Storylines and Plots
As much as the people of Chimeron enjoy questing, they also enjoy throwing events for the wider Realms. Chimeron and the friends they convince to join them in storytelling have been throwing plots for the community since the 90s, and through to the present day. The plots listed here are arranged most recent to oldest. This is just a sample of the stories and plots Chimeron has thrown over the years.
Seasonal Fae Courts
2020-present
Run by Hillary Fotino and Briar Sieracki, this storyline has yet to appear at a dedicated event as of writing. Instead, the plot is taking an approach worthy of their Fae NPCs, popping up in unexpected places, such as a surprise night quest at Black and White, or in snippets of information traded from Fae merchants at summer festivals. A few events, Market Days in Fae, also took place online from 2020-2021.
Many rumors abound in regards to this plot, including whispering of inter-court politics turning sour, Fae apparently attempting to reclaim lands, and Deep Fae waking to turn their gaze to the land of mortals.
[This section’s information primarily written by Hillary/Tara and Briar/Phee]
Risen Kingdom
2015-Present
This plot is run by the Chimeron subnation of Rua Thar Cinn, though is currently primarily headed up by Eric W, Pat, and Mikey. Aaron began developing the core of the idea and seeding plot around 2007. Rua Thar Cinn had not even been founded at this point, and running this plot was a factor in drawing some of the current members together.
By 2015, RTC were often running or helping run Feast of Chimeron, and decided to use it to more seriously launch this plot, which up until this point had mostly consisted of hints and foreshadowing. Feast of Chimeron XXIII was the first big Risen Kingdom event, where the plot showed PCs how the plane of Gi had been taken over by the Risen Kingdom by having them play "The Last Night of the Resistance" on the nightquest, ending in a boss battle. So many PCs became aware at that point, even though there had been small things (especially involving helping and learning from Jack, a childlike spirit in the Dreaming) for years and years before.
Over the next few years RTC threw a lot of content. The Risen Kingdom was understood as a conquering extraplanar force who were trying to get into the Realms through trickery, subterfuge, or outright conquest, and who were characterized by using "Void magic", which allowed them to create these weird, red blobby constructs. They also got a reputation just for fighting intelligently and dangerously. The PCs lost at multiple events, most notably Void Where Prohibited in 2016, in which the Risen Kingdom made a road through Faerie by nailing cold iron into the ground.
The PCs got better at fighting the Risen Kingdom, becoming more organized and understanding the level of threat they were up against. Slowly the PCs turned the tide against the Risen Kingdom, including at the next few Feasts and Quests of Chimeron, and at An Unavoidable Conflict in 2018 the PCs destroyed the last encampment of Risen Kingdom forces in the Realms and took control of the portal they were using, ending the threat of the Risen Kingdom invading the Realms.
Of course, by this point the PCs had learned a lot about the Risen Kingdom’s history, and didn't feel like repelling the interplanar invaders was enough. They needed to stop them, both so they wouldn't keep invading other, more helpless planes, and to save the subjugated people of Gi. At A New Be-Gi-Nning in 2019 the PCs ventured through the portal for the first time, to the kind of magical industrial wasteland that was Gi. Major plot points involved this not being a place where the solution was "Just fight into the Risen Kingdom's home base”. This would have been a grueling, losing proposition.
Plans for more Risen Kingdom plot were interrupted in March of 2020, but in August of 2020 RTC hosted a multi-weekend Minecraft event in which players excavated and explored the ruins of a buried Resistance fortress in Gi. By solving puzzles and fighting through buildings sunken deep in what had become a desert wasteland, players learned more about the history of Gi and how it fell to the Risen Kingdom. In 2022 Realms adventurers learned about how the Risen Kingdom is now gobbling up small demiplanes instead of large planes like the Realms, and found a way turn that expansion against the Fallen King and his forces.
One recurring ‘location’, if a vehicle can be called that, is the Dreamliner Revenge. The RTC team decided once on a lark that there existed such a thing as a Dreamliner, a ship that could transfer into the Dreaming that the Risen Kingdom had built. The PCs captured it at an event, and had a blast with it. Orion personally drove plans to be able to keep using the Dreamliner after its power would have run out, and so it's been seen a few times, and is key in this demiplane-hopping business. The Dreamliner is experienced in game, usually, as a large room or two that require constant effort from a crew of people in order to keep it functioning. There are several stations far enough apart that PCs need different people to operate them and coordinate between groups.
[This section primarily written by Eric W/Rosetta]
The Strangers War
2012-2019
It is difficult to say when this plot ran. Arguably, it started in 1994 with Into the Moongate and is still running. However, more precisely, the first event highlighting this plot was The Strangers War I in 2019. This plot was stopped however due to personal issues by the plot master, unable to continue throwing this type of event. This was the concept of Steven Matulewicz. Like many of his ideas, it has spanned years and many people have helped to bring it to light. This is an over- arching concept, hinted at since Steven’s first events in 1994. There was at one time a universe that fell apart, and the pantheon that ruled it began to look for other universes to rule. There are hints of primordial gods and unspoken, unwanted powers that can unravel an existence. They had done this before, to many other universes. They had even tried in this Realm before. But now, they were close.
The idea was, well, massive. There is an entire other universe known as Red Autumn that Steven created and where some people have gone on adventures online and in small side quests. He has an unpublished novel on this world he draws from. The background is expansive and is difficult. The plot has had multiple difficult starts and stops. He has written countless short stories to the View, poems, artwork, etc. in reference to this plot.
[This section primarily written by Steven M/Pyr, Therian, Sagart]
The Door in the Dreaming
1997-2018
The Dreaming has existed for as long as those of the Realms have had the capacity to dream. Many event holders and storytellers of the Realms have written plots around and within the Dreaming. The one about the Door in the Dreaming, with an entity behind it called the Night Master, had mentions at least as far back as the in-game year of 997. It was run by Sean A, player of Magus Zeek McKrye, and Carrie Dolph, who came up with many of the core concepts. Janna O-P ran the conclusion to this plot in 2018, though did not fully ‘release’ the villain of the Night Master, as they felt the end of that villain was not their story to tell. Sometimes the threat is bigger than the villain itself. After this Dreaming plot, Janna decided not to work with the Night Master plot further, as that Door had been blown away from that particular Skerrie by Lucien.
The final event, Ush'dui and the Causeway took place on April 21, 2018.
Though the Night Master is gone, some PCs are still superstitious and don't want the name said, as the entity got power by people knowing its name. Some even preferred it not be mentioned OOC, something this website is doing right now.
[This section primarily written by Janna O-P/Iawen]
Feast of Highbridge
2013-2017
Ian Struckhoff, player of Nero up until Now to 'Scape the Serpent's Tongue and later player of Atticus/Tam Lin, had as his original character concept that Atticus was an Assistant Apprentice Pie-Maker in Discworld (a book series), who was wowed by their wizards but could never be one. He found his way to the Realms where magic was significantly easier: It only took him three adventures to learn how to cast a spell! (Having already played a powerful and mighty Seer, he delighted in making people literally spend three events teaching him to cast Light.)
Eventually, Atticus was quite successful. He was made a Magus of the Realms, Apprenticed Tria Highwater (played by Rhiannon), learned Rosetta's Runes along with Ged and Tria and the others and was one of the first to make his own, and was key in the Bedlam War. And so Atticus decided it was time to make a university. Also around this time, Ian went to another larp, New World Magischola, a "blockbuster-style" Nordic-inspired larp where you played the students and professors at a wizard college. Think Harry Potter, but very intentionally trans-inclusive and generally of progressive/radical politics, aged up to college rather than grade school. That larp was characterized, too, by having freeform magic in which the player decides how it affects them. Ian wanted to combine these elements he'd enjoyed.
The events, OOC, were called ‘Feast of Highbridge’. IC, he tried to always maintain "The University is opening its doors for a class day for the general Realms populace, and we will have a light tea in the afternoon.”
What this actually meant was that the event was held it in a museum that Ian had an in with, and had classes in the afternoon (Janna taught storytelling classes, Becky taught "how to be a thinky fighter" classes, Eric W made a Rune escape room, and James Murphy did a leatherworking class, etc), and then in the evening the "tea" was an enormous feast.
Ian EHed, Eric W MMed, Rhiannon feast-o-crated, and together they had a pretty great time. The staff were slowly developing lore about Highbridge itself. People used the High Energy Magic Laboratory, the Seeing Place, and the Stellar Observatory. One of us had the key to the summoning room. There was a library. There was the time when Highbridge, which was literally high up on a large stone bridge over an enormous river, noted that the river below was full of Bedlam. But it never really was a full-on plot.
[Editor's Note: An example of some of the lessons are Rosetta's lesson plans about Bedlam.]
[This section primarily written by Eric W/Rosetta]
Evil League of Evil
2012-2014
The Evil League of Evil lasted a few years, near the tail end and following Bedlam and major fae plots. As the event holders of this series, Megan Williamson and Dave Harvill wanted to create a more tongue in cheek, lighthearted series after Bedlam. The basic concept was that a bunch of knockoff “B-list” villains got together and decided to team up in the hopes of being able to match “the heroes” if they worked (more or less) together. Villains were all bad references to other better known villains in the Realms or out of character. For example “the Rake'' (spoofing Wrake and also played by Steven M who ran the Wrake plot) had a gardening rake hat and was gathering a horde of undead to conquer plant life. The FoC they first appeared at, they were trying various schemes against the heroes that they had to foil. The second event The Rake was attacking a temple of Gaia to try and steal various seeds which the heroes had to stop plants vs zombies style.
[This section primarily written by Megan W/Cimone]
Measure of a Man
2011-2014
Around 2010, Vicky Zukas, player of Sir Valerie Hart, who had only started playing maybe a year or so before, had the idea to run an event that would maybe turn into a plot. She recruited Eric W and Rhiannon to help her run it, since they had (marginally) more experience, got NPCing help from people like Sean V, and had the main face NPC played by Richard Pavis, who also played First Age Rosetta and Magus Quinn.
The first event was The Court of Miracles, a wild and almost hallucinogenic dungeon crawl in which some parts were lighthearted but also used pre-regs to make people face their fears. The main face NPC was a jester who ran the Court of Miracles.
Vicky's overall idea, which was played out as one event per year from 2011 to 2014, was that there was a great magician who had been broken into five parts (based on the team’s interpretation of an ancient Egyptian idea about a person having five parts: Body, Mind, Soul, Name, and Shadow) and so each event would revolve around a different part. The Court of Miracles represented Body.
You can see all the events by searching in the Realmsnet event archive for "Zukas". There were four. They never managed to run the fifth, the conclusion to the plot where maybe the magician would have been brought back together/put to rest. By the last event, The Disregard of Shadow, in 2014, they were trying out some alternative event styles, pushing the envelope in a few ways.
[This section primarily written by Eric W/Rosetta]
The Harper Guild
2011-2014
This plot was run primarily by Hillary Fotino. During this time period songs and stories dissatisfied with being improperly contained gained sentience and banded together under a Queen. These tales twisted their own meanings. The Harper order helped the heroes of the Realms to keep those songs and stories from running amok and doing harm.
[This section primarily written by Hillary/Tara]
Bedlam
2004-2013
Bedlam may be one of the Realms’ most ambitious and world-spanning plotlines. Having this section included may be redundant for many players, as even those who were not involved have heard many stories. However, no one has the full story, and we would be remiss to leave out an opportunity to document more of this time in the Realms.
The major plot staff for Bedlam were Matt B, Sean V, Karen V, Janna O-P, Dave M, and Doug F, though they were supported by many more staff and plot writers, as shown in The Book of Moons section below. Some sections of this series were even set such that one would be able to staff some portions and play in others without having spoilers or major conflicts of interest.
Now, for the story…
In the mortal year of approximately 994, the smith Wayland had created Wayland blades and weapons, tools of vengeance against the fae which had taken his daughter. These weapons would force fae out of the cycle of rebirth and time, and ultimately would send them to Bedlam, a place the adventurers of the Realms did not yet know of. In 1004, a new adventurer, Bouquet, was hit with a Wayland bomb. Distraught adventurers, including Nero and Zeek, worked to get her home. The answer of how to save her was, of course, “Bedlam”.
One of the truest concrete starting points of the Bedlam plot was in October of 2005. In the event “Now to ‘Scape the Serpent’s Tongue”, players decided to open Bedlam, unleashing the plot upon the Realms for the next eight years. This plot and especially this event were ‘fair’ in that the plot staff were explicitly clear that these events would not be fair. Expectations were set that there was no built in win condition that marshals had in mind, and most magic items were passed. The players would need them.
As the agents of Bedlam, known as Bedlam Bois, spread through the Realms, the adventurers began to learn more, and to have further interactions with strange entities. Snippets of “Fear the Wellmen” and attacks on the Realms appeared. Eventually the adventurers met with the Wellmen, a guild with powerful technologies that had been keeping the forces of Bedlam in check.
As the players spent more time learning about the forces of Bedlam and those working against it, they gained some powers and some allies. All the while, darkness was consuming the Realms. One of the factors which made this event series so impactful was the scope and collaboration. Though not every event holder was participating or writing plot, many would allow the forces of Bedlam to interfere with their events, and later, for their villains and forces to team up with the heroes of the Realms to fight Bedlam.
Heroes were made during these adventurers, and the Realms faced many permanent deaths of many of their friends. The heroes learned of the Titans, the original beings of this universe, who were destined to kill each other or be killed, and determine the fate of the next universe. Mad Tom had killed and taken the powers of two of his brothers, becoming the Titan of Madness, Death, and Horror. The adventurers took the advice and powers given to them by Pater Yule, the Titan of Hope, and traveled back in time, killing the Titan of Death. With this, Tom would no longer hold domain over Death, and the adventurers had a fighting chance. They constructed weapons of their gods, traveled to the end of the universe to send hope and magic and light to their darkest hour, sacrificed themselves, and ultimately, finally, painstakingly won.
In a two-weekend long spanning event in September and October of 2013, the adventurers of the Realms fought and defeated the forces of Bedlam. We highly recommend talking to anyone who was there. Written words alone, especially from those who were not there, cannot cover the joy and feeling of victory that still echoes out from the stories, even when told out of character.
The Book of Moons
A Part of the Bedlam Plot
2010-2011
The Book of Moons comes from the Tom O'Bedlam song:
From the hag and hungry goblin,
That into rags will rend ye,
And the spirits that stand by the naked man
And the Book of Moons defend ye
The actual artifact called the Book of Moons first appeared in Now to 'Scape the Serpent's Tongue, in 2004. This is a huge book and the PCs emerged from the book itself, emerging from a page. One story says that the group broke through butcher paper stretched across a doorway.
Around 2010, deep in the Bedlam War, Matt Brenner approached a number of young Chimeronians and offered for them to be a "mini Fae staff" who would focus on just one part of the plot. Most of the group were deeply into Bedlam anyway, it was one of the big exciting things, but the idea was they would still be able to play in the rest of the plot.
The staff was Eric W/Rosetta, Rhiannon/Tria, Mikey/Janus, Vicky/Valerie, Brendan/Baledor, and Elyse/Indana. As these were all relatively new event and plot staff, they were assisted by Matt B and Steven M.
The first event was Beyond the Hag and Hungry Goblin, in October of 2010. In this plot the Wellmen had acquired and began to learn about the Book of Moons, an artifact of the giants - which is why it's so big! They had discovered it could be used for travel and teleportation. This was key because a Bedlam Seed had crossed the plane of Oblivion and embedded in a Material Plane on the other side. This world appeared to have very limited magic, and there's no way to physically cross Oblivion. Bedlam Seeds would invariably grow and take over planes, so it was essential that the Realms go and stop it. The Book of Moons could be used to "project" people across Oblivion.
The first event revealed the world they were projecting into: One that looked suspiciously like the real world during the Age of Exploration. PCs were on a ship crossing, effectively, the Atlantic. There were custom rules because they had no magic available to them. Eventually, their Bedlam Meter or whatever it was indicated that the next direction was Down, and they found an opening. The final event was a quest into the Hollow Earth. They ventured down to the very center of the planet, where the Bedlam Seed resided, and a Dislumina was slowly consuming the Inner Sun. The PCs did defeat it and save the world.
Dislumina
A portion of the Bois much denser than others, no luminescence could destroy a disluminus save possible daylight. Large wings would consume all light present, funneling it to the dark center where it would be ultimately destroyed. Neither sword nor spell could harm a disluminus excepting at the very moment when the darkness was weakest.
And finally, all this connects because at the end of Bedlam, the heroes found out that Tom O'Bedlam could escape to any Seeds that existed in the multiverse, so if the one in Qetzal, the world traveled to in Book of Moons plot, hadn't been destroyed, then when they finally reached Mad Tom's heads, they would not have been able to kill him for good.
[This section primarily written by Eric W/Rosetta]
Silver Future
2005-2013
Silver Future was a plot run by Doug Fisher and Michelle McCarthy. It was an alternate future plot where there were some major changes in the Realms and eventually led to an inter-planar war. There were wolf spirit creatures sent back in time by a group of time travelers to serve as protectors for a select group of people who were important to the timeline. These spirit wolves had been people who died in the future, retaining memories and fears about how they had died. At least four player characters bonded with one - Kovaks, Janus, Gryf, and Hoods. Two opposing generals helped and hindered the players. Maxwell, the general of the villains, was also referred to as “the Mad One”, and controlled Ebon Shades which could only be affected with silver and magic. These shades were highly dangerous if they were able to hurt characters, and were believed to be the souls of those who had succumbed to dangerous red moss. This moss could only be purified in a ritual with quartz.
[This section’s information provided by Becky/Kovaks, Hillary/Tara, and Mikey/Janus]
Dark Carnival
2008
This started around 2008 with the Dead Man’s Party. Technically this plot was not resolved, and could be considered on-going. This was designed by Steven Matulewicz with help from many people, but was mostly to encourage a plot by Robert Blanche.
A Black Tent would appear at the edge of a Town, with invitations to a Carnival. Within days, all of the inhabitants of the town would vanish, never to be seen again. This was a venture into trying to have more horror and darker events, to try and capture a sense of immersion and fear in the players. The difficulty is the premise was Dark Carnival was PC driven. If people wanted it to occur, content would be created, and was to eventually become a final, full blown horror event. Due to several people leaving the Realms community and financial difficulties, this event never happened. But it could at any time. The idea of the Dark Carnival exists in Modern Culture and in many ways. Mixing other Carnival concepts from books, movies, etc. was encouraged. They are all part of the same Carnival.
[This section primarily written by Steven M/Pyr, Therian, Sagart]
Essential Essence
2006-2007
Essential Essence I was run September 10, 2006, Essential Essence II was run January 20 2007 and Essential Essence IIB was run September 30 2007.
Ryan Sterling was the plot creator and ran the first two events. The third event was run by Megan W. and Katrina. The premise began as a tournament, where PCs were competing against NPCs. They had to collect ‘essential essences’ in order to impress and find alliances with an NPC faction referred to as the Shapers. According to some players’ recollections, this event series seemed to be “a mashup of Jewish lore and mathematical theory”. The essences used in this series were unlabeled dice, without faces or numbers.
Deep Caverns
2004-2007
Official events started in March of 2004 and ran until March of 2007, although some other plot ran outside of these events. Dave Martin was the primary EH and creative. Aaron Metzger was mostly the Magic Marshal, and wrote the runes used for the event series. This was largely designed as an open-world dungeon crawl. Dave had this entire dungeon and players were allowed to explore as they wished. There was some plot around goblins and dwarves, but details are currently evasive. This was meant to be an open-world dungeon crawl (well before open-world events were really being done). It was exclusively run in Riley Commons, back when that was the place to run dungeon crawls.
[This section primarily written by Aaron M/Rel]
Hypothermia and the Pentagram of Power
2004-2007
The main takeaway from these events was the sheer cold, as the name may suggest. These events were primarily run by Ian “Fuz” Struckhoff, with a team of dedicated NPCs sticking it out. The Pentagram of Power, also known as The Geomancer's Circle, was created by a council of men who split up because of OOC difficulties after the plot launched. They each took a piece of their pentagram area and did events around them. When some stopped playing, Fuz reached out more as a plot point to try and wrap it all up. Only Fuz could truly tell you if he thinks he finished it up.
Hypothermia would always be scheduled in the dead of winter as a two night, two day event, with cabins and one tavern area at least. Ian used Camp Allen in Bedford, NH. His last event in the series was at Ye Olde Commons, Charlton, MA. He always insisted on good food being served for his events, which eventually inspired Highbridge feasts (also in the dead of winter). Hypothermia had a lot of elements of different, smaller gods (like Thoth, Hel, etc) all doing their own attempts to eventually get the Ice Point on the Pentagram. There were vampires and thralls, banshees both fae and PC, Midgard and adapted Norse mythology, Steven M's Strangers War and Wrake plot, the Dark Carnival, there was a Lost Kingdom nightmare - everyone wanted the Ice Point. Eventually, Tom Rime (Thomas the Rhymer, also played by Fuz) took it over. Tom Rime lives in Hibernia, a place that is perpetually cold. Rites of War was crossed over into Hypothermia, so Matt B & Sean V's fae were also involved in the final Hypothermia event.
The Grey Council was made up of Jon Jessop (Trent Shadowdragon), Shawn Stoddard (the original creator of the Lost Kingdoms), Bill DeMarco (former Emperor Artex Bluebane of Rathkeale), Phil Ringwood (friend of all of these guys back then, a PC in the Empire/Borderlands), and Ian Struckhoff.
The events were:
Hypothermia! February 20 - February 22, 2004
Hypothermia 2 February 12 - February 13, 2005
Hypothermia 3 February 03 - February 05, 2006
Hypothermia 4/Rites of War 3 February 02 - February 04, 2007 (final Hypothermia)
[This section primarily written by Janna O-P/Iawen]
Rites of War
2003-2007
This event series was run by Matt Brenner, Sean and Karen Veale, and Laura Hoffman. After discovering a Goblin rebellion against King Oberon, the adventurers of the Realms learn from the Fae Duke of Loyalty without Compromise, Mercutio, that Oberon was not always the King of Fae. Once upon a time there was an earlier age of Fae where Fae was led by King Cuchulain and Queen Mab. Oberon and Titania had overthrown Cuchulain and Mab, and created the Seelie and Unseelie courts. In the modern day, a set of five artifacts began to appear, each containing a fraction of the power and essence of Cuchulain, such that it would be possible to revive the long-dead king.
When presented with this information, the adventurers decided that this usurper could not keep his crown and began a war against the Fae Courts to get Cuchulain back as the rightful King of Fae.
This war, which took place across a series of seven events, had many fateful battles. Many of the old Dukes and Duchesses of Fae were slain, with adventures ascending to take their place. Underhill, once a place in Fae, was nearly destroyed and was moved to be under Chimeron City, with Queen Meg replacing her father as the Monarch Underhill. The city of Argyle was besieged and sacked in a storm of sleet. Eventually, the host of the Realms overtakes those of Oberon and Titania, and a new True Court of Fae is established. Sir Captain Owen of the Azure Guard dons the five artifacts of Cuchulain, transforming into the faerie King, and the adventurer Bouquet ascends as Queen Nimbus.
Twilight Champion
2002-2007
The specific event ‘Twilight Champion’ was run September 28, 2007. However, this series technically kicked off from Lost Gate Legacies II: The Cage on November 30, 2002. It continued from there, in both content at other events and in its own events. These included Shadows of Death (February 24, 2007), Of Shadows and Daggers (July 6, 2007) and Story-Tellers III (September 7, 2007). The primary plot runner and EH was Aaron Metzger. This was his personal plot about Rel.
Rel's soul was broken in half (light and dark), with the dark half aggressively trying to assert control. PCs wanted to fix Rel, both because Ascerbus (Rel's dark half) was problematic, but also to help their friend. The final event had the PCs going into Rel's mind/soul to help Rel face Ascerbus. For the series as a whole, Aaron wanted to produce events that explored horror. He took a lot of inspiration from Silent Hill and Japanese horror and rolled it into the events. In Shadows of Death, for example, there was a murder scene with Rel's father being stabbed to death by a young Rel (Aaron worked with Chelsea Stoddard, who did incredible makeup/gore work). In Twilight Champion, one of the barriers on the way to Ascerbus was a monster powered by Faelinn's soul (long story, she made bad life choices). The only way to defeat it was to rend Faelinn (she was already tied onto a rock, loosely based on a scene from Fatal Frame II), but each blow was excruciating pain and suffering for her. “I don't know how well you know Leanne/Faelinn, but man can she act. Her cries of pain were so wrenching, my staff had to stop working until the PCs were done. It was incredible.” - Aaron
[This section primarily written by Aaron M/Rel]
Wrake
2002-2007
This plot ran from October 2002 (“The Lap of the Gods”) to January 2007 (“The Score on Which Reality is Written” ). The team changed over the years and spans many people. It was the brainchild of Steven Matulewicz but countless people in Chimeron and across the Realms helped to bring this story together.
Wrake, the son of the God of the Void, was upset at the instability and volatile nature of the pantheons of Gods in the Realms. In his anger, he waged war on the Realms’ gods, to bring everything back to the Void. There was a very large back story about this, including the creation and eventual Destruction of the Hidden Order, a series of forgotten gods, a venture into the Centaur Lands, a pantheon of Lords of Hell, and the return of the flow of magic.
This was an ambitious undertaking to try and allow multiple Event Holders to work plots together. While some ideas and concepts did work, in many ways the idea did not happen. For Steven, this was an attempt to push what kind of RP and depth of plot players (and himself) were willing to develop.
[This section primarily written by Steven M/Pyr, Therian, Sagart]
The Missing Link
September 6 - 7, 2003
Schola Antiquus II: The Missing Link
Aaron Metzger, Ian Pushee and Jason Rosa were the core team/EHs. This was a continuation of the teams’ desire to bring video games into the Realms. This one was based on The Legend of Zelda, with a heavy leaning on the dungeons. If you've played any Zelda game, you know the plot. “Blah blah blah Gannon, blah blah blah Triforce, blah blah blah stab things.”
This event was secretly Ian's way to fund a modular dungeon idea. He made dozens of tripods, which would be the points of a grid. Then rope and black plastic was run between adjacent tripods. At full size, this created a 10 x 10 grid (so 100 rooms), from which the team built dungeons out of. Dungeon setup was pretty straight forward too. One would slide black plastic to the side if the wall didn't exist (or just a little, if one needed a door). Then just put whatever stuff was needed in each room (tabards/masks, drops, etc.) and you were good to go. The main downside was initial dungeon setup and taking it down.
Speaking of tabards and masks, the team also made a bunch of costuming for the various Zelda monsters. These included some Keese (bat) masks, which really got around in the Realms. This is also the event where the Red Ring (magic item Cimone/Megan has) came from. PCs were allowed to choose one of the Zelda items to make into a magic item.
[This section primarily written by Aaron M/Rel]
Final Fallacy
September 21 - 22, 2002
Schola Antiquus I: Final Fallacy
So this might shock you, but Ian, Jason, and Aaron are HUGE video game nerds. So they wanted to run a series of events which were celebrations of games they loved. Thus was born Schole Antiquus (which is Old School in Latin). Their first event in the series was based on Final Fantasy, hence Final Fallacy.
The plot was like every other Final Fantasy (heroes out for adventure, inevitably drawn into conflict with an evil empire, discovers they were tricked by an ancient evil, finally fights against an abstract concept of evil which looks like an angel), but in Realms form. This event had So. Many. Props. Final Fantasy is all about the gear and the wacky monsters, so they had stuff for everything. Weapons of all sorts, different pieces of garb/costuming and even a printed instruction manual.
[This section primarily written by Aaron M/Rel]