The Chronicles of Spellborn

Lore & Background

The Chronicles of Spellborn was a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) initially released on November 27, 2008. It was developed by Spellborn International and distributed by Frogster Interactive, Mindscape and Acclaim Games. The game was set in a post-apocalyptic fantasy world, using the Unreal Engine and featuring a European Art approach, with notable contributions from Jesper Kyd. The game's fictional history is divided into eight ages; players enter the world at its current age known as 'The Time of the Enclave', 998 years after the shattering of the world. The game's world is divided into Shards of rock, remnants of the ancient world that are inhabited by the survivors of the cataclysm. Four main Shards were available for exploration by players.

Reader's Guide

The Chronicles of Spellborn is significant for its unconventional approach to MMORPG design. Unlike most games of its type, armor and weapons in Spellborn did not provide any statistical improvements to the player's character; instead, they served aesthetic purposes. The game also incorporated a first-person targeting system, where the player selected an available skill to use while aiming at the opponent, and could use two skills at the same time to create combinations. Completing quests was the primary means of earning experience points, and repeatedly killing enemies to gain levels was not a practical option. The game had about a thousand quests, including Ancestral Quests that allowed the player to take the role of a major character in Spellborn's history. In June 2009, the developers of Spellborn, Spellborn Works, went bankrupt. One of the publishers, Acclaim, announced the following month that the game would be re-developed as a free-to-play game supported by microtransactions, but the game servers were shut down in August 2010 and the game has not been re-released by any publisher since. Its legacy endures through a private server running as of 2019, operated by a former developer, reviving the once dead MMO.

Did You Know?

• The game had about a thousand quests, and completing quests was the primary means of earning experience points.
• Armor and weapons in Spellborn did not provide any statistical improvements; they served only aesthetic purposes.
• The game's world is divided into Shards of rock, remnants of the ancient world, with four main Shards available for exploration.
• As of 2019, the game is still playable on a proprietary private server operated by a former developer.