World How I would change the Realm of Light storyline.

I think one of my biggest gripes with Wynncraft's story is that some of the events in Realm of Light feel very "artifical" to say the least. Like, I didn't feel like I watched a story unfold, and more like I just watched things happening for no reason.

I wanted to go over how I would change some of these things if I got the oppertunity to change the story a bit.

To start off, Lari:
Lari, I think, is a controversial character for having less than reasonable morals. She sticks to pacifism to such an intense degree that she only causes more problems.

To some, this would make Lari seem unreasonable, or just plain stupid, but I don't see it that way.
Lari, to me, is an allegory for obsessing over something so much, you don't see the effects until it's too late.
Don't take this as me defending Lari, more so think about it as me saying that I like the concept of her, more than her actual character.

What I have a problem with is her arc, specifically with it's conclusion. Forgive me if I get this wrong, but from what I remember, Lari basically comes to the conclusion that "killing is okay, as long as it's bad people your killing", which I think misses the point of what she represents.

It would be more impactful if the story imphesised that SHE was the one who made mistakes, and she comes to a realisation, and decides to make up for it.

"I was wrong, how can I make it right?" instead of "I think I found a person who should die".

Another point of contention is with Orphion, specifically, in ROL II. The part where you have a choice to either kill the Mayor of Olux, Dr. Urlix, or leave.
I believe that instead of killing the mayor, this is actually turned into little puzzle. If you kill the Docter, no more Iron Golems will be made, meaning that many places will be left undefended. If you kill the Mayor, the Docter will continue his scheme, and let them die. And if you leave, nothing will be solved.

I think the right answer to this dilemma is that you just... not killing anyone. Just get Urlix arrested, like in the Iron Heart quest, and have him be imprisoned. The Gavellian government would probably steal his designs to make Iron Golems that don't require people's sacrifice, the people of Olux are spared from a cruel fate, and no one had to die.

This would explain the reasoning for Orphion showing you the past, when Lari fought the Parasite, or in otherwords; Showing you the last time "no one had to die".

I think a good character arc for Orphion would involve you humbling him for thinking things were just black and white. It's not Good vs. Evil, or Yin vs. Yang; it's Good AND Evil, and Yin AND Yang.
This could be demonstrated in ROL part III. Maybe Castle Dullahan could become a dungeon, with Dullahan as the boss, and instead of killing him, you "purifiy him", which makes him good again, and he starts trying to make amends by fixing Kander Forest/Dark Forest.

More good would be done by helping someone see the light, instead of killing them for rejecting it.

And if you didn't get the message from that, then the fight with Lari surely would.
The Tree of Light interupts the fight to tell you two to stop fighting, as nothing would come out of this.
Only bad thing would come if either of you died. Again, showing that people don't have to die in order for good things to happen.

This would give Orphion a character arc, and would make the story a little more digestable, in my opinion.

 

Feels like a pretty big misread of things. The Realm Beasts are neither good nor evil. They're forces of nature, like a hurricane or a firestorm or a tornado. Their destruction or benefit, and the consequences of their existence simply are: there is nothing moral to them. They are animals (hence the title of "beasts") acting with a desire to survive, not to do what it right.
Orphion doesn't understand "good and evil", nor does DB. Those concepts are meaningless to them.

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I recommend doing 2.1's rework of Nu de Valeos du Ellach

 

To add a bit more, the whole section in taproot isn't to say "oh, Orphion is saying that ending a few lives to save more is better", it's meant to show that he just doesn't care about people's lives, he only cares about stuff that benefits himself. He is a God, and we are ants by comparison; our lives are inconsequential to him unless they serve to benefit his cause. Just like how humans don't care about the woodland creatures or the insects or the microbes in an area when they destroy it and make way for urbanization, Orphion and DB don't care about what disorder or death they may bring to the inhabitants of the physical plane, only about spreading their will.

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The only reason Orphion cares about golems defending cities is that it halts Corruption from blowing shit up in Wynn allowing DB to likely sweep in afterwards. He doesn't see it as "oh, I need to save these people's lives", he sees it as "the continued existence of this city benefits me and my agenda."

 

W orphion

 

Orphion's lack of care for life doesn't come off very strongly when all of Orphion's goals are, at least right now, directly in favor of continued human existence. This scene doesn't do a good job making Orphion look immoral, it makes him look like a 'good is not soft'-type, someone who will make sacrifices for the greater good, because Wynn's greater good also happens to align with Orphion's goal of suppressing the Shadow. The scene should probably be rewritten to clarify his motives in telling you who to kill, possibly with an additional 'you just killed the actual mayor of Olux' element.

 

He's not immoral. He's amoral.

 

They look very similar to a human observer and it doesn't change the fact that the scene does a poor job of it. Orphion not caring about anything other than spreading his domain isn't something the Realm of Light questline does a good job establishing. (It also doesn't establish what the deal was with the Guardian getting chopped down.)

 

I get where you’re coming from, but even with all that said, it still just doesn’t pan out that way overall and still feels like a generic, “Light good, Darkness bad” story.

Outside of Taproot, Orphion never actually tells us to do anything morally grey (I’m not even sure if we actually killed the mayor; I initially thought that scene was a vision or something so correct me if I’m wrong). It would be one thing if Gavel was suffering from the influence of the Realm of Light like Wynn and the SE from the other 2 realms, but it’s the opposite. The entire conflict of the game (including the Decay, the Portal opening, and possibly the fracturing of the Ahms region) is caused by the Light being thrown out of balance. Gavel was better off with the Light in every way possible. So ultimately we still have to fight on behalf of the Light to solve the main conflict in the game. Hence the whole “moral ambiguity” aspect of Orphion just doesn’t really work because it pans out the same as if Orphion was moral anyway.

Not to mention the elephant in the room that the Darkness represents literal Eldritch monsters while the Light has more normal whimsical or angelic creatures.

It would have been a lot more interesting morally-wise if Orphion was trying to take over Gavel like the Dark Beast/Annie and the spread of Light was negatively impacting Gavel in other aspects. Like invasive species from the RoL causing the ecosystem to be thrown out of balance similar to the Decay. But unlike the Decay, Orphion also uses deception to spread his influence. Like having Orphion trick the player into helping him, only for him to betray the player when it’s convenient. You could still have some races like the Elves worship the Light, just that they are blinded to the negative aspects of the Light because of their religious zeal and they are affected less than other races. Like the orcs get driven out of the forests due to the aforementioned invasive species from the RoL, but the Elves don’t care because they’re racist against the orcs and they’ve learned to adjust their lifestyles for the Light.

As a side note, it would have also been a great arc for Lari to realize that Orphion never cared about her or anyone else, and tried to undo the damage caused by her prejudices and actions done on behalf of Orphion. Or at least it would be better than her being a pacifist dipshit imo.

TL;DR If the Light was intended to be amoral, it should have had a negative impact on the world like the Darkness/Corruption, but thru Orphion using deceit to have beings worship him at the expense of others. Otherwise, it just turns into another Light vs. Dark story.

 

he has already taken control of Gavel, and it has been very noticably affected by that.
While it's not explicitly stated outside of a world event description, light emissaries will go through the light forests and just fucking purge anything that isn't Light, meaning all creatures that aren't influenced by light in some manner will just get disintegrated to keep the forests "pure", like immune cells blowing up anything foreign, regardless of what it is.

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They're both Eldritch, just one has more themes of body horror and the other has more of a geometry type aesthetic. A Thousand Hungry, Watching Eyes vs The Screaming Fractal That Blinds You

 

What doesn’t help with that aspect is that the Light is portrayed as a natural part of Gavel, while the Corruption and Darkness are portrayed as unnatural to Wynn and the SE. Partly because we see what Wynn and the SE were like before, but not Gavel before the Light showed up, and partly because without the Light entire ecosystems collapse in Gavel. Plus since the dernic parasites are trying to constantly invade the Light Forest, we can be a bit lenient to those light emissaries for being too aggressive sometimes. And since we don’t see the light emissaries killing innocent creatures in game, while we still see the Light Forest be filled with whimsical creatures and is just objectively better for the wildlife of Gavel than say the Kander Forest, the world event just comes across an irregular, but necessary accident rather than invasive species directly destroying its environment like in the Kander Forest.

Okay there may be some more alien looking creatures in the RoL, but you can’t say with a straight face that the RoL and the Light Forest have the same or even remotely similar vibe as the SE and the RoW Portal. There’s literal devils in the latter now…

Even then, none of that still addresses that we still never do anything morally gray outside of Taproot (which might not have even been real, just a vision), and that ultimately we still unconditionally fight on behalf of the Light while the Darkness has zero redeeming qualities.

 

It doesn't yet.

 

...so?

The vibes are Not There. You saying 'Not There yet' doesn't actually mean anything. I don't know what you're implying. The Light Forest is going to become more eldritch? How? Is it going to be filled with horrifying angels? What will happen to the numerous things already present in-game in Light-touched areas?

The problem is that the force behind Phrumkins and Pixies is difficult to equate to the force behind Devils and the Dead, and the force behind Eldritch Eyes and Colossal Cancers.

 

It means that I'm going to change the mobs there, just as I am doing in the realm of light

 

this is the most corny line in wynncraft im ngl

 

i love that line tho
it is just like

i F*** with this energy so hard

 

iowa type energy