Author Topic: Lost Kingdoms  (Read 7017 times)

Offline TableKnight

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Lost Kingdoms
« on: March 19, 2020, 19:59:13 »

Hello everybody! Since I have not been able to continue with the main photostory for a long long time, I thought that it would be a good idea to expand upon the setting with more stories, lore and maps set in Lost Kingdoms.

What is Lost Kingdoms?

Lost Kingdoms is a spiritual successor to Hype the Time Quest and my attempt at making an actual story setting for Playmobil. It is my strong held belief that a well-crafted story and setting is necessary for Playmobil’s Knights line to thrive and expand, in a similar vein to Lego’s Bionicle or Knight’s Kingdom. I think Geobra is going in the right direction with Novelmore…but I still think it still has got a long way to go.
 
Am I suggesting what I am creating is perfect for this role? Of course not, but I think care, effort and detail is very important. Kids are not stupid. When I was young, I was able to follow some parts of Bionicle’s story online with serials and shorts and it sparked my interest in that product. Knowledge of everything wasn’t needed, but that fact there was lots to explore was fun This was true for many others, and I think Geobra could, or maybe even should, capitalize on this.

Lost Kingdoms is a High Fantasy setting with magic, knights, wizards, heroes, villains and dragons. The world is divided into many kingdoms with the most famous being the Kingdom of Torras, the setting of the video game Hype the Time Quest. It acts as both a continuation and an expansion of the world of Hype and includes many of its intriguing concepts, such as the Four Jewels: Powerful objects made by the gods that grant power and create balance in the world. These Jewels can be used for good, or for evil, and it is the quest of the heroes of Lost Kingdoms to return them to their rightful place and save the world from its decay.

The Setting

This is part of the world of Lost Kingdoms, portraying the Kingdom of Torras and its surroundings. This map will be updated as more locations are added, but do know that there are many more kingdoms further north and south such as Illandor, Angost, Ithis, Kolamar, and the Frozen Shore, all which will be explored more in the future.

In the ‘present-day’ of Lost Kingdoms (as seen with the photostory), the world is in decay as the Four Jewels have been taken by rival kings and were misused, causing great disasters such as the rise of the undead, plagues and madness. The area of the continent shown in the map is flanked by the feared Land of Dragons. An expansive mountainous land where the skies are ruled by Dragons, the land is populated by Dragon Cults, and underground are evil creatures in conflict with Dwarven colonies. I’ll write up some of the histories/key info on the main kingdoms, such as Torras and Liore, very soon!

I hope you all like this and would love to know what you think and what I should expand on!
« Last Edit: March 19, 2020, 20:52:41 by TableKnight »
-TK

Offline Janilew

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Re: Lost Kingdoms
« Reply #1 on: March 19, 2020, 21:19:49 »
Ooooooo! This sounds really cool so far! I'm looking forward to it!

Offline GrahamB

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Re: Lost Kingdoms
« Reply #2 on: March 20, 2020, 18:32:42 »
Me too! I agree that a consistent 'background' narrative and carefully constructed settings help bring fiction and fantasy to life. Something the great late Terry Pratchett achieved with his Discworld. I am looking forward to your construction! The map is an impressive start!
At that moment the ship suddenly stopped rocking and swaying, the engine pitch settled down to a gentle hum. 'Hey Ford.' said Zaphod, 'that sounds good. Have you worked out the controls on this boat?' 'No,' said Ford, 'I just stopped fiddling with them.' (With thanks to Douglas Adams)

Offline Janilew

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Re: Lost Kingdoms
« Reply #3 on: March 21, 2020, 15:31:15 »
Me too! I agree that a consistent 'background' narrative and carefully constructed settings help bring fiction and fantasy to life. Something the great late Terry Pratchett achieved with his Discworld. I am looking forward to your construction! The map is an impressive start!

I know right? And paying homage to Hype the Time Quest makes it even better!

Offline TableKnight

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Re: Lost Kingdoms
« Reply #4 on: March 23, 2020, 19:37:21 »
Thank you for your encouragement! Hopefully you'll like what I have planned later on! Sorry that I don't have many images in this post and its a bit wordy, but future ones will have more pictures!



The Dawn
Thousands of years ago, before the Age of Man, the One created the universe and stewards to govern it in their absence. The stewards stylized themselves as gods and their chief, Terrus, formed themself into the earth, the new home of the gods and their servants. One of the gods, Barnak, proclaimed that they could overpower the One and take complete control over the universe and shape it to their will. Some followed Barnak's call, while others resisted.

The First War began on the earth between the gods, Barnak leading the forces of darkness, and Drareg leading the light. Their great armies consisted of gods of all powers and giants of all sizes, and their conflict was so great that the earth was broken in two. Barnak and his evil servants were cast from the broken earth while the rest of the gods sought to repair it.

On the smaller piece of earth, the gods built the Lost City and it became the moon, while to stabilise the earth they created Four Jewels of power: the Royal Jewel, the Jewel of Mankind, the Jewel of Virtue and the Jewel of the Gods. These jewels kept the world in order, and their guardianship was given to the first humans. While the earth was being reformed, many gods were mortally wounded in the First War and formed themselves into the other planets of the solar system. Those closer to the light of the sun were former followers of Drareg, while those further away feared the light, and were followers of Barnak.

Humans and giants coexisted on earth, but the giants were not favoured for they fought for both sides of the First War, and they fled into the north. The dragons also lived on earth, formed from the primordial elements, and they ruled the earth in peace in the absence of the gods. The humans were not content with this arrangement, having been promised the rulership of the Earthly Kingdom by the gods, and waged war against the dragons.


The Dragon War saw the theft of the First Dragons Breastplate and the dragons were banished into what is now the Land of Dragons. Forever after the dragons hated mankind. After being united in their war against the dragons, the Earthly Kingdom began to crumble, and the world of man was split apart into many rival kingdoms who waged constant destructive wars with no end in sight.

The greed of man was growing, and soon their eyes would turn to the Four Jewels.
« Last Edit: March 23, 2020, 21:15:15 by TableKnight »
-TK

Offline Janilew

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Re: Lost Kingdoms
« Reply #5 on: March 24, 2020, 17:50:18 »
Sounds good so far! I'm especially looking forward to more photos. also, I had no idea that dragon came in black!  :o

Offline tahra

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Re: Lost Kingdoms
« Reply #6 on: April 23, 2020, 14:48:35 »
That was an interesting read!  Looking forward to more :)

(though I do not agree that the knights theme needs a story behind.. but that's just me.)

Offline playmovictorian

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Re: Lost Kingdoms
« Reply #7 on: April 25, 2020, 10:01:47 »
Beautiful start to your epic tale !  :love:

A few of my Friends at Playclicks are also creating epic stories with maps and a background stories which delight many of us !

I love the creative process behind it and will be following the progress of your tale dear Friend  :munch:
La, tout n'est qu'ordre et beaute, luxe, calme et volupte. L'Invitation au Voyage. Charles Baudelaire.1857.

Offline JackLeftTown

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Re: Lost Kingdoms
« Reply #8 on: May 25, 2020, 11:55:09 »
Very interesting. I am thinking of starting something in a similar vein and love what you've done so far. I look forward to updates!
JLT
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Offline TableKnight

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Re: Lost Kingdoms
« Reply #9 on: June 27, 2024, 14:16:12 »
Thank you all for your kind comments! I am glad that this kind of project interests others!

I've been thinking about how the Knights theme, as well as the MMO, Hype the Time Quest and other games, fit in with my Lost Kingdoms setting and the Kingdom series on YouTube, so I thought I'd lay out what is part of my 'canon', alongside my own creations ;)

Hype: The Time Quest, by Ubisoft

The bedrock of the setting, I loved this game when I was young. Surprisingly, for a Playmobil game, there is quite a lot of background information and lore. The main kingdom of the game, Torras, has four distinct eras: the reigns of Taskan I, Taskan II, Taskan III, and Taskan IV. It also introduces 6 factions, Torras and its soldiers, the Wizards, the Brigands, the Monastery, the Gladiators of the Field of Courage, and Barnak's followers, and implies the existence of several other surrounding kingdoms. The game also features two conflicts (the First and Second Torran Civil War) and also mentions war destroying the kingdom of Liore (Taskan IV's wife, Lyzothe's, home country).


The game also has several great locations which could be expanded. Most of it takes place in the Kingdom of Torras and its capital, the Town of Torras. In the town, there's the Fortress home to the king, the Laboratory home to the Wizards, and the Field of Courage (the latter two were built in the reign of Taskan II). South of the town, separated by a river and small islands, is another landmass covered in a haunted forest filled with wolves, ghosts and brigands. This land was home to the Monastery and their Order, the tree-top Town of the Brigands and the ancient Dolmen (the Dolmen also has a portal to the Lost City of the gods!). Further south was the dragon Zatila's favourite landing spot, and just off the southern coast was Gogoud's island manor.


Pretty expansive right? Well there's more! Further east of the forest and the Monastery is a area called 'Sky'. In the game, it is clear that this is a really large region above mountains and river valleys, all infested with dragons! A Land of Dragons if you will ;) Accessibly from 'Sky' is the Black Tower, a huge structure which became Barnak's base of operations in the era of Taskan IV and was the final stage of the game.

To me, I think it is clear that the game takes place over a very small area of Torras, and I decided to replicate that in my maps and story project :D

The Kingdom, by SmeagolTheGreat


Featuring the lead up to epic siege of the Lion Castle by Hathol Dagnir and his Viking allies, The Kingdom alongside Hype is one of the foundational elements of the setting. I have to agree with one of the comments on the video, The Kingdom was the Game of Thrones of my childhood haha. I love this series, as it introduces a lot. Three factions, the Lion Knights (in my notes I have his name down as King Artaher), Hathol Dagnir's army, and the Vikings. Akron's own army could also be considered its own faction too, and it is clear that he was a legendary knight in that world.


The Kingdom uses the Lion Knight castle presumably as the kingdom's capital, and its where their combined forces defended against Dagnir's army. Interestingly, it also sheltered smallfolk during the siege, so it must be near a populated area. The fact that it is largely unchanged from the Lion Knight Castle set means that other appearances of that castle could be linked with the Kingdom.

It is pretty clear to me that this kingdom is not the same as Torras. Torras evokes Playmobil's 90s knights theme, whereas the Kingdom uses System X and a lot of the 2000s knights sets. If the Kingdom exists in the same world as Hype: The Time Quest, I would view them as being different locations.

The Kingdom III, by rpeinne


I feel like the Kingdom III Barbarian has gone quite underappreciated! I always really enjoyed it, and it acts as a direct sequel to the original Kingdom. Amidst the several day long siege, we are told that both king Artaher and Akron were murdered by Hathol Dagnir, but the Lion Knight forces were able to beat back Dagnir's armies in the name or Artaher's son, (in my notes I have his name down as Athrald). 20 years later, Hathol Dagnir is now old and repentant, and his son Corin "not Aragorn" Dagnir pledges his service to the king of Lion Castle.


We learn of a separate Barbarian kingdom led by Brutus, as well as a Barbarian Corsair (not Viking) faction led by Gullmus Grimpus. It is pretty clear that these Barbarians are from outside the kingdom, and that they are invading in large numbers, possibly like the Great Migrations in real life. The Kingdom III showcases the Barbarian invasion and siege of the main castle, and their eventual defeat at the hands of King Athrald's forces and Corin Dagnir. The geography of 'the Kingdom' is still in question, though there is a map in part 1!


I have decided to interpret the castle in the Kingdom III as being the entire city as a whole, with the Lion Knight Castle set being the royal fortress on the edge of the city, similar to the Town of Torras and its fortress. This also allows other content featuring the System X Lion Knight castle to coexist with the Steck-built Lion Knight structures.


I will continue to explore the other games tied with the Knights theme, such as Escape from the Dragon Fortress, Rescue from Rock Castle, and the gone but not forgotten Playmobil World MMO  :)
-TK