This week’s Community Spotlight focuses on the efforts of Stile Teckel and his community hub, The Caverns;  “Dedicated to delivering ALL the news, to the fans and community, the way YOU
want to get it.”

Running since the SotA Kickstarter, The Caverns is a news blog and information site containing photos, forums, RP stories archive, links, and more. The Caverns contains linked articles and photos from up to a year prior to the Kickstarter with future plans to include streaming play tips and themed articles such as National Geographic style write-ups for SotA locations.  The Caverns’ primary goal is be a method of access to all SotA news including Portalarium announcements, game details, dev/artist bios, guild activities, community developments, and anything else SotA related. The Caverns publishes to multiple social networks so fans are able to get the news delivered using the tools they prefer. Additionally, Stile is continually on the lookout for guest authors to publish news from other community hubs or on themes of their own.

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Do you have a cool Shroud of the Avatar Project you would like highlighted in our Community Spotlight?  Then what are you waiting for!?!  Contact me, Firelotus, at community@portalarium.com and let’s chat!  Speaking of cool Shroud of the Avatar projects, I had a chance to talk with Vallas, the head of the Bear Tavern project and he told me about the cool things they are doing to prepare for Shroud of the Avatar.  If you would like to know more, then keep reading!

“The Bear Tavern is a project which focuses heavily on the social aspect of Shroud of the Avatar. The intent is to create an open, active community which provides everyone the opportunity to socialize with fellow players. SOTA promises to provide an amazing social online environment, and so we were interested to see how far we can encourage it. Not only that, our intent is to create almost neutral ground, to help provide some fairly unusual player experiences.

During initial discussions on how such a community could be put together, the obvious choice was to create an inn or tavern where the player-base could pitch up whenever they wanted. Taverns tend to be a prominent location in many stories within a fantasy setting, so it seemed a good choice for a in-game meeting place for players from a variety of backgrounds.

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Shroud of the Avatar is blessed to have such an amazing, supportive Communuity, and this week’s Community Spotlight is proof of the selfless generosity that runs deep in so many of our backers. I am delighted to tell you about our friends at NovaGamer and their Extra Life campaign.

~FireLotus

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There are very few serious gamers out there who have not heard of Stratics!  But what some may not know is that Stratics was born from a desire to give Ultima Online players a central hub to gather around so they could share information and their passion for all things UO. Over 15 years later, Shroud of the Avatar is happy to have the chance to forge a strong relationship with Stratics early in our development, and look forward to the road ahead.

I had a chance to chat with BenK, Associate Editor for Stratics: Shroud of the Avatar recently, and here is what he had to say about Stratics, past and present.

“Stratics is a fifteen-year-old network of gaming websites united by a vibrant community of players, developers, and staff members. Founded in 1997, Stratics is the oldest, continually-operating MMO fansite on the Internet.  Since then, we have endeavored “to serve the player and assist the developer in constructing tomorrow’s fantasy, while facilitating the optimal gaming environment today.”  To this end, Stratics has partnered with major game publishers throughout the years; most recently Portalarium. Further, we are committed to providing news, guides, community advancement, and other valuable services for the titles and communities that we represent.

Stratics’ Publishing Division publishes fansite news, strategy guides, and statistics for several great MMOs, including Shroud of the Avatar (SotA). The publishing division is currently being renovated, beginning with a complete re-imagining and redesign of Stratics.com and its subsidiary portals (stay tuned—it will be beautiful!). This division has also welcomed new senior leadership in recent days, including Kirthag, Stratics’ new Editor-in-Chief, and BenK (aka Caramon), who recently assumed leadership of SotA-related publishing as the Associate Editor for SotA.

Stratics has a lot of exciting changes ahead, but everything that it does is motivated by a singular objective: to create opportunities for players and developers to share their passionate love for gaming. This has been our mission since our launch in 1997 and it remains our mission as we prepare to celebrate our sixteenth anniversary.”

This Saturday, Rustic Dragon of The Hearth of Britannia will be holding a 24-hour telethon to raise awareness and funds for his favorite up and coming game, Shroud of the Avatar!  If you haven’t heard about it yet, watch this short video and find out more!

There will be loads of special guests (including Lord British himself) tons of fun activities, and all sorts of prizes.  We here at Portalarium were so excited by all the festivities that we even decided to offer participants a special in game item in honor of the event; a specially designed Hearth of Britannia house decoration available to anyone who pledges $25 or more during the Telethon.  We’ll even add your $25 pledge to your current SotA pledge if you already have one!  Just visit our Add On Store during the event and select the  “Hearth of Britannia Telethon Pledge & Mystery Decoration” option at the bottom of the page!

Be sure to check out The Hearth of Britannia’s schedule of events and get ready for a 24 hours of merriment with your host, Rustic Dragon!  
 

One of the most active SotA Fan sites is also our Official Google+ page, Shroud of the Avatar Google + Community. They are a great place to get updates and meet other SotA fans, so if you haven’t checked them out yet, be sure to do so.

The site’s main moderator, Matthew Garbett, took some time out of his busy schedule to write up some information for those of you who have not yet visited the site:

The Shroud of the Avatar Google+ Community is always growing and there are now over 400 members. We believe “The more the merrier!”, so our next goal is to reach 500 members by the end of August! I post frequent updates, as does FireLotus, including news, videos, interviews, and links. In addition to being a great place to make new friends, the G+ Community is also an awesome place for all your Shroud of the Avatar needs.

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This week’s Community Spotlight shines on a fantastic opportunity for all of our story-tellers and role-players. Beginning July 8th and going till September, Write About Dragons will be hosting an online creative writing class featuring the recorded lectures of Brandon Sanderson.  This is a free class offered by Scott Ashton and is dedicated to the craft and arcanum of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writing. If you’ve always dreamed of being able to create fantastic worlds and write compelling stories about magic and adventure, then definitely check out Write About Dragons!

If you are interested in participating, you can register at http://www.writeaboutdragons.com/home/2013-summer-class/

This week’s Community Spotlight shines on Poet’s Circle and their SotA Minecraft project; Blocks of the Avatar. I spoke with Holt Ironfell, the talented Bard whom some may know from his Stones Remix or perhaps his Tale of the Underworld. He had this to say about his latest creative project.

Why Minecraft?

I felt that a Minecraft server would help bring the Community together surrounding a game that could be closely related to the one Lord British and his team are busy creating for us. We have a long time to wait for something we are very excited about, and it can be frustrating to only have the forums and chat to hang out on. So I welcome everyone to Blocks of the Avatar, to come and help build New Britannia, block by block, chunk by chunk, and maybe, with a little luck and some teamwork, we can translate some of our Minecraft creations into helpful Unity assets and help the Devs see their own creations from a different angle.

When can I PLAY?

You must SUBSCRIBE TO THE POETS’ CIRCLE NEWSLETTER in order to receive updates about the server. We will send out an email when the server opens, at the end of June/beginning of July, and if you APPLY TO BE WHITELISTED at holt.ironfell@gmail.com you will be able to connect to the Minecraft Server and play at that time! Include your SotA forum name, and your Minecraft username.

Can you tell us a bit about Poet’s Circle:

Part of the reason that Poets’ Circle exists is to bring together people who are Creative in real life and who want to role play as Bards, Artisans, Patrons or Critics in Shroud of the Avatar. We want to enrich the lore and heighten immersion. “Enemies of Boredom” is a good catchphrase, and the guild motto is Wax Poetica. Holt Ironfell is a very old Master Bard from shrouded origins (an outlaw in his home world, much like Iolo in Ultima V) who now brings his story to New Britannia. Many of my stories have to do with the great characters I meet along the way — of whom I am sure there shall be plenty, in SotA!

For our final featured Tale of the Underworld, I will let Grandmaster Bard Holt Ironfell make his own introduction.

Follow Grandmaster Bard Holt Ironfell and his most trusted friends as they escape a world where the villains have already won, in order to protect a dangerous secret. Stepping through an ancient and hidden moongate, they end up lost in a vast and foreign Underworld, only to encounter a horrifying evil of the depths.

A Forgotten Secret in the Underworld
as told by Grandmaster Bard Holt Ironfell

Or for those weary of reading, just listen! – Narrated by the bard himself.

Perhaps you think all adventures end well, but travel with trusted friends long enough, and you witness death, and worse. That is the Underworld as I know it: death, and worse. I have been but once, and only great necessity would drive me back. I shall tell you my tale. Perhaps in doing so, I shall save your life, or make the wise amongst you forget the idea altogether.

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Not all adventures turn out the way we plan, and not all partnerships are profitable.  But sometimes when things go wrong, the only person we have to blame is ourselves. In today’s tale of the Underworld, Vandigeth weaves a story of adventure and betrayal while illustrating the danger of losing sight of Virtue in “The Cavern”.

The Cavern

She stood on the rocky precipice looking out upon the dense rock that filled this cavern. The sound of water filled the air before her; its smell gave what little freshness there was to be had in this dank place. A humid mist permeated the air and diffused the light across the cavern.

Jumping down from her precipice, she rejoined her companions across a small wooden bridge over the sheltered river. The stalagmites and other cavernous formations spoke to the absolute timelessness of this place. To her left was a modest waterfall, an obvious inlet of moisture from the surface far above this place.

The tread of one’s shoe was important here unless great care were taken. Moisture put off by the river both beautified the cavern but acted as a deadly host to her earnest companions. A simple mistake with one’s footing could result in a fall into the river below, or gravity between the rock and one’s head. However, she had much more experience moving through these so-called ‘catacombs’ than any of her companions.

Finally, she caught up to the companions. Two of them, both male, were a wealthier sort from the cities. Flush with cash and equipment, they hired her to guide them across the continent on a pilgrimage to a famous shrine of Honor. Both were showing their inexperience now as they began to question her about the caves to which she had become so familiar.

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