Okay, so some of you may know that I’m one of those who took part in MarcusAureliusLP’s Age of Wonders 3: A Roleplay Campaign series. It was a really special experience for me, and probably the biggest factor in getting me interested in writing again. Well, recently, I found about about how there were asteroids named Aurelia (419) and Arctica (1031). So, just for kicks, I decided to see if any major transits were happening in my chart with those two asteroids.
I did not expect this one with Arctica. Warning, Spoilers ahead.
On March 15, 2017, the day when Marcus released Episode 16 of the Aurelia series, Arctica was in 5 degrees 40′ Taurus. Why is this noteworthy? Well, in my natal chart, Arctica is in 5 degrees, 38′ Taurus (4th house conjunct IC and South Node), so basically an Arctica Return was happening. What does this have to do with the Aurelia series? Well, Episode 16 was the episode where Aurelia met the first enemy leader: Zoki of Clan Brago. If anyone has seen the rest of the series and/or is familiar with Age of Wonders 3, then I think you can figure out the rest, but for those who haven’t, read on.
Now, Arctica in the Aurelia series is basically Artica from the Age of Wonders games proper, or at least heavily based off of her. Zoki is a Frostling and he ended up being the only Frostling Leader to show up in the Aurelia series. Considering how the Frostlings see Artica as their goddess, even with the Arctica spelling in the Aurelia series, that basically makes Zoki Arctica’s representative in that particular game by default! And all of this happening during an Arctica Return! (Okay, to be fair, Arctica in the Aurelia series has more of a complicated story than this, but Zoki was indeed the only Frostling leader showing up in that game.)
It might be a small thing for many, and I can understand, considering how transits affect people based on the natal chart. However, considering how later episodes in that series ended up showing how significant of a role Zoki (and by extension, the Frostlings in general) played in my own character’s story, I’m honestly a little bit spooked by how it all started on the day I experienced an Arctica Return. Even outside of my character’s story, Zoki ended up standing out... albeit as the odd leader out. Yeah... let’s just say that I ended up feeling sympathy towards that Frostling Rogue by the time the later episodes happened.
VIEWER PARTICIPATION ROLEPLAY SERIES! In this new series we're going to be playing a strategy game in a new and exciting way. No longer min-maxing stats to "...
Okay, I think I may have made a post like this before, but with the series having been done for some time now, I feel like I need to talk about this:
This series really was something special for me to experience. I may not have truly joined in until Episode 7, and I’ve never played Age of Wonders 3, but after this, I’ve truly become interested in this game. As Marcus had said, this game really excels in story-telling.
I really am hoping to potentially do a series that is effectively a sequel to this... but of course the fact that I don’t have the game really hurts my ability to do so... OTL
Seriously, if you like roleplaying, I highly recommend looking at this series and checking the comments. MarcusAureliusLP does a great job as the Game Master in terms of allowing the roleplayers to have an impact on how things go while still keeping things from going too far off the rails (something that I hope I can handle if I ever get around to doing a project like this myself).
But there are some questions that I’d like to ask.
Namely, if you were to imagine yourself as a leader:
Which of the 7 classes (Warlord, Dreadnought, Rogue, Theocrat, Sorcerer, Arch Druid, Necromancer) would you call yourself and why?
Which of the 9 races (Human, Draconian, High Elf, Goblin, Dwarf, Orc, Halfling, Tigran, Frostling) would you choose and why?
Of the Specializations (Air Adept/Master, Creation Adept/Master, Destruction Adept/Master, Earth Adept/Master, Expander, Explorer, Fire Adept/Master, Water Adept/Master, Partisan, Wild Magic Adept/Master, Gray(or Grey) Guard Adept/Master, Keeper of the Peace Adept/Master, Shadowborn Adept/Master), which 3 do you see yourself using and why? (note that the Master version of a Specialization needs the Adept version of that same type to pick it. For example, you need Air Adept if you want Air Master)
Also, since the Golden Realms expansion added Halflings, Partisan, and Wild Magic while the Eternal Lords Expansion added Frostlings, Tigrans, Necromancers, Gray Guard, Keeper of the Peace, and Shadowborn - feel free to give more than one result if your first choice is exclusive to one or both expansions, or if you just can’t decide between some options.
I kinda rambled when making my own example, so I put it under the Read More line.
To use myself as an example, my first choice is Human Arch Druid with Keeper of the Peace Adept, Water Adept, and Air Adept. As I was taking part in the Roleplay Campaign (which was lead by a Human Warlord), I followed the idea of using a human character (besides, as this was my first exposure to Age of Wonders 3, humans were the most familiar to me). I do confess that thanks to that series, I had taken a liking to the Frostlings (not sure if my personality matches that of the Frostlings though. o.o; ). As my character in the roleplay was using a fog image spell to appear in multiple places at once, it seemed to make sense to include Water Adept and Air Adept to explain how she could do it (and in hindsight, with the presence of Water and Air Nodes near areas where my character has been, her having an affinity for magic would line up with her specializations matching those elements). As for Keeper of the Peace Adept? My character has basically been dedicated to good, which is a thing that applies to Keeper of the Peace specializations. As for Arch Druid? That’s the thing I was least certain of. For a time, I was actually identifying my character as a Rogue because it seemed to me that she was using some shadier means to try and help Aurelia. However, as Marcus observed, Airmanon never really struck him as a Rogue. He was the one who suggested Arch Druid, and after some thought, I had to agree. For one thing, Arch Druid seemed a bit more magic oriented to me. The other major thing is the fact that Arch Druids in Age of Wonders 3 seemed to understand that death is a natural part of life. My character had been trying to vouch for Necromancers to be given a chance, and while this may have caused her to come off as naive (and probably enabled some trouble due to interactions with a particular roleplayer or two), it also reinforces her belief in peaceful coexistence between different kinds of people.
This does lead me to believe that in general, Arch Druids seem to be the only ones who are readily okay with putting up with Necromancers (doesn’t mean that other classes can’t put up with Necromancers at all). In the Aurelia series, I felt like I was the only one who truly had a character identify with Arch Druid (there was one other roleplayer who had a character like that, but he said that his was a mix of Arch Druid and Sorcerer. For reasons I don’t want to get into, I personally think his character was more Sorcerer than Arch Druid.), and I was the first to try and understand the Necromancer roleplayer that showed up (even though he was playing his character like a villain for a good chunk of the series.). And in what I can see of the Eternal Lords campaign (which admittedly was just parts of the first map... o.o; ), both Rowlar the Warden (a Tigran Arch Druid) and Sanhild the High Queen (a Frostling Arch Druid) were perfectly fine with Arvik the Dark (a Frostling Necromancer). Heck, Arvik even asks Rowlar if he was okay with serving a Necromancer, and the first map surrounded the fact that Sanhild was going to choose a consort and Arvik was fighting three other suitors seeking her hand! Add in the fact that (if I understand it right), Sanhild sent Rowlar to Arvik after the Tigran warned the High Queen about the Cult of Yaka, and Arvik realizing that Sanhild was supporting him looks to me like she perhaps had taking a bit of a liking to the Necromancer and/or was hoping that he’d succeed!
However, Keeper of the Peace is exclusive to the Eternal Lords Expansion. In thinking about if I found myself stuck with the base game, I have a few ideas on what my character could be - Human with Water Adept and Air Adept for the reasons listed above. The class and third specialization are where they vary and I don’t have enough experience to really say which I’d prefer.
With the third specialization, I’m thinking either: Water Master (one of the other characters I played (a gender neutral god I introduced named Aquarise <for those wondering, I was using they/them pronouns for them> which was in part for the sake of practicing gender neutral writing but mainly because by that point I decided that Aurelia needed a god that would try to keep things peaceful.) was associated with the water element), Creation Adept (it has spells that generate good alignment points and my character has been dedicated to good), and Explorer (the character I mainly played, Airmanon Stonefang, is a curious one, so Explorer seems to fit in that she would want to learn about the world). Of the three, I’m mainly leaning towards Explorer, admittedly.
When it comes to classes, the only one I don’t really see my character considering is Dreadnought (which is ironic considering her brother is very much a Dreadnought) in the base game, and I don’t really see her as a true Necromancer, even in the Eternal Lords expansion (which is again ironic because Airmanon was at some point the apprentice of a Necromancer (Arch Lector Gandalfus) and leading an order that was made to help the God Necros (who is in a sense the patron god of Necromancers). Granted, I don’t think she was learning that much Necromancy during that time.).
As for how I’d rank the other classes in terms of what I would most likely see her as, from most likely to least likely they are: Arch Druid (for the reasons listed above. Marcus noted Aquarise’s peaceful nature and thus decided Arch Druid), Warlord (despite my character wanting peace, she’s had to fight for what she believes in, whether in a real fight or on the debate floor. Plus, Marcus did point out that some of the best wartime leaders were those who weren’t warlike, but had to fight to protect that which they held dear, something that Airmanon Stonefang demonstrated.), Sorcerer (another roleplayer had taken notice of my character’s affinity for magic and even in the early days of my roleplaying there, my character had been curious about magic), Theocrat (Theocrats were said to rule by the heart, and I think part of what my character did that resulted in her position was the fact that she was interacting with other Councillors, thus touching their hearts in a sense. That, and she did introduce Aquarise which makes her a High Priestess. o.o; ), finally Rogue (this goes back to the shady things Airmanon did. She wasn’t poisoning or backstabbing anyone, but during a desperate situation, she did in the roleplay resort to a little black-market trading to secure supplies that she didn’t think she could get from Aurelia itself).
