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Wheel of Time Persistent World Part II Profile by Jay Watamaniuk
If I'm a fan of the Wheel of Time books, will I encounter famous landmarks or creatures?Luck Day: We've built virtually the entire Westlands, as well as parts of the Waste and the Blight. The Stone of Tear, the Black Tower, and especially Tar Valon - the home of the Aes Sedai, have been well built. I can't tell you how many times Tar Valon has had an overhaul because a builder felt they could add something more to it. In fact, because of the new features in update 1.67, we are thinking of even more. The toolset is amazingly flexible with appearances as well. We've got special gear for nearly every culture in the world, and there are a lot of cultures. At the same time, the areas are kept relatively small so as not to overdo it. Sowens was brilliant early on to set down certain principals of building that we've tried to keep up. You will encounter all kinds of trollocs: nasty, vicious, pseudo-human/animal hybrids made during the War of the One Power. There are also aberrations known as Mydraal, Fades, or Eyeless. Due to the differences between D&D and Wheel of Time, we've done much of our own stuff outside of the books. When there are disputes about Wheel of Time canon, as much as we like to stick to it we often have to remind each other that the server isn't the books. This is our own world based on the books, a parallel thread. This gives us the most flexibility as DMs, builders, and players.
We've even had Senchean in the past, those slurring warlike overseas people who collar channeling women and refer to them as Those Who Should be Leashed. We've even had more obscure characters such Gleeman/Bards, Sea Folk, Mayeners, the Ebou Dar Knitting Circle (a channeling group in disguise), and even merchant Peddlars, Thieftakers, and Hunters of the Horn (of Valere). However, the most important thing about Wheel of Time: The Third Age is not how absolute to the books it is, but to have fun. This is a game, not English Criticism. What are some of the features of this server that would attract players?Luck Day: WoT:3A is a great place for new and veteran players. The fact that all you need is just the NWN game has brought in tens of thousands of unique accounts. It is attractive for those who have read the books and want to experience it, and for those looking for something different from Faerun. We define ourselves as a role play server with plenty of action. There is great RP and we range from 20-40+ players on at one time on a daily basis. We often go over 50 players on weekends. If you are new and just getting to learn there's plenty of places you can level and a sane pace. Treasure [b]is not[/b] not given out like Diablo so gold actually means something. The best gear is reserved for factions because that's where best RP can be had. And every player, if he wants to join a faction, is required to write a Bio of his character to start them out and give some background to them.We always want to give something for the players to do. Another reason for its popularity is we enforce a PG rating on the server. What that comes down to is a reminder that kids play on the server so language is to be kept clean, and RP'g overly violent acts or any acts of sex is not tolerated. It makes for a welcome relief for those looking for a safe place to play. If you are looking for a server away from that kind of nastiness we're a great place to play. Wheel of Time as a series is rich with culture and conflict. There are so many varieties of people that Robert Jordan has come up with. And it's very different than any Fantasy series you may have read not having orcs and dwarves and elves and the like. But at the same time it's very familiar.
One of the most obscure I've caught is a vague reference to the Battle of Hastings where 500 Longbowman defeat thousands of knights on horseback. One of the main characters Perrin threatens this and is dismissed. Yet in history it actually happened. But the most bizarre reference I caught is a combining the legend of the Fisher King with American Chess Champion Bobby Fischer. And of course, there are the women characters in the setting. The women that Jordan writes about are incredibly strong characters and often strong to a fault. The world is largely matriarchal and the White Tower's main purpose is to play Kingmaker and stop wars. In every level of almost every society women are the real power and more often than not this is resented. It makes for some exciting and sometimes haphazard interaction. What are your plans for the future?Luck Day: The Third Age will keep on going for many months to come. Right now we are are showing ownership between myself Tuke_Blake, and TalionRev but come September, Turk will be resuming hosting duty instead of myself. There's always something more we want to do and we've done so much already. We've added 55 areas from a server that Bear and I worked on last year and we'll be converting them to Wheel of Time. We'll likely be keeping the server up well after NWN2 is released. Of course, we've already begun discussion of bringing Wheel of Time to NWN2, led by veteran player Scratx. With the viability of Persistent Worlds less certain on NWN2 it's going to take some real effort to make it work. Since it's likely that every client will be required to have some sort of copy of the Walkmesh then probably not having Haks is pointless. This was always the main stickler for the different Wheel of Time builders; is it more important to be realistic or to have lots of players just playing? That point seems moot now. We could bridge all the talented people that love building and Wheel of Time, and maybe it's now time to try and combine our resources. That's the main purpose for the forum. As for my personal future, I want to thank BioWare for making me realize I can script again. I hadn't done anything since I was 18 and Basic still had a Q in front of it. I've taken this hobby and personal waste of time and I've gone back to school thanks to NWN. I've just received my AA in Computers and Information Science and I'm pushing for my Bachelors. When you get inspired to write crazy things like this: http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=scripts.Detail&id=2157 getting paid for it might be a good idea. How is Robert Jordan doing? What is the status of his next book?Luck Day: One thing must be said about the author of this fine series. Robert Jordan's real name is Jim Rigney and right now he is facing a life threatening illness called Amyloidosis. Mr. Rigney is going through intensive bone marrow therapy at the Mayo Clinic. He is keeping in incredible spirits and he says he has about 30 years more of books to write. This is no small feat for him because his books seem to average about 1000 pages. All our thoughts and prayers go out to him, our inspiration. Many fans of the series have made donations to the Mayo Clinic in the name of Jim Rigney (the Mayo Clinic doesn't seem to know who Robert Jordan is ;) ). Get well Jim. We have 30 more years of your books to read. If you want to read his day to day fight you can read his blog. ~
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You'll see all the major factions, the Aes Sedai and their Warders, the Whitecloaks, the male channelers known as Ash'aman, the secretive Darkfriends, the desert dwelling Aiel, and the Wolfbrothers. Thanks to update 1.67, the Wolfbrothers now have their freaky eyes.
Reading Robert Jordan is almost encyclopedic in his inspiration. From the Gnostic breakaway of Christianity, to Frank Herbert's Dune, to Robert E Howard's Hyboria (Conan), to Celtic legends especially of King Arthur. He likes to mix them such as combining Arthur with Alexander the Great. S'angreal is the French name for the Holy Grail. The name Amyrlin Seat is a combination of Merlin and the Papal See. Ash'aman equals "a shaman."
