Jenna SwiftGem on Nov 5, 2013 wrote:

Great question -- to add on, we could maybe explore Candyland as well? I'm extremely curious as to where the different teachers are from.

Oh me too. I am really hoping for a cool skill quest from our teachers that will give us a really good back story similar to Bonnie Anne's. I am sure Blind Mew is working on this but it also will involve the artists, the quest programmers and of course Ratbeard for the awesome battles. I do hope they have the bandwidth to spare for such things. You couldn't be more right on how epic that would be.

Hello, Blind Mew! I ask have a few questions:

1. You answered a question earlier about Gracie Conrad from the Isle of Fetch and Grace Conrad from Celestia saying they are the same person. What I'm kind of thrown off about this is that Grace Conrad is brown furred and sports a pink shirt, making her very different from Gracie Conrad. Gracie Conrad, on the other hand, looks identical to Edith Benchley in the Base Camp of Celestia. Wouldn't it be easier to say Gracie Conrad is a distant cousin or even sister to Grace Conrad? I think it helps allude to Wizard101 rather than making them the same person. Just a suggestion.

2. Do you mind giving a teeny-tiny hint about these captions KI is releasing? Who might the Ancient Ones be and what's up with Aquila coming to Skull Island? Didn't they distance themselves from the Spiral after the first Achaean War (If I remember, correctly)? What have you got up your sleeve this time? I'm very excited about it!

3. You said at one point, I believe in the 2nd Story thread, that a Revolutionary story or theme would be fitting as to what to follow after the El Dorado story ends. Is it possible that for the 2nd story we'll come back to help Avery build his Pirate Republic and use many Colonial American analogue's to break away from Marleybonian (British) and Monquistan (Spanish) rule or World War 1 and 2 references like a German influenced world trying to take over the Spiral? The thought of Goerge Barkington, Christopher Colambus, Moowis and Bark, Marquis de Lapenguette, and Rabbitler (eh?) are interesting puns to use. Maybe even making a northern Skull Island skyway with Polarian rule (like how the French ruled Canada which is north). Plus you have quite a few analogue's people have mentioned (Dutch, Portugeses, and Australian).

4. Is there always a 100% chance a mentioned world actually makes it to the game at some point? Long mentioned worlds like Gobblerton and Candy World posses some sway toward no, but I'm just asking.

Just Add Bacon on Oct 31, 2013 wrote:

Excellent questions, you reminded me to ask one of my own. I've got a million questions it seems, but my short memory doesn't really allow me to repeat them, so I'll just do this one.

Is the voice of Hawkules the same as Captain Boochbeard?

Maybe...

katreeny on Nov 1, 2013 wrote:

Heh! Two "that would be telling", two "great idea", one "you're on the right track", and one "yes" - that's a pretty good score!

I'm really looking forward to seeing how you bring it all together - based on what you've done so far it will be awesome.

In the meantime, I have my own theory about our parents - I think Gaspard is closest: that the Armada is responsible.

I suspect even then they were looking for Pollo's map. Kane was fine with leaving Pollo's piece with him, and then in Granchia. (Pollo's epic journey had to have been before the war against Napoleguin, based on the hints we have). Kane knew exactly where it was and could collect it at any time.

Part of Deacon's responsibilities were tracking down the rest of the pieces. He tracked one to our parents, and came after them. Once he had them (but not the piece for reasons no doubt to be explored later), he used his living agents to spread multiple stories of how they'd died. Each of the origin companions heard a different story - except Gaspard who (my theory) was the only survivor from the actual attack. But no one believed him because it wasn't long after the war against Napoleguin so the Armada were still seen as allies.

We were harder to track down - Deacon never found out who our parents left us with. I think once he found where we were, he made his sweep on whatever pretext he could use, which is where the game starts. Of course we don't know where Mom's map piece is either... But we're a key to it.

He used us as his stalking horse to get past Blood's defenses and find Clark's piece. Much more convenient for him to have us taking the risks. He did try to negotiate with Blood, but that ended... badly.

I'm guessing Deacon hadn't traced all the pieces when we destroyed him, since there was no evidence there'd been any Armada activity in Aquila, and there is that stormgate to Aquila in the Aragon Skyway... We know Mom's piece hasn't been traced. We don't know if they've tracked Erika the Red's piece or not.

Us starting that war with Marleybone really threw a wrench into Kane's plans, I think. He didn't have all his pieces in place when it blew up, but that's not going to stop him. And now he's going to be really mad at us.

For some reason I don't think our encounters with him are going to be terribly civilized.

Wow!

Really good theories here, and I'm impressed with your grasp of some of the final details. You're not entirely correct 9and even if you were, I wouldn't tell you ): some of the timing is a bit off. But trying to reconstruct things from the Armada's point of view is always a good exercise.

The war really messed things up for LOTS of people - its impact on Kane is something we tend to ignore, but it was significant (even before the PC showed up and wrecked Rooke).

As for the encouters with Kane, I'm hoping they will be full of surprises.

Crafty Kiley Hawki... on Nov 4, 2013 wrote:

I loved Bonnie's and Old Scratch's involvement in it.. especially since Ratbeard and Bonnie are always bickering with each other. And it was great to see Lasko again.

Do you think Lasko will end up making more appearances in any future promo quests for Ratbeard?

C.K. Hawkins

I worry that we may have used Lasko up - I'd like to see a Ratbeard promo quest without him!

victor ice on Nov 4, 2013 wrote:

hello blind mew i have some questions if you don't mind

1. what is you favorite world in the spiral
2. what world would you want to live in(this question and and the the question on the top is totally different, like say that you favorite world was dragonspyre but would you want to live in dragonspyre)
3. in the world that you live in what species would you be (cats,sharks,tigers,demons etc) and what position would you would have on that world (kings,gladiators,thieves,blind old beggars etc)
4. and to drive you crazy, who is the female elite

Actually, 1 revision - in MooShu I'd be a goat philosopher, making sand paintings an contemplating ancient wisdom.

thatonevalenciansw... on Nov 2, 2013 wrote:

i know you technically already did the first question but
1.is there anyway you can make tf2 like refrences or have an entire chapter that's a tf2 onage,just remove some more adultish features like the blood and gore,demo's scrumpy(or just turn it to yum) and spy's cigarette.
2.(irrelevant i know) but are you a brony:aka a male fan of my little pony friendship is magic i am one myself
3.What would happen if our pirate and his/her crew went to an alien world(as in a higly technolgy advanced for the spiral aliens,alien soldiers with rocket launcher's,pistols that shoot lasers not electricity and has a king that is nearly as powerful as a god.)what would you think of that i think it could lead to some possibilty's and cituations.
silver joseph vane

1. No, not really.

2. Nope.

3. If we did veer in a more sci fi direction, I doubt it'd be thsat overt: we'd probably frame the sci fi in a more fantasy frame, similar to what Wizard did in Celestia. If you really want stuff like this in a turn-based combat game, go check out X-Com.

Chrissy Th'Blesser on Nov 6, 2013 wrote:

Oh me too. I am really hoping for a cool skill quest from our teachers that will give us a really good back story similar to Bonnie Anne's. I am sure Blind Mew is working on this but it also will involve the artists, the quest programmers and of course Ratbeard for the awesome battles. I do hope they have the bandwidth to spare for such things. You couldn't be more right on how epic that would be.

We're working on it. I have one particular idea involving the trainers... it would be Epic indeed.

Cunning Finnigan S... on Nov 7, 2013 wrote:

Hello, Blind Mew! I ask have a few questions:

1. You answered a question earlier about Gracie Conrad from the Isle of Fetch and Grace Conrad from Celestia saying they are the same person. What I'm kind of thrown off about this is that Grace Conrad is brown furred and sports a pink shirt, making her very different from Gracie Conrad. Gracie Conrad, on the other hand, looks identical to Edith Benchley in the Base Camp of Celestia. Wouldn't it be easier to say Gracie Conrad is a distant cousin or even sister to Grace Conrad? I think it helps allude to Wizard101 rather than making them the same person. Just a suggestion.

2. Do you mind giving a teeny-tiny hint about these captions KI is releasing? Who might the Ancient Ones be and what's up with Aquila coming to Skull Island? Didn't they distance themselves from the Spiral after the first Achaean War (If I remember, correctly)? What have you got up your sleeve this time? I'm very excited about it!

3. You said at one point, I believe in the 2nd Story thread, that a Revolutionary story or theme would be fitting as to what to follow after the El Dorado story ends. Is it possible that for the 2nd story we'll come back to help Avery build his Pirate Republic and use many Colonial American analogue's to break away from Marleybonian (British) and Monquistan (Spanish) rule or World War 1 and 2 references like a German influenced world trying to take over the Spiral? The thought of Goerge Barkington, Christopher Colambus, Moowis and Bark, Marquis de Lapenguette, and Rabbitler (eh?) are interesting puns to use. Maybe even making a northern Skull Island skyway with Polarian rule (like how the French ruled Canada which is north). Plus you have quite a few analogue's people have mentioned (Dutch, Portugeses, and Australian).

4. Is there always a 100% chance a mentioned world actually makes it to the game at some point? Long mentioned worlds like Gobblerton and Candy World posses some sway toward no, but I'm just asking.

1. It was always my intention that they be one and the same.

2. You'll find out soon. The Ancient Ones are probably who you might expect them to be, while the Aquila thing I expect will take you by surprise.

3. I believe I said that would be one cool way to go, but never meant to commit to that idea. The Pirate Republic is something I long to get back to, but I'm not sure how much it would resemble the American Revolution (cool puns notwithstanding). Don't forget - Skull Island is the Carribean. If there is a Polarian presence, it'll be tropical - I expect those poor Penguins would hate it there! There was actually, for a brief moment, a real "Pirate Republic" in the Bahamas in the early 1700s, when several pirate captains (including, most notably, Blackbeard) joined forces and created a de facto democracy with very little in the way of government. That's what inspired Avery's nascent republic.

4. Not at all.We ;love to drop names, and part of the reason wee do it is to plant seeds for future places to go, but there's nothing like a 100% chance.

Blind Mew on Nov 8, 2013 wrote:

Actually, 1 revision - in MooShu I'd be a goat philosopher, making sand paintings an contemplating ancient wisdom.

I Really like this. This sounds Much more like how your amazing brain works.

Blind Mew on Nov 8, 2013 wrote:

Wow!

Really good theories here, and I'm impressed with your grasp of some of the final details. You're not entirely correct 9and even if you were, I wouldn't tell you ): some of the timing is a bit off. But trying to reconstruct things from the Armada's point of view is always a good exercise.

The war really messed things up for LOTS of people - its impact on Kane is something we tend to ignore, but it was significant (even before the PC showed up and wrecked Rooke).

As for the encouters with Kane, I'm hoping they will be full of surprises.

Why thank you good sir!

I never expected you to tell me how close I got - you enjoy teasing us too much! (Is this where I admit I'm a published author in part of my off-game life? That gives me a slight advantage in trying to puzzle out where you devious folk are taking the plot). I'm definitely looking forward to seeing just how close I did get and what I missed. I bet when it does emerge I'll find there was enough hidden in the earlier parts to work it out - so far you've done a magnificent job of dropping the teasers in and then doing a bit of redirection and confusion so people don't catch them.

Well, from Kane's perspective Marleybone attacked his forces without provocation or justification. That probably broke a bunch of treaties. I can't imagine him being pleased about that - he probably wanted to crush them for their treachery as well as get the whole business out of the way as quickly as he could so he could get on with his real plans without all these interruptions. Not only that, he would have had the Marleybonians pegged as honorable if a bit dense sometimes, so getting what looked like an attack out of nowhere would have really been a nasty shock.

Marleybone of course thinks the Armada attacked without provocation or justification... At least for now.

I'm sure the encounters with Kane will live up to the standard you've set of EPIC battles to defeat Armada elites, complete with plot twists to set us on our heels.

Thank you so much for the responses, but I have so many questions to ask of you...

1. How does Grizzleheim play into the grand scheme of things?
2. Are our actions against Marleybone going to be discovered any time soon?
3. Any hints about Old Scratch's next promotion quest? I remember you being nicely vague with Bonnie Anne's ('we'll be learning a lot about her background') and Ratbeard's ('It's...different'.)
4. With the recent hints KI has been releasing, is a Skull Island expansion in the works? Or something else entirely?
5. I know there are Cutthroats and Hammerheads (the last of which is Mordekai). Are we going to meet any other Shark clans (this relating to a recent sneak peek with a certain shark in Vadima's Sanctum)?
6. Is it possible we may get quest chains diving deeply into our trainers' pasts?
7. Is the Lafitte clan (and by extension, Black Jean Lafitte) in Marleybone a relation to our Morgan Lafitte?
8. Any possible Book XV hints?
9. You said the entire story of El Dorado will probably take twenty books. How likely are the chances of that number going up or down?
10. When the El Dorado arc ends, you guys are going to whip up a new arc. So my question is - what would you name the El Dorado story? Just calling it 'the El Dorado arc' or 'quest for El Dorado' seems quite dull...