Doom, Darkness, and epic battles against the Undead! All are found in DoomWood, the last bastion of Light in a land overrun by skeletons, slimes, and other necrotized nasties. With the introduction of the DoomWood zone, we wanted to take familiar characters and offer a new look at a favorite video-game theme – the clash between Light and Dark, Good and Evil.

The Art of DoomWood

In the Necropolis, Noxus – a character first introduced in one of our online RPGs, DragonFable – created the ultimate in evil: Vordred, the PaladinSlayer! And to make sure the AQWorlds players knew what they were up against, we asked one of the AQWorlds artists to design an incredibly intimidating armor. Offered a sneak peek on Twitter, the players loved it!

But to do the character justice, it had to be the biggest, baddest, boniest monster they’d ever seen! What was needed were MORE SKULLS! (Really, there was no more room, but company philosophy says that anything is possible if we have determination and unlimited quantities of caffeine!) So, mouse in one hand and overly-full coffee cup in the other, Vordred’s artist proceeded to spend hours placing and rearranging skulls onto the armor until a final, epically-skullicious version was agreed upon:

A coder passing by got a glimpse of the new art and quipped, “So we heard you like skulls on your skulls…” At once, everyone finished – “And on FIRE!” (At Artix Entertainment, we know our memes! And we haven’t added flames to Vordred’s armor… yet.)

The Story of DoomWood

So far, in the zone’s first week, AQWorlds’ heroes visited LightGuard Keep and the surrounding, undead-filled forest and found out a dark, twisted monster was hunting Paladins.

One of my favorite parts about LightGuard Keep is that ALL the NPC names – like Lady Speedstyk – are based off of deodorants. Paladins get REALLY smelly in all that heavy armor, so the naming convention makes perfect sense! (You NEVER want to ask a Paladin to raise his hand if he’s sure about something!)

Week two saw the players journeying through the Chopping Maul (where else would a Necromancer find Bloodbath & BodyWorks, GraveStop, or Scarbucks?) to Zorbak’s Hideout.  As the only Necromancer NOT currently trying to slay the hero, he was their best source of advice on how to save DoomWood. Knowing less than he’d ever willingly admit, Zorbak suggested they look in the Necropolis. But to get in, they’d either need to become a Necromancer (we LOVE making the players go undercover!) or present a Necro U Student ID.

Week three is where the storyline is currently, and what we have in store for them is an undead-doozy! The players will have two choices – they can either accept quests at the Tower of Necromancy to concoct a counterfeit Student ID, or they can play through the Tower of Necromancy itself.

The Tower has ten floors of puzzles which get increasingly difficult. IF they make it to the top, they’ll meet the Master of the Necropolis and earn the right to become a full Necromancer! Either way, after this they’re off to the Necropolis, and the Undead DOOOOM that awaits them!

DoomWood’s storyline is written – for the most part – but since we look to our players for feedback and ideas after every release, there’s always a chance that the ending could change drastically!

The PotionMistress behind the Pen

Who am I kidding, I haven’t willingly used a pen to write something since 1997. I’m Alina, one of the AQWorlds writers and designers. While groan-worthy puns and creative consonance delight me, my character has a passion for potions and poisons and currently serves King Alteon as the Royal PotionMistress. You can always find me or more information on AdventureQuest Worlds at www. AQ.com!

The Electronic Entertainment Expo starts in just a matter of minutes and already we’re seeing some of this years trailers start to pop up.

One such release is that for BioWare’s The Old Republic. A game which seems like it has already had more trailers released than there were episodes of Friends.

With a release date penned in for “Sometime before March 2012″ we still have a fair wait ahead of us but it’s quite remarkable how much the game seems to have improved from the very first pieces of footage we saw.

Are you looking forward to The Old Republic? Have you already an idea on what character you’ll make when launch comes round? I’m personally leaning toward some kind of Smuggler because I feel that I’d fit the shady person role rather well.