Popular kids online game Wizard 101 just hit the 10-million-registered-users mark. To celebrate, the folks behind the game at KingsIsle dropped by Kotaku's New York office with a poster of the game's next big villain.
You see here Morganthe, "the queen of the shadow web," as printed on KingsIsle's poster.
I don't play Wizard 101 — I'm a bit outside the sweet spot of 8 to 14-year-old gamers who KingsIsle reps say are their main players — so I needed a quick to tutorial. The game is a turn based MMO with a card-based battle system.It's mostly player-vs.-environment and has some nice graphical flair, running on low-end computers but sporting chunky colorful graphics. The game is free-to-play, supported with a pay system that gets you access to more realms and character levels. (The KingsIsle team won't reveal how many of those 10 million registered players are paying customers.)
The new expansion that will features Morganthe is called Celestia. It will first be worked into current Wizard 101 lore with a July-scheduled teaser quest. The Celestia realm will be launched in full in September.
Since I'm no expert player, I'm not going to try to translate the lore that explains the expansion. I'll just quote it, retaining the many words in ALL-CAPS from the press release:
Long ago, the ASTRAL WIZARDS OF CELESTIA created powerful magic using the energy of the STARS, the MOON, and the SUN. The sorceress MORGANTHE, a QUEEN of the SHADOW WEB, wanted the secrets of the Celestian magic at... all costs. The Celestians REFUSED her, so she raised a DARK ARMY and sent it against Celestia. After DECADES of battle, the Astral Wizards realized their world would fall. They summoned the STORM TITAN to defeat Morganthe's legions and to take their world to a place of safety.
The Storm Titan betrayed the Celestians by SINKING their world beneath the WAVES along with Morganthe's invading forces. Realizing they were DOOMED, the Celestians raised mighty DOMES to protect some of their treasured city from the waves, though it was too late! They PERISHED along with MORGANTHE'S invading army. Celestia was lost to the Spiral, its SPIRAL DOOR closed forever.
Centuries later, a team of brave explorers from the SPIRAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY, led by SIR THURSTON PLUNKETT, re-discovered Celestia. They landed with an AIR-SHIP and built EXPLORATORY UNDERSEA DOMES to explore Celestia's ruins. Plunkett and his fellow explorers soon realized that Celestia was now inhabited by a strange new culture... the CRUSTACEAN EMPIRE. Unfortunately, the explorers did not come alone to Celestia. Morganthe's followers, the SHADOW WEAVERS, stand ready to take Celestia's magic for their Queen.After receiving the Spiral Geographic Society's DISTRESS CALL, Headmaster MERLE AMBROSE of the Ravenwood School for Magic seeks any young Wizards brave enough to journey to the undersea world of Celestia and discover the secrets of its LOST MAGIC.
What will they find there?
The Celestia content will expand across five new worlds, raising the game's level cap from 50 to 60.