Item Lore Contest Awareness Post

For those who may have missed it (and the opportunity) in the News tab.
(To my knowledge) there is no forums post announcing this.

Link here: News - Wynncraft, The Minecraft MMORPG

Best of luck to you all!

Edit: I have submitted my lore and since the sharing thread (which I love) is on the discord (which I am not on and do not wish to be on), I will be using this as a place to share the lore(m)s on the forums. (rhyming! kinda!)

Cnidarian Hellspawn
For Cnidarian Hellspawn, I just kinda imagined what the lore of a (presumably) dead jellyfish... just being on someone's head would be like, which lead me to Wynn's strange fashion.

"It burns a little, and stings quite a lot, but the next time you ever do anything, it'll be with an unignorable and unmatched sense of style. You might just have to be fashionably late for the dramatic flair, though."

I don't think it will win, because something Anni-themed will probably win, but it was fun and also... like what even is this item name?

Marionette
So originally my though process for this one was very much like: 'the more power you have the less control you have' and I thought that was interesting, so I did it.

"[old]There was once a king so powerful that they ruled their subjects in mind and body. But they carried a secret. A patron whose influence granted them this gift, in exchange for the control the power would have afforded. And so the king sat there for a long time, until one who was not theirs to own arrived and said, 'The more control you have, the more you are a puppet.'"

However, I didn't really like this. It was kinda long and ramble-y, which only works on purpose in my opinion. So I was looking at the stats again and saw fire damage. Which made me think about people who are considered expendable. Which led me to this, the final version:

"What do our lives mean to them? What do they mean, when they make plans and schemes, saying we are collateral? We are soldiers, treated as cattle. We are the people, treated as puppets. Our moment is short and our strings are long, but we'll make the most of our limited time."

I felt like this fit much better, and didn't do any of the weird made-up king shenanigans the first one had.

Heaven's Gate
This item got me through like... 15 levels of my warrior class. I love it very much. It's called Heaven's Gate. So what is heaven? And what's the gate?

"Step. Step. Step. Every step, a life, ended. Every step, a breath, labored. Step. Step. 'I can reach it!' you tell yourself. Step. The air is thinning. Step. Are you still winning? Step. That perfect utopia? The one you make upon all, step by step? 'It will never be the end,' you realize, and you fall. But this twisted staircase is the only thing you have left. Step. Step. Step."

This is the cut-down (and less repetitive, though the step repetition is still there) version. I felt like heaven in the name was less of a literal and more of a paradise/perfection. The gate to access is less of a literal gate and more of a 'there is nothing perfect' gate. I tried to incorporate symbolism of Orphion's staircase, and of course 'Staircase to Heaven', very typical yada yada. I (like to) think I did a good job though.

The Scavenged
Not gonna lie the idea for this was very spontaneous. But I did it.

"Run. Keep running. It's not safe. You can't stop. The ones who help you could just as easily end you. Trust no one. Trust not the pack. Run."

Felt very much like a running from a pack of wolves kind of item.

Cruel Sun
Originally my lore for this item (which I don't remember and have since lost) was a really generic sentence about the cultists in Time Valley and false suns and apocalypses and all of that rubbish. But when you think about the sun being cruel, that's not a false sun, that's not a New Sun (though it is a cruel game mechanic). But it is THE sun.

"Because the selfless became selfish when their help turned to harm. It's safe neither here nor there, for this cruel sun is our reality: the heat burns but it provides."

I'm much happier with this version.

My favorites of mine are Marionette and Cruel Sun, though of course I am rooting for any of them.

If you want to, you can post your own below.

 

My submissions (plus a bonus draft idk how I feel abt but has potential imo):

Cnidarian Hellspawn
It goes with the waves of war. Its calmness envelops its wearer in brutality. It stings your mind with serenity. Do not think. Carry on its course with the tides of strife.

The phylum Cnidaria has several creatures that are more or less very simple animals. Like most other people with a submission for this, I went with a jellyfish, but in hindsight going with corals or anemones might've worked better to help mine stand out. Back on topic though, most Cnidarians have little control of their movement, and instead only go with the currents of the ocean. Further emphasizing their simplicity for an animal, Cnidarians are also generally incapable of thought, with their nervous systems more or less being only used to detect if anything touched it. As the last bit of Cnidaria biology I tacked on, all Cnidarians have cnidocytes, which are cells that have a unique organelle (nematocyst) that stings prey or defends against predators.

Onto the more symbolic side, Cnidarians are generally viewed as relaxing creatures, moon jellyfish in particular imo. I feel like the calming nature reflects onto the tone of the item lore. I did use juxtapositions to show the somewhat paradoxical nature of a Cnidarian Hellspawn, especially for an item that makes one weaker to water despite all Cnidarians being aquatic.

Marionette
Step into darkness, move by its demand! Rebel if you want, you won't force its hand! Your vitality drains as you quiver. You lose motility as you feel a shiver. A lone voice echoes as you enter a trance. "Dance, soldier, dance!"

This was easily my favorite one to write up, and I have a strong feeling this has caused other people to rhyme with their Marionette lores. The first clause references how Marionette is obtained from the SE lootrun. The next clause and sentence refer to how you are basically just a puppet now, and that any attempts to resist are futile. How you are being puppetized is shown in the next two sentences. The vitality draining part refers to -HP, and losing motility refers to -walk speed. Quiver and shiver are both used to show the terror you experience being puppetized. The last parts both refer to the fast-paced and chaotic nature of Marionette, with the very fast attack speed and the Strings of Fate major ID. Essentially, you using this item culminates in you just being a puppet to put on a show for whatever being is entertained by your frenetic nature.

Onto the general picture with this item lore, I tried to make the tone childish with the rhyming scheme. Literal puppets are mostly used as something to entertain children. There is also a hint of madness in there along with hopelessness, which I feel represents Dern well, at least with the Olm signs in WynnEx Site D.

Cruel Sun
Old seafarers of Wynn fervently worshipped the sun. Despite this, their voyages were always across dark, stormy skies. When their great city fell by the Corruption's hand, it was only then their god revealed himself- smiling at their destruction.

I was mostly going off of how Ancient Nemract has a Sun Effigy mob, formerly called the Sun God. It being based on that makes sense and overlaps perfectly with this item's level range. The irony of their worshipped god only showing himself to look on with glee at Ancient Nemract's destruction fits how the Sun Effigy mob is rare. Despite that, something about this execution rubs me the wrong way. It definitely has potential for an awesome item lore, but I particularly don't like how the ending feels pace-wise.

Edit: Submitted this lore. Honestly not that bad looking back.

 

See this is why i thought mine stood no chance
you did actual research
honestly i don't know that any of those lines actually imply that it's a jellyfish, and i think the cnidaria biology is a very fun touch even if the jellyfish thing is a cliche

horror nursery rhyme for marionette
very cool and interesting

Wait using that as inspo is actually insane that's so cool


item lore contest reviewers if any of you see this: please be aware that i did not submit Cruel Sun twice (okay technically I did), I just realized I typo-ed and put in the correct version. Apologies for the confusion if you are reading this.

 

It's a creature from the Realm of War, hence it being in the loot pool of Annihilation

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It's specifically meant to be a Man O War (haha, because Realm of War), which is a siphonophore irl. Technically not a jellyfish, but close enough.
Plus, it's not really meant to be the same creature as the actual real life Portuguese Man O War, given its from a different reality altogether, and not one where life flourishes in any regard

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I brought this up internally but Cnidarian Hellspawn is a bit of a weird one to put in an item contest given its connection to the Realm of War, which no player knows the actual contents of.
Prior to 2.1's release, I had written a shell of an item lore for it, given I was writing the lores for items like Syncope and Mephistophelian that were also RoW related & Annihilation drops, but I wasn't satisfied with it so I canned the concept and eventually forgot. It feels a bit difficult for a player to now pick it up and try to write something, given the lack of context they have behind what the item is even meant to be.

 

i voted laurel because thats what i hear (im not writing any lore sorry)

 

+1

 

holy shit deus you cooked with the cnidarian hellspawn lore

 

the formatting got fucked up on the newsletter, there's meant to be linebreaks

Thank you though ,,