Praise the Spirits! Build Your World Around Your Character with The Wagadu Chronicles
Developer Twin Drums recently entered the closed alpha test phase for its Afro-Fantasy, Role Playing focused MMORPG, The Wagadu Chronicles.
Inspired by the popularity explosion in tabletop gaming – and further validated by the difficulties faced trying to bring together a party during the pandemic – The Wagadu Chronicles presets a strictly “role-play first” focus to create a welcoming space for role-players and those who are learning role-play by way of proactive, thought-through moderation.
The Wagadu Chronicles – the Role-Play-first Afrofantasy MMORPG brings back the “role-play” to the genre. A magnificent African-inspired RPG where NPC’s are actually other players, The Wagadu Chronicles invites players to immerse themselves in a unique fantasy setting where every character from sorcerer to sailor is invested in their character and acts accordingly to the lore of their people and craft. Explore and participate in an ever-changing world, where land and status will evolve and change over time. Adapt and develop alongside the world and its inhabitants in an MMORPG experience with uniquely developed skill trees, village management and craft systems built to create rich characters full of memories and quirks which can impact the world and ecosystem in little and large ways.
With its roots in the mythology, peoples and geology of the African continent, drawing references from many African nations including Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, Mali, Congo and Kenya the game sets out to not only create a safe-space away from the aggressive, combat focus of many player driven MMORPG worlds but also to address an imbalance the developers saw in a genre over-saturated with Euro and Asian-centric fantasy.
“We wish there wasn’t something special about the Wagadu Chronicles, but unfortunately in this world there is” commented Allan Cudicio, founder of Twin Drums and the game’s Lead Designer. “Wagadu’s fantasy world is influenced by African pre-colonial cultures. It’s definitely a pan-African game, with a strong focus on sub-saharan Africa and significant influences from diasporas. Our thought process was similar to Tolkien when he created Middle Earth: we delved deep into many, many cultures around the continent and blended it with fairy-tale & fantasy elements. This enabled us to create a world that we see as truly unique in games today.”
Diversity and moving away from the ethnonationalism typical to many MMORPG titles is key to the philosophy behind The Wagadu Chronicles – a player’s culture and, to a degree, their role-play priorities aren’t tied to their physical appearance. A horned “Swala” woman, rather than belonging to a stereotypical Herder culture, might belong to a death-worshiping Lunar culture – the only way to know is to role-play and ask! Players can freely match any lineage with any culture, coming up with a vast array of interesting role-playing combinations.
This high degree of customisation also gives the freedom for characters to not be strictly divided in classes but rather created from a variety of skills that can be leveled up individually. Do you want to be a swashbuckling fisher or a wizard-smith-farmer? You got it!
The Wagadu Chronicles was successfully funded on Kickstarter back in 2019 as well as attracting attention, and investment, from Riot Games as part of their Underrepresented Founders Program.
To join the Wagadu community & take part in future testing phases, click HERE, and for more information on Twin Drums and The Wagadu Chronicles, please check out the links below:
Links
https://thewagaduchronicles.com/
https://twitter.com/WagaduChronicle
https://www.instagram.com/thewagaduchronicles/
https://discord.com/invite/7a2ZZRgMwT
