have been there for thousands of years... I've had to become a little creative. I'm not sure how to get in touch with @StevenSharif. He's a busy guy and he's said himself that lore is something he is keeping close to his chest. (Happy to sign NDA's, Done it Before).
The goal of this post is to get his attention and at the very least get a I'm Hot or I'm cold or other feed back to set a proper narrative pre-launch to help set the stage for the game launch with the events leading up to the portals reopening.
This is a long one. TL:DR at the end.
The Stories of Sanctus (What we are calling our Audio Drama Series) is from the point of view of the Characters, so most of this over arching Lore is only to help maintain the story arc and wont be directly or specifically mentioned in the stories in such a direct way. There will be hints or suggestions, guesses some characters may make, just as in our world we all speculate over different gods and religions and even if we are all living in a simulation like the matrix.
Steven, I do have a crazy old man character you are very welcome to voice. He is the only character who "knows" the truth and is VERY old. He's always been around, but few pay him mind so no one realizes just how old he is. In this character you could recount what ever lore you wanted to, misdirection is viable, as there is always the bigger picture and for questing there is often purpose behind why a story is such as it is. Not a major/regular character, but is a motivator of some events.
So let's get to the Lore I am going to run with for now, and it may evolve/change. Since we are not going back to Sanctus this is really just for the pre-launch period to introduce some characters and their arcs and hopefully some of the finer details of some of the races and their behaviors etc. hopefully.
We need to start back on Verra. The corruption has spread over the world, the Portals are created and opened and the 4 races, and I would assume other minor races/animals, all rush through the portals arriving on Sanctus. The portals flicker and close. Those in transit get brought back. This is roughly what we know.
What we don't know is: Is Sanctus in the same Galaxy, Universe or Dimension? Are the portals Instant or at Light Speed Travel?
For the lore I a going with, Sanctus is in the same Galaxy and the portals are light speed travel. The 10 were not GODS, but were highly super advanced beings. Like the Q in Star Trek but still with "flesh and blood" bodies. Their technology is so far advanced that even to us they would appear as to be Gods, just as to people thousands of years ago on Earth we would appear as Gods to them with our technology and we are just at the point where we could create a new race of people through genetic splicing etc. So this isn't unreasonable and it makes sense when you read much of the other lore. The sub races are like children, We combine our essences to produce offspring. They have just taken it to a higher level where they can combine the essences of multiple people, perhaps the 10 are the last of their species. It's interesting that the beings they create look like US aka human. Perhaps these beings are so old and so evolved through their own evolution they no longer resemble the forms they once evolved from and only what they remember from histories long forgotten. AKA The 10 are "Humans" from Earth which is long gone. This isn't really relevant to the AoC Story, it's just a fun thought.
The portals travel at light Speed. If Sanctus is in the same Galaxy it can take a thousand years or more to travel from Verra to Sanctus and eventually from Sanctus to Verra. This will give the Tulnar a few thousands of years to evolve while those who escaped from and return to Verra are basically in stasis as they travel. I see the portals as a form of Transporter Beam so those within it would not age. To them they stepped in and out of a portal.
Why is there Magic on Verra and not on Sanctus? Perhaps there are minerals and energies that are so rare that with the right genetic manipulations would allow the people to manipulate them. Remember, the races are the offspring of sorts of highly advanced and evolved beings. This is taking inspiration from the Blue Adept Series from Pierce Anthony. Having to save the peoples of Verra there may not have been time to find another planet/solar system with the same energies/minerals or to set up the technologies to allow for "magic".
Back to Sanctus - The 4 races have been on Sanctus for thousands/tens of thousands of years. Enough time for the Tulnar to evolve from the different races and sub races. Now we can't mate with other animals to produce offspring. I'm sure science is mixing our genetic materials with other species to see what will happen... With Magic I'm sure it's going to be much easier with less results that would make for a great horror movie. The process wouldn't take hundreds of thousands of years or even millions...
How technologically advanced do we get on Sanctus? Look at how far we have come in 3 thousand years on Earth. From Stone/Bronze Age to we can orbit our plant in tubes. We had to learn how to do everything and invent much of it. The Verra Refuges, though with out magic, will still have a lot of knowledge about collecting and crafting. A big head start. So how advanced are the people?
Here are a couple of things in my lore that I think will reduce the level of over all technology and also explain why on Verra we don't have any advanced tech with us, regardless of the tech level on Sanctus.
The Portals only transmit true organics. The process of the portals is two stage. When you walk into the "Aura" of the portal you start to phase out as the portal collects your information and beams you to the portal on the other side. Anything that is not a true organic would not beam with you. Example: You have Cotton under clothes, Wool Socks, Leather Tunic and Belt with a metal buckle with Leather Sandals. Your belt buckle, being metal,would just drop to the ground or be separated and fall through the other side of the portal from the momentum. This would go for any fillings, armors etc. When everyone appeared on Sanctus, they only had on their natural fibers and would in effect have to start at the Stone age technologically. There wouldn't even be a stone Knife that came with them. This would slow down their technological development by a thousand years at least.
Further more, going back to an earlier point, why would Sanctus have ready made Portals? IF the portals were an emergency escape and it takes Light Speed Travel to go between them, then how did the 7 (the 1) Create/Open portals with such a vast distance between them? The simple answer is the portals on Sanctus had already been there. Long forgotten by all but 1 of the 10 Gods. The simple answer is, if the 10 are long evolved/genetically modified humans, then Sanctus is Earth. This would also help explain why the Verra Refuges are not at the level of technology that we are today or even more advanced.
When we humans make Earth unlivable we will seek to leave. That will take massive resources and those resources will be taken off world in the form of space fairing ships. Sanctus, old Earth, would have had it's own thousands upon thousands of years to heal, as humans evolved to the state of evolution of the 10. It would be liveable again and all hints of "humanity" would have eroded away. With a lack of metals and such it would make advancing technologically very slow. The iron and other metals wouldn't be found in the traditional ways as it would have been already mined out. They would find iron from old cities (Inspiration from the Shannara Series Terry Brooks).
But how did portals exist on Earth after all the humans left?
When the 10 created the Ancient(s) race with their essences and set to war with each other they became the 3 + Ancients vs the 7. This means the Ancient race is VERY powerful if it was able to assist the 3 against the 7. If the 10 were all equal in power then the Ancient Race is at least as powerful as 1 of the gods, this is why I think the Gods are not gods, just super advanced/evolved nearly Q like humans. It stands to reason the Corruption was created by The Ancient Race or may be itself part of that race, but that's a different theory for a different post. The Goddess of Creation, in my thought, found Sanctus and created portals there (and maybe other worlds [future expansions]) as a "just in case" knowing that the evil would return. This would suggest that the victory of the 7 wasn't complete and perhaps quite narrow which is why they created the 4 races with their essences. The 4 are weaker than the Ancient race, but collectively who knows. I'm sure that will play a factor at some point in the story line.
Also, like with Verra, not all humans left Earth... but that goes into how the Radio exists and can exist in Sanctus and Verra so I wont get into that too much here. I need to leave some reasons to listen to PRO.
Reading the lore so far it would appear that the Goddess of Creation Created the portals on Verra (maybe were already made and just lowered them from Orbit) and then powered them which I am sure would drain a massive amount of energy, so much so that the source would be very weak/shut down which would also shut down the portals. It could conceivably take thousands of years to recover, which for a near omnipotent being isn't that much time relatively. This would be the Phoenix motif as the Goddess "burnt" herself out and had to recharge and perhaps could have reached the final evolution of pure consciousness like the Q with access to energies not before known which allow for the portals to be sustained indefinitely when the game launches.
I do think at some point we will go back to Sanctus as the Corruption will grow/spread or the Ancient Race will find it. After all the portals are open and connected so it's just a matter of following that energy. I think the Old Earth connection makes for a really good story arc that could be really engaging.
TL:DR
The Gods are just highly advanced Humans, nearly the level of Q (Star Trek). Verra is a very rare world/Solar system where "Magic" is just energy/radiation that can be manipulated. The Ancients and 4 races are just genetically modified from the "Gods" in what they believe was close to their original forms (having forgotten it being so long ago) which is why the 4 races look so human. (they got at least 1 version right) We all know Dwarves were the true human form.
Sanctus is Earth, stripped of it's resources when Humans had to leave due to our own created Corruption (Global Warming/pollution) So really the Corruption is a repeat of History). Verra and Earth are thousands of light years apart in the same Galaxy on nearly opposite ends. The portals transport at light speed so it takes that time to travel which gives the Tulnar more time to evolve into their race and reduces the time Sanctus has to evolve their technology even with limited metals. They may not be able to advance their tech much further than the pre-Earth industrial age because of a lack of raw materials and what took hundreds of years on Earth took thousands on Sanctus.
Portals also only transport natural organics, so even if Sanctus had tanks, only the driver would be transported via the portal.
Steven, if you read this, I hope you will reach out. If I am totally off, I'd love to have a general idea to build the stories on. Again, much of my theory isn't going to be directly mentioned, only hinted at if at all. This is just to help me contain the stories for consistency. The idea is to set the stage for the launch. Is there a foretelling of the portals opening? With the power it would involve would it cause earth quakes or storms? I hope to write the stories starting months before the portals open and telling those stories over the next year or two in weekly/monthly episodes with hosts also living out their day to day mundane lives in Sanctus not knowing what is coming.
To all others who read this: What are your thoughts on the theory's I have? Would you like to participate in these Audio Dramas by voicing characters? I am currently working on the initial 20 minute Drama to set up My and KoreKode's Characters. We need voices for Guards, Bar Maid and others.
We will be Dwarves, so I'd like to have some fun stories about the other races too and you could potentially voice your own character. Lots of fun to be had in weaving our stories together. We might all play on different servers, in our Radio Drama World we could all exist in some way and I hope to mention many people over time as well.
As much as we all LOVE to read, our lives are busy and it's often easier to listen rather than read/watch. This is what makes Phoenix Radio Online (PRO) such a great addition to the AoC community. You can play other games waiting for launch, or while working out on your Mountain Dew and Doritos Abs or anything else.
Since there is no Lore about Sanctus out side of there is no magic there and the four races have been there for thousands of years... I've had to become a little creative. I'm not sure how to get in touch with @StevenSharif. He's a busy guy and he's said himself that lore is something he is keeping close to his chest. (Happy to sign NDA's, Done it Before).
The goal of this post is to get his attention and at the very least get a I'm Hot or I'm cold or other feed back to set a proper narrative pre-launch to help set the stage for the game launch with the events leading up to the portals reopening.
This is a long one. TL:DR at the end.
The Stories of Sanctus (What we are calling our Audio Drama Series) is from the point of view of the Characters, so most of this over arching Lore is only to help maintain the story arc and wont be directly or specifically mentioned in the stories in such a direct way. There will be hints or suggestions, guesses some characters may make, just as in our world we all speculate over different gods and religions and even if we are all living in a simulation like the matrix.
Steven, I do have a crazy old man character you are very welcome to voice. He is the only character who "knows" the truth and is VERY old. He's always been around, but few pay him mind so no one realizes just how old he is. In this character you could recount what ever lore you wanted to, misdirection is viable, as there is always the bigger picture and for questing there is often purpose behind why a story is such as it is. Not a major/regular character, but is a motivator of some events.
So let's get to the Lore I am going to run with for now, and it may evolve/change. Since we are not going back to Sanctus this is really just for the pre-launch period to introduce some characters and their arcs and hopefully some of the finer details of some of the races and their behaviors etc. hopefully.
We need to start back on Verra. The corruption has spread over the world, the Portals are created and opened and the 4 races, and I would assume other minor races/animals, all rush through the portals arriving on Sanctus. The portals flicker and close. Those in transit get brought back. This is roughly what we know.
What we don't know is: Is Sanctus in the same Galaxy, Universe or Dimension? Are the portals Instant or at Light Speed Travel?
For the lore I a going with, Sanctus is in the same Galaxy and the portals are light speed travel. The 10 were not GODS, but were highly super advanced beings. Like the Q in Star Trek but still with "flesh and blood" bodies. Their technology is so far advanced that even to us they would appear as to be Gods, just as to people thousands of years ago on Earth we would appear as Gods to them with our technology and we are just at the point where we could create a new race of people through genetic splicing etc. So this isn't unreasonable and it makes sense when you read much of the other lore. The sub races are like children, We combine our essences to produce offspring. They have just taken it to a higher level where they can combine the essences of multiple people, perhaps the 10 are the last of their species. It's interesting that the beings they create look like US aka human. Perhaps these beings are so old and so evolved through their own evolution they no longer resemble the forms they once evolved from and only what they remember from histories long forgotten. AKA The 10 are "Humans" from Earth which is long gone. This isn't really relevant to the AoC Story, it's just a fun thought.
The portals travel at light Speed. If Sanctus is in the same Galaxy it can take a thousand years or more to travel from Verra to Sanctus and eventually from Sanctus to Verra. This will give the Tulnar a few thousands of years to evolve while those who escaped from and return to Verra are basically in stasis as they travel. I see the portals as a form of Transporter Beam so those within it would not age. To them they stepped in and out of a portal.
Why is there Magic on Verra and not on Sanctus? Perhaps there are minerals and energies that are so rare that with the right genetic manipulations would allow the people to manipulate them. Remember, the races are the offspring of sorts of highly advanced and evolved beings. This is taking inspiration from the Blue Adept Series from Pierce Anthony. Having to save the peoples of Verra there may not have been time to find another planet/solar system with the same energies/minerals or to set up the technologies to allow for "magic".
Back to Sanctus - The 4 races have been on Sanctus for thousands/tens of thousands of years. Enough time for the Tulnar to evolve from the different races and sub races. Now we can't mate with other animals to produce offspring. I'm sure science is mixing our genetic materials with other species to see what will happen... With Magic I'm sure it's going to be much easier with less results that would make for a great horror movie. The process wouldn't take hundreds of thousands of years or even millions...
How technologically advanced do we get on Sanctus? Look at how far we have come in 3 thousand years on Earth. From Stone/Bronze Age to we can orbit our plant in tubes. We had to learn how to do everything and invent much of it. The Verra Refuges, though with out magic, will still have a lot of knowledge about collecting and crafting. A big head start. So how advanced are the people?
Here are a couple of things in my lore that I think will reduce the level of over all technology and also explain why on Verra we don't have any advanced tech with us, regardless of the tech level on Sanctus.
The Portals only transmit true organics. The process of the portals is two stage. When you walk into the "Aura" of the portal you start to phase out as the portal collects your information and beams you to the portal on the other side. Anything that is not a true organic would not beam with you. Example: You have Cotton under clothes, Wool Socks, Leather Tunic and Belt with a metal buckle with Leather Sandals. Your belt buckle, being metal,would just drop to the ground or be separated and fall through the other side of the portal from the momentum. This would go for any fillings, armors etc. When everyone appeared on Sanctus, they only had on their natural fibers and would in effect have to start at the Stone age technologically. There wouldn't even be a stone Knife that came with them. This would slow down their technological development by a thousand years at least.
Further more, going back to an earlier point, why would Sanctus have ready made Portals? IF the portals were an emergency escape and it takes Light Speed Travel to go between them, then how did the 7 (the 1) Create/Open portals with such a vast distance between them? The simple answer is the portals on Sanctus had already been there. Long forgotten by all but 1 of the 10 Gods. The simple answer is, if the 10 are long evolved/genetically modified humans, then Sanctus is Earth. This would also help explain why the Verra Refuges are not at the level of technology that we are today or even more advanced.
When we humans make Earth unlivable we will seek to leave. That will take massive resources and those resources will be taken off world in the form of space fairing ships. Sanctus, old Earth, would have had it's own thousands upon thousands of years to heal, as humans evolved to the state of evolution of the 10. It would be liveable again and all hints of "humanity" would have eroded away. With a lack of metals and such it would make advancing technologically very slow. The iron and other metals wouldn't be found in the traditional ways as it would have been already mined out. They would find iron from old cities (Inspiration from the Shannara Series Terry Brooks).
But how did portals exist on Earth after all the humans left?
When the 10 created the Ancient(s) race with their essences and set to war with each other they became the 3 + Ancients vs the 7. This means the Ancient race is VERY powerful if it was able to assist the 3 against the 7. If the 10 were all equal in power then the Ancient Race is at least as powerful as 1 of the gods, this is why I think the Gods are not gods, just super advanced/evolved nearly Q like humans. It stands to reason the Corruption was created by The Ancient Race or may be itself part of that race, but that's a different theory for a different post. The Goddess of Creation, in my thought, found Sanctus and created portals there (and maybe other worlds [future expansions]) as a "just in case" knowing that the evil would return. This would suggest that the victory of the 7 wasn't complete and perhaps quite narrow which is why they created the 4 races with their essences. The 4 are weaker than the Ancient race, but collectively who knows. I'm sure that will play a factor at some point in the story line.
Also, like with Verra, not all humans left Earth... but that goes into how the Radio exists and can exist in Sanctus and Verra so I wont get into that too much here. I need to leave some reasons to listen to PRO.
Reading the lore so far it would appear that the Goddess of Creation Created the portals on Verra (maybe were already made and just lowered them from Orbit) and then powered them which I am sure would drain a massive amount of energy, so much so that the source would be very weak/shut down which would also shut down the portals. It could conceivably take thousands of years to recover, which for a near omnipotent being isn't that much time relatively. This would be the Phoenix motif as the Goddess "burnt" herself out and had to recharge and perhaps could have reached the final evolution of pure consciousness like the Q with access to energies not before known which allow for the portals to be sustained indefinitely when the game launches.
I do think at some point we will go back to Sanctus as the Corruption will grow/spread or the Ancient Race will find it. After all the portals are open and connected so it's just a matter of following that energy. I think the Old Earth connection makes for a really good story arc that could be really engaging.
TL:DR
The Gods are just highly advanced Humans, nearly the level of Q (Star Trek). Verra is a very rare world/Solar system where "Magic" is just energy/radiation that can be manipulated. The Ancients and 4 races are just genetically modified from the "Gods" in what they believe was close to their original forms (having forgotten it being so long ago) which is why the 4 races look so human. (they got at least 1 version right) We all know Dwarves were the true human form.
Sanctus is Earth, stripped of it's resources when Humans had to leave due to our own created Corruption (Global Warming/pollution) So really the Corruption is a repeat of History). Verra and Earth are thousands of light years apart in the same Galaxy on nearly opposite ends. The portals transport at light speed so it takes that time to travel which gives the Tulnar more time to evolve into their race and reduces the time Sanctus has to evolve their technology even with limited metals. They may not be able to advance their tech much further than the pre-Earth industrial age because of a lack of raw materials and what took hundreds of years on Earth took thousands on Sanctus.
Portals also only transport natural organics, so even if Sanctus had tanks, only the driver would be transported via the portal.
Steven, if you read this, I hope you will reach out. If I am totally off, I'd love to have a general idea to build the stories on. Again, much of my theory isn't going to be directly mentioned, only hinted at if at all. This is just to help me contain the stories for consistency. The idea is to set the stage for the launch. Is there a foretelling of the portals opening? With the power it would involve would it cause earth quakes or storms? I hope to write the stories starting months before the portals open and telling those stories over the next year or two in weekly/monthly episodes with hosts also living out their day to day mundane lives in Sanctus not knowing what is coming.
To all others who read this: What are your thoughts on the theory's I have? Would you like to participate in these Audio Dramas by voicing characters? I am currently working on the initial 20 minute Drama to set up My and KoreKode's Characters. We need voices for Guards, Bar Maid and others.
We will be Dwarves, so I'd like to have some fun stories about the other races too and you could potentially voice your own character. Lots of fun to be had in weaving our stories together. We might all play on different servers, in our Radio Drama World we could all exist in some way and I hope to mention many people over time as well.
Love a good story and lore.
Twitch Streamer : PRO Discord
0
Comments
If you are interested let me know. We would record your lines through Discord for proper direction and reading.
Love a good story and lore.
Twitch Streamer : PRO Discord