SpellForce: The Order of Dawn
| Spellforce | |
|---|---|
| North American box art. The Cover art for the game. | |
| Developer(s) | Phenomic Game Developement[1] |
| Publisher(s) | JoWood productions[2] |
| Platform(s) | Windows XP, 98, 2000, ME |
| Release | December 16, 2003 |
| Genre(s) | Real-time strategy, RPG |
| Mode(s) | Single player, multiplayer |
Spellforce is a combination Real-time strategy and RPG game created by German game developers Phenomic.
The original game Spellforce: The Order of Dawn was followed by two expansions: Spellforce: The Breath of Winter (2004) and Spellforce: Shadow of the Phoenix (2005).
A sequel, Spellforce 2: Shadow Wars was released in 2006.
Gameplay
Spellforce focuses on the RTS elements of controlling an avatar, and on most levels an army as well. The player begins by creating hero, called an avatar, and then selecting what character properties they want their avatar to begin with. Throughout the game, the player's is lead though a main storyline, although there are plenty of side-quests that when successfully completed, usually grant experience and/or item rewards.
The Circle
The circle, was the grouping of the 13 most powerful magi, from the corners of the world, that gathered together to explore and study magic. Among their studies together, they vastly expanded their already consideribly powers, and learnt to master the Allfire (known as Archfire in Spellforce2). This granted the circle magi immortality.
In their lust for power, they came across a book, left by the old gods, that taught about a ritual, called the Convocation.
The Convocation
Spellforce - The Order of Dawn, begins a few years after the Convocation. The convocation was a ritual that would supposedly grant immense power. However something went wrong, and the world was left fractured, broken, and scattered. The only parts of the world that survived the Convocation, were those that were protected by magical towers.
Runes
The Circle, in all their power, commissioned runestones, stones that encased the souls of warriors, who would be both immortal, and bound to the will of their master. With the power of the runestones, the circle magi could summon vast armies with little time and effort, and their losses would be meaningless as they could simply be re-summoned.
Story of The Order of Dawn
The story starts with the retired Circle servant Tahira, who reluctantly agrees to help a soldier find their lost members and compleate their objective, to find a powerful runestone rumored to be somewhere nearby.
She finds the runestone, rescues the missing soldiers, and hands over the runestone to them, who unbeknown to her, were were serving Rohan, the last known surviving circle mage.
Rohan arrives, and takes the runestone, finds an alter and summons the runewarrior, who is both the protagonist, and the player's avatar in the game. He gives the rune-warrior his own runestone, thereby freeing him from his slavery, and asks him to follow his guide to the nearby city where orders would be awaiting him. He then leaves the avatar and heads his separate way.
The guide leads the avatar into an ambush with another surviving circle mage. After freezing the in ice avatar, the circle mage talks about how rohan is walking into an ambush, and tells the guide to kill the avatar, and deliver his secret message, locked with the spell that only a circle mage could break, before heading his own way. The guide however fails to kill the avatar, and the avatar begins his quest to save Rohan from his fate.
Template:Spoiler The avatar has many adventures along the way, but eventually he meets up with Rohan before any harm has come to him, however, Rohan, surprised to learn that another circle mage has survived, gives the avatar a book about the Convocation and tells him to deliver it, and tells him about how only the power of the Phoenix Stone is enough to stop a circle mage.
Rohan then unlocks the chest, only to find it was trapped, both are left frozen, and the circle mage kills Rohan, and tells the avatar to return to the Order of the Dawn to tell them of his death
The avatar returns to the order, and then begins his quest for the Phoenix Stone, eventually
The avatar is about to return with the stone to the order of the dawn, when in an attempt to help the avatar, the army of the dawn attacks the army of the unknown circle mage, and breach his line, the order of the dawn however, was destroyed in the process. The avatar uses this opportunity and pushes inwards towards the circle mage.
He however walks into a trap, and has the Phoenix Stone stolen from him. He continues his desperate pursuit of the circle mage, eventually fighting his way upto the circle mage, who is reveled to be no other then Rohan himself.
Rohan thanks the avatar for his hard work, and then using the power of the Phoenix Stone, walks into the time-gate, that puts rohan back into the past, just before the Convocation. He mutters to himself how his other self, about to perform the Convocation, that he doesn't know what hes doing.