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The Order of the Shattered Throne
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The Warband covers the lore of The Order of the Shattered Throne and the weekly lore article.
The Spellbound, Perfect Servants: https://malediction.gg/story/spellbound-perfect-servants/
Thank you for listening and if you enjoyed the episode give us a follow! Email us at intothemalediction@gmail.com
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Transcript
Introduction and Episode Overview
00:00:08
Garrett
Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen, to another episode of Into the Malediction. I am one of your hosts, Garrett Vance, also known as Admiral Tater, and I'm joined by my wonderful co-host, as always, Nick and Alan. Gentlemen.
00:00:24
Nick
Hey, what's up everybody? This is Nick. You see me as Fetty315 in the discords.
00:00:30
m3rcier
bu It's Alan or Mercer on the discords.
00:00:34
Garrett
All right, and thank you. So now, today's episode, episode four, is going to very lore-heavy. We've got two main topics today.
00:00:44
Garrett
i don't know if I'll call the first one a main topic, a side topic, but we've got another short story drop from the ah Malediction lore team, and this one is about the spellbounds in the Conclave.
00:00:59
Garrett
And then Nick's going to tell us about that. And then our other major topic of day, we'll be talking about the order of the shattered throne. But let's kick it off. Nick, tell us about the new short story.
Spellbound Creatures and Their Role
00:01:12
Nick
Yeah, certainly. So, and we'll cover more detail in Conclave of the Spheres when we do their episode, but the Conclave of Spheres, other than being a cool name, is an actual organization of these different spheres of magic.
00:01:25
Garrett
Actual spheres.
00:01:27
Nick
but Well, metaphorical spheres ah and actual spheres. I think they do have some spheres in there.
00:01:32
Garrett
they got some They got some spheres.
00:01:32
Nick
ah So the ah the Spellbound, and if you're familiar with the game, you've probably seen the cards. The Spellbound are the workhorse creatures of the Conclave.
00:01:47
Nick
Now, these are these magical like machine like biological machines that are are magically bound to the mages. Now, Sphere Chimer is responsible for the creation and knowledge and study of the Spellbound.
00:02:03
Nick
and They're very secretive about it. What we know about the Spellbound is that they are just kind of... I'm not sure if we really know that they're fully created or if they're corrupted and like mutated from... i imagine they're like mutated beasts or other you know life forms that are then bound with the liastrum.
00:02:27
Nick
ah you see We see in all the artwork that they have these helmets the blue light. So some kind of control, some kind of mind control or something going on. But they're used as various tools, whether they are spies or guardians, just kind of protectors.
00:02:46
Nick
But
00:02:47
Garrett
Yes, big tentacles too. lot of tentacles on like an ape looking body.
00:02:50
Nick
yeah, the
00:02:51
Garrett
There's some weird looking creatures.
00:02:54
Nick
Yeah, the artwork is, I mean, again, we're going to say about every episode, but the artwork in this game is is incredible. So the Spellbound are going to be these like disposable and expendable workhorses, right?
00:03:06
Nick
They do the jobs that the mages don't want to risk themselves or or bother themselves with doing. And so they they kind of function as the beast of burden for the conclaves of the spheres.
Order of the Shattered Throne: Origins and Culture
00:03:19
Garrett
love it love it and if you want to read this short story uh please check out your email if you're subscribed to malediction or go to malediction.gg and uh should be under think news uh but anyways uh moving on we are going to our uh lore uh topic today and that is the order of the shattered throne they in celsia reside in the dinos uh now this is basically the northwest part of the continent uh in northwest of the malediction itself they have a capital and the capital is asteris or a starry's uh stares think that's how we we say it and then they are a very uh religious very uh
00:04:12
Garrett
fine, upstanding faction of people with beautiful golden armor and knights and gleaming helmets. They've got a great aesthetic. However, it's not, it's all cracked up to be.
00:04:25
Garrett
um Alan, Alan, Alan, why are they called the Order of the Shattered Throne?
00:04:33
m3rcier
So the Shattered Throne is referring back Triumfrid, specifically Oster's throne. Then when he was killed by a legacy bearer, his soul, his power was imbued into his throne as his vestige, which then was shattered into seven pieces.
00:04:58
m3rcier
Those pieces, with along with other parts of the throne room, were smuggled out of the capital during the siege and brought north to Dynas, where the successor state to the triumphant empire, the Order of the Shattered Throne, calls home.
00:05:17
Garrett
Yes, indeed. Seven pieces, specifically. They're a big fan of the number seven here in the Order. Now, ah so they control quite a few cities, and they're very expansionist, and they love conquering new territory to bring under their control.
00:05:38
Garrett
Nick, so ah now, Alan said they are the successor nation ah to the original... city of Oster. So they they view the malediction as theirs, right because it was genuinely part of their territory prior to the fall.
00:05:56
Garrett
um So there's a couple things we've got to talk about here. But the most interesting thing about the Order is their way of getting magic. Now, how did ah the wizards or mages or whatever get magic prior to the fall?
The Shift to Oathbound Light
00:06:14
Nick
Right. So, ah you know, magic has always been tied to the goddess, the Myris. ah It's always been the echo, right? Her connection to to the Everlasting and and the people of the of the world.
00:06:27
Nick
Now, up until the Fall, that connection was still present. The Everlasting had a much stronger use of the magic, but everybody was able to kind of use and feel the echo in the world. After the Fall,
00:06:42
Nick
there was a severance, something changed and and all that was broken and everybody lost connection to the Echo. They lost connection to the goddess. And so each of the factions went off and kind of started looking for alternatives and what the order came up with, because they were so tied to the everlasting, and the faith um that they may one day kind of reclaim the empire of the everlasting that they, they held before.
00:07:07
Nick
ah They devote themselves entirely and ah basically pull their faith and belief into what we call the Oathbound Light.
00:07:20
Nick
So every faithful of the Order basically makes a soul pact. They give over part of their soul ah to the Oathbound Light, and in return, they are ah effectively promised to join the light when they die. And so that's kind of twofold. Each piece that joins the light can then be energy and and magic that can be used by the priest and the faithful to perform miracles. But also we see a lot in the martyrdom and that when you die, your soul will go on to empower even more miracles and power for the order.
00:07:58
Garrett
Yes. Yeah. So instead of tithing 10% of your income, you're tithing 10% of your soul. ah so no big deal. quite the Quite the bargain, I think.
00:08:10
Garrett
Keeps your faction powerful. And not only do that they use people's souls to power their magic, but they can also create ah sweet swords and items with it as well, right? Because they can use that to fold into...
00:08:26
Garrett
whenever they're making something in the Blacksmith. All right, so we've discussed that, you know, their whole thing is based around collecting parts of their people's souls, which also explains why they're so expansionist.
00:08:40
Garrett
ah They need to conquer more towns because the more people they have, the more echo the order can generate. ah So, Alan, you talked about the how they're part of the original...
00:08:55
Garrett
ah city of Ostaroth, right? That was their main place. And then they transferred control over to Asteris. And they still worship, is worship the right word?
00:09:07
Garrett
Probably. ah The everlasting. What... what do you think about their seven rights system ah and that corresponds to their seven pieces of throne they brought out here?
00:09:24
Garrett
but I guess let's talk about these seven rights and let's start with ah let's start with honor.
Seven Rites and Soul Harvesting
00:09:29
m3rcier
Yeah, so we'll back just a little bit. The seven rites are led by the seven Lucidi. Is that how we're going to say it?
00:09:40
Garrett
Yeah, I'd say that's fine. Yeah, Lucidi. but yeah the city
00:09:43
m3rcier
And they are, each one of them bears one of the shards of the throne of Oscar. So they have part of a a vestige is how they're empowered.
00:09:54
m3rcier
And then Garrett said the the first rite is the rite of honor. Those are essentially the orders military and then the seekers that align with the military. They're the enforcers essentially.
00:10:10
Garrett
Yeah, it's like the the Department of Defense, the Ministry of Defense, essentially, is the way I look at it. um And then after that, we've got the what the law? nick what what is the lot
00:10:24
Nick
Right. So the right of law is going to be kind of the through line that connects them back to the original Everlasting Empire. The right of law is their main governing body of the Order the Shattered the Throne.
00:10:37
Nick
And so this traces back to kind of the same traditions that Auster and the Triumphant ruled before the fall. They handle justice within the empire. They handle the lawmaking and kind of the the bureaucracy of the order.
00:10:55
Garrett
Yes. They're like the direct descendant government, right? i What do they call it? The Asterian paradox?
00:11:03
Nick
Yep, yep.
00:11:03
Garrett
Was the original...
00:11:06
Garrett
uh name of the i guess ah kingdom that olum was a part of uh or empire almost so so that's their main institution right uh that's controlling things judges and such uh collecting taxes your soul tax uh and then after that the next right is the right of valkyris okay so this is like the most i think i one of the most important arms. This is like their, of the the church.
00:11:35
Garrett
um It is, and then the church is not only their church, but they also perform their diplomacy of whatever diplomacy they they do, right? Because they have the other factions to interact with, as well as free cities that they interact with.
00:11:51
Garrett
and then And so these people, their whole thing is they go out and they're doing, you know, your weekend revivals, setting up a tent and converting non-believers into blue believers into the everlasting, right?
00:12:05
Garrett
And so ah they're the ones getting people to convert so they can freely give ah tithe of their soul to increase their power. And the Valkyris are also the ones who get to use the Echo from the Oathbound lights.
00:12:20
Garrett
right think that's right um and then uh we move on to the right of the forge alan what is this
00:12:29
m3rcier
All right, right of forge. This is the arm that made the tradesmen. They build the arms that the soldiers use. They they build the fortifications, the outposts.
00:12:44
m3rcier
They are the construction crew for a modern take on it. they just They build everything. you will see some legacy bears like Ork is probably part of this right.
00:13:00
m3rcier
But yeah, just our the masons of the order.
00:13:02
Garrett
Yeah, I love that have an entire branch of government for ah construction. it's it's yeah It's very efficient, I think.
00:13:09
Nick
It's very, very Roman.
00:13:10
Garrett
Yeah, very Roman. Yes, yes. We need to talk about that more. um After that, we have the ah the right of clarity. So this is your research department. This is where you send all your very smart wizards.
00:13:24
Garrett
And their whole thing is to, you know, all those relics we talked about and the malediction. As they bring relics out or relics that they brought with them when the fall happened, their job is to research and study these relics and also protect them.
00:13:41
Garrett
Now the next, I think the coolest, right? Nick, what do we got?
00:13:46
Nick
Yeah, so the right of the penitent. And so this is going to be kind of like your almost like inquisitional arm. they're not necessarily They're not necessarily military, they're not necessarily the faithful, but they are there to make judgment on like blasphemy and heresy.
00:13:54
Garrett
yeah.
00:14:05
Nick
um And so, and I want to talk about it a little bit later. We'll talk about the Revala's penitent a unit and how they kind of tie into this and some of the practices that we see from this right.
00:14:15
Garrett
Yes. So this is really cool. So, like, I like how they have the religious arm, Valkyris, and their job is to, you know, do your weekend revivals, ah bring people over to the light, and then they have a very specific Inquisition arm who's going out there and cleansing of people who won't convert.
00:14:38
Garrett
um And I love that they're also the spies. The spies who go out and spy on the other factions. Um... And then there's one more right, the seventh right.
00:14:49
Garrett
Alan, what got for us?
00:14:53
m3rcier
Yeah, so the right of Ophanum, I think I'm saying that right. This right has a very of finn very specific task.
00:15:00
Garrett
A phantom, that's what I say.
00:15:05
m3rcier
They find the most worthy of peoples. They perfect them. So they find them, they basically they're bringing them to be the future leaders.
00:15:18
m3rcier
What they are doing for them is they will be the vessel for one of the three everlasting. That's the three year of the triumphant to return. So they've lost their mortal form.
00:15:31
m3rcier
And these are what they call the hallowed. So like the herald of salvation unit, it's kind of, it's human and hallowed.
00:15:42
m3rcier
These are the vessels for the everlasting to return in. They need a mortal form.
00:15:47
Garrett
Yes, and people like are excited to become this too, but like you lose your individuality. like Your mind is wiped, from what I understand.
00:15:54
m3rcier
Right.
00:15:56
Garrett
but youre But also, like they've got to keep like a wing of people ready at all times, just in case the triumphants return, right? So they're like, oh here's your options. You can infect any one of these people, please.
00:16:11
Garrett
that's pretty, it's pretty, it's pretty awesome. Uh, let's see, moving on, moving on. So the, okay. So we've, we've talked about, uh, the fact that they used to use the echo provided from the world from, uh, Amiris.
00:16:23
Garrett
Uh, but now they have to use everybody's souls. And so we got a whole soul harvesting thing. Uh, now the problem is, ah I guess, uh, Nick, correct me if I'm wrong, but the way I read the lore is that the, the,
00:16:41
Garrett
ah The oathbo light is Oathbound Light is like a limited resource. like it's It's not something you draw from. It's like a a ah well that you have to keep filled to be able to draw from it.
00:16:57
Nick
Yeah, yeah. um Only like the priests and maybe some of the most like blessed ah can actually like access it. um But everybody's expected to be soul-bound to it.
00:17:09
Garrett
Yes, and and when you and you mentioned this earlier, when you die, especially like in the service of Valkyries or something, ah your your whole soul gets put into the pot that they can draw from.
00:17:23
Garrett
ah So that's that's pretty gnarly. And I wonder where, I don't think it discusses, but like is is this just like a metaphysical Earthbound Light earthbo light like thing, or is there like a physical location?
00:17:38
Garrett
that this is stored at. i don't I don't know. or like if there's a thing at the stairs that does it. I'm not sure. what do you guys think about that?
00:17:47
Nick
I kind of think of it more of like a metaphorical, ah you know, it's like, it's not a physical place. It's a, like a spiritual connection between all of the believers that, you know, if you, like you know, i like to think that anybody, ah anybody who's faithful enough and and dedicates themselves can eventually access it, but it takes years of of training and and honing that skill.
00:18:12
Garrett
Yeah, and there seems to be some sort of, I guess, control by the Valkyries to where they can ah determine who can use it or not.
00:18:23
Garrett
So that's that's interesting, because it's a real thing, but also there's specific people that seems to be able to control it, and we'll talk about that in a bit here.
00:18:34
Garrett
But Alan, the Oathbound Light, ah the actual magic, it's It can only be used for a couple of things. um Why do you think that, because it's weird, because we're harvesting our citizens' souls to make it, but the use of their soul the open light is, i guess, kind of um good.
00:18:58
Garrett
ah tell so Tell us about that.
00:19:01
m3rcier
You were saying what was good, the the usage of the light?
00:19:05
Garrett
Yeah, right, because it's for defense, really.
00:19:09
m3rcier
ah Yeah, i mean, it could be both, because when when one of our dear Seekers, Siggy, smites, I'm sure she's tapping into that pool of magic to strengthen her heads or her attacks.
00:19:21
Garrett
yeah Well, that's true. It is a righteous smite, though. Right, righteous.
00:19:25
m3rcier
Yeah, and then if if you are a leader within the Order you know, you're higher up in the order, the longer you typically live because you're able to sustain your enhanced length of life off of the the magical properties.
00:19:43
m3rcier
So for those in power in the order, using the oath bound light is probably a good thing, but for your rank and file member of the order, probably not all that great for you, at least in death during life, you know,
00:20:01
m3rcier
You may not feel the effects of having your soul leached off, but upon death, the rest of you goes to the light.
00:20:09
Garrett
Yes. ah Yeah, it's really interesting. So somehow the Valkyris, the Valkyris have enough control over this Oathbound Light that they can shorten people's lives on purpose if they're not cooperative inside the actual Order of the Shattered Throne.
00:20:28
Garrett
um Man. So...
Ambitions to Rebuild the Empire
00:20:31
Garrett
It's a complicated faction, cause their whole, what, what do what would, so Nick, what is the order of shadow Thrones goal?
00:20:39
Garrett
You would say.
00:20:41
Nick
Yeah, so the the Order's ultimate goal is to basically reconquer all of Silesia and rebuild what the Everlasting had before.
00:20:53
Nick
ah They want to maintain the Thorn and and keep Emiri's sleep, but restore um kind of like the the way it was before the Fall.
00:21:07
Garrett
Yeah, i would agree. What do you think, Alan?
00:21:11
m3rcier
Yeah, I mean, I think that is long term, short term, but maybe also long term is to bring the Triumfurt back, get their leaders back in. They probably don't care about any of the other everlasting other than those three.
00:21:25
Garrett
Yeah, oh, that's for sure. i think they definitely only care about the main three. um And then we do know, because of some of Sigurath's lore, that there are rebellions in the Order, which I think perfect makes perfect sense because the whole giving part of your soul or potentially you know killing yourself or being killed to boost the Oathbound Light.
00:21:52
Garrett
So like there's a lot of... ah potential rebellion in dynas that has to be controlled and put down ah we don't have a ton of info on that um so uh nick what happens when uh they're going to battle or they're sending a seeker into the malediction uh what do they do to boost up uh the oath bound
00:22:15
Nick
Yeah, so whenever a crusade is underway and the the order is in great need, they will actually have priests go to villages and lead entire like groups of people in sacrifice. And they'll they'll do a complete martyrdom of large groups of people, of of the faithful, in order to supercharge the Oathbound Light with all the fresh souls um to aid their their crusade.
00:22:45
Garrett
Yeah, because I think if you're like a true believer, like you're into the the whole everlasting situation. Your soul super does supercharge. Because you just can't kill somebody take their soul.
00:22:59
Garrett
You've got to somehow make a oath an oath and genuinely mean it so that your soul can be transferred into the well of the Oathbound Light, we're going to call it.
00:23:13
Garrett
um Some people are just willingly do this and I'm guessing some villages do not willingly do this probably. um Yes. So we've talked a lot about it.
00:23:25
Garrett
Nick, you had some super interesting ah parallels to our own world you wanted to talk about. Tell us about those.
00:23:34
Nick
Oh yeah, where to start? There's a lot. we So we see a lot of historical inspiration in the order. um Clearly, the the first one is going to be the Roman Empire, Roman Republic, with mention of the triumvirate.
00:23:51
Nick
And just there's a lot of very Latin inspired words and wording.
00:23:56
Garrett
Yes. And like the, uh, the idea of they had everything was built right around them. Like they they're searching for rebuilding of, you know, it instead of Pax, uh, Ramana, the era of peace or whatever it's the Asterian products, right. They're like the height of power. um and then the idea of conquering people.
00:24:25
Garrett
ah for the benefit of Rome, but they're doing it for the benefit of Asterius, right? Like they're not conquering people to help them. They're conquering it to basically supercharge their magical and financial economy.
00:24:40
Nick
Yeah, yeah, there's definitely there's a lot to say about the orders, goals, their motivations, but then also they're, you know, the everlasting are gone. And so the rights are, and the order itself is being run by mortals, by people who aren't, I mean, not the everlasting weren't perfect either, but they're being run by people who are mortal and fallible.
00:25:04
Nick
And so I see a lot of room for infighting and a lot of internal conflict. Um, You know, you have seven rights, that's seven sources of of societal pressure and power.
00:25:16
Nick
And, you know, they're all working for the same common goal, but that doesn't mean they can't be at odds with each other in individual moments. And individual people make decisions that maybe, um you know, they make decisions that gain for themselves while hurting other other rights.
00:25:32
Nick
And so there's a lot of, ah you know, there's a lot of, that's the, you know, fall of the Roman Empire right there.
00:25:39
Garrett
Right. Um, let's see what else. Uh, I guess, um, Alan, Alan, uh, what do you have it in?
00:25:48
m3rcier
so you know you know who like I was gonna say these guys really give me Stargate.
00:25:49
Garrett
No,
00:25:53
Garrett
yeah you go ahead. You go ahead. Go, go, go.
00:26:00
m3rcier
If you're familiar with the Stargate franchise or you're a fan of it, a little bit worse version of the Ori because
00:26:08
Garrett
Oh yeah. You know what? Now you say that. That's a good point.
00:26:11
m3rcier
they're like at least the aura you were like your worship generated the magic that they could tap into the power that they could use uh with the order you're not generating it you are the fuel uh so you're not even a battery to them you're just an expendable fuel source and then you know some of the other darker things in the order, but I think that's the biggest thing for me is they are, they appear to be a ah worse version of the Auride.
00:26:43
Garrett
Yeah, ooh, I like that. um
00:26:45
Nick
I would also tend that, ah you know, the more the more faithful you are, the more potent your soul would be. Right.
00:26:53
Garrett
Yeah, they need true believers.
00:26:57
Nick
So, but yeah, no, i to I second that point, too. That's very, that was a very good comparison.
00:27:04
Garrett
Um, but so I, and I think this is also makes an an interesting case for how they interact with the other factions, uh, because the primals, right.
Conflicts and Alliances
00:27:14
Garrett
That are on their Southern border are not going to make good, uh, converts cause they're rabid and converted and dedicated to like, uh, their lifestyle, we'll call it their culture.
00:27:30
Garrett
And so I don't like they're like conquering them. or and or them growing and then creating more uh their faction is going create people who like can't give their soul to the oakbound light and then in the legion of the fallen when they interact with them lots of their people are are like dead undead and i don't think that converts uh well to the way they generate echo
00:27:58
Nick
No, there's definitely some, there's got to be some, we don't and we don't have details on it, but there's got to be some level of blasphemy between ah you know using the Anishvar and those who follow the Oathbound.
00:28:11
Garrett
Yes, the heretics. ah But then the other part about it is there's a lot of free cities in Cilesia, more than you would think.
00:28:23
Garrett
There's probably the population numbers they give are pretty big sometimes, but there's probably like hundreds of thousands of people who don't belong to any faction. right uh so those people are are like the main targets and i think i can't remember where we read it but like the legion of the fallen will often send out armies to align the free city just to keep the order from being able to capture it and then because the legion is not interested in conquering that free city so they'll deny the order of the battle victory and then they'll pull back and then the free city stays free and then the order has to go back and like find another city or another town to martyr so they can refill their magic.
00:29:04
Nick
Yeah, I think there's a big story about the ah Siege of Veloma that you're talking about.
00:29:08
Garrett
Yes, that's the one.
00:29:09
Nick
Yeah.
00:29:09
Garrett
Yes. And then the Conclave of the Spheres. I don't know how they interact with them. ah I don't know. I don't know we have any examples yet.
00:29:19
Nick
ah The only thing I can think of is Laundrielle's backstory as like the only direct interaction we have. But they don't trust each other, I think. The the Conclave sees the Order as too zealous and and um close-minded whereas the order probably sees the conclave as manipulative and too like untrustworthy
00:29:39
Garrett
Yeah, for sure. Because they're like, they're like the crazy ah scientists and they're the they're the proper, the proper religious faction, right?
00:29:50
Nick
Yeah, it's it's hard to say who is the the Order's like greatest ah enemy, because like the Primal Blood, like really at the core of it, the Primal Blood is all about freeing Ymiris and undoing the Thorn, which is like the direct counter to what the Order is trying to do.
00:30:06
Nick
But then yeah the Fallen is kind of like the natural like antithesis of what the Oathbound Light represents.
00:30:06
Garrett
Yes.
00:30:15
Garrett
Yes, I agree with that. Oh, I'm going have to, we'll talk about that we talk about the Legion. um Let's see. ah Anyways, so that's that's like the big the big story about the Order, and that's where we're left at. So right now, they're just they're there they have a large amount of land, and they have a large army.
00:30:35
Garrett
and they have a lot of people and their whole thing is you know going in the malediction and taking back what is uh rightfully theirs uh so when you now in the game malediction when you purchase a uh two-player starter set the one that's uh thunder steps versus cigarette uh the terrain that comes with the order is uh is what terrain alan
00:31:01
m3rcier
The pathways, so it looks like ruins of like a fantasy fortress or a fantasy castle.
00:31:12
m3rcier
And when your unit starts an action on that terrain, its movement stat is increased by two.
00:31:21
Garrett
Yes. So when I look at the terrain, it's ah yeah it's very gold and whitish. So it's definitely like remnants of Ostrath. And looks pretty cool. And it's it's obviously, it gives a boost to movement. and I'm not sure why.
00:31:39
Garrett
what do you guys Why do you think the the choice to give that was movement speed?
00:31:45
Nick
i have I have two thoughts on that.
00:31:47
Garrett
Oh, perfect.
00:31:47
Nick
So your lore reason, right, is that these are, because, you know, these are like the Asterian ruins.
00:31:47
Garrett
Do it.
00:31:54
Nick
So these were like paved roads and like well-maintained back before the fall. So... any Any ground that's easy to traverse is going to be, well, easier to traverse.
00:32:05
Nick
That's why you make a road and you'll just drag a wagon across the grass. um But I think you pair this with um the order because you have a lot of slow units, and this gives you a way to kind of get around.
Deck Building Strategies
00:32:20
Nick
Most of the other factions have units that can outmaneuver um your knights.
00:32:28
Garrett
love it yeah it's really good and i agree uh and the other thing we wanted to talk about potentially in this episode was some light order uh deck building and how it's like their units it's kind of like comparing like their units and to the lore and like why the units are the way they are uh Alan, do you have any favorite order, like cards and units that you want to talk about?
00:32:58
m3rcier
Yeah, I do. but Before I go there, though, last lore nugget for the Order, and we'll have to remember to do this for each of the factions.
00:33:07
Garrett
Yes.
00:33:08
m3rcier
The Order, in the Malediction, there are a number of gates, entry points into the Malediction through the wall. Each faction only controls one, and then there are some that are lost or forgotten, they're uncontrolled, and then one of the free cities controls one, but The gate the order controls is the throne gate, which is the northernmost gate.
00:33:31
Garrett
Clever name on their part.
00:33:35
m3rcier
Favorite cards that are order aligned would probably, not to say controversial, but it's probably the one card in the game that if you had to say one that was broken, to be enforced balance.
00:33:52
Nick
I knew it was coming.
00:33:54
m3rcier
ah'll and I hate seeing that card, someone play it against me. i love playing against other people. i think our buddy ben over on the Downsize at YouTube channel probably hates me and that card because the first couple of games he and I played, drew it like round one or two and was able to to discard his hand.
00:34:12
Garrett
Now, what for our listeners, what does enforced balance do?
00:34:18
m3rcier
So if I play in force balance against you, you have to discard randomly from your hand a card one at a time until your hand size matches mine. So the common tactic is going to be to dump your hand however you can as the order player.
00:34:37
m3rcier
And then when you are really low on cards or have no cards and your opponents does have some, you play force balance and they have to discard their hand to match you. So if you're at zero, they have to discard everything they have, which can crush some other decks.
00:34:51
Garrett
Which is, and it's like, it's a crazy card. It's really good. It's yeah it's a unique one. There's only one copy.
00:34:59
m3rcier
Yeah, that's probably my favorite spell just because, you know, it's powerful. Favorite unit. I play a lot of Laundriel, so I love me the...
00:35:14
m3rcier
The true stone exemplar for the knight. And then, of course, the priest. you You can't have an order deck without all three priests. I'm sorry, it's not going to happen.
00:35:25
m3rcier
You have an order deck, you're having all three priests.
00:35:29
Garrett
mean yeah I mean, they're versatile. they can move. you got it You gotta to bring a pre-salon. um What about you Nick? What do you like about their decks?
00:35:42
Nick
Well, ah um I mean, I'll definitely second. I think we all agree that Enforced Balance is probably the strongest spell card.
00:35:48
Garrett
Busted.
00:35:49
Nick
it's It's very strong. The Priests are definitely an auto-pick in every every order deck. they have i was just They have a lot of good synergy between their units. and It makes it hard to really narrow it down.
00:36:01
Nick
um But I'll pick something a little different. I've been playing a lot of Grieza.
00:36:08
Nick
And so I want to talk about Maybe not favorite card in a deck, but favorite card from a lore perspective. i want to talk about the Revalos Penitent.
00:36:18
Nick
It was an elite ah human unit that came with Grease's secret deck. And it has a decaying 2, so whenever you activate it, it it takes 2 damage. But it gives regeneration 2 to all other allies within 6 inches.
00:36:32
Nick
And then whenever an enemy... it has a Noxious Fumes 2, whenever an enemy within 6 inches activates, you deal 2 damage to it. And the Penitent itself cannot attack. It doesn't have an attack stat or a range.
00:36:45
Nick
It's basically almost like a column construct that you kind of plop down and give like an aura, a buff and debuff aura. It's really interesting. And i I love the lore that comes behind it because this is where we get that Rite of Penitent.
00:37:01
Nick
um You know, when they... they take when they convict a heretic and they've they're done with them, they will encase them in this armor and chain them up and douse them with like holy oils and ah basically i'd let them burn slowly.
00:37:17
Garrett
Yeah, they're like, light them a fire and throw them into the like, go get them.
00:37:22
Nick
And so you really get that, that's where we get that really dark side of the Inquisition. ah you know When we say the order is not always the good guys.
00:37:32
Garrett
It's metal. Um, yes, i love it. Um, my
00:37:36
m3rcier
And so keep in mind too that if if you have, it's elite, so you can have two.
00:37:42
m3rcier
If you have both of them on the field and like say the opponent's entire unit force is within both of them, when they activate, they take two from one petting it and then two from the other.
00:37:54
Nick
Mm-hmm.
00:37:56
m3rcier
it's It's two iterations of it. So it can, having both of them out sitting just behind your front line can greatly increase your damage output and your regeneration.
00:38:07
Garrett
Yes. ah So yeah, a lot of the cards in the Order Aligned deck are all about i defense or healing, which is what the Opal Light's main purpose is They also have really cool basic cards that let you...
00:38:26
Garrett
Do things that like an additional attack. um Deploy a unit to an engage unit. Answer the call. That's a really good one, especially when um you need to move units up into the frontline quickly.
00:38:38
Garrett
ah My favorite card, though, it's an it's an elite card, and there's two copies of it. It's the Rites of Healing. And its heal 10 health, or three allies all get five each.
00:38:49
Garrett
Healing unit 10 health is so much. ah you can throw off on another player's complete game plan, um, by taking, you know, cigarettes or whoever, from five back to 15 health instantly.
00:39:04
Garrett
Um, and then my, of one of the, my favorite units is probably after the setting sun.
00:39:05
Nick
Yeah.
00:39:09
Garrett
So he's a, he's a unique unit. Uh, he's huge and it's another, it comes back all of this like soul bound oath stuff. Uh, so he is a, uh, gigantic encased, uh,
00:39:25
Garrett
shell an armor of animated ashes. So like he died, right? um and But his soul didn't transfer. Instead, hes it's unclear. Like clearly he made some sort of oath that is not fulfilled.
00:39:40
Garrett
And so he remains like animated, even though his like he has no body. So his soul is still inside this armor. And he's like continuing to fight and until he fulfills whatever other oath the Valkyries have him under.
00:39:55
Garrett
um his soul will go back to the light. I think that's i think it's pretty neat. um
00:40:03
m3rcier
is the He's the named NPC version of Armored Revit.
00:40:03
Garrett
But yeah.
00:40:09
Garrett
Yes, yes. ah solar yeah So yeah, all these guys are super cool. You can tank an orderless and just like sit and hold relics for quite a while.
00:40:23
Garrett
And it's kind of nice. and So you could like you can almost out-heal a ranged faction, potentially, to where it forces them to come in at you. pretty It's pretty neat. I like playing them when I do.
00:40:37
Garrett
ah Let's see. i think that's almost everything we wanted to say about all these. Do you guys have any final thoughts on the Order of the Shattered Thrones?
00:40:48
Nick
Well, I was going to say, I don't think we can necessarily close the book on this one until we talk about some of the seekers.
Seeker Characters Introduction
00:40:54
Garrett
Are we, are we, are we, i did we want to talk about Seekers here? I mean, we can, i thought maybe they'd be reserved for their own episodes.
00:41:04
Nick
We could talk about.
00:41:04
m3rcier
At least ah name them and then we can do each other.
00:41:04
Nick
Yeah.
00:41:06
Garrett
Well, yeah, well, yeah, we can name them. We can name them. What, do we got? Who are our Seekers?
00:41:11
m3rcier
You can take it Nick, your favorite.
00:41:14
Nick
Sure. Yeah. So, um Well, we gotta talk about first Sigrith Andravos is our mono order Blessed Chosen Seeker.
00:41:26
Nick
She is our Holy Knight, Crusader, Paladin, and her legacy, um the Shield of Andravon, allows you to prevent prevent a lot of damage. It also synergizes, like we talked about, with Enforced Balance, because you can discard cards to prevent damage.
00:41:44
Nick
And then once your hand's empty, you can enforce that balance and make your opponent discard everything. It's a really good way to stick it to your spell spellcasting seekers. But she can also heal and smite, so she's kind of a one-woman army.
00:41:59
Nick
And if you can't deal with her, she's going to give you a bad time.
00:42:03
Garrett
Yes. Uh, Oh, take it back. Take it back real quick. Uh, Dick pointed out a mistake I made. i said this earlier, which is amazing. Cause I wrote my own note here. Uh, I said, rights of healing is elite. It is unique. There's only one copy, uh, for anybody catches and it tells me I'm wrong. I know I'm wrong. Thank you.
00:42:21
Garrett
Uh, all right. Sorry, Alan. Uh, Oh wait. Okay. So we've talked about, uh, that seeker next, next.
00:42:28
m3rcier
I will take the Seeker that I think I've played the most of, Laundrielle, the Spellwarden. She is a dual faction, so she is order and conclave.
00:42:43
m3rcier
She is a man, I would say you're a quintessential battle mage. she's she does She doesn't cast from the back. She is clad in armor, and she is trying to cut you up with the glaive while also throwing holy light and fireballs at you.
00:43:02
Garrett
Love it. ah
00:43:02
m3rcier
Her legacy is, mean, it's it's one of those things, and I'm gonna lean on Nick. it's It's kind of middle, it lets her card draw when certain things happen, and then allows her to actually generate echo too. So it's card draw and echo generation is what the legacy for Laundriel does.
00:43:24
Nick
Yeah, i mean, that's it.
00:43:26
Garrett
And then ah we have we haven't said Aric Evenhand yet, right?
00:43:30
Nick
Right, you take that one, Garrett.
00:43:31
Garrett
Okay, Arik Evenhand, our boy who's on test and peptides, thick, thick man. He's primal in Order of the Shattered Throne. ah So he was like part, he lived in the Order and then was raided by primal and now leads both groups into the malediction.
00:43:50
Garrett
And his whole thing is, you know, he can take double items and his legacy is the will of the forge. And he's kind of like a man of the people in the Order. ah He's not high up in any sort of class, so he ah kind of rides that line between the upper class and the and the and the peasants, we'll say.
00:44:13
Garrett
but And then he's got this ability, right, where he can churn through items to get cards and echo and such. And then what's our next one?
00:44:24
Garrett
Is Grieza our next one?
00:44:27
Nick
Yeah, i'll tell I'll talk about Grieza.
00:44:28
Garrett
Yeah, you will.
00:44:29
Nick
Yeah, so Grieza's our order and fallen seeker. Now, he's a spirit, and he's super cool. he's He's considered what's called a tragedy in this world, where he's a culmination of many spirits that have a similar um unfinished business. And so he's a so a like resurrected spirit that has an unfinished oath to reclaim one of the vestiges of the everlasting.
00:44:54
Nick
And so he leads spirits in the battle to finish the job. What makes him amazing is that you he can attack through other spirit units, so even though he's melee, you can sit him behind a lot of weaker, cheaper units and get the same amount of damage out of him.
00:45:13
Nick
yeah know And his legacy, i and we'll do it more lore when we do a full episode on Grieza, but his legacy allows you to to burst damage when you heal and um allows your spirits to take one last action when they die.
00:45:26
Nick
And so you really can overwhelm your opponent with like the action economy and the attrition.
00:45:32
Garrett
Yeah, it's great it's like it's a two you can do a two AP action, which is which is nuts.
00:45:38
Nick
Yeah, I love i love Charging.
00:45:38
Garrett
I've been very been been very bullied by this unit, this this legacy.
00:45:43
Nick
I love ah charging out of engagement because retaliation doesn't matter anymore.
00:45:47
Garrett
Yeah.
00:45:48
Nick
And just hitting somebody in the back for you know six damage or something.
00:45:52
Garrett
Oh my gosh. um But I think that's it. We didn't want to talk about events this time, right, Alan?
00:45:59
m3rcier
well We'll go over them again just to
Upcoming Events and Conclusion
00:46:02
m3rcier
make sure people are aware.
00:46:02
Garrett
right.
00:46:03
m3rcier
I've removed some of them.
00:46:04
Garrett
Take it away.
00:46:04
m3rcier
ah So, yeah, so we have, again, Lone Star open August 1st in Dallas, Texas.
00:46:05
Garrett
Take it away.
00:46:13
m3rcier
Gen Con that same weekend, so July 31st and August 1st. Registration opens on May 17th. The 2v2 tournament will be on Friday, the 31st, and then the 1v1 will be on Saturday, August first Still not sure of the number of slots per event, but there will be tournaments there that will have official prize support.
00:46:39
m3rcier
And then August 29th and 30th at Tecticon in Denver, Colorado are your tournament events. Your demos, again, UKGE in Birmingham, UK.
00:46:52
m3rcier
May 29th, 31st, George Mann will be there. He's one of the four or five people on the Lord team. He has written for Dr. Who and Warhammer before.
00:47:05
m3rcier
I'll have a demo at Copperhead Brewery in Houston on June 13th. There'll be at Game Grid, a demo in Lehigh, Utah on May 23rd.
00:47:18
m3rcier
And then May 30th in Bedberg, Germany at Bedberger Tabletop.
00:47:26
m3rcier
So tournaments and demos.
00:47:28
Garrett
Perfect.
00:47:28
m3rcier
If you are a Herald or anyone running events, either shoot us an email or comment with your event can get in touch and we will try and give you guys a shout out.
00:47:39
Garrett
Get you on the map.
00:47:40
Nick
All right.
00:47:41
Garrett
All right, ladies and gentlemen, thank you.
00:47:42
Nick
Do we have any, yeah I would say, do you have any final thoughts on the order? any Anything we all want to say?
00:47:48
Garrett
yeah Their drip is stunning.
00:47:53
m3rcier
they they They have great marketing for what they do. Great marketing.
00:48:01
Nick
yeah Yeah, I was going to say something that will make us maybe a little more substantial, but I was going to say, right everybody I know we're not a competitive podcast, but um I think the order fits really well as a new player deck to help learn the game. They're very forgiving um with the kind of the tankiness and the amount of healing that you can get.
00:48:24
Nick
So if you're new to the game, this might be where you want to start.
00:48:27
Garrett
That is great advice, Nick. Thank you. Keep in mind, this is the same guy that told us he needs to go to bed at 9.30, trying to give substantial advice at the end. ah
00:48:36
Nick
Yeah.
00:48:37
Garrett
Thank you, Nick. Thank you. ah Ladies and gentlemen, once again, thank you for listening to another episode of Into the Malediction. i am Garrett saying goodbye.
00:48:47
Nick
We'll see y'all next time.
00:48:48
m3rcier
I'll see y'all later. Thank you.