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Asheron's Call (AC) is a fantasy MMORPG for Microsoft Windows-based PCs, released in late 1999. The land of Dereth and its surrounding islands are a vast, seamless 3D world simultaneously occupied by thousands of players and fantasy creatures.
General Gameplay involves earning experience points through a variety of activities, including engaging monsters in combat and fulfilling quests. The earned experience can be invested to improve the character's abilities by spending it on such skills as 'Unarmed Combat', 'War Magic' and 'Melee Defense', among many others. Besides experience points, questing and combat also yield equipment such as armor, weapons, health potions, and spell scrolls. Many types of loot can be improved or imbued with special spells and effects via Asheron's Calls crafting system, known as tinkering. Unlike most other games of this type, Asheron's Call rarely uses typical fantasy fiction to draw ideas from and instead creates its own, unique creatures. Instead of elves and goblins, a large majority of the monsters in Asheron's Call are completely original. Examples include insect-like Olthoi, the cat-like humanoid Drudges, silvery giants Lugians and reptilian Sclavus. Many unique races and creatures from Asheron's Call can be seen in Wikipedia's list of species in fantasy fiction. Asheron's Call is also known for its friendly stance toward third-party software, particularly Decal, which allows the creation of gameplay-enhancing plug-ins. History AC was developed by Turbine Entertainment Software and published by Microsoft. The first expansion, Dark Majesty, was released in 2001. A second expansion, Throne of Destiny, which includes a graphics upgrade, new player race and new landmass was released on July 18, 2005. In addition to the expansion packs, the in-game story is advanced by monthly updates, which introduce new quests and gameplay dynamics as part of the subscription package. While neither Turbine nor Microsoft have been forthcoming in releasing exact subscription counts, it is believed that Asheron's Call peaked in popularity in early 2002 at about 120,000 accounts and has since dropped to below 10,000 *. A sequel, Asheron's Call 2: Fallen Kings, was released on November 22, 2002, but was shut down on December 30, 2005 due to weak subscriber numbers that consistently lagged behind the original game. In December 2003, Turbine purchased the rights to the Asheron's Call franchise from Microsoft and assumed full responsibility for content development, customer service, billing and marketing in 2004. Asheron Realaidain and the Empyrean The story of Asheron's Call takes place on the planet Auberean which was ruled by the Empyrean. The Empyrean are tall humanoids with immense life spans and a powerful mastery of magic. Prior to Portal Year (PY) 0, their civilization dominated the surface of Auberean, a feudalistic, religious society that later split into several nations such as the Yalain, the Falatacot, and the Dericost. The main setting of the game is a small island in the Yalain dominion. The island's was known in Yalaini as Ireth Lassel. In PY0, a young Yalaini mage named Asheron Realaidain was experimenting with portal magic when he accidentally opened portals to an alien world. This planet was the homeworld of many monstrous insectlike species. One of the smaller species, the Olthoi, proceeded to invade Auberean via the portals, and legions of black man-sized death machines spewed across the surface of the planet, skewering the corpses of all other inhabitants on their massive pincers, their magic-resistant hides rendering them largely immune to the Empyreans' defenses. Their invasion went almost unchecked and the Olthoi all but annihilated the Empyrean civilization. In a desperate attempt to save the survivors of his people, Asheron called forth all of his power and summoned many portals, none of their destinations known to him, hoping that one would lead his people to safety. He ushered the last of his race through one of the portals, remaining behind himself to attempt to repair the damage he had caused. These portals opened to many different worlds, bringing various creatures into Auberean. Most of these creatures were as wild animals, some violent and destructive. One of the portals Asheron opened led to the planet Ispar, the homeworld of the human-like Isparians. The Isparians were sensitive to portal magic and were lured into the portals that appeared there. Upon arrival on Ireth Lassel, they were instantly enslaved by the Olthoi, who were constructing a hive civilization under the earth. As more and more Isparians arrived, some managed to escape slavery and live as nomads, hiding in the wilderness and defending themselves from the Olthoi with weapons of their own fashioning. Elysa Strathelar and Thorsten Cragstone Looking to destroy the Olthoi for good, two of the greatest free warriors among the Isparians, two lovers named Thorsten Cragstone and Elysa Strathelar, sought the advice of Asheron. Asheron helped them organize an assault on the lair of the Olthoi Queen. During the raid, Thorsten was struck down by the Queen herself. Enraged, Elysa pulled from her quiver an arrow that Asheron had enchanted for her with an elixir he designed to slay the Olthoi Queen. Elysa let the arrow fly and it struck the Queen in the eye, sending her into death throes that sent waves of primordial fear through the entire Olthoi horde. The head of their hive mind destroyed, the Olthoi domination fell into disarray, freeing the human race from slavery. The player begins as an Isparian freshly summoned from Ispar into post-Olthoi Ireth Lassel, renamed Dereth by the Isparians. Asheron remains present to guide the human people from the shadows, hopeful that they can restore his world to its former glory. The Viamontian Invasion In Asheron's Call: Throne of Destiny, players are thrown into a bitter civil war... A race of humans called the Viamontians managed to find their way to Dereth from Ispar during a war back on the homeworld. The violent Viamontians, led by King Varicci II, were trapped on an island hub for eight years. With the help of a mage named Nuhmudira, the barrier around the islands was destroyed and the Viamontians were unleashed upon Dereth. Players are able to choose from this new race of blue-skinned people and can interact with the world around them. The Viamontians have always been at war with the Aluvians (High Queen Elysa's people) and upon seeing that they ruled over Dereth, declared war. Players must now choose to support the self-declared Queen of New Aluvia, or the violent King Varicci II. Pyreal Pyreal is a metal found on the planet Auberean. It is generally an alloy of precious metals combined in some ratio with pure mana. In the game, the Isparians (humans), the one race to which all player characters belong, collect the metal and use it for various purposes. The Isparians' main source of pyreal is from the enigmatic golems that roam the countryside. These creatures are constructions of the planet's previous master race, the Empyreans, and motes of raw pyreal serve as their brains. The Isparian unit of currency, the pyreal, is stamped from this metal. Pyreal is also the chief constituent of the powerful Atlan weapons, named for Asheron's father, their inventor. The coins used to weigh one BU (burden unit) each, and with characters often carrying thousands of them at a time, the load could grow quite heavy. In response to player feedback, the weight of the coin was changed to 0BU, eliminating the effect of the coins on a character's burden level. Vitae Vitae, the Latin word for "Life Force," is the vital statistic penalized temporarily upon death. A "vitae penalty," known colloquially as "VP", "vit" or simply "vitae" describes the effect of a temporary reduction in character strength upon death. This penalty results from the (intentionally) imperfect link between Isparians and the Lifestones which resurrect them. Said "imperfect link" refers to the magic Asheron has employed to siphon a portion of every Isparian's life to keep the trapped Empyrean alive, which happens with every death to the Lifestones. If a character is not bound to a Lifestone, they will still accrue vitae from death. Player Killers Player Killers (PKs) are those who choose to change their status to enable them to attack another PK in Player vs Player combat. On death they drop some of their items and the winner of the fight is allowed to take them. One server, Darktide, is dedicated exclusively to this style of gameplay. The lore reasoning behind this mode of playstyle is attributed to Bael'Zharon, the Hopeslayer. In swearing allegiance to him, the character sheds Asheron's protection from attacking each other and devotes themselves to warfare serving (preferably) the Hopeslayer. In many instances, people have shed Asheron's protection solely to stand against those who attempt to do evil things. Examples of this include the destruction of the Shard of the Herald and the coming of the Burun Kukuur. Player Killer Lite Non-player killers can change their status to player killer lite at will. This allows them to attack other PKLs, but a death will not result in item loss or vitae penalty. However, you do lose all buffs that were self-cast or cast upon you, which can, in time, lead to a costly amount of expended components. This function is not available to player killers or on the Darktide server. This ability, according to the lore, was granted by Oswald to the barbaric Isparians in an effort to give them a less damaging means by which to fight each other. Vesayen Isles An archipelago of lush jungle islands, the Vesayen Isles are named after Vesayen Hylin, a refugee from the Olthoi who led a band of nomads to take shelter on the islands, which are located just off the coast south east of Ireth Lassel. The islands are home to many foul and dangerous creatures, such as Moarsmen, Niffis, Wasps, Zefirs, and powerful undead, to name a few. Aerlinthe Island The volcano-island of Aerlinthe, located north of eastern Ireth Lassel (also known as Osteth), is the home of a powerful undead of the Dericost clan, Lady Aerfalle. Many dangerous creatures are found here, such as golems, tuskers, wisps and shadows. Aphus Lassel Aphus Lassel, another tropical island chain, is overrun with Tuskers. They have a village near the portal to the island called Oolutanga's Refuge. Aphus Lassel is known to be the home of the Tuskers. Singularity Caul This mysterious, circular island, located off the south-west coast of the Direlands, is a place of legend. It was here that Bael'Zharon, the Hopeslayer, put to trial his aspiring champions and granted them the power of the Shadow Stones. It has since been overrun by the Virind'i, mysterious, antagonistic beings of pure energy and a hive-mind society, Tuskers, and deadly Hollow Minions. Marae Lassel Marae Lassel, introduced in the expansion Asheron's Call: Dark Majesty, is a massive island to the north of the Direlands and west of northern Osteth. It is most famously the home of the new Olthoi Queen and her brood, replacing the queen slain by Elysa Strathelar. Also residing on this island are nomadic groups of humans who attack travelers, dangerous, feral Prairie Dog-like creatures known as Carenzi, and two warring clans of Tumerok: The Aun and the Hea. Vissidal Vissidal island is relatively new to the landbase of Dereth, it is set off the NE coast of the mainland just off the Olthoi North. Getting to Vissidal island is restricted to higher level players 130+, and after completing a long and difficult quest called the Gateway to the Deep. The individual XP rewards per creature ranging from 700k to 2m for a single kill. There are only a few categories of creatures and they are: The Deep Vissidal is tough to hunt on, and to make things harder there is an area called The Deep. This area has the highest concentration of nasties spawned in groups around it. The Deep is basically a strange energy looking entity with 4 NPC humans nearby. Several quests are based from the deep and yield good XP on completion. Dark Isle In July of 2006, an new island openned up for level 150+ players. The island has scores of new 'shadow' type creatures that includes Ruschks, Shadows, Mukkirs, Remorans, and Sleechs (Niffis). This hunting ground was very unique from the others because trophy creatures (similar to Vissidal Island's Gold monsters) spawn only when members of a normal spawn are killed. There seems to be an even chance that the boss and his minions will spawn with each member of the original spawn which is killed, so killing the first of four gives a 25% chance of spawning the boss, the second gives a 33% chance, etc. Only one trophy boss spawns per spawn of normal creatures, even if all four all killed, so some players engage in "cherry picking", killing creatures only until the boss spawns, then killing the boss and heading to the next spawn. This is particularly prevalent as the normal monsters are worth only 1/3 to 1/8 the XP of Vissidal island creatures. Once you get a trophy off a boss creature you have 3 choices - either give it to The Deep (located on the Dark Isle), or give it to one of Varicci's soldiers or Elysa's soldiers - choose wisely because each one gives a different type of armor after a certain amount of trophy turn-ins. See also | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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