Storytime (Of Darkness!)

The “Insider Secret” story behind Throne of Darkness

This Friday, our new saga Throne of Darkness begins in AdventureQuest Worlds. If you have been following me on my Artix Krieger Facebook or Twitter, then you have probably seen the posts from when I started writing it. But the truth is… I wrote the original concept for this story way BEFORE the creation of the original AdventureQuest.

Ready for this? I originally wrote this when I was 13 years old. Did you ever come up with an idea so incredible that you held onto it like your most carefully guarded secret? Except I cannot keep secrets... so I have been telling the AE Team about this concept (over and over) for as long as they have known me. Previous it was called “The Table Story” or “The original plot of ArchKnight.”

Due to the unusual way the adventure is told, I always expected it to be used for a new, stand alone game. See, in normal adventures you play it from your point of view. But The Throne of Darkness is from the Villain’s point of view. Instead of happening in real time, the Bad Guys are sitting around are telling stories about you… so everything you do, have already, technically… already happened. This is a lot of fun, because you can do things in the past, that can actually change the Villains at the table here in the present.

You will see what I mean in the opening adventure “The Castle of Bone” which features Vaden the Death Knight. It is so crazy… little did I know, so many years ago, way back then when I first came up with this story… that it would be about you.

A new cast of villains

If you went back in time and saw my childhood sketches and ideas from The Throne of Darkness, you would be surprised to find you recognized the villains sitting around the table-- Xan, Sepulchure, The Mysterious Necromancer, Drakath, and the Vampire Queen (later named Safiria.) Yup, we have secretly been using parts of this story for years. So if you have liked the 13 Lords of Chaos and other things I have written in the past... You are probably really going to enjoy this too.

To avoid using the same characters again, I wrote new a fresh new rogues gallery of villains. If you see any subtle similarities between the new villains and previous ones… you can probably take a good guess who they are taking the place of. And that is a fun thing that you will understand, and most people will not get.

I have tried not to mix any of the existing stuff into this new plotline, but every time I see clever posts from players on Twitter you make me want to break the rules. Take Vaden the DeathKnight for instance. Some players think he might be related to Vordred, or there might be a link because it sounds like Valen (Sepulchure’s original name), or that is might actually be Artix’s son (because Aidan and Vaden sound similar.) -- I am not going to rule anything out. The ink is not dry yet. 

Check in tomorrow for a sneak peak at the dungeons that Throne of Darkness will open up on the map. There are 7 Villains seated at the table… each with a lair more dangerous and crazy than the last. Battle on!