"Quests of Yore" is a historically-accurate, fantasy-adventure, role-playing game played by Barley Lightfoot with almost religious passion due to his love of fantasy and ancient history. He keeps the game's dungeon master manual with him at all times and brings it along on the adventure.
Background[]
It comes in handy during his and Ian's quest to find a Phoenix Gem as Barley has Ian practice some of the spells in "Quests of Yore" to prepare to properly cast the Visitation Spell in order to fully restore their father, Wilden Lightfoot.
Besides spells, "Quests of Yore" includes information on various mystical creatures and beings, ancient relics, and artifacts, weapons, historical figures, as well as RPG stats and additional notes regarding how to properly cast the spells.
Real World Versions[]
An annotated version of Barley's copy was released as a tie-in book for the film. Additionally, a fully playable board game, "Quests of Yore: Barley Edition", was released in the fall of 2020.
Spells[]
In the annotated version of Quests of Yore, it contained information about more spells than just the ones mentioned in the movie.
Spells mentioned in movie and book[]
- Accelior - Velocity Spell
- Aloft Elevar - Levitation Spell. Its official description reads: "When a wizard desireth that items of all weights and statures shall break the bonds of gravity and move wherever so willed, then look no further than the spell of levitation.* Aimeth thine staff at the subject of intention, and reciteth this mystic incantation." At the bottom of the page reads (what is presumably its Magic Degree): *Noteth: As always, a wizard should elevate their own level of focus and attention to (illegible) objects."
- Bridgrigar Invisia - Trust Bridge Spell
- Boom Bastia - Fireworks Spell
- Flame Infernar - Fire Spell
- Illusio Facadis - Disguise Spell. Its Magic Decree is: “Disguising yourself is a lie, so you must tell the truth to get by.”
- Magnora Gantuan - Growth Spell. Described in Chapter 111 on pages 132-133 in Quests of Yore. Its official description reads: "When a wizard desireth items of diminutive stature to increase both in size and weight, they should look no farther than the Growth Spell. Aimeth thine staff at the subject of intention, and reciteth this mystic incantation." It's Magic Decree is: "To magnify an object magnify your attention upon it."
- Voltar Thundasir - Arcane Lightning. Its official description is the largest depicted in the film, but is largely illegible. At the bottom of the page is a short blurb beginning with "Take Note:", which would presumably be its Magic Decree, but is worded differently than how it is described by Barley. Its Magic Decree is: “To make lightning strike with ease, one must follow all decrees.”
Spells mentioned only in book[]
- Armadura - Armor Spell
- Avi Dolanta - Flight Spell
- Bastion Fortigar - Shield Spell
- Bestia Lingu - Nature Speak Spell
- Charismafia - Charm Spell
- Conjurus - Summon Spell
- Contragrava - Gravity Inversion Spell
- Cumulo Mystara - Fog Spell
- Disage Invisio - Invisibility Spell
- Emases Nepo - Unlock Spell
- Exposa Hazadir - Danger Detection Spell
- Hydro Pura - Water Spell
- Luxia - Light Spell
- Luxia Extraordinar - Light Beam Spell
- Might Magnora - Strength Spell
- Navivera - Direction Spell
- Paralos - Stun Spell
- Petrifor - Stone Spell
- Presto Avar - Animate Spell
- Tranquilara - Calming Spell
- Trustavera - Truth Spell
- Universa Lingu - Translation Spell
- Vimzesta - Energy Spell
- Vocalys Magnora - Voice Amplification Spell
- Wynda Zephyria - Wind Spell
Spells mentioned only in game[]
- Bastion Infernar - Based on the spell card artwork and effect description, it appears to be a repellent light against evil creatures or those the caster considers an adversary
- Bestia Tranquilara - Presumably a spell that specifically calms creatures
- "The Stone Sleep of Ages" - A spell that petrifies its targets, permanently turning them to stone. In a family game of Quests of Yore, Ian's character used a scroll either containing this spell's power or inscribed with its incantation against a flock of griffins at Raven's Point.[1]
Trivia[]
- The game is an obvious reference to Dungeons & Dragons.
- According to Dan Scanlon, the game (both in-universe and the real world version) takes place 800 years before the movie.[2]
- A magic-wielding character in the game and/or a historical figure is Shamblefoot the Wondrous.
- Barley's in-universe gaming group includes the following people, all of whom are players. The canonical Quest Master is unknown:
- Barley himself. His character is Sir Barley of Awesomeshire, a sword-wielding elf warrior identical to himself.[3]
- Ian (after the events of the movie). His character is Sir Iandore of Lightfoot, an elf wizard identical to himself.[3][1]
- An unknown person whose character appears to be a dwarf (or possibly satyr), wielding two swords, whose name ends in "-f" (possibly "-hoof"). Their character sheet is seen on the table in the Lightfoot House in the movie.
- An unknown person whose name ends in "-xander", playing a warrior named Aeryn that appears to be an elf. Their character sheet is seen on the table in the Lightfoot House in the movie.
- Shrub Rosehammer (male troll)[4]
- Wardus (male gnome). His character is Wardus the Stouthearted. He appears to be a wizard/Savant who wields a magic staff.[5]
- Yaldina (female cyclops). Her character is Yaldina the Inventive. She appears to be a wizard/Savant who wields a magic staff and a spell book with an eye on its cover.[5]
- In an earlier draft of the film, Barley referred to his Quests of Yore gaming group as "The Council", from whom he and Ian would need to get information from. Their quest master would have been eight years old.[6]
- In a separate game played by the whole Lightfoot family, Barley acts as the Quest Master:
- Ian plays Sir Iandore of Lightfoot
- Colt Bronco's character is a centaur ranger (presumed due to his longbow) identical to himself.[1]
- Laurel Lightfoot's character is an elf cleric identical to herself but without glasses.[1]
- Barley's Edition comes with four pre-generated characters out of five of the character classes:[7][8]
- Apprentice Rhys the Frayed, a male cyclops Savant (wizard). He is mature, inquisitive, lost-in-thought, a researcher, and lived the student life. His background was Tower Trained, and thus his studies were formal, long, and rigorous. He is a "lifelong student (who was) finally kicked out of the Tower."
- Unora, Master of the 8-String, a female gnome Companion (bard). She is young, talkative, tells-white-lies, alto, and passionate. Her background was University Student, and thus she was educated at a college. She is a "bold bard taking the world by storm."
- Ashel of Sakra, a female elf Defender (warrior). She is adult, firm-but-fair, head-strong, stoic, reckless, and loyal. Her background was Frontier Guard, and thus she's been in the hinterlands long enough to "go just a little bit wild (herself)". She is a "warrior of action and seeker of perfection".
- Ethorn the Shadowhoof, a male satyr Vagabond (rogue/thief). He is adult, gruff, distractable, never-a-straight-answer, and tricky. His background was Wayfarer, and thus he's spent a lot of time traveling the world. He is a "seeker of excitement (and shiny things)".
- Barley's Edition contains the following lore:
- Contrary to how the book version describes the Manticore's Tavern as a gathering place for villains and ne'er-do-wells and the Manticore as someone who may attack someone easily, the game version seems to establish it as a training ground for adventurers and the Manticore as a willing teacher.
- A satyr settlement named Clovendell, who is besieged by attacking goblins.
- There is a location, likely a settlement or kingdom, called Sakra, from which the player character Ashel is from.
- Schools of magic are referred to as Towers. This is a reference to the fantasy concept of wizards living in tall towers.
- When developing the rules of magic in Onward's universe, the creative team held meetings to come up with the various incantations for each spell, and had overall rules to follow:[9]
- The incantations (with the exception of the spell used to revive Wilden Lightfoot) must be short, with a maximum length of two words or approximately seven syllables.
- The incantations must be comprised of words and root stems that obviously evoke the effect of their spell.
- For instance, the Lightning Spell (Voltar Thundasir) is comprised of "volt" (a unit of electrical or electromagnetic measurement), "thunder" (the sound of lightning), and possibly "sear" (to burn or scorch something with sudden, intense heat).
- To this end, the crew had a large whiteboard covered with potential word pieces to use for each incantation.
- The crew also used tangentially related evocative origins and inspirations for their incantations. For example, the Lightning Spell took inspiration from musicians and bands like Sting and Mars Volta.
- The first word of Bridgerigar Invisia is similar to "budgerigar", a common name for the common parakeet. Several potential origins have been proposed for this name, all from Aboriginal or English Australian languages. It is unclear if this reference is intentional or not, as it is unclear what connection the spell has to the concept of parakeets.
- Emases Nepo is "open sesame" backwards.
- Casting a spell requires some of, if not all, of the following components: a spoken element (the incantation), a specific gesture, and a physical component (such as Ian's staff or the Phoenix Gem). Some spells also require a Magic Decree, a special rule that must be followed to keep the spell active and working correctly.
- As described by the movie's version of the book, casting spells in-game require a roll of a 20-sided die, and its result must in some way match the numbers depicted in a Casting Magnitude table. This may be an analog to Dungeons and Dragons' spellcasting Difficulty Class (or DC), in which a casting character must match or exceed a number that represents the difficulty of casting a given spell to succeed at doing so. Quests of Yore depicts three rows of numbers corresponding to Strength (STR), Dexterity (DEX), Constitution (CON), and Wisdom (WIS), with each row containing different numbers under each of the four Stats. It is unclear if these are meant to suggest that different character classes in Quests of Yore use different spellcasting Stats (as is the case in D&D, as only Wisdom is a casting stat in the latter), or if four d20 are rolled for all four Stats at once. Further, the numbers in each row do not scale up or down in a consistent and linear order, making it unclear how the die are meant to be rolled and how the hypothetically incremental Casting Magnitude is meant to be interpreted.
- The character sheets as seen in the film look significantly different than the ones used in the real game:
- The film and real versions have an overall different layout.
- The film version is the size of a single standard sheet of paper, while the real version is extra wide.
- Similar to Dungeons and Dragons, the various things players can do and which have individual stat numbers tied to them are referred to as "Skills", while the real version calls them "Techniques".
- Similar Skills/Techniques are given different names, such as Arcana (movie) being Cast (real).
- The real version of the character has icons corresponding to each Technique. Cast and Wield are depicted with the tip of Ian's staff, and Loot is the Phoenix Gem.
- Skills have a single box next to them that, like in D&D, presumably would be marked to denote if a character was proficient in it. In the real version, characters have tiers of proficiency in each Technique represented by what type of die they roll for it.
- Similar Skills/Techniques are given different names, such as Arcana (movie) being Cast (real).
- Similarly, the film sheets have a list of what presumably correspond to Stats in D&D (such as Charisma, Constitution, Wisdom, etc.). The real version instead has Approaches, which are likely given different names, which denote how a character will attempt to approach a situation (Socially, Bravely, Cleverly, etc.).
Gallery[]
Disney Mirrorverse Promo
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Onward: The Story of the Movie in Comics ("Game Night")
- ↑ https://twitter.com/MrDanScanlon/status/1302405746873700360
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Quests of Yore: Barley's Edition
- ↑ Barley: "During one Quests of Yore campaign, Shrub Rosehammer and I took the easy route, led him straight into the belly of a gelatinous cube." (Onward)
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Onward: Quests of Yore
- ↑ https://twitter.com/MrDanScanlon/status/1404984120174804995
- ↑ https://theop.games/products/quests-of-yore-barleys-edition
- ↑ https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0611/3958/3198/files/Onward-Quests-of-Yore-Character-Sheets-Pre-Generated.pdf?v=1650995785
- ↑ Onward special featurette: "Heart's Fire"
