Greetings esteemed wizards, Today we want to talk a bit about Lore as well as lore. As many of you have been eager to point out, the world of Eo has a rich and varied history and that is not made less complex by the first two games and their add-ons taking place on the world timeline after the third game, which is set pre-convocation. The Convocation of course being the cataclysmic event that shattered the world of Eo. Now our game is placed right between the last one’s story and the Convocation and thus we had a bit of a historical deep dive to do – what did the world look like at that time, who was alive and who wasn’t, which creatures existed? Fortunately, the loremasters in the SpellForce community helped us a lot and kept us abreast of glaring historical errors and missteps. So we ended up with what we see as a sort of bridge between the two generations of SpellForce. But that poses another issue – how can we create game that does not change the “future” for Eo’s timeline and yet still provides enough free room to explore and expand for the player’s own story. Therefore we focus on you as a mage and the Circle – we won’t re-write history with nations being conquered or kingdoms toppled. Instead, it is a journey of magical power and knowledge, that will have you travel across the world map in search of the secrets of the Allfire. As you can see on this eagle eye view, we start out in the Highmark, which is dominated by humans, but a diverse and interesting area bordered by the Middle Mountains, orcs, dwarves and a nation under constant pressure from all around. Audale, Connach, Lyraine and other small towns dot the region and befriending any of them can be quite useful to gain access to their resources. Of course Sevenkeeps dominates the area and holds many interesting locations and new adventures. Speaking of adventures: While you play a (soon to be) powerful mage in the game, we of course wanted to have one of the mainstays of SpellForce: Heroes and their individual stories. Each hero who joins you has a different story to tell, which will also be explored via your grimoire – initially very little is known about your new companions, but further adventures and research will reveal new aspects for your heroes and give you more and more background. Or in the case of the dwarven alchemist and bomb-maker Lore, new ways to blow things up in spectacular ways. This way, you unlock more reasons to explore the game world and involve yourself in new adventures. And you can make one dwarf really really happy.