Forged By A God, Owned By The Players
Many of you are familiar with VulcanVerse, our burgeoning blockchain MMORPG. But do you ever question how it got there, this strange island separated into quadrants populated with mythical creatures, overlooked by a central fortified city positioned high on a rocky outcrop? It didn’t appear like this by chance — VulcanVerse was Vulcan Forged..
In The Beginning
The focus of humanity has shifted away from religion, away from the old ways, the deities our ancestors worshiped are often nothing more than distant memories, words in faded books on dusty shelves. Many people worship at a new alter, that of technology, science. But one god in particular, he who gifted humanity technology — the god of invention, the divine metalsmith — Vulcan, refused to fade into the realms of ancient myth.
“Hear my words, mortal kind! The old myths are dying. We Gods fade from the world, as mankind turns to their machines, their magic-killing science, their virtual worlds, filled with new gods and monsters. They believe that they do not need us any more and we are forgotten. The old myths are dying…
We sleep. We dream. We fade into eternity.
But I, Vulcan, the god they once entreated to gift them their machines, their science, their god-forged weapons, will not go quietly. No, I will embrace their new myths, their invisible worlds, their gods who speak in code of webs and nets and chains. I will forge a world that will be greater than the mundane ambitions of you mere mortals! I will use your science to create a virtual world born of a God, a world beyond the fickle, ephemeral dreams of mankind.
I, Vulcan, will create a new Olympus!”
Vulcan, God of Fire and the Forge
And so, Vulcan created VulcanVerse, a virtual world where among its dunes and briars, in its ice caves and crypts, new myths could be born, new stories could be weaved. And the gates of VulcanVerse have been opened to mortal humans.
You, reader, may be familiar with Vulcan. Maybe you’ll know him under the name the ancient Greeks called him; Hephaestus. Born of Hera, son of Zeus, cast down from Mount Olympus by his mother but soon to be brought back by Dionysus, he was one of the only gods to return following exile. Vulcan is the god of fire, blacksmiths, craftsmen, and volcanoes. Extremely skilled, he created weapons for the gods and mortals, armor, palaces, thrones and even automatons, his Kourai Khryseai, golden maidens and attendants at his palace.
The Creation
In VulcanVerse, Vulcan set about building his new Olympus, recreating the lands of the ancient Greeks, bringing important temples, sites and landmarks to life in his virtual blockchain world. He forged the champion creatures of yore; such were Vulcan’s tools that each of these beasts that we know as ‘Vulcanites’ retain the memories, habits, loves and rivalries of their life in ancient Greece and the surrounding lands.
This excerpt from the Book of Vulcan gives us Vulcan’s words:
1 In that day will I raise up the Gods of the ages that are fallen, and open up the tombs that sleep thereof; and I will raise up the ruins, and I will build Olympus as in the days of old:
2 That they may possess the remnants of Hyperion, and of all the mortals, which are called by my name, saith it be Vulcan that doeth this.
3 Behold, the days come, saith Vulcan, that the sleeper awakes, mortal men shall overtake the reaper, and the treaders of grapes and those that soweth the seeds; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt.
4 And I will bring again the people, and they shall build up the waste cities, and live in them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them.
5 And I will give unto them the earth, and they will toil and fill their land which I have given them, Vulcan, thy God.
6 And I will bring the shackles and break them, and out of captivity I shall bring them, and they shall be as to Kings again.
7 Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of the VulcanVerse.
– The Book of Vulcan
VulcanVerse is divided into four quarters around the Palace of Vulcan in the center of Vulcan City. Each of these quadrants is unique in style and terrain.
Vulcan City
Vulcan City is the capital of VulcanVerse and where Vulcan himself has his home. Surrounding the Palace are various administrative buildings that any visiting mortal can call upon.
Most of Vulcan City is run by the Kourai Khryseai, extra-ordinary beings, automatons crafted to look like humans by Vulcan himself, but made entirely of gold, and yet possessed of high intelligence and reason, as well as great beauty. These exquisite mechanical marvels work behind the scenes, running VulcanVerse on behalf of Vulcan.
The Quadrants
Vulcan opened the four quarters of VulcanVerse to humans. These quadrants will be expanded upon in future articles but in summary, they are:
- The Underworld of Hades to the south west, a land of the dead, filled with shades, swamps, tombs and fell creatures.
- The Gardens of Arcadia in the north east, a bucolic paradise of farmlands, groves, orchards, centaurs, druids and dryads.
- The Desert of Notus to the south east, where desiccating winds blow sand across these dried up lands. Dunes, lost cities, salt-flats, sphinxes and scorpions reside here.
- The Mountains of Boreas — Boreas is the God of the North Wind and of Winter. Ice-bound mountains, eyries, crag castles, hilltop towns, mines, cyclopes, harpies and minotaurs can be found here.
Many of Vulcan Studios’ games are set in the fantasy world of VulcanVerse, each game intertwined by the lore, many of the NFT Vulcanites usable across the ecosystem. The VulcanVerse lore and story is primarily created by award winning fantasy author, Jamie Thomson (yes, same name as our CEO, different person!), author Dave Morris and one or two Vulcan Forged staff. Uniquely, Vulcan Forged encourages players of its games, particularly VulcanVerse, to come up with names and backgrounds for their builds, the best of these may win a mention as the lore and story of VulcanVerse develops- a recent example of this being the inclusion of some community created place names in the background stories of Vulcan’s Phalanx collectible avatar characters.
Four game books have been released (with a fifth still to come) based in VulcanVerse. Written by Jamie Thomson and Dave Morris, these books, available to order online and through reputable book stores, take you further into VulcanVerse’s story than ever before — we’ll cover them in our forthcoming articles where we discuss VulcanVerse’s quadrants.
“The books will be a prequel to the virtual game, documenting the journey from technology and atheism taking over to the point when the old gods must choose either to fade into memory or to take things into their own hands.”
Jamie Thomson, Author
The VulcanVerse story is constantly expanding and you, by playing our games and becoming involved in our community, can play a part in shaping it. Enter VulcanVerse, forage with Vulcanite, source materials and build on a plot. Build something beautiful to please Vulcan and the Olympian gods! Be sure to join our community Discord at https://discord.gg/vulcanverse and join the conversation as well as learn about any community quests you can take part in.
About Vulcan Forged
Vulcan Forged is the company behind Vulcan Studios, a blockchain game studio, NFT marketplace, NFT minting engine and creators of VulcanVerse, Berserk: Vulcanites Unleashed and many other games. Vulcan Forged has also built Elysium, a carbon neutral layer 1 blockchain and MetaScapes, a metaverse as a service engine. The Vulcan Forged family is expanding rapidly, with many Vulcan Studios games now enabled within our blockchain economy.
The native token used within our ecosystem is $PYR, the secondary token $LAVA acts as a play to earn token. This dual token economy structure is ideal for blockchain gaming. Scholars or Cedalions are able to earn $LAVA while playing Vulcan Studios games and special NFTs can be earned while in-game. These can be sold on the Vulcan Marketplace for $PYR.
To stay up to date with Vulcan Forged, please follow on these channels:
Discord: https://discord.gg/vulcanverse
Twitter: twitter.com/vulcanforged
Medium: vulcanforgedco.medium.com
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