Questions about Lore

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I had numerous gripes with Majesty 2, not the least of which was the direction the lore took. Specifically, the whole "Lunord turning against the other gods and getting booted from the main pantheon" felt very out of character based on his previous actions. Not the God of Rage, not the God of Chaos, but the god who willingly abdicated to his children and told humanity to cut him some slack? Didn't seem right.

Now, I'm planning to get Warlock regardless of your answer. I really think this game is going to be awesome and that Lunord is back at all is a huge plus. I'm just curious if he's still considered a villainous figure or if he's on better terms with the Ardanian populace and/or his fellow gods.

...Though given the current political climate, I'm curious if ANY gods are considered truly "good" or "evil", since everyone seems to be on a polar opposite versus basis. Unless there are some in-game mechanics restricting it, it seems totally possible to have good-guy Dauros-worshipping monsters, evil humans serving Grum-Gog, and even undead who oxymoronically worship Agrela.

Actually, what time frame does this take place in anyway? What happened to the bloodline of Sydrian? Why is the throne empty in the first place?

A lot of questions, I know. I'm just the type who actually cares about the background details. Just treat this thread as basically a request for any lore you're willing to share.

 

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While playing Majesty 2, you might found that so called "Rebellion of Lunord" was in fact a set up made by his wife Helia, who became envy of Lunord's popularity. Helia (and her High priests) managed to withdraw Lunord from the official pantheon and from the Conclave, after what she became the "first god among equals" for almost 250 years, but during the reign of the last Great King the Lunord was restored in his rights for his support of the Throne.

That decision cased the open conflict with the Conclave, and leaded to the War of the Monsters when the King was forced to unite the power of monsters of Ardania to get back his crown. After the war he, in his great thankfulness, order to treat monsters and undead in the kingdom as equal races, and Grum-Gog became the eighth god in the pantheon.

Not so long thereafter the King gathered the greatest army the Ardania has ever seen and took the field to the North with the aim to return the nothern lands under the rule of the Kings of Ardania. And he with all his army has dissapeared after passing the nothern mountains...

After this disappearance, the Deputy of the King managed to maintain peace in Ardania for a time, but none thought it could last indefinitely. Tensions mounted between the new Conclave and the Council of Mages, and when King Rrat XIX and King Lich began quarrelling, civil war quickly followed. These times are now known as The Troubles.

After the seventy four years of war, there remained no trace of the centralized power that once unified Ardania. Many Guilds were restructured, many temples were forgotten, and the capitol of Great Kings lay in ruin. And still there are no news of the fate of the Great King. The only ones who maintained any degree of order in their lands are the Great Mages, as they liked to be known. The Council of Great Mages included the most powerful magicians of Ardania, who reigned over the lands as its fearful rulers.

 

[contecorti]

I'm also interested in this game. I would like to know though if there is some sort of civilopedia which encompasses all the backstories, civilizations, monsters, and equipment lore. I really hope also that lore is going to be a primary focus for this game.

 

[Spiderman]

Not that I know of. I think the Prima Guide for the original Majesty had something in it called the "History of Ardania", but that's it as far as I know.

 

[Alfryd]

The problem here is that when developers say 'this game will have strong respect for background lore', what they usually mean is 'we will be providing elaborate after-the-fact rationalisations for decisions made on the basis of gameplay demands'. It's understandable, to an extent, but the cracks are generally quite visible. (e.g, Ardania going through 3 or 4 cycles of political unification and disintegration on the basis of theological soap opera, perpetual medieval stasis, etc. etc. etc.)

I dislike relying too heavily on the decisions of individual rulers as the sole explanation for large-scale social and political developments over time. Leadership has an impact, but so do other, arguably deterministic trends in demographics, economics and technology (not to mention that the Majesty franchise is specifically based on the idea that rulers do NOT have absolute power over their subjects.)

This might just be me, but I also prefer to think of the Gods as quasi-omniscient personifications of basic natural forces, only inclined to intervene when those basic forces are under threat. As with most forms of magic, divine intervention is a thing best used sparingly. (I'm not even entirely happy with the Prima Guide history on that account. Grum-Gog also seems a distinct odd-deity-out, as his portfolio should really be subsumed under Fervus or Krypta.)


Of course, this is all academic. Lunord was not axed from the pantheon because the designers thought 'this seems logical on the basis of in-game lore', but because they wanted 6 basic temples to provide 2 class upgrades apiece for the ranger, warrior and priest, so one of the Gods had to go. And they were damned if they were parting with their Schwarzenegger impersonation, so Lunord got voted off the island. Dvarnrock's (I imagine) largely thankless task is to provide a plausible excuse for doing so.


Personally, if I were ever to design a Majesty sequel without doing violence to the background lore, I'd incline to do one of three things:
1. Set it during an earlier historical period of political fragility/warfare- e.g, the time of King Sydrian. This has the disadvantage of predetermined historical outcomes, but that *would* justify a relatively linear campaign style, and most of the big events are already fleshed-out.
2. Set it at the same time as the original Majesty, just with updated gameplay- a rebooted continuity as it were, with maybe a few tweaks or retcons for consistency's sake. More like Majesty: Second Edition, with no single fixed ending, rather than a strict chronological epilogue.
3. Advance the state of technology to somewhere between our 15th and 17th centuries, and play the game out as a case of colonial expansion into newly-discovered continents outside Ardania. That gives you a basis for inter-faction competition without having to tear down all the accomplishments of the previous games' administrations. (Plus, designing new continents is always a hoot.) A 20th-century/cyberpunk citybuilder sequel in the vein of Shadowrun also has potential, if it comes to that.