Many years ago, I played a MMORPG that was known as Horizions: Empire of Istaria. It was a world with a small, passionate and tight-knit playerbase… and a world in which you could play an actual Dragon character. I’m talking fire breathing, free-flying, claws and fangs Dragon!

Though it lacked the PVP aspect (which doesn’t bother me as I never PVP), it had a rich character development (in that non-Dragons could multi-class to their heart’s content) and a deep crafting system. It was one of the only games I played where you could actually see players building structures across the world (such as player houses and towns) by using their crafting skills and actually leave something long-lasting in the world.

For whatever reasons, though I loved my dragons, I stopped playing this game. It was only this past weekend when I rediscovered it — I found out that a whole new slew of content has been recently added and the entire game client was reworked in order to support both Vista and Windows 7 systems.

Though I’m a lifetimer at LOTRO (and I doubt that will change) and I enjoy bouts in Guild Wars from time to time, I decided to peek my nose back in the world, now called Istaria:Chronicles of the Gifted.

I won’t beat around the bush… this game feels and plays like a classic MMORPG from back in the day it was developed. But it is also heavily mod able and easy to tweak to your liking. With just a few downloads, some adjustments to the controls and a few new macros in my bar, I was up and playing it not too different than I would some of the newer games. And I was playing a DRAGON!

Kudako standing by the shrine at sunset.

The other thing that struck me was the community. It’s a small community… but many of these players have stuck by this game through thick and thin. They’re very welcoming and helpful to new players because they’re genuinely happy to meet them! When I returned to the game, I might as well have been brand new. There were lots of new quests added and a new introduction area… but I found quickly that all I needed to do was join a chat channel and inquire. There was always someone happy to lend their expertise.

I’m a sucker for an underdog… and indie developed games. I feel like this game has a lot to offer the right types of players. So I’ve decided to dedicate some time and effort to helping spread the word about the game through Wayrift and blogging. I’m not sure how much I can help. But coming at the game as a semi-newbie, I hope my views might be able to offer other potential and new players some help on getting Istaria working and feeling like the kind of game they want to play.

There’s so much to enjoy here — especially if you’re an RPer or a Dragon lover with an interest in a game with lots of fantasy lore to explore. For more information about Istaria, please visit this page.

New Art! Ben and Leona officially tie the knot in Wayrift!

Yes, I know it’s been a while since I’ve updated the blog (long summer… trying to fix that now) and it’s been a long time since I’ve posted new art. So here you have it, both at the same time! More updates to be announced soon so stay tuned!

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Wayrift stories come to Spore Galactic Adventures!

My very first adventure has been posted to the Spore Database. Entitled “Wayrift’s Dragon Tales – Zoe,” it is the first part of a story/character driven series of adventures for the new Spore expansion.

Warning, nothing will be exactly canon in these stories. I just had a lot of fun throwing together a ton of Wayrift/Dreigiau/Shimmer/etc. characters and making a story out of them.

The first Dragon Tale centers around a young Zoe Dragon who has just lost her mother, the old Matron of the Dragon Haven Clan (which existed Pre-Dreigiau story time). It is your duty as a Captain to help the young Wingleader rise above her grief and take her place as the leader of the Haven.

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Characters you will meet and group with include young Wingleader Zoe, Rook the Centaur, Zemi Dreigiau, Kudako and a whole slew of other Dragonkin. While the adventure isn’t as epic as it could be if I were given unlimited tools to make an RPG game, for the Spore creator, I hope that it’s as close to a responsive and living world as one can hope to get on the first try.

You can find out more at the Adventure’s Sporepedia listing.

After a number of days of participating in the Lord of the Rings Online Summer Festival events, Ben finally earned enough tokens to trade his bay horse for the Summer Festival Horse! He also earned two new titles: “Summer Days Patron” and “Sunshine.” Yes. Sunshine.

For the most part, I’ve been earning tokens through the timed fishing contests that take place in various fishing spots across the world. These are on a fairly reasonable timer and can be attempted a few times in a day.

I was very happy to see that his “Lord of Streams” title actually had worth to wear during all those fishing events. Well… I guess he didn’t catch less weeds than everyone else, but it sure was cool to have a max fishing title while there were actually other people around fishing. Yes. There were lots of people fishing. I guess that goes to show Turbine — if you give folks enough of a reward, they will fish. Now please flesh out your fishing hobby and make it awesome like these contests!

The other event I took part in was the Dwarf Keg Race that took place on the stairs to Thorin’s Hall. I really lucked out on my second try and placed my bet on the winning dwarf which unexpectedly netted me 12 tokens! It was JUST enough to trade for the festival horse.

The summer festival horse is earned by bartering 50 festival tokens for a horse token at the Race Masters (I did mine in Thorin’s Hall Tavern, but assume there is one at the track in Bree and one at the races in the Shire). You must then take this horse token and an additional 6 festival tokens to the Bree Horsefields where you can make the exchange.

Here’s a site that lists the top 100 fantasy books of all time, updated monthly! I’m not sure if this is done by poll or vote or sales. Still, here’s the current top ten:

J R R Tolkien -Lord Of the Rings Trilogy

J K Rowling -Harry Potter Series

J R R Tolkien -The Hobbit

Robert Jordan -Wheel of Time Series

George R R Martin -A Song of Ice & Fire

C S Lewis -The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe

David Eddings -The Belgariad Series

Terry Goodkind -Wizard’s First Rule

Raymond E Feist -Magician

Philip Pullman -His Dark Materials Trilogy

Though the list has a number of books that I’d question as fantasy (or consider to only be very loosely fitting), it’s a very interesting list indeed. Check it out!