Dear Community,
As you probably noticed, there's something legendary coming up and you waited patiently for the last few days, wondering what the big revelation might look like.
We are happy to tell you: your patience pays off and your wait is now over!
A picture tells more than a thousand words they say. We can top even that.
That’s why we proudly present to you the latest top notch project from Awe Me.
Check out the video on their YouTube channel and watch how the immensely talented guys from the Men at Arms team forge a true masterpiece of flawless craftsmanship!
So without further ado, enjoy the creation of this legendary piece of art:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6y-NCYgTz5I
The Tale of Rising Fury
Long before the modern age of the Great Empire, the lands of Berimond were occupied by the houses of two kings: King Leopold I of the House of Gerbrandt, and King Gunter of the House of Ursidae. For years these two houses lived in relative peace, respecting their rival’s borders, and focusing their attentions only on the growth and prosperity of their own kingdoms.
However, as the age of scientific enlightenment dawned, scholars and scientists from each house discovered that the lands of Berimond were rich in a rare mineral that could be used to expand their cultural, economic and militaristic horizons beyond imagination. What was once a cordial relationship between the two houses rapidly descended to one of mistrust and rivalry, as each king sought total dominion of the lands and the riches hidden beneath.
It wasn’t long before the first Great Battle for Berimond spilled onto the battlefields, and with each king distracted by matters of conflict, the once prosperous kingdoms of Gerbrandt and Ursidae fell into a state of turmoil.
After years of battling, the chaos of the war started to attract groups of bandits and anarchists from the mountains who saw the conflict as the perfect opportunity to pillage the riches of Berimond without fear of reprisal. Chief among these groups were the notorious Metalsmith Knights.
Artisan blacksmiths whose abilities with hammer and anvil were matched only by their abilities with sword and shield, the Metalsmith Knights were ferocious warriors who savagely dealt with the meagre resistance they encountered as they raided and pillaged the land of its riches. It wasn’t long before their presence in Berimond represented a serious problem for both houses and the two kings each placed high bounties on the heads of the knight’s generals.
As bloody war continued to wage on the battlefields, small groups of bounty hunters scoured the mountains in search of the Metalsmith Knights. Eventually, after many months of hunting, a small group was found and captured by raiders loyal to the House of Gerbrandt.
Presented before King Leopold I himself, the captured knights expected imprisonment or execution, but were instead offered a deal: In return for their allegiance on the battlefield, the King would grant the Metalsmith Knights their freedom and allow them to keep the riches they had pillaged. The generals accepted the king’s offer and, with their help, victory in the first Great Battle for Berimond was soon claimed by the house of Gerbrandt.
The age of Gerbrandt had begun.
In the aftermath of his victory, King Leopold I remained true to his word and granted the knights their freedom, providing them with safe passage back to the mountains and the assurance that they would no longer be hunted by his men.
Twelve months passed before the knights were seen again, when, unannounced, a Knight elder returned to Berimond to present the King with a gift of gratitude: A sword, forged in the fires of the Fire Peak Mountains and crafted using the minerals pillaged from the lands. It was, the king was assured, the mightiest blade in the empire.
The years that followed were marked by further conflicts on the battlefield as the house of Ursidae tried to re-establish their claim to the lands. However, while the first Great Battle for Berimond spanned many years, the battles that followed were easily dominated by the house of Gerbrandt, and no matter how many duels were fought, breastplates pierced, or enemies slain, the king’s new blade remained unscathed. Never dented, never dulled, never defeated.
Such was Leopold’s dominance of the battlefield during these years, he earned the nickname “The Fury King” and his sword became known as “Fury’s Blade.” In fact, in the eyes of many, it was the sword and not the king that was responsible for the Gerbrandts’ supremacy during the war and blacksmiths and scientists throughout the land dedicated their lives trying to replicate its might. None, however, came even close to matching the craftsmanship of the Metalsmith Knights’ iconic design. It was, as the king had been assured, the mightiest blade in the empire.
Upon the death of King Leopold I, Fury’s Blade was passed to his eldest son and heir to the Gerbrandt throne: Prince Deximus. Raised on the battlefields of Berimond, the young prince was known for his fickle temper and lust for bloodshed and, soon after ascending the throne, immediately began work on a strategy that would rid Berimond of the house of Ursidae forever.
Knowing that his armies didn’t possess the strength or equipment to completely destroy the last vestiges of their great rivals on their own, Deximus turned to the Metalsmith Knights for help. Sending an envoy carrying riches beyond measure deep into the mountains, the young king hoped the knights would forge for him enough swords to equip each of his warriors. However, the Knights, now a peaceful and reclusive community concerned only with the safety and survival of their people, refused the new King’s request and returned the riches he had offered.
Angered by their unwillingness to respect his authority, the arrogant young King retaliated by sending 100 of his strongest men into the mountains to capture the Knights and return them to his court.
After twelve days, a solitary warrior returned carrying with him a message stating that, in light of his treachery, the king must return Fury’s Blade to the mountains before the rise of the 7th sun.
Deximus, of course, refused.
On the morning of the 7th sun, the King woke to find the waters of his castle moat running red with the blood and remains of the 99 warriors who hadn’t returned from the mountains. Unperturbed, the king kept the sword by his side and each morning woke to the news that more of his commanders and warriors had disappeared during the night.
After a month of relentless bloodshed that left his armies in tatters, Deximus finally relented and returned to the sword to the Knights, who sealed it within enchanted stone and placed it the high upon the mountains of Berimond as a constant reminder of his treachery.
Without the sword, and with his armies depleted by the vengeful Metalsmith Knights, Deximus quickly lost his grip on the lands of Berimond as the house of Ursidae began to reassert their strength on the battlefield.
The age of Gerbrandt was over.
As the years passed, warriors, scholars and nobles from both houses scaled the mountains in an attempt to free the sword from its tomb, but none succeeded.
As the wars waged, hunters, scouts and armies explored the mountains in search of the legendary Metalsmith Knights, but none could be found.
The sword, it seemed, would be entombed forever and the knights who had crafted it were lost to legend.
That is, until today when a messenger carrying a scroll sealed with the insignia of the now legendary Metalsmith Knights arrived in the Great Empire.
Fearing that the secret to releasing the blade from its tomb will one day be discovered, the last Guardian of the Metalsmith Knight has reached out to the castle lords of the Great Empire in search of a successor worthy of protecting the blade and keeping it out of the hands of the bloodthirsty kings of Berimond.
To prove his worthiness, the next guardian of Fury’s Blade must prove his ability to defend his lands from invading armies, dominate the battlefields of Berimond, and protect his people from the threat of the Shapeshifters.
The castle lord who most impresses the last Guardian of the Metalsmith Knights in these endeavors will earn the right to protect Fury’s Blade and himself become a Guardian of the Metalsmith Knights.
It’s time to unleash fury on the battlefields!
New Event: The Battle for Fury's Blade
Fierce warriors of our Great Empire, we welcome you to The Battle for Fury's Blade.
In this event you players will be able to win the actual sword made by the Men at Arms Team from Awe Me, which you already saw in the YouTube video! Furthermore, a shield worn by legendary warriors of the Ursidae line can also be won, as well as a specially created artwork, signed by the whole development team.
But you may ask “How does this event look like and how do you determine the winner?”.
Well, let's get down to business shall we!?
What can I win?
The overall Top 3 players will be rewarded with the real life rewards which we mentioned before:
The 3rd place will be rewarded with an awesome artwork, which showcases the key visual for our Battle for Fury's Blade event and which will be signed by the entire team.
The 2nd place will be rewarded with the real Ursidae Shield.
The overall winner, our 1st place, will receive the legendary real sword of King Leopold: The Fury's Blade!!!
Keep in mind that the Top 3 players are determined from both games, so this means, that there are no respective Top 3 for Empire and Top 3 for Empire: Four Kingdoms. The Top 3 will be composed of the overall 3 best players!
Furthermore, every player from the server of the corresponding ranking group will get the stated reward:
Stage 1 - The Spring Nights Festival (7th of May - 22nd of May) REWARDS LEVEL 30+
Gold 500 x Berimond Elite Point Booster
Silver 500 x Berimond Point Booster
Stage 1 - The Spring Nights Festival (7th of May - 22nd of May) REWARDS LEVEL 6 - 29
Gold Shieldwall x 500, Heavy ram x 250, Breaching tower x 250
Silver Shieldwall x 200, Heavy ram x 100, Breaching tower x 100
Stage 2 - Battle for Berimond (22nd of May - 25th of May) REWARDS LEVEL 10+
Gold Longterm point event Booster 300% for 6 hours
Silver Longterm point event Booster 100% for 6 hours
After the final Stage 3 (25th-30th of May) event players will get the following final rewards:
Top 3 servers:
All players from the top 3 servers
The fury forge, 400 Public order,
Additionally, players level 45+ will get the Base food production build item level 9.
Other servers:
All player from these servers will get the decoration "Fury's Tomb" with 275 Public order and players level 45+ the Base food production build item level 7 on top.
Fury’s Tomb, 275 Public order.
Top 50 Empire players/Top 50 E4K players:
Additionally to the aforementioned rewards, the Top 50 players of Empire/the Top 50 players of Empire: Four Kingdoms will get the Decoration "The Stone of rising fury" with incredible 1000 public order!
The Stone of rising fury, 1000 Public order.
How does this event work?
The event is based on the server vs. server structure which we used in the past, but we elaborated it in order to fit for such a special event as The Battle for Fury's Blade:
The event will last for 3 weeks and is divided into 3 stages, which are focused on the player rankings of the servers (like you know from previous server vs. server events), as well as on the individual rankings of those respective servers.
Stage 1 will last from the 7th of May to the 22nd of May and is the event stage were all players will participate in and where you have to compete for points in the running longterm point event. On the server side, the intermediate rewards will be accredited after this stage, the same way as you already know from previous events like the Spring Showdown, Winter Assault, etc.
But the very interesting part for the individual rankings starts with the end of this first stage:
The Top 1000 players of Empire and the top 1000 players of Empire: Four Kingdoms (so 2000 players in total), will qualify for participating in stage 2 of the individual rankings.
Stage 2 will last from the 22nd of May to the 25th of May and in this event stage players will compete in the Berimond Event for the most gallantry points and the servers will be accredited with more intermediate rewards.
The aforementioned Top 1000 players of both Empire and Empire: Four Kingdoms (2000 players in total) will also compete for gallantry points in the Berimond event and only the Top 50 of Empire and the Top 50 of Empire: Four Kingdoms (100 players in total) will make it to the final stage.
The showdown will take place in Stage 3, which will last from the 25th of May to the 30th of May.
Servers will compete against each other in the Shapeshifter event for the final rewards.
The players which made it to the individual rankings Top 50 of Empire and Empire: Four Kingdoms (so 100 players in total), will also compete in the Shapeshifter event and the winners of this stage will be determined and measured by the best streak they have during that event.
Important:
The point series which are counted for the Shapeshifter run will have their last reset on the 30th of May at 1:00 AM CEST, meaning that this is the time were we will count the last relevant points for the overall ranking. If the unlikely situation occurs, where two or more players would achieve the same amount of points for the Top 3 ranks, then we will decide for the following approach of decision making:
If they have the exact same amount of points in the final Shapeshifter point series ranking, then we will take a look at the amount of gallantry points they made in Stage 2 (Battle for Berimond). If they also happen to have the same amount of gallantry points, then we will compare the amount of points they made during the first stage’s long term point event (Spring nights festival). If the most unlikely case occurs, that they have the same amount of points in this event as well, then we will decide by coin toss.
How will you announce the rankings?
Because this is a very high competition event, we will be providing you players on a daily basis with the Top 100 list for each day, until the event ends. So this means, that there will be a daily streaming of your rankings on Twitch. We also designed a special Community hub for this event and for further interactions with all of you. You can reach the hub under the fittingly called domain https://empire.community!
Additional
As we at GGS would like to celebrate our amazing winners in an epic way, we would like the winners of the sword and the shield to send us pictures as soon as they receive the prizes and allow us to use those pictures for PR and Marketing.
- Depending on which country our prizes will be send to, we may order a professional photographer, to take pictures.
The winners of the sword and shield will have to sign a release of liability form, which of course will be provided by GGS.
We further want to make you aware of the fact, that for this contest, our contest/sweepstake guidelines will apply, which you may find [HERE].
In addition to that, GGS will pay up to $1250 to cover the send-out of our prizes (e.g. tax, parcel, etc.).