Meet the Team, Vol. XI

Hello Dev-log readers!

It has been several months since our last update and first and foremost
we apologize for that. It has been very hectic for the members of the
MMO team during that time. We were hoping to get you an update before
the holiday break but you know how sneaky chaos can be!

This interlude brings you an interview from our esteemed LoreMaster,
EdTheKet. Not only that but in his interview he gives some of us
'youngsters' a view into Layonara's early days and some trivia on how
some of our lore and tools came into being!

rowana: So I usually start with the age question, and I see no reason
to break with tradition so!... How old are you Loremaster? Vagary is
acceptable.

EdTheKet: I'm 32 years old, so not old enough to be vague about it!

rowana: Hehe! Alright! And where abouts do you live at the moment?

EdTheKet: That would be in the city of Amsterdam, in The Netherlands.

rowana: Far, far away... Is that GMT +2--ish?

EdTheKet: GMT+1 actually (and if we really want to be correct UTC+1),
also known as Central European Time.

rowana: I stand corrected! Hehe. Many know you as the Loremaster of
Layonara, and a few know you actually have PCs that surface from time to
time. Could you tells a little about your Layonaran history?

EdTheKet: Surface from time to time is a nice way of putting it. It
was in 2003, believe it or not, that I submitted my first character.
September 23 I believe.

rowana: That's quite awhile!

EdTheKet: Yeah, I'm old in that regard for sure. That first character
was a dwarven wizard, named Brac'ar Fireface. I never expected I'd still
play him occasionally today. About half a year later, there was a round
of GM applications and I was kind of thinking of applying but not too
sure. Thinking "what did I know of GMing", I had never even roleplayed
before I submitted Brac! But I got persuaded to apply anyway. And I got
accepted :-)

rowana: *smiles*

EdTheKet: At the time while we did have subraces, most were
restricted. For example, only three (3!) dark elf characters were
allowed to be played.

rowana: At once?

EdTheKet: In total.

rowana: Wow.

EdTheKet: And whenever one was retired, a slot opened up, people could
write up biographies, the entire GM team would review and in the end one
of the players "won" the slot, so to speak. So that's when I created my
second character, Zaraun of the House of Torlyl. I did a lot of research
into the stock D&D dark elf background, so I was happy to "win" the slot!

rowana: No kidding. Talk about intensive, heh.

EdTheKet: Things got worse from there though.

rowana: Worse?

EdTheKet: I had written up and created Zaraun, but while doing that I
harassed Leanthar a lot about dark elves on Layonara. And not a whole
lot was defined. So I started to think and write, making the dark elves
different from the stock D&D and creating the goddess Viedri'ira. So
yes, worse, because when I started that, I only went on to write and
outline even more!

rowana: Not an over-achiever at all are you? *winks* That's pretty
awesome though and I love to hear stories like this!

*EdTheKet chuckles*

EdTheKet: So I enlisted the aid of other people, GMs and players and
put together the first Layonara Soul of a Lost Ancient Campaign
Handbook. A whopping 136 pages.

rowana: Very nice!

EdTheKet: Then things got really bad though. The update.

rowana: Update?

EdTheKet: Of the Campaign Handbook.

rowana: Ah right. Version two?

EdTheKet: About a year later, we released version two, which had 357
pages.

rowana: Again, very nice. An impressive increase over the first book!

EdTheKet: Thanks! So during this period I was playing, GMing, writing
and coordinating writers. Then I created character number three, Sulo
Banaka. A fighter with a double-bladed sword. But he never really got
off the ground properly due to lack of time. Or rather, a choice on what
to spend my time.

rowana: *nods* Busy time for you. You sort of maintain that as a
constant I see.

EdTheKet: Always busy! I then decided to not be an active GM anymore,
and only occasionally resurface to run a series. But then these series
were very big, so always a lot of fun, both for me and my players.

rowana: So I've heard (and hope to see for myself someday! heh)

EdTheKet: I still have an idea for one series that I'd like to run,
we'll see if I get around to it!

rowana: Yay!

EdTheKet: And of course on the back end, I was helping out on the MMO,
quite some time already I must say.

rowana: *nods* I will come back to that of course. Before we get to
that topic, can you tell us... What has been one (or a couple) of your
favorite Layonara moments?

EdTheKet: Well, the first one that comes to mind, which was pretty
scary was me playing Brac'ar (I think he was level 5 or so) encountering
Fisterion, the self-proclaimed king of dragons.

rowana: Hehe!

EdTheKet: I hadn't been on the server very long and I think it was
also my first encounter with a GM, so double scary. So it was only a
favorite after the fact I must say. Then a lot later there was the whole
Dragon Alliance quests where Brac'ar got a sliver of a dragon's scale in
his leg.

rowana: That doesn't sound very pleasant... Heh.

EdTheKet: And getting said dragon killed by the bad guy of the
previous campaign, Sinthar Bloodstone, because we the players weren't
careful enough. Which culminated eventually in Brac'ar's Epic quest, run
by Pankoki, where Brac had to outwit Fisterion. I was totally unaware of
the entire plot behind the quest as it was cooked up by Pankoki and
Leanthar and they would have failed me if I messed up (wouldn't have it
any other way by the way). But I didn't!

rowana: I would have to guess that was a pretty fabulous quest. Though
as WLs go, tough and a bit scary.

EdTheKet: Very scary and very rewarding!

rowana: A very long history with Layonara, and it is pretty easy to
see why (at least on the surface) you are part of the MMO project. I
understand you really have a lot of hats at this time, but can you tell
us a little about what you are working on at present?

EdTheKet: At present, I'm doing the final review of the edited text
for our World Setting book and putting things on LORE (Layonara Online
Reference Encyclopedia). I'm also filling some gaps by writing text for
areas that will be in the game, so that the areas can be built with the
write up in mind.

EdTheKet: In the recent past, I've also compiled a table with NPCs,
like what they're called, what they look like, what they do, where
they're located, things like that. And a similar thing for
organizations, shops and the like. And way back when we started, I laid
a lot of groundwork, like the Cosmology, the Death System and the
various forms of magic, just to name a few.

rowana: Seems like either your contributions have come around full
circle from when you were first a GM or you just got started going and
never really stopped!

EdTheKet: Hehe, it's been a ride, that's for sure. The truth is, when
you start to define things, there's always so much more that is not yet
defined. Even though many people think "Surely that's written out
already!" but often it's not, and there's a long list of things to
define or write out further. Those then affect other things that may or
may not yet have been defined, so it's a challenge (a nice challenge!)
to keep everything consistent.

rowana: Definitely seems like a labor of love, since I'm not sure
anyone would donate so much time and effort for any other reason. Hehe.

EdTheKet: Well, I never knew that I liked to write before all this. So
the writing part is a creative outlet for me. But yes, if I didn't
thoroughly enjoy it, I wouldn't be able to do it of course.

rowana: Well, it sounds very much like Layonara is where you devote
much of your free time, which is a question I typically ask to wrap up.
So instead I will ask this curious (and fun!) question of our
Loremaster: If you could have any one power (known or not!), what would
it be and why?

EdTheKet: Hmm, I would like to be able to travel through time. Bet you
didn't see that one coming!

rowana: **laughs* Any particular reason?

EdTheKet: Yes, because then I could go back and see how things were in
the Middle Ages, Ancient RomeEgyptGreece, feudal Japan, the first
Greek city states, Aztecs, Mayas you name it.

rowana: That sound like a ton of fun!

EdTheKet: Yep.

rowana: Well thank you Ed, the Loremaster, for taking time for us this
evening! We do appreciate it greatly.

EdTheKet: You're welcome rowana, we do appreciate you taking time to
do all this. Happy holidays to you and the readers!

rowana: Happy holidays to you and yours!

We hope you folks enjoyed this glimpse into the past as well as a look
at some of the current work being done. Thanks to EdTheKet for sitting
down with us over the holidays! A big holiday greeting to you and yours,
Dev-Log Readers. We look forward to seeing you in the new year as well
as bringing more to you!

~row, on behalf of the writing team