So what is life like on Sanctuary? Theorycrafting

https://ashesofcreation.wiki/Sanctus
This tells us that we won't get to know much about the Sanctus story arc prior to Beta testing, which is a shame, because I was hoping it was something Steven might drip feed us during the wait for A2.

There are parts of the background story we must know - if we are joining a server with a prior guild membership (to ensure we all land on the same server) then it seems logical that we must know those guild members on Sanctus, even if we don't know what magical abilities they might later have on Verra.

It is logical to assume that guilds exist on Sanctus, along with religions and social organizations. Characters wouldn't arrive on Verra and then suddenly have an epiphany about how to organize society.
https://ashesofcreation.wiki/Religions
https://ashesofcreation.wiki/Social_organizations
Although, as there is no magic on Sanctus, these would be similar to Medieval equivalents.

Mundane medieval style professions seem to be the only options for Sanctus. This might translate into a RP backstory.

Architecture (cosmetic shop skins) that we can have (early game) on Verra must indicate a developed mental capacity, even if Verra allows funky architecture to magically come into existence following some basic resource gathering, processing and crafting. A more backward mind would freak out if the building skin didn't fit within the scope of things that they had at least imagined before.

Perhaps the characters are haunted by strange dreams that ultimately motivate them to jump through the gate into Verra, justifying how (weird) skins can be applied magically to various things the character possesses. I.e. the characters had strange dreams about things (skins) for years in Sanctus, then, when in Verra, they are magically able to apply their dreams onto real objects.

Any thoughts on the above? Any other ideas about Sanctus?

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Comments

daveywavey

Do what some of us others have done, and write your own backstory.

Gaul_

It would be pretty odd if my character grew up on Sanctus prior to the game's events but I didn't know what Sanctus looked like prior to arriving in Verra. Thankfully it sounds like Intrepid Studios has some Sanctus story arc planned. Looking forward to it!

I would also assume that the different races on Sanctus mostly stuck to their own settlements since the architecture is based on race on Verra.

McMackMuck

@Overthrow Good point about racial settlements.

Sathrago

Another thing to point out is that from what we have been shown, the races that escaped to Sanctuary were cut off from magic for thousands of years, yet still retain a medieval level of technology. I feel like this is a really weird thing to have happen and I hope its addressed in some manner. This also could lead to tulnar being the only race with a high affinity for magic since they never left.

bloodprophet

Life on Sanctus was boring.
No Tulnar so everyone is coming back to hang out with the cool kids.

Voidwalkers

Sathrago wrote: »

Another thing to point out is that from what we have been shown, the races that escaped to Sanctuary were cut off from magic for thousands of years, yet still retain a medieval level of technology. I feel like this is a really weird thing to have happen and I hope its addressed in some manner. This also could lead to tulnar being the only race with a high affinity for magic since they never left.

That too.

In the firearms thread one of the arguments was that if you already have magic as long range attacks, then there's very little incentive for ppl to research & improve firearms. I agree with that.

But then, why didn't the ppl develop firearms after they've escaped into Sanctus? without magic, sure they have reasons to work on better ranged weapons now?

... Unless Sanctus is actually a very harsh place, so harsh that civilization & technology can't really progress even you've had a few thousands of years to work with ...

bloodprophet

Or they lack the proper resources necessary to make such things.

Voidwalkers

bloodprophet wrote: »

Or they lack the proper resources necessary to make such things.

Sanctus, a world devoid of magic and sulfur \o/

Sathrago

Voidwalkers wrote: »

bloodprophet wrote: »

Or they lack the proper resources necessary to make such things.

Sanctus, a world devoid of magic and sulfur \o/

There's also the fact that people returning from Sanctus are all gunho and easily able to start using magic. At least that's what it feels like when you see the alpha siege battles and wands are firing off all over the place.

They went from a no fantasy world to a high fantasy world, I'll be very, very disappointed if this transfer is hand-waved, it holds so much lore/story potential.

I 100% expect there to be some fanatical anti-magic groups that crop up around the world after seeing how dangerous it can be, making said groups wish to return to Sanctus or hunt down magic users.

McMackMuck

I agree, how Intrepid sets the stage for the return to Verra will make a huge difference to the emotional investment the players make.

maouw

I'd love them to add a scene of your level 1 experience of discovering that you can use magic in Verra!

Sathrago

maouw wrote: »

I'd love them to add a scene of your level 1 experience of discovering that you can use magic in Verra!

Tyranthraxus

Were we given the rough estimate of 3k years from the time of exile, to return, somewhere? It feels as though we were.

1) As a "back-up world", wouldn't Sanctus have to have been smaller than Verra?

2) With no infastructure and no crops, existing supplies would have gone very fast.

3) More to-the-point than 2, it's reasonable to assume some early wars over food and the good land - as it was being discovered and discerned.

4) Even if there was a more-peaceful resettlement period in moving to Sanctus, isn't is reasonable to believe there were some kind of wars in the span of 3k+ years?

5) The advanced-interest groups we've had just a small touch of lore for, thus far, likely established later, Closer to the return to Verra, than to the exodus to Sanctus - as many of them feature multi-ethnic members. (For example: The Verdant Keeper).

6) While Religion's absolute proof might be gone in a world without noticeable magic, that doesn't mean it's popularity nor hold on civilization is any less; If anything, religions of the different gods might be more a daily part of peoples' lives pre-return than ever.

7) There are occult groups, even in no-magic worlds: People who safe-keep tomes of magic, magical mentions, students' notes, ancient articles and publications, etc. It's reasonable to believe that there will be people who have preserved ancient magical texts and tomes and re-printed them for posterity and history (including some fakes and meaningless forgeries - but ones that can't yet be proven as bullshit!). Upon the gates beginning to return to life, it's entirely possible that some of these groups will send well-prepared, advance parties ahead to get an early foothold in re-discovering magics that no one alive has ever seen.

8) 3,000 years is enough time for classes to establish and become entrenched in societies; There will be a spread of wealthy and poor and every degree of rich in-between in Sanctus, by now. Some coming through the portal are lone refugees looking for a place with more resources and opportunities. Others might be upper-classmen trained at Sanctus's highest universities, eager to uncover a past that hasn't even been physically touch-able for millenia. It's easy to believe that artifact-cartels might become pre-arranged, in order to fulfill the predictable market-demand of Verran artifacts in Sanctan cities.

Sathrago

Tyran brings up some really good points and it made me think of something else. Why would the races come together to leave to Sanctus and then over 3 thousand years not inter mingle with the other races? The fact that we come out of Sanctus as entirely distinct cultures is very odd, and I hope they address this. My first thought is that Sanctus is so massive that each portal took each culture far away from each other, and they never interacted or hardly interacted with each other.

maouw

Oooh, interesting!

I wonder if the gods made an agreement that while on Sanctus they would limit their interactions with the Verrans, and so the return to Verra also sparks a kindof rediscovery of the gods in their full glory.

Or to what Sathrago was saying - maybe the gods distributed responsibility while on Sanctus, each race was under the care of a specific god - hence why the races didn't interact and they each have a preferred racial deity?

Or even - there was a massive war on Sanctus and as a result of that first war, magic was confiscated and all gods took a backseat as part of a treaty.

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