Collectible Corner: inside the wizard's den.
Why should you join TFRWC and the enchanting road ahead.
A meandering journey of organic growth and adventure has led the forgotten runes wizard cult down the road of success, quickly becoming one of the most excitable fantasy collections within the NFT collectible scene. With 10,000 wizards living on the blockchain, they are mostly found updating their spells and charms, anticipating the next stage of their quests. Watching closely from the secret tower, the cult is growing and the legends are predicting that further expansion is imminent!
Where did the journey begin? Inside the depths of the secret tower, darkness prevailed, only allowing glimpses of light to enter from the cracks in the walls. A state of solitude, yet at the same time intricate magic and energy combines to spawn the wizards, where they sit in purgatory, awaiting their judgment from the gatekeeper. From the red wizard capital to the valley of the void disciple, the forgotten rune’s provenance is expanding with a pilgrimage awaiting for the members.
Each wizard is equipped with 3-6 traits, existing in several themed affinities ranging from earth to fire. This decision to implement properties has helped to illuminate a backstory and narrative for the pixel characters, taking them further than basic rarity metrics. With the world set to expand and a road map that includes poems, giveaways, 3D models, and burn mechanisms, the wizards are displaying enormous utility and the team is maneuvering a storytelling vehicle. Supported by some of the biggest names in the community, the project is gaining more traction with many appreciative of the intricate artwork that the wizards exhibit. In addition to this, the minting experience is one that is unrivaled in the NFT scene, the developers have created an immersive and engaging experience that goes further than just a transaction. Upon the click of the tower, you are left enticed by the animation, awaiting confirmation from the mysterious ether. While you eagerly await the reveal of your wizards, you are greeted by a curious wizard, a guardian wolf, and a piercing black cat, all of which make the experience extra intriguing. This high effort project successfully captures the feel of some of the most renowned fantasy games and books with its very own wizardry twist! Inspired by the greats such as Tolkien, and the ‘okay’ such as Harry Potter, in the words of Trul, TFRWC has garnered ideas from across the board and established their own creative masterpiece!
The collection hoped to stimulate the imagination of the cult members, and they have succeeded in doing just that with a number of members animating their wizards, bringing the collection to life. The cult is passionate, loyal, and energetic, empowering each other each day, exhibiting true cult qualities! Perhaps this is why the collection has received such widespread support. This is furthered by the identity that TFRWC provides to its members whereby each wizard comes with its own unique name such as Ghost eater Ali or Alchemist Althea of the wild. With the team working on a number of projects to further the immersive experience of the collection, such as games, comics, and more, it is expected that the cult is only going to grow stronger.
I asked Trul, the co-founder of TFRW some questions below which he kindly answered. If you want to find out more about the background of the collection, their inspiration, and plans for the future, read on in this exclusive interview below.
Where does the name Forgotten rune wizards cult come from and what is the story behind the collection?
I addressed this question once in an AMA. https://soundcloud.com/forgottenrunes/elf-tells-us-what-forgotten-runes-is…
But to recap- The Runes themselves are abstractions of larger concepts. They are the simplified representations of art, story, poetry, code, music, etc. They are expressions of the human spirit in pictogram form. And it is the Wizard’s job to remind the world of this human spirit, because the daily grind of mundane life can often make us forget. Our Cult members summoned these Wizards from the Ether. Now they use these Wizards as a conduit to summon the Wizard from within themselves.
This project sits well with fantasy lovers, reinforced by the pixel aesthetic which allows collectors to reflect on the nostalgic RPG games that they grew up with. Which games or books were you most inspired by during the creation of the project?
Definitely Final Fantasy, both the NES and SNES versions. Those are Golden Age RPGs. Oddly enough, the biggest aesthetic decision I lifted from FF is the solid black backgrounds. I’ve received a lot of questions about why the simple black BGs. It seems a lot of people think it was an odd choice. But for me, the barren blackness you see in those old games- on title screens, battle screens, UI, etc- they are so striking, so strong, such a relic of that era; and they evoke a limitless void where the imagination soars and anything can happen. The black BGs have a mystical zen-like quality that leaves room for so much magic. But the pixel aesthetic was chosen for many reasons beyond just nostalgia. Technically, the small file size of pixel art allowed us to actually store the art on-chain. The pixel art form is also one of very limited detail. Because there are so few details, (like the black BGs), it makes your imagination fill in all the gaps, it stimulates creativity. And I think my desire to stimulate imagination is certainly having it’s intended effect, because our Cult members create new and incredible art every day with their Wizards. As for books, I’m a die-hard Tolkein fan. I love Game of Thrones, Harry Potter is fine, but Tolkien is my heart and soul. I’ve studied his creative process and his writing methods, and tried to implement some of that into this collection. Because one thing I’ve learned is that a 10k generative collection is a powerful story-telling vehicle.
With affinities and traits being held by each unique wizard, which is the most rare and can you explain the basics of what they entail?
Haha I actually cannot tell you what is most rare. This is one quality of FRWC that separates us from others. We designed it to defy traditional rarity metrics. So there are several ways to measure rarity in the collection. The most obvious is simply looking at the properties- head, body, spell, familiar, etc… One could create a rarity spreadsheet based on those attributes pretty easily. But we didn’t stop there... The Wizards also have a concept called “affinity.” This is a feature we put into our generator that would combine these properties in more or less cohesive ways, i.e. some Wizards have more affinity, some have less. Affinity can be expressed in many ways, for example: color. A Wizard with strong “green” affinity will have most or all of its parts colored green. But affinity can also be something like “rugged”. A wizard that looks like he’s out in nature a lot, has earthy tones, and maybe a Field Dog as a familiar will have strong “rugged” affinity. The decision to give affinities to the Wizards was an aesthetic and narrative decision. A Wizard with strong affinity might look more cohesive and also evoke a clear backstory. So putting this quality into a rarity metric is difficult, especially when pairing it with property metrics. And if that wasn’t enough, we also have unique names for our Wizards. Most of them have a 3 part name, but some have only 2 or 1. All this is to say that no, I can’t say which Wizard is the most rare. Wizards are not meant to have a clear hierarchy. They are not defined by simple math and numbers because they mean so much more than that. They are not some crypto token where you calculate value with a calculator. They are indeed, non-fungible. This was designed intentionally to move Wizard holders beyond those numerical metrics into more intangible characteristics, such as story, lore, aesthetics.
With over 2000 owners on open sea in just over a month, what is next for the project and where do you see yourself in a years time?
We have enormous ambitions for FRWC. Everyday we are taking Zoom calls, writing emails, and going to meetings with many partners all over the entertainment industry. We are looking to create an official FRWC game, as well as allow Wizards into other metaverses. We are talking to animation studios to create animated content. We are talking with writers and artists to get them into comics. We are also doing smaller scale things like murals in cities around the country, stickers, and merch. The goal is to turn FRWC into a widely recognized IP with as many media expressions as possible.
You have incorporated short, fictional stories into the project as well as mapping a fantasy world for the wizards. Do you see yourself developing these ideas further such as through books or games?
Absolutely yes. The map will definitely expand.
How did you find the whole experience from the initial creation of the first wizard to the success sell out on the first day of the drop. What would you do differently if you had the chance to go back if anything?
The beginning was a maddening labyrinth of trial and error. I had never even drawn pixel art before. On top of that, figuring out a template that would allow for a huge variety of characters to have their parts mixed and matched was unbelievably challenging. On top of that, weaving hints of a story into the artwork, the names, and website, all within a timespan of about 2 months was a 24/7 life absorbing obsession. Dotta also had his own set of challenges from the smart contract to the website. AND mixed into all of that was the herculean effort of building a Twitter and Discord community from scratch! There were certainly times when we had our doubts, when we thought the NFT market would crash days before launch, when we thought the launch itself would have some project destroying contract bug. But to our delight, the launch went extremely well and everything fell into place. Some deep magic must have been working to bring it all together so seamlessly in the end. If I had the chance to do it again, I’d have moved this and that pixel here and there, or not misspelled, or mislabeled certain things. But overall I think it executed pretty damn well.
For those that don’t know who you are, if you could present an opening sentence to pitch why they should invest, what would you say?
“Like Wizard, Buy Wizard.”
Don’t forget, if you want to join the cult and be a part of their expanding project, check out their website here! TFRWC
Hello again! You have reached the end of the article, you really are a true NFT supporter! Let me know which collection you would like to hear from next? Head on over to my page at NFT Insight and shoot me a message, I will get back to you!