More on adding my campaigns:
> I'm against this for continuity reasons.  I think having a consistent
> overall history of the world is a good thing, and that consistency
> should be preserved.
I agree the continuity issue is worth considering, but I don't think its
a stopper.

For those who don't know, the basic conflict:

In The Sceptre of Fire, it is stated that Haldric II was the one who
commissioned the sceptre. He did so because, as is made clear in the
Legend of Wesmere campaign, the Ruby of Fire has a negative influence on
those who wield it. (This negative effect is another factor in Haldric I
not coming to the aid of the elves when "the orcs attacked again".) The
dwarves did so, but failed to deliver the sceptre to Haldric. It is
implied that Garard II issued the Sceptre Edict of Royal Succession,
same as in HttT.

In Heir to the Throne, on the other hand, the Ruby of Fire arrives in
Wesnoth at its founding, and then sits around in Wesnoth's treasuries
for four hundred years until for some reason Garard I decides to have a
sceptre made out of it. Th dwarves spend 25 years forging it, but then
it is lost in the caverns of Knalga when the orcs attack said area. (Why
would they do so? It's not clear. Just because they're orcs? Is there a
Northern Rebirth tie-in here?) Garard's son, when he ascends, issues the
Sceptre Edict of Royal Succession (the reasons for this are unclear - it
comes immediately after he marries Asheviere, so presumably he didn't
want his and Asheviere's children to rule the land upon his death - did
he distrust Asheviere?).


My reasons for changing the history in Sceptre of Fire (I actually did
have a reason for intentionally breaking with canon):

The first one makes more sense to me because, based on tRoW, we know,
and Haldric I knows, that the ruby of fire is immensely powerful. It has
also become a standard feature of the ruby in UMCs that, for whatever
reason, the ruby of fire has a corrupting influence on its owners. It
doesn't really make sense to me, then, that the ruby would sit around
for four hundred years and then suddenly Garard I would decide to make a
sceptre of it. Why would he do this?

It also seems more interesting to me to have the sceptre be lost for
hundreds of years, rather than for just twenty, before Garard II issues
his edict. It makes it more like he wants to recover an ancient lost
artifact, rather than that he is for some strange reason saying that
anyone who finds this thing his father ordered but was never delivered
(damn UPS!) have his permission to usurp his children's position as heir
to the throne. The version in SoF makes (slightly) more sense of the
situation presented in HttT, it is more consistent with other campaigns,
including tRoW (which is mainline) and LoW (which isn't), and it makes
the sceptre itself have a longer and more interesting history, which is
a Good Thing.


So, in conclusion:

* The only differences are that it is not Garard I, in 417 YW, who
originally commissions the Sceptre, but rather Haldric II, in 25 YW, who
does so, and that its completion only takes 15 years, not 25.
* These are both minor plot points in HttT, and can be easily changed.
* However, they are vital to the plot of SoF, and several UMCs made
after I wrote SoF use the SoF version of history.
* They also make more sense anyway, IMHO.
* I thus see no reason not to make this change.


> Haven't played it.  Turin does good work, so this one would be high on
> my list of candidates to look at.  In fact I would be a little surprised
> if it turned out not to be mainline-worthy.
>   
The main problems with SE, as I see it, are that it tries to do things
with WML that don't really work (partly because I wrote it when WML was
much less powerful than it is now), and that its gameplay is too
different from the standard Wesnoth gameplay (though what with UtBS
being official now, that might not be such a big issue).

~Turin

-- 
Joseph Simmons
Known to some as Túrin Turambar, master of doom, by doom mastered
www.wesnoth.org


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