Official Event Item Lore Writing Contest!

Alr I got a few ideas (not final except for a few):

Effervescence (Submitted):

• Spring showers oftentimes bring vibrant, bubbling puddles. A radiant, shimmering mirror of light, compared to Wynn’s normally desolate and dull landscape. Enjoy them, while they last. (I submitted this one)
• Life is short and exciting. Enjoy it while it lasts.

Stratosphere (Submitted):

• Aim higher. Go farther. Spread your wings and fly into the sky. Reach past the tallest tower. Reach past the highest mountains. Reach and reach until oxygen is spread so thin you can’t even breathe. And now that you’ve surpassed everyone and everything, what do you have left? You’re but a lonely god, drifting through space where even the sun’s rays cannot touch you.
• The sky's the limit, just remember you’ll come plummeting down later. (I chose this one. Even though the other one is really cool, I just thought this one was pretty funny and fitting of Stratosphere as an item.)

Blank Stare (Undecided):

• Watch them march, column by column, bobbing up and down. Their heads stay glued ahead, their legs rising and falling in perfect unison, and in their eyes isn’t a glimmer of intelligence. Blank slates, weathered and mutilated by millennia of erosion. There is no thought behind that stare but total, complete obedience.
• “Don’t think. Just… obey.”

Shine Suffocator (Undecided):

1. Envision a world,
Where darkness leached with roots unfurled,
As the sky darkened and the sun went black,
There was no light, only its lack.
2. "Treasure what little light you have left. It will soon be extinguished."


Yeah this is after like 30 minutes of thinking (maybe shouldn't have submitted so fast for the first two lmao). I have no idea what I'm gonna wright for "Obsalescent Monapoly" or whatever tf it is. Idk what it means.​

 

Sure, I'll throw my hat in the ring (not doing effer and strato since I saw some that I want to win more than whatever I can cook up- i wont name names):

Obsolescent Panoply
Gather your riches. Revel in them. Cherish every last jewel your mind recalls. Though regardless of what you do to protect it, it will all disappear sometime soon.

The item's name means "obsolete collection". Combining that with the fact that the Goliath you encounter in the world event is probably related to the Colossus, which devastated the Ahms Region into the Sky Islands, any great thing that happened in Ahms would likely have been forgotten by the descendants of survivors centuries later.

Edit: if this wins remove though it sounds better without it

Blank Stare
What were the purposes of those statues? Were they created as effigies of forgotten gods? Are they constructs of the earth? Or are they just simply meant to be what they are? Such questions to ponder during a long stare into the ocean.

A blank stare is often used to show confusion in response to a question. This is also just drawing a blank upon the nature of those things. The last question in particular also has a bit of a double meaning, implying that there is no lore significance behind those statues (e.g. a "blank" in the lore).

Shine Suffocator
The radiance of your foes burns bright. You must emanate your brilliance in return. Cloak them in a blinding glow. Smother their luminance with yours. Then after all of their light has faded, yours will too.

I'm deciding to go with a different route that I think still fits the item. All the other things I've seen here so far mention light being smothered by darkness, so I think making light smothering itself with more light adds a bit of uniqueness, especially since thunder is the main element of this weapon. That last part I feel also matches up with its -health regen.

 

Oooh wait that’s a really cool interpretation of Shine Suffocater I didn’t think about. TBH it does make a lot of sense… but perhaps it doesn’t have to be light suffocating light? Shine could really be anything that stands out, so sort of like the light assimilating stuff into its realm (like in the light forest)?

 

So, I decided to put forth my own two cents for Shine Suffocator's lore and it was interesting to think about, even if it doesn't win.

"An ancient tribe of shaman chose to trap skyfire within this staff, but lightning is a force of the gods, and this tool is a stifling reminder that men are nothing before divine radiance."

Edit: I decided I'd also take a shot at Blank Stare as well:

"A chestplate that once belonged to an adventurer who wandered the depths of the Void. One day, he took one step too far and tread where he shouldn't have. He stared into the nothing of the Void... the darkness stared back."

 

silly idea for effervescence
-Acidifying hydromorph weaponry is often considered a folly, the product capable of dissolving metal with a mere touch. Your uneasiness only deepens when this wand fizzles vehemently in your hands.

 

Try on Protector's Parable for size. It's the longest lore for a nonmythic item, to my knowledge. fun little trivia facts with mard :)

 

Mard which is the item that gives the story of the trees that symbolizes the decay? Or maybe it’s a song not an item? I can’t remwmbwr

 

This is a really cool idea hope to see more of these

 

i'm pretty sure my first two won't get it, but hey, who knows? i'll just state what 'ideas' i had for each one:

effervescence:
just wrote some wizard's note about his exploits mixing some 'silvery metal' (potassium) with water. oops.

obsolescent panoply:
i think i wrote some rhyme about some lord after the gavellian revolution? and how his armor failed him because it was obsolete? i don't really know what i was doing for this one

stratosphere:
something about sky island blacksmiths imbuing the power of the skies into their armor because they needed to get around

blank stare:
something about the void having an effect on items that fell down too

shine suffocator:
wrote about the tool being made of strangler fig, and weeds growing on its side suffocating it because shaman shaman, nature magic...

 

I struggled to keep anything short and sweet, but I wish I looked at this thread sooner, because some of y'all have an art for it! Here's what I wrote, hopefully this will inspire someone with a little more foresight than I:

Stratosphere:
He turned to watch as his followers entered the tunnel. Between their forms he glimpsed the clear sky, and every feather in his body caressed that lost freedom with insatiable yearning. Somewhere under a thatch roof high above, a smith's hammer rang out with that wish like thunder, and the phoenix bestowed his last to those yet sky-bound.

Shine Suffocator:
In the mired countryside of Olux, even daylight is dark under the thick canopy. When the sun finally shows, its blinding aura can be suffocating for the creatures native to the false night, leaving some to simply die in shock.

Blank Stare:
The serenity of the cryptic monuments erected on the shores of the Ahms region has drawn tourists from across the provinces to gaze into their peaceful visages. Yet some swear something animated and angry stirs beneath the caricatured stone.

Obsolescent Panoply:
Once, a prideful ruler might have displayed his sentinel army - gilded and festooned with all assortment of lethal weaponry - to visiting nobility, to woo their favor or coerce their compliance. Now fragments of these grand constructions serve only you.

Effervescence:
Mana bubbles to the surface of our world's firmament like shooting stars. Fledgling mages observing the night sky might notice sparks of this primordial power, scattered between the constellations. A delightful fizzy feeling that has spurred many to pursue the arcane arts.

 

How many more items need lore? CT should run this once every quarter. I check this thread every day just to see everybody's writing.

 

God, I love this contest. Please make more in the future.

Blank Stare:
A presence, heavy and cold. You put it on, and the world flattens, distance warps. You try to look away but cannot. You stop and see movements that don’t happen, until you fail to see your own reflection.

 

was that on the entry test for IM admissions? (joking ish)

very excited that shine suffocator is on here (used it at level on my shaman)
blank stare, effervescence, & stratosphere are also cool
here are my own ones (definitely not winning because everyone else is too talented)
pretty sure they are far better than what i put last year (because my eloquence has increased one-thousand-fold)

Shine Suffocator:
"A hall of watery mirrors. A single beam of light reflected endlessly. The result is as blinding as it is breathtaking, and take your breath it shall."

A reference to the fact that water reflects light, and that suffocation need not be literal. (Imagine being surrounded by a web of blinding light.)

Blank Stare:
"Watching, watching, watching. They are always watching. They watch both your shadow and your reflection. Destroy the light, and they shall not see your darkness. Destroy the mirrors, and they shall not see your doubt. Destroy their faces, and they shall see no more."

The best way to deal with unwanted staring is to make those stares blank. (I do know that the item is connected to the Moai in some way, so I decided to make a lot vaguer so that it could theoretically still apply (my original idea was very inspired by the RoL 5 Mirror Dialogue))

Stratosphere
"With the breeze at your back, and the gales in your sails, fly freely. But be warned, stray too close to the sun and you shall plummet."

least happy with this one rn, but the urge to make it like this was too great.

Effervescence
"What is a bubble but a pocket? What is a bubble but a fracture, but a ripple, pushing droplets aside to create blank? What is a bubble but the impossible made possible for a few moments, a manifestation of a discarded normality? What is a bubble but complexity in the simplicity of the natural?"

greek philosphers be like (+ skraunt):

on a more serious note, i love the symbolizes how the wand (and wynn's item systems) complex simplicity. (this one is my favorite)
edit for
Obsolescent Panoply
"You gaze upon your stockpile, each twinkling treasure outclassed. You grasp onto memories, but without justification for permanent possession, each trinket is cast out and your collection forsaken."

not really sure how i feel 'bout this one

 

we're so back

Effervescence: A life is a small and fragile thing, drifting through a sea of spontaneity. The fool will use his to cause a stir in the lives of those around him, and in so doing extinguish his own. The wise mage knows better, for she will flow through the currents, savoring what is given her, and lightly guide herself to new possibilities.
"gee, this one sure is wordy compared to cmosier's submissions last time. i'm sure it's just a one off and the rest of them will be a more suitable length!"
i did my best to fit in both the motif of bubbles and intelligence-y mage-y ideas. evidently i wasn't the first one to try writing a metaphor around that, and looking back i can't decide if i was too heavy-handed or too obtuse with it. i like the idea but this is one of my weaker executions i think.

Obsolescent Panoply: A man might have known this relic and held it dear. He may have lived in a forgotten home in the middle of these fields, and perhaps the place was decorated with artworks which gave him comfort in the dark times he may have had. He could have been content with this unknowable life; possibly he had wished for more in his old ages. Of course this all is fancy, but what fiction could be more compelling than that which cannot be proven false?
in my defense i was actually going for a long and rambly tone this time, trying to capture a bit of this rhetorical man's psyche while staying in the reader's pov. it's probably too long to be viable, but i think it's funny, which is enough justification for me. tryharding these contests instead of using them as an excuse to goof off is so 2023.

Stratosphere: The brightest ideas come from those who think high; the greatest ambitions from reaching for the sky. A cannon will make the earth tremble in wars, yet the most damage is caused the higher it soars.
i had the hardest time coming up with the basis for this one, but for a reason forever unknown to me i suddenly had the idea of using the japanese kishotenketsu structure for this one, which is a format i heard about a while ago but never had a good excuse to try using until now. i couldn't get the meter to work out the way i wanted so it doesn't work that well as a poem, but it was simple and fun to write so no regrets. weird, it's almost like the whole point of this thing is to write short pieces that convey a tone succinctly. wouldn't know anything about that though.

Blank Stare: Many revered warriors claim to find their greatest prowess in moments where emotion is abandoned. Time is lost in a thunderclap, and the soldier, forgetting everything but the challenge in front of them, fights with the unyielding strength of granite. Could that be right? What is lost when ideals become second to rigidity and men fight as stone sentinels?
not as much to talk about with this one. i couldn't find an interesting way to bring in the moyai guys and just went in a bit of a different direction, but i did at least mention stone constructs which could reference either the moyai guys or the colossi. the things i pondered on here are interesting i think but overall this is maybe my weakest.

Shine Suffocator: Every sailor who has known a sea in darkness can attest to the infinite serenity of an ocean of stars, a singular setting in which the universe holds her breath. A lighthouse on the shores of Corkus once shattered this tranquility with a greater radiance than all the lights of the sky. A band of pirates vandalised it and stole the mechanism, and its electromagical capacity became a conduit for weaponized power.
with this one i came up with a revolutionary idea: using the lore section of an item to actually describe its lore. i'm not too happy with the fact that its mostly about corkus on a level 50ish item but i did manage to rope in ocean and pirate stuff which is closer to that level range. it's really verbose for what it's actually saying but i couldn't find a way to pare it down much without dropping descriptions i like. this one maybe is also too long to be reasonably added but i enjoy the vibe so it's a winner in my heart

Spoiler: oops

i wrote another thing for blank stare before i realized it's from the moyai world event, so i based it off molten heights instead. i thought it was cool regardless so i figured i'd attach it to this post if nothing else

To even an immortal being, prolonged warfare takes the edge from life. Many a captured Dogun, set to be entombed for eternity, faced their imprisonment with resignation and fatalism. Such it is that written into their granite features is an eternal lack of emotion.

 

Ohh, I'll give it a try

for Obsolescent Panoply:
"This jeweled and many coloured headwear used to be a indicator of ones greatness. Now it serves as a warning, that infinite time makes everything worthless eventually. Even you."

Or

"Many shapes and colors form this headwear. It used to signal wealth, but is now considered worthless. Still, only it's owners have been replaced."

I think the second one is better. Like that the owners have been the ones that are obsolete

 

I messed up thinking that 'usury' is related to 'usurp' -- WHICH IT ISN'T. OOPS. It should be! But the correct past-participle of 'usurp' is 'usurpative', which is way less cool. Oh well...