[John Goyette, a student at the Guildhall at SMU, picks apart the narrative of Wolf Pack Studios' defunct MMO Shadowbane, examining how online games can accommodate large-scale storytelling.]

Overview

Shadowbane was a dark fantasy MMORPG that took place in a fictional world called Aerynth from 2003 until the servers closed in 2009. Aerynth was a world torn asunder by a legendary sword named Shadowbane, which granted its user extraordinary power, but also bestowed an equally horrible curse. The last time the sword appeared it caused the "Turning," ending the Age of Kings and beginning the Age of Strife, in which all player characters subsisted. From that point on, no man or woman could experience permanent death; everyone in the Age of Strife exists in a type of purgatory until the gods return to the world.

There could be no mistake as to the point of the game -- the motto was "play to crush" and players did just that in online servers where politics and strategy demanded that one learned to kill or be killed. Only three safe cities existed in the world where players could not attack each other. However, the fighting was not mindless or on the level of an FPS game. When a player died it was truly painful, as their entire inventory was lost and their equipment became severely damaged.

Players chose their sides wisely, since dying was not fun, and angering the wrong faction could lead an all-out war between guilds, which often meant that cities (that required a significant investment of time and gold to construct) were on the chopping block. This random and all out killing makes sense, especially when one considers historical events such as Rome after being sacked by barbarians. Confusion, anger, and opportunism led to a very hostile environment.

The creator of the lore, Sam "Meridian" Johnson put it best in an online interview, "In feel, Aerynth as I imagine it owes as much, if not more, to the Road Warrior than it does to Lord of the Rings. Imagine... tight-knit groups of people building settlements and trying to make a better world, while all around them the marauders try to pull it all (and each other) down." (theburninghorde.com). Players who enjoy roaming around killing each other with reckless abandon are not out of place in Aerynth, neither are those who would prefer to build and roleplay.

Characters

Playable characters in Shadowbane are most prominently identifiable by their race. Whether one was Human, Dwarf, Elf, Centaur, Irekei, or Minotaur, determined what friends and enemies a player might have. Of course, there were always players who chose to ignore the lore, but they often did so to their own detriment, as, especially on the servers designated for loreplay, almost all of the well-established guilds chose to follow a specific god or storyline. Guilds that might not otherwise be friendly, but followed the same god, banded together during wars or sieges simply because it made sense within the lore to do so. However, guilds that accepted any race or class often found themselves a mutual target of every other guild on the server. Shadowbane was unique in this respect: the storyline dictated how players and guilds acted towards each other, even though there was no rule to do so. Each guild knew that no matter what losses occurred today, tomorrow their god might return to shift the balance.

There are seven "True Gods", one of whom was killed during the Age of Twilight (the age immediately before the Age of Kings) by the Dragon -- who is not considered a god but is older than even the All-Father and is equally if not more powerful than all of the gods combined. Thurin's sole purpose in crafting Shadowbane was to destroy the dragon, but it is unknown if even Aerynth's most powerful weapon is strong enough to slay a creature older than the gods themselves.

All-Father

Not all children of Aerynth worship the All-Father but few can deny his influence. His first creation was the Elves, then later the Giants and Humans. Considered the most human of the gods due to his great successes and towering failures, the All-Father has both a jovial manner and a fearsome temper. Although the All-Father fell silent at the turning, which many interpret as his death, others believe that the king of gods has embarked on a quest to perform unknown feats, and that he will return to destroy the wicked and heal the world, as he has done twice before.

Braialla The Green Mother

Oldest of the goddesses, Braialla is responsible for all that lives and grows in Aerynth. Revered as the mother of bounty and fertility, Braialla has little concern for the affairs of the world, renouncing those who do as foolish. Since the attack of the Dragon, many believe that parts of Braialla exist on every fragment of Aerynth and the world will heal only when these pieces rejoin.

Kenaryn The Hunter

Happiest and most carefree of all the gods, Kenaryn is the Lord of the Hunt and father of the Centaurs. Before his wife, Saedron, went mad, Kenaryn loved the spirit of adventure and chase. Afterwards, he dedicated his life to restoring Saedron's sanity by hunting Grallokur, a hideous beast born from Saedron's madness. Many fear that his silence since the turning means that he met his match.