ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

Hi, I was going trough the lore to sort out a few things about the world of maj'eyal and I ended up with a few questions:

1) When is age of allure and age of dusk on the timeline? Where does the spellblaze fit into this?

Age of allure -> dwarfs vs dragons
Age of dusk -> necromancers, halfling king Roupar
Spellblaze?
Age of darkness
...?
Age of Pyre -> orc wars
--> the awakening of Yeek
Age of Ascendancy -> kingdom of Toknor

2) Halflings are half what?

3) Mixed races

This does not make sense: According to the lore, Tolak is the first mixed race (Toknor+Mirvenia, human+halfling). If humans and halflings are compatible, then there are going to be a lot more mixed race creatures out there. That means that the 'pure' races will have some opinion about this. For example, higher humans might look down on mixed races. Halflings would look down on mixed races. Then Tolak comes and unites the races, but there are going to be factions within both human and halflings that oppose this new unification, and especially despise mixed races. If kinda surprises me that Tolak has not been assassinated yet.

4) Where are all the Sher'Tul structures that are supposed to be "all across Maj'Eyal"?

5) What happened to the Naloren (is it those naga quests in the east?)?

6) Shaloren have immortality. Humans would kill for this.

7) Why can a human, halfling, yeek, ... just walk into Shatur? Why can they come to Elvalva without even the slightest hindrance?

marvalis wrote:Hi, I was going trough the lore to sort out a few things about the world of maj'eyal and I ended up with a few questions:

1) When is age of allure and age of dusk on the timeline? Where does the spellblaze fit into this?

Age of Allure -> Spellblaze -> Age of Dusk -> Cataclysm -> Age of Pyre -> Age of Ascendancy

The Cataclysm bit refers to when earthquakes tore apart the eastern side of Maj'Eyal, killing the Naloren.

2) Halflings are half what?

Half height, I suppose. Hmm, according to Wikipedia:

Originally, "Halflin" was the Scots word hauflin, pre-- The Hobbit and Dungeons & Dragons. It meant an awkward rustic teenager, who is neither man nor boy, and so half of both. Another word for halflin is "hobbledehoy" or "hobby".

I guess this comes across as a human term for them, rather than what they call themselves, but let's not worry about that ;)

3) Mixed races

This does not make sense: According to the lore, Tolak is the first mixed race (Toknor+Mirvenia, human+halfling). If humans and halflings are compatible, then there are going to be a lot more mixed race creatures out there. That means that the 'pure' races will have some opinion about this. For example, higher humans might look down on mixed races. Halflings would look down on mixed races. Then Tolak comes and unites the races, but there are going to be factions within both human and halflings that oppose this new unification, and especially despise mixed races. If kinda surprises me that Tolak has not been assassinated yet.

The different races used to be extremely segregated, and any close relationship with them would have been seen as socially abnormal. Toknor and Mirvenia broke that barrier, and since their coupling there has been much more integration of human and halfling society, even to the point at which they share the same kingship and capital city. Of course there could be some who oppose it - halflings especially, I'd say - but this is not currently expanded upon in game. If you have ideas then bring them forth ;)

4) Where are all the Sher'Tul structures that are supposed to be "all across Maj'Eyal"?

Lake Nur and Reknor are the two obvious ones. The lore says there also used to be one in the Naloren region before it sank beneath the sea, and that ruins from several sites were brought together by the Shaloren before the Spellblaze, though it seems these have now been destroyed. there may be more hidden from the player.

5) What happened to the Naloren (is it those naga quests in the east?)?/quote]

Possibly, possibly... But this isn't in the Spoilers section ;)

6) Shaloren have immortality. Humans would kill for this.

It's no surprise that they've warred in the past then, or that elves are especially targeted by the Ziguranth. Plus there are humans in the game who have achieved immortality by magical means as well...

7) Why can a human, halfling, yeek, ... just walk into Shatur? Why can they come to Elvalva without even the slightest hindrance?

They are all at peace, with trade agreements and so on. And there are still guards about in case of trouble. Only the dwarves and the Ziguranth are overtly protective of their home towns.

Grey wrote:Of course there could be some who oppose it - halflings especially, I'd say - but this is not currently expanded upon in game. If you have ideas then bring them forth

I made this point because I was trying to understand the lore in order to make an artifact sling. The point is to expand the storyline and maybe add some elements to the game. I kinda wanted to make some quests and/or area's but this is difficult.

Of all the races, the elfs and the yeeks should oppose the kingdom of Toknor > Tolak the most. I had this idea that most races could incorporate a double storyline: One where they are in favor of their how town, and another where they are in favor of the mixed race kingdom. I kinda also feel we need a name for 'mixed race'.

The Shaloren: If I understand it right, then they have the most magic. This means they are in conflict with the other mages, especially the mixed race ones. After the spellblaze they want to 'protect' the earth from magic. Also, Shaloren think they are the most superior race because of their intellect and long lifespans. This naturally inclines them to dislike other races.

There will be a human faction that is in direct conflict with the Shaloren The purpose of these rogue humans is to discover the secret of immortality. They have an hideout in the forests near Elvalva. They use the aid of the human sorcerers who are in conflict with the shaloren (not officially, but they covertly support the rogues by providing magical items such as cloaks that make you look like a Shaloren, and they provide a magical barrier that hides the rogue hideout from the Shaloren. I think that the council of elders, or a faction within the council, would be representative of the superiority of their race. This story line can be incorporated in the magic vs anti-magic quest chain. This gives us at least 3 faction fighting for domination: Antimagic Zigur, the Shaloren and the human mages. Add to this the rogue necromancers and you begin to see some interesting story lines.

The necromancers hate everyone, but they like the rogue humans who are fighting with the Shaloren (to find the secret of immortality, or to gain magical power - maybe even learn the secrets of necromancy). Some Shaloren necromancer choose to support human mages at times in their fight against Shaloren supremacy. Most people hate necromancers. the worst one kill their people and raise them as undead, the best ones defile their graves.

For example, at some point Tolak might have decided to use the help of necromancers in return for their help. This would make a nice scandal. A player might choose to expose the fact that necromancer have been using the dead from the graveyard of last hope to do their experiments and that Tolak knew about this. This could open up a quest to hunt and defeat some necromancers to restore order to the kingdom (people would be mad that Tolak allowed such evil). This would allow someone (a human that has strong bonds with Shaloren) to gain power withing the human council (or whatever their organ of representatives is called). This would also bring the Shaloren and the mixed race kingdom closer together. The Shaloren would then thank the player for defeating some of their age-long enemies. This quest chain could be mutually exclusive to a more 'pragmatic' one where the players uses the help of the necromancers to change the internal politics of the Shaloren to a more tolerant view of the diverse magics of Eyal (maybe even peacefull co-existance between Shaloren and necromancers).

Within the kingdom of Toknor there is a human faction that is in conflict with Tolak. This is a band of sorcerors that where loyal to Toknor, but after his 'betrayal' they formed a secret underground sect that want to end the kingdom of Tolak.

The Thaloren dislike other races (including Shaloren) - btw I think elves should just be called Eloren - I do not see any active betrayal (yet).Same for dwarves. They just actively 'dislike' others. I have to learn more about these races .

The yeeks! Yeeks are such troubled little fellas. They have been slaves for a long time. There must have been some good and bad days. There have been yeeks that follow halflings. Until the awakening. Where did they get their psionic powers from? I feel this is some sorceror's experiment gone wrong. As a race, yeeks broke free from the halflings of Eyal. Outside of their island there might be some yeeks that defy the way. Those yeeks must have found a way to suppress and/or control their psionic powers. The way wants these rogue yeeks exterminated. It is your mission the go to eyal, find them and kill them. The player might choose to join them instead (bringing about hate from the way). This will provide a different yeek ending. If the yeek player chooses to defy the way then they might unite the yeek race with the mixed race kingdom. If they choose to exterminate the rogue yeeks, then the Way will triumph and yeek will end up controlling all of Eyal.

Because of 'the way', after yeeks broke free from the halflings in what must have been a bloody battle, other races began to worry and distrust Yeeks. Not everyone dislikes them but there are stories about them and there are stories about their psionic stories. Some humans and halflings choose to believe all these myths and have become hatefull towards Yeeks and they want to enslave them. Others believe Yeeks deserve to be a free race. For example, a human warrior player might run into this storyline. He then gets to choose if he wants to crush the yeek resistance and defeat the danger of 'The Way' or liberate the remaining yeek from slavery to bring about peaceful co-existence.

Now, why would the yeek have these powers? Who would hate the halflings enough to help them break free from slavery? Who is smart and skillful enough to give them psionic powers? I think this has to be the Shaloren. The Council will have some kind of 'secret service'. The man in charge of this is a supporter of Shaloren superiority. When they saw how successful the halfling 'infestation' became, they used magic powers to give yeeks psionics and they helped them break free. Some Eloren who where involved in this project decided to go further than their mission: They gave some yeeks the tools to control their powers, giving rise to the yeek outpost in Eyal (the one that yeek players can destroy). If the yeek player chooses not to destroy the outpost then he can also obtain, for example, a magical amulet that allows him to control some of his psionic powers (activated ability). If the player then wears this amulet while ending the game then this would unlock the alternative yeek ending.

Grey wrote:The different races used to be extremely segregated, and any close relationship with them would have been seen as socially abnormal.

I have a feeling that the Thaloren survived in the North because of their dislike of other races. In my head these Eloren fled north during the age of Pyre. In the forest in the cold harsh north they have a natural advantage against other races. It has since then become a stronghold and the Thaloren got used to living on their own and disliking all others. While the wold might be at peace for now, the Thaloren have not forgotten their natural suspicion that allow the to survive for this long.

Halflings: The Nargols are from the south, the Eldoral from the north. The Eldoral sufferend the most from the orcs. Unlike the abundant green lands in the south, the north has a colder more harsh climate. After the Yeeks broke free from enslavement, the northers halflings had the hardest time of coping with these changes. For this reason they began to dislike the Nargols and the kingdom of Toknor. Popularity for Toknor in the north declined. The necromancers have plagued the lands ever since the age of dusk. Thoknor has a harder time fighting them in the North. As the necromancers pillaged Eldoral town the dislike of Toknor began to rise. The halflings from Eldoral had to take things in their own hands and formed a militia to fight the necromancers. They formed their own government. Toknor did not like this so he send his emissaries north to try and convice the Eldoral to join his empire again. The Eldoral refused. Toknor became angry and send a large army north, defeating most necromancers and eliminating the council of Eldoral.

Ever since that time there has been an underground organisation plotting against the kingdom of Thoknor for the liberation of Eldoral. They have found allies in the Anti-magic fanatics of zigurath.

Let me give an example of a quest with this background story:
Quest name: "The enemy of my enemy is my friend ... until the battle ends."
Quest is given by the antimagic town.
Quest text:
"Rumor has spread trough Eyal that Tolak has allowed necromancer to use the corpses from the graveyard of Last Hope for their despicable acts. This has cause turmoil in the empire. The popularity of Tolak has plumited in area's plague by the necromancers on the edges of the kingdom. Tolak has take this matter in is own hands, and he is leading an army to defeat the necromancers in the south. You mission is to help these filthy necromancers to withstand the attack. If you can protect them, then Tolak his popularity and support will fall. Make sure to use a good disguise so nobody finds out who was behind this. Remember, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. After helping the necromancers in the south, make sure you exterminate the last necromancers in Eldoral. Then we can finally rise again as the protectors of Eldoral."

Successfully completing this quest gives access to the council of Eldoral, and underground faction strugling against Toknor for independance. Completing this quest chain could give rise to the empire of Eldoral. This is a covert 'underground' mission, and does not affect your standing with Last Hope.

This quest is mutually exclusive with the quest given by Last Hope to eliminate the necromancers in the south after the 'scandal'.


The paragon of anti-magic VS the Vanquisher of Magic ending:
Right now there is the normal and anti-magic route. Once you go antimagic then you can no longer enter the mage town.

Now suppose you do the quest described above. Instead of doing as told you decide to instead kill the necromancers (you here a call of help while traveling, a necromancer is plaguing a town. Instead of ignoring the people in the south you decide to help them and defeat the necromancers). You did not do your job. You helped Tolak defeat the necromancers. This makes you friendly with Tolak and unlocks that quest chain. The people from Zigur will be mad. Now you can do some quests against necromancers. After completing a few, the Shaloren will become friendly again. This unlocks the paragon of anti-magic ending. In this ending you try and balance the powers of magic and anti-magic to bring peace to the world. This also means maintaining the balance between the races, like the Shaloren and the human kingdom.

If you just downright slaughter all magic users (including the Eloren) then you unlock the Vanquisher of magic ending (in your final blow you forever free Maj'eyal from the evil forces of magic and the demons blahblahblah).

More questions (sorry for the post spam):

There are people who study the Sher'Tul magic if I understand correctly then they are all Shaloren? This does not make much sense. I am sure that there would be a black market for these artifacts (that means plunderings, ...) That also means that these ruins must (or could) be protected by one faction or another.

There must be at least some Halflings studying the Sher'Tul items. The reason I am asking this is because there has to be more than one way to the east after discovering the staff. You can go to last hope, or the shalore, or the Eldoral council. Each of these factions should have some people with knowledge of Sher'Tul artifacts. They would all lead to Reknor obviously.

My question is, where do the people of Eyal study, and where do they study Sher'Tul?

The halfling slinger town of the north:

I wanted there to be a place where you can farm slings. Slingers are dangerous, so this will be a high risk - area. I propose making an area or 'town' in the north of the map. These could be several 'towns' full of slingers.

Reason / rationale:
The halflings of the north, Eldoral, are known for their skillful use of slings. The northern part of Eldoral is the most dangerous one. It is cold and full of dangerous creatures. The most renown of them all are the elder ice wyms. These magnificent creatures and harsh environment provide an excellent training ground for slingers - if you survive. This outpost also trades much wanted dragon bone and drakeskin, to the dislike of wymics. You can befriend these slingers and slay some dragons for rewards, or you can slay the slingers and befriend the wyrmics. Other halflings do not care much about these northern slingers as they are rogues involved in the illegal trade of drakeskin. King Toknor has forbidden the hunt for dragons in an attempt to bring together all races of Eyal.

You can follow a quest chain that rewards the 'champion' of the trial with the artifact sling, or you could simply exterminate the town and grab the rewards yourself (+chance of some nice random sling drops).

Example of a possible artifact sling I think this halfling slinger town can be made into a low level armory: A place where you are guaranteed several armor and infusion/rune drops like the armory in the east.

A couple more questions:

What does Maj'Eyal mean? To me it sounds like 'our world' where eyal=earth and maj=belongs to us. What does it really mean and what language is it?

What is the orcish name for 'The east'?

Hmm, wow, a lot here... I think you should really read this document:

https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key ... 2sYG#gid=0

This is a document DarkGod published a while back listing some of the details of the world's timeline and so on.

Of all the races, the elfs and the yeeks should oppose the kingdom of Toknor > Tolak the most.

Well the yeeks aren't even aware of the kingdom! Very few, if any yeeks explore the world outside their island. The rest of the world is unaware of their existence - only the halflings ever even knew about them, and they kept them hidden, and its been so many years now that they are more a distant legend if remembered at all. Of course yeeks still remember the halflings and hate them.

There are yeek rebels of a sort in the game, in the form of yaechs. It is these who run the slave compound where you can unlock brawlers. However they keep themselves secret from the rest of the world.

There are 3 factions of elves in Maj'Eyal - the Shaloren, the Thaloren and the Rhaloren (renegade Shaloren). The latter have feelings of superiority above the other races, mostly born of resentment of their race's treatment since the Spellblaze. The wider Shaloren populace generally don't hold such views, and more try to avoid confrontation since the Spellblaze, but obviously are a diverse culture of many opinions. The Thaloren are very introverted, and generally don't care about the other races as long as their forests are left alone. However since the Age of Pyre the elves, humans, dwarves and halflings have all formed an alliance, andfor the most part the mood is a very peaceful and prosperous one in the Age of Ascendancy. Most races live in harmony, though there are troubles beneath the surface (such as the Rhaloren, though the Shaloren council try to suppress knowledge of their existence to avoid controversy).

There is no faction of necromancers. Indeed, the necro lore makes clear that they are by nature loners, acting in secrecy for fear of pitchfork-wielding mobs. The idea of Tolak getting help from necromancers is... well, I don't think it's consistent with DarkGod's ideas for the cultures in Maj'Eyal.

The elven, human and halfling mages band together in Angolwen (which was set up by humans initially, but welcomes all races). There is no perceived direct competition between groups of mages - they have enough trouble with the Ziguranth after all. Angolwen mages may take direct action against what they perceive as people misusing magic for evil, though are ultimately shy of using magic publicly or drawing attention to themselves.

In terms of halfling territory, don't mistake the Eldoral being based in the north as meaning they live in the icy wastes. Derth is part of the northern half of the continent, and is one of the main Eldoral townships. Still, would be nice to see some hardcore slingers about and more artifact slings are very welcome :)

My question is, where do the people of Eyal study, and where do they study Sher'Tul?

Academies and universities in Last Hope or Elvala. Angolwen would have a few key items too. Whilst some black market items may exist, the majority of stuff found on the market will be fake. Most real artifacts are owned by governments, academic groups and private collectors. People have been digging for Sher'Tul ruins for millennia, and very little is left to freely trade.

What does Maj'Eyal mean? To me it sounds like 'our world' where eyal=earth and maj=belongs to us. What does it really mean and what language is it?

Middle-Earth of course :P The whole planet is called Eyal, but reference to it directly is more antiquated as the continent of Maj'Eyal has become the effective whole world for its residents.

What is the orcish name for 'The east'?

The eastern continent is called Tar'Eyal by everyone. There is no orcish language - they use the common language used by all other races, from the time when they were enslaved by the halflings. In fact it's likely that the common language used by all is the halfling language, as for a long time they were the dominant race in the world. If there were other languages they have become lost in time, or are now only used for certain private official ceremonies.

Yup to what Grey's said. The only race which kept its own tongue is probably the dwarves since htye keep to themselves and the thaloren.
The usual language is indeed very likely to be of halfling origin, with some words on the old human tongue in there, a bit like english has many french words inside it.

Calling all elves the Eloren is however terribly wrong. As stated what people call "elves" as a whole because they look a bit like each others are really three different races. They either evolved or were created by the same being but they nowadays are fully separate. And even in their mindset they are probably more apart from each others than from other races, they would never call themselves under the same name.

Sher'Tul things are known only by the most knowledgeable and educated people, to the "normal" people, they are some kind of legend, or they dont even know they existed.

marvallis, you seem to be teeming with ideas, that's good But yes do read that spreadsheet first, the world is not really like you imagine it

If you are willing to work on lore, I'll give you access to the lore subforum

There's an "offline" .ods file (requires OpenOffice or something that opens OpenOffice spreadsheets) in the SVN download in "\t-engine4\ideas\" - the "setting-eyal.ods" file. Same file but won't get updated if darkgod changes the google docs one until next SVN gets posted.

Actually the one in svn is the master file

marvalis wrote: Example of a possible artifact sling
...
unided_name = "A dragon-bone sling",
desc = [[The handle of this sling is made from the sternum of an ancient ice wyrm.]],

A sling doesn't have a rigid handle. You're thinking of a slingshot.

Perhaps a better description would be "the cords are made from the muscles of an ancient ice wyrm".

darkgod wrote:If you are willing to work on lore, I'll give you access to the lore subforum

I kinda want to be literate about the history of Maj'Eyal. The lore subforum might be an interesting place to expand my knowledge about it.
I always wondered where the lore subforum are ... so they are kinda a big secret >:] ?

greycat wrote:A sling doesn't have a rigid handle. You're thinking of a slingshot.

Damn you are right, my mistake xD

Age of allure:
7420 as the rebuild process is well ongoing thanks to the .. interrested .. offer of the dwarves; a sudden attack of the orc. It is disorganised but the four races are not ready for an other war, they quickly fall one after the other

Where do those orcs come from all of the sudden? are there any maps from that age?

I think I found the answer to my question about Yeeks and where their power comes from:

The tunnel to the yeek home island of Rel is shattered by the cataclysm, the yeeks take that opportunity to put their long honed plan for freedom at work. With the halfling presence diminished they unite their minds in a single cohesive force, The Way, and use it as a shield against the halfling magics.

This does not explain the mistery of their psionic powers, but it shows that they did it themselves.
What I do not understand is: If the tunnel was destroyed, how can it still exist?

the orcs of the east are gathered into a cohesive force by Garkul the Devourer

The orcs in the east where clever enough to find the portals, learn how to use it AND plan an invasion? Does that mean there where no orcs in the west anymore, or did they stick together somehow?
Those blood mages are some clever fellas...

In terms of politics it is just the Orcs versus everyone one else? If they where exterminated from the west wouldn't they need a new boogie-man by now? Poor Orcs, everyone hates them. If those blood orc are so smart then they should be capable of at least some basic diplomacy with other races. They must have some pretty good reasons to hate everyone. Those blood orcs look interesting BTW. They can ad some depth to the orc race and have interesting powers ... to say the least.

Looks like I have to read up on the lore about the end game and those two freaking mages.

You should really read the eastern lore about orcs and about Garkul - should answer a few questions you have about them.