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TERA: Secrecy and Expediency by R.K. MacPherson, Writer
Drew
Member Posts: 434
We here at MMORPG.com were lucky enough to receive an original piece of fiction from the TERA team, and writer, R.K. MacPherson. Take a look at the story and then let us know what you think about it and the game, over in the forums!
Tethys rounded a corner and saw a chance to escape. The slope was steep and covered in the creepy vegetation common to the Vale of the Fang; treacherous, but she might lose her pursuers. She leaped up onto the incline, fingers digging in for more traction. Her fingernails peeled back against the loam and gravel but terror overrode the pain. She scrambled as high as she dared and froze. Her heart still beat a rapid dance against her ribs and her lungs burned, but she held her breath. The predators were right behind her. If she kept silent and they didn't look up, she might have a chance.
)
Read more here.
Comments
Its ok but I rather play a game then read
Awesome read.... I'd like a copy, free with the game or something..., or for sale in europe at the least
Also, What happens next? I want to know!!
Dang. Good story. Next part NOW!
He who keeps his cool best wins.
Very cool story.
Do certain parts of the story remind anyone else of the plot from Underworld? I swear I kept getting "flashbacks" of that movie while reading different parts.
and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
AWESOME STUFF!!!
I want more of Tera now
Graphics have a horrible style to them... definitely passing this one by!
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Nah, they are...wait what does this have to do with the story?
Or this story over at Massively : http://www.massively.com/2010/11/11/massivelys-exclusive-tera-lore-brothers/
As the war against the argons grinds on, more and more young amani who were employed in support positions are being asked to commit to active military service. As the great foundry labors to turn out weapons and armor for a growing force, hastily-assembled training yards are not an uncommon sight in the shadow of the amani capital city of Kaiator. Neither are scenes like the one played out below between a new recruit and his veteran instructor.
When I saw the light of Balder's Eye glinting off the battle-scarred centurion's iron tusks, I was pretty sure my first day as a lancer might also be my last. He shook his head as I approached. "The last time I saw you, Nariiz," he drawled, "your face did not bear the tattoos of an eldest son."
"The last time you saw me, Furad, I had not lost three older brothers to the argons." I returned his cool stare with what I hoped was the proper degree of indifference-our childhood acquaintance couldn't be called a friendship, and now Kaia's idea of a divine joke was to make him my lance instructor.If I hadn't already sworn my oath to protect and defend...
"You've been working in the foundry since you abandoned your schooling," Furad remarked, looking me over. "Was fighting for your country an unattractive option for you?"
Furad snorted his derision. "A lancer is more than a brute with a long stick."He pointed out a rack of practice weapons. "Even you should be able to understand that. Pick up a lance and shield, follow me, and try to keep up." As he limped away, I saw that his right leg had been replaced with wood and steel.
I must have demolished a dozen straw targets before Furad would let me do more than strike forward, over and over and over again, stopping now and again to set my shield in front of me and hold against imaginary attacks. "Straw doesn't fight back, rookie!" he'd shout in my ear as I thrust the lance forward again and again. "Just imagine that's an argon at the end of your lance, and you have about two heartbeats left to live! Stand fast!" My shield, he assured me, would absorb much of the force of my imaginary target's assaults. It was my job to raise it between lance thrusts, in hope of intercepting teeth, claws, or bolts of magical energy.
"Catch your breath," Furad said after what seemed like forever, handing me a waterskin. "You did well enough. Those thrust and stand skills are the backbone of a lancer'sproficiency. Practice them every day until they send you to the front. After that, you'll get plenty of practice without trying."
My education continued. The shield, Furad informed me, was not only a sturdy defense, but a mighty weapon in its own right. Wielded properly, it could stagger a foe, weakening his defenses against your next attack while doing its own damage on the spot. I practiced the moves he taught me, but had my doubts about the ability of the battered practice shield to either attack or defend. "Don't fret, Nariiz," Furad assured me, "you'll have a real one before the day's out. And a real target that fights back, too." He thumped his steel-bound wooden leg, and his smile, when he looked back up at me, was not at all reassuring.
As the hours wore on, I was grateful for the long foundry shifts that had hardened my muscles and boosted my endurance over the years. When my older brothers marched off to the war, I'd stayed home with my parents, who were no longer well. I was too young to follow my brothers to the argon front, but not too young to leave school and become my parents' only support for the last years of their lives. Now Mother and Father were gone, too. I was the last of us, and if the argons wanted me, I was going to make them work for the pleasure of having me.
"All right," Furad told me finally." You can poke a bale of straw convincingly-let's see what you can do against something with teeth."
The training masters kept a menagerie of beasts for new recruits to fight. Some of them were rookie-eating machines, but the one Furad picked out for my first real challenge was an aging ghilliedhu with three blind eyes.
"Hit him!"Furad shouted as the ghillie came plodding from its pen, turning its great head to favor its remaining eyes.
I knew better than to tell Furad that the ghilliedhu had never done anything to me, but I hesitated just the same. The hulking tree-spirit took the initiative and knocked me aside with a huge wooden fist. I got up and hit it then, kept on hitting it, and finally made it mad. It turned an angry shade of red, stepped back and smacked me with the other fist, sending me onto my backside. Furad finished it off with a pounding lance charge before it could smash me flat.
I pulled myself to my feet, head pounding. "He did what?"
"Every monster has 'tells,' Furad explained with a sigh at my lack of perception. "Things they do just before a certain kind of attack. Learn those, and you'll have time to get that shield up in front of you. That way you might not die until you get to the real war." He wiped dark ghillie sap from his lance with a tattered cloth. "Report back after roll call tomorrow, and I'll teach you to read tells. And how to charge, and how to rise from a knockdown, scattering enemies like kindling wood. And much else." He barked a laugh at my expression. "Don't worry, Nariiz-I'll leave killing you to a far harsher enemy." He took a seat on the low stone wall that surrounded the training yard and began unbuckling his armor.
I put down my weapons and rubbed one aching shoulder. "Why have you always hated me, Furad?"
"It wasn't just you," he said after a moment's silence."I hated your brothers, too."
"I don't understand. What did we do to you?"
Furad sighed and looked off into the distance. "You had each other. You did everything together. With my family wiped out by the argons, I was being raised by the Benevolent Daughters of Kaia. The Daughters were kind, but they were not my family. Watching your family, I felt the searing of envy."
"Do you envy me three corpses never sent home for their family to grieve over?"
"No, Nariiz. I don't envy you that, any more than you could ever envy me the loss of my kin. Or anything else." He rapped with his knuckles on the unfeeling leg.
"Then perhaps we are equals at last."
Furad snorted. "I'll call you my equal when you can charge into a pack of orcans, screaming a lancer's challenge, and leave their bodies smoking behind you." He stood up and gathered up his armor. With a curt nod, he strode off toward the barracks.
"Fair enough," I called after him."I'll try to stay alive long enough to be called your equal."
Furad turned his head as he walked away. "And when you can stand up to your foes and shelter your comrades," he said over his shoulder as he walked away,"I'll be proud to call you my brother."
Velika: City of Wheels: Among the mortal races, the humans were the only one that never built cities or great empires; a curse laid upon them by their creator, Gidd, forced them to wander as nomads for twenty centuries...
Ever heard of immersion?
I'm no literary critic but...
The first one is competent enough I guess, though very predictable and with cartoonish characters (which I suppose fits the world in a way). The second one reads more like a tutorial with a spontaneous episode of bland melodrama at the end...
I guess I shouldn't expect something mindblowing but I think they can do a bit better.
Wasn't horrible, but it wasn't great either. I'd give it a 7/10. Decent plotting, decent dialouge, saw the "twist" from a mile away.
As an avid fantasy reader, I do hope the in-game story-lines are a bit more engaging than most MMO's are. This actual attention to story writing is for me a VERY good sign of things to come for TERA, IMO. Keep up the good work!
Anyone else feeling embarrassed for the poor writers of these stories ....
And what does this have to do with the article again?
Poor writers?... Drunk I guess?
It is good to see we are getting some stories for Terra, I have been banging on for ages how the lore could fit on half a page of A4. Terra needs more proper lore and more stories, any MMO that lacks these is a shallow world, stories and background bring the pixels to life.
The stories were quite average but then they are very brief, it is not easy to write a great story on two sides of A4.
Nitpicking correction:
‘The formula I provided is ancient—older than every nation.’
Would be better expressed as:
‘The formula I provided is ancient—older than any nation.’
Its alright not all of us can have computers that can run stuff like this. And not all of us are true gamers im sorry a little thing like graphic style pushes you away from what is soon going to be awesome. Ill leave you at that and im gana go enjoy some 8 bit mario.
I jus love how the chick in the picture is going to presumably fight in red high heals, I don't even see how women walk in those things and shes gunna go down a boss...awesome xD
Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.
"Love can be innocent and can be sweet, but sometimes about as nice as rotting meat."
Agree with Souldrainer on this one. I'm sorry but the character is dressed like a street walker.
Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.
"Love can be innocent and can be sweet, but sometimes about as nice as rotting meat."
I tend not to agree with people who like 666, forked tongues and all that.
We are seeing a heroine at work, yes she could be in her baggy swamp suit with gas mask and trench boots. But she is a heroine, if she has to go scouting in the swamp by golly those high heels will do fine. If you are playing MMO’s you need to understand that you are not looking at the uniform you will have to wear for a real life job. It is fantasy, once you realise that you can leave your RL issues at the door and enjoy it.
I personally find it rather annoying and discourteous that so many people mock the very purpose of this post.
This was to tell a story, of things to happen or have happened. And yet, all that it has received is the scorn of individuals who know nothing more than the "Graffix iz too bad, lawl" or the "Writer suck" Comments which have plagued this from page one. The point of this was to tell a story, and the few pictures that were provided are there for those of you who cannot find your imagination in the empty space you call a skull.
Kudos to the story maker, and to hades with all the nay-sayers.
lawl, I bet noone of the nay-sayers read the story at all, just coming in here to drop the "ridiculous!!!!!1111" comment and leave, if anyone actually read the story and didn't like it kudos to him
You don't have to correct dialogue, because that's what the person actually said. If the author used colloquial or personal tone, then whatever they used is assumed correct. If the author is speaking from third-person omniscient, then you have a valid point, but they were not.
Plus the fact that the "nation" is a relatively modern idea, doesn't fit with medieval type settings.
Plus, I loved the screenshots with her running flat out in high heels. What ever happened to adventurers and heroes being dressed for actual adventuring and combat?
I guess this is just personal taste. Myself, even though it is fantasy, I always hope the developer will actually make the game believable. I just don't find g string plate mail to be even close to my believability range, but I am sure that many others don't care.
If you really don't care because it is fantasy I guess we could just give everyone light sabre's and have at it.