Quest Feedback on Fruma Storyline and Atmosphere

First of all, great job to all CT and everyone involved for creating such rich, engaging and meaningful storyline with so much dedication voluntarily. Especially [final boss] alone probably makes all those years of hype and waiting worth it.

I understand it's still incomplete, especially the plot about changeling (which is likely to be revealed in wasteland update), and what happens to characters after the questline is over. (I'd really love to see how Sovereigns live after the final quest). So I'll skip over them.

Spoilers ahead obviously, go play if you haven't already.




The feedback
Major issue is... the atmosphere of Fruma seems too detached from revolution storyline.

Of course I know Queen subjects industrial district people to horrible working condition and oppresses anyone who oppose her by deporting them, but for anyone else? It doesn't seem that bad, especially compared to every other region we visited earlier.

Our first impression with Fruma is its militaristic nature, but so does literally everywhere else. Wynn is at war with corruption, Gavel with decay and racism, Corkus with robots and racism. Without Queen, Corruption would have sipped in and mostly same military would be required anyway.

And our first impression of Sovereign is Zhiraok, who actually does good job and does not abuse his power. Zhiraok literally did not do anything really wrong, as betting on the rebellion had so low chance, and after all player did kill dozens of soldiers without saying anything.

Then our second impression with Fruma is... awesome beautiful forest with spa. (the scarred springs quest) If you haven't done secret discoveries, you wouldn't even know about the horrible past.

It is only after Industrial district that you know how horrible life in Fruma can be. Even then, it's mostly caused by Soosu's lack of management. Of course, it's Queen's fault too since she is the one who put Soosu into this suffering called politics just because she needed resonance weaver. But later, she unintentionally solves it by letting Zhiraok be charge of both Auburn and Industrial District..?

Next up in Mistwoods, changeling spies everywhere are supposed to make us paranoid... But honestly, it never hit to me. Compare Celebrations in Smoke and Off the Rails Quest. Celebrations in Smoke involves dangerous mastermind changeling, who tries to commit hideous act of... burning the stage which is easily stopped. While in Off the Rails, a constable gets outright murdered. Which one is supposed to be more paranoid inducing?

Finally at the highlands, we see the nobles disconnected from life of everyone else, while still subject to horrible military training if not behaved well. This was pretty good, although there needs more showing on just how hard it is for ordinary people to move to highlands, especially as player and Sui walks in trivially easy.


Proposed Change

The story needs more convincing reason to overthrow the Queen. After all, she is immensely powerful in magic, she did boost economic and militaristic power of Fruma massively, what's REAL bad about her? (Before flooding the dam, of course)

Auburn Forest: Show Zhiraok reluctantly but still participating in bad acts, like capturing 'cursed'. Add Hunter NPC who is struggling to meet rare animal quota.

How about in scarred springs, when the spa reopens, it actually gets filled with people from highlands. Espren citizens fails to enter despite it being in their region, until player or leaves in the wind steps in.

Industrial District: The reason for extremely harsh quota is because of Queen's preparation for the military raid of darkness realm. But of course, it was being wasted by rampant corruption of military officers and nobles.

Mistwoods: Won't say much as it'll be supplemented by Wasteland update. But add NPC suffering from identity theft, perhaps.

Highlands: Add Sui and Zeph ranting about how good people here live compared to them, probably.

 

This is just my opinion but Fruma did actually do a good job of making me hate the government. Sure, Zhiraok is a fine leader but what he can accomplish is limited because he only has power in Auburn, which by the way is in permanent drought? For no apparent reason? Auburn forest is not a super paradise. As for the Mistwoods, just looking into the ethics of what's going on there should be enough to convince anyone that there's a problem. You're not paranoid, but you're a player, playing the game. Imagine what living in a region full of (malevolent?) shapeshifters actually feels like. That alone makes me opposed to the Crown.

I do think that having Zhiraok lean into a morally grayer role would be to the benefit of the story, like you said. The only thing I would add besides that are more inquisitors outside of The Missing Piece, like I genuinely forgot they were a thing until that quest.

 

Auburn is supplied minimal assistance and the people live in poverty. It has infrastructure, but if was all destroyed in an effort to keep the people there oppressed. If you're doing the secret discoveries, then you'll learn that basically everyone in the forest was killed by a flood because of the death of Sovereign Xima, who destroyed a place of great significance to the original people living in Fruma.
The Roughworks is the backbone of the province, everyone else lives better because everyone who lives in the Roughworks leads awful lives. They're walled in and deprived of the information of what a life other than endless servitude is like. They aren't treated like people, but like gears to slotted into a factory's machine and used until they're grinded and worn down and discarded. People here are literally given stimulants to make them work more.
The Highlands only has people living happy lives because they incessantly worship the Queen, as does Aelumia. They absolutely have great lives and are the main people who benefit from the existence of the Roughworks.
And then, of course, there's The Wastelands. Not much is said in game, but from what is, it seems to be the equivalent of a work camp that dissidents get sent to and don't return from. I don't think I need to draw comparisons to Germany, China, or Russia.

And then, of course, you have the fascistic classic of an 'in group' and an 'out group'. People who use magic, unsanctioned, are deported, put to death, or sent to the wastelands (which is basically being put to death). They are blamed as the cause of most problems within the province, and are a means of both shifting the focus away from actual issues while also keeping the people oppressed by restricting their freedoms (and making the freedom of being able to perform or practice magic seem evil).

You say that your 'first impression' of Fruma is Auburn, but that's wrong. It's not. Ignoring even the Queen's Recruit quest, your first impression is the stories you hear about the province.
You learn well before you ever enter that it's run by a totalitarian monarchy who deports dissidents, prevents the usage of magic, starves some of its citizens to the point that stealing becomes a necessity, tolerates the entry of no one, and actively threatens the Seaskipper for trying to get too close to the Gate.

 

Okay. Now I'm really going to get into it.

The reason you seem to be saying that Fruma is "too detached" from the revolution storyline is because not everyone is a subject of direct, visible oppression.
I'd like you to think about how Capitalism works. It produces a lot of goods and growth, but at the massive cost of requiring someone in the chain to get fucked over. For there to be people benefitting from the system, and for those being affected neutrally, there has to be someone who is suffering for their sake. While the middle class is certainly still subject to oppression, it is incomparable to those at the lower class, and they're mostly indifferent to the system because it doesn't harm them enough to care. The upper class meanwhile benefits, and revels in the existence of the system.
You can draw a direct connection to Fruma. The Lower class who gets fucked over is the Roughworks and Wastelands - your sweatshops, your child labor, your cobalt mines, your indentured servitude out of sight of the people benefitting - the Middle class who is affected little enough they don't have qualms is Auburn, the workers in the Highlands, and the Mistwoods, and the Upper class who enjoys their position of loftiness is the Highlands and Aelumia.
This system works because if everyone was oppressed, there would be an unbelievable amount of dissidents (just check North Korea).
More importantly though, is that Her Majesty doesnt want to just oppress people. Fruma is structured like this to allow her to achieve her ends. She sees the existence of the Roughworks and Wastelands as a necessary evil so that the Highlands and Aelumia can benefit. She sees the existence of Fruma's structure a necessary evil so the entire world can benefit. While she certainly desires the position of Absolute Leader, seeing the Province as the Realm she never got to have, the purpose of it isn't just to stroke her own ego, and she genuinely wants the best for her people - she just doesnt mind hurting the few for the sake of the many.

Fruma isn't meant to be about how "everything sucks". You are meant to see the awful things some people have to endure and see the benefit it creates. It is not meant to be entirely and objectively bad, it is meant to be a messy situation that doesn't really have a comfortable solution. Fruma is by far the most technologically and socially advanced region in the world for a reason.

Anyways,

This goes against what we established in Recover the Past. Fruma doesn't tolerate the violation of its laws, regardless of how high on the totem pole someone is. While being a guard or a constable or a wings awards you the luxury of being able to exercise your desire for violence on people, we see that Reynauld, who acts as an accomplice to a crime, is stripped of his position and arrested. Fruma is meant to follow a logic - the Queen's logic - not just be a crumbling nation ruled by an incompetent leader.

 

My point was, you shouldn't need to do secret discovery or random NPC interaction to know all that. (Undersupply does tackle this issue, but kinda unimpactful) See like Dwarves and Doguns or Corkus questlines, the quest clearly shows what the problem is. While Rex, Zeph and Sui doesn't experience any apparent problems before leaving the border.

I agree, but I think this fact got downplayed by how trivially easily we blended into Hyloch. Why was passport only used during Auburn forest & Industrial district, when it should have been the key to the separation.

The thing is 99% of Wynncraft was nowhere like 20th or 21st century of our world, our logic cannot be applied directly. When every other provinces are on active war, it does make sense to close off the border. Ragni and Troms are also run on absolute monarch, Gavel is run by guilds. Starving, wandering and robbing people exist in greater quantity outside border. Medieval style prisons are still everywhere.

Of course this isn't to say Queen did good, but it means her evil lacks impact. But I think this will get better once wasteland is updated along with aftermath on how better Fruma can be with better governing.

 

Why did you change Epsilon's quotes to be me????? Wtf

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I said this:

 

The Roughworks is the most populous district in Fruma.

 

I HAVE NO IDEA HOW THAT HAPPENED

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i imagine I didn't notice by the virtue of you two having a name that starts with E