Good day Lightbringers ! In this week's blog, we want to introduce you in more detail to the world of Empire of Ember and the writers who have been creating the storyline you will follow in its epic campaign. The first thing we want to discuss is the idea behind Empire of Ember. If you are an avid RPG player, you might think that the concepts of the magical Embers, and the Lightbringers – wizards who get amazing powers through them – sound familiar.
And you would be right. These ideas come from the game Ember, by indie studio N-Fusion Interactive – a fantastic indie RPG released in 2016. Being fans of the original game, when we set to do Empire of Ember we reached out to N-Fusion to license the game's concepts. We wanted to create a "spiritual heir" to Ember: a game with these fantasy ideas that we loved so much, but with a whole new approach to its gameplay.
Empire of Ember does not retell the same story, though – rather, it takes some of its best ideas and re-spin them into a brand new epic tale. As you know, the story begins with your character coming back home after passing the test to become a full Lightbringer. However, a goblin army attacks your city as soon as you set foot in it. You run to meet your master, the kind Lightbringer Manith, and aid in defense of the city; but he orders you to leave the city through a magic portal, so you can live to rebuild it should need be.
His intuition turns true: the goblin army manages to raze the city, and you find your master dying – but not by goblin hands. You find a strange mask with mystic markings unknown to you. Whoever killed your master also took his Ember – which means that they were dangerous enough to kill a powerful Lightbringer, and they are even more powerful now, with an Ember in their power. No longer an apprentice, you inherit Manith's rule over the city and set to rebuild it – but also swear to avenge your master.
This quest unveils something much more grave and important than personal revenge. We won't go into too many details so as to avoid spoilers; let's just say that you will discover soon enough that whoever killed your master has bigger plans in their minds. These masks belong to a death cult known as the Knur-Ta – a sect that worships the dreaded Knur, a god of murder and violence. The Knur-ta are awakening and gathering their forces – and there will be more at stake than your future or your city…
This is the setting of the epic fantasy story of Empire of Ember – discovering the rest is up to you and your skill as a Lightbringer! The talented writer Patrick Kevin Day – former writer at Telltale Games, where he worked in the Batman series -- created the storyline and its main quests. We have just incorporated a new writer to the project to create more random events: Scott Hamm, one of the writers behind the wonderful RPG and strategy game Battle Brothers.
Even if the story is very important in the experience, Empire of Ember is not a linear game: there are plenty of side quests and things to do between the main quest, and you can take more time to grow your city or explore the world at your own pace. Empire of Ember is a game that makes you feel like a powerful wizard lord as well as makes you experience an epic tale where you challenge a great evil with your powers!