Evil Mojo Podcast Episode 1

## See also

Developer Streams

The first episode of the Evil Mojo Podcast. Stream transcription is available below.

## Transcription

Transcription

“

**Avialence:** "Hey, guys, how's it going? Welcome to, our first episode of the Evil Mojo Podcast. My name is Nicholas Avialence Bashore, one of your community managers here at Evil Mojo and on Paladins game, and joining me today, I have two wonderful guests, starting with Neco! You may remember thi- uh, this gentleman from the uh, update showcase."

**Neco:** "Yeah, my name is Kevin, I go by-

**Avialence:** "How you doing?"

**Neco:** "I- I- I am doing really well, how are you? Um, but um, my name is Kevin, I go by Neco, I'm one of the game designers on Paladins. Uh, it's such a pleasure to be here on- on the- on the first ever, kind of Evil Mojo Podcast."

**Avialence:** "Awesome, no, we're happy to have you, man, and y'know for- for I guess the first time on- on the podcast slash update showcase kinda format we got going on here, we have Jacob, SweetRedHoodie as well, how's it going, Jacob?"

**SweetRedHoodie:** "Hey, it's going alright. I'm Jacob, I'm uh, one of the animators on uh, Paladins, and I was actually one of the people in charge of Corvus as far as animation goes."

**Avialence:** "We're happy to have you, man. Thanks for taking the time and joining us on the show for today, really appreciate it. And y'know, kinda- kinda going off of that too right, I guess we should we should tell everybody what the Evil Mojo Podcast is? Kind of important, right, for the inaugural episode. Um, at least, that's what they tell me, I don't know, I'm just here. \*laugh\* So, y'know, kinda going into the Evil Mojo Podcast for you guys, and kinda laying it out, um, we're basically looking to do an episode every month, right? And the Evil Mojo Podcast is a way for us to talk with you guys, the fans, and uh, chat about various things we're doing in development, talking about some lore, which I know we're really excited to talk about today, right, guys?"

**SweetRedHoodie:** "Yeah."

**Avialence:** "Uh, good old lore stuff. We're stoked. Um, and then y'know kinda- kinda moving off of that to, y'know, talk about various things uh, just relating to the development process of Paladins and kinda what- what's under the hood, so to speak, right? Um, and so y'know, as always with the- with podcasts, this is our first ever episode, we're still in the early stages, kinda moving through different elements. Uh, and we're also still all working from home too, so it's- it's been a bit of a uh, a bit of a fun thing, I think we've been working from home for... oh, Neco, what has it been now, like 8? 8 weeks? Something like that?"

**Neco:** "Oh gosh, I don't even want to think about it, it's been- it's been- it's been awhile. It's been awhile. I think uh-

**SweetRedHoodie:** "\*unintelligible\*"

**Neco:** "-for me the toughest... 10?"

**Avialence:** "\*laugh\* Yeah, 10, you \*unintelligible\*, yeah."

**Neco:** "You were home a little bit early. 8 or 9 weeks for me, and, and for me, the commute's great, I love the commute, but uh, it's- it's, for me, it's making sure I wake up and I uh, change clothing, I kinda get into the mindset of... of working from home, but it's kinda tough, it's kinda tough, I will admit. Um, I'm- I'm thankful we have the opportunity to work from home to actually be able to work, right? But- but uh, it's- yeah, I think for me I'm trying to separate my work space from my... not work space. And, y'know, it's- it's uh, it's difficult without that commute home, because at 6 o'clock I should- I should sign off, but I'm still... sitting in the same desk, so...

**Avialence:** "\*laugh\*"

**Neco:** "We're hanging in there."

**Avialence:** "Yeah, gotta love the-

**SweetRedHoodie:** "Yeah, I- I definitely get that feeling-"

**Avialence:** "Yeah? How have you been doing, Jacob? Are you hanging in?"

**SweetRedHoodie:** "It's... I'm hanging in, we're still going, but it's tough sometimes, it's definitely... hard to leave work at work because... work is... where I still sit. I just turn my chair around and then I turn it back and then I play games, but it's hard to not, put in a couple extra hours if I'm already sitting here working on something because I don't really leave the space as much as... as uh, as much I should. I should probably be taking a walk or something."

**Avialence:** "Right? The- the walks have helped, I'm like-"

**SweetRedHoodie:** "Yeah."

**Avialence:** "-this is one of those times where I'm right there with you guys, like, I it's- it's 6 o'clock and I'm like, oh, I'll answer a few more tweets, or I'll read a few more Reddit threads, or... plan a couple more things, and uh, when in reality, y'know, I sho- I should be going and cooking, y'know, and making a meal-"

**Neco:** "Yeah."

**Avialence:** "-for myself, and walking the dog, y'know?"

**Neco:** "Taking a walk."

**Avialence:** "Y'know, like you said, Jacob, just standing up, yeah! \*laugh\* And so that- that nice commute of like, six feet, from... the bed to the desk, has- has been... a big win, but outside of that, it's been kind of interesting, but uh, obviously, guys, y'know, we- we hope you're all doing well and, y'know, staying safe in this time, y'know, it looks like we're gonna be in this for a bit longer and, y'know, we'll just kinda hang in and provide awesome entertainment while we can uh, so, y'know, kinda moving into that, I guess, awesome entertainment, this podcast, right? Um, so-"

**Neco:** "Oh yeah."

**Avialence:** "-we're kinda breaking things down a couple different levels, uh, y'know, there's a couple different things we want to talk about today, so, we're gonna have different segments basically dedicated to different things as we go, and uh, today, we're actually gonna focus on- on two things centered around lore, which I know we're really, really excited to talk about. I think we've been wanting to talk about lore for quite some time. So-"

**SweetRedHoodie:** "Yeah."

**Avialence:** "-really excited about that. Um, so we're gonna start with our dev talk, y'know, which is basically a segment that we're dedicating to game development, right? Behind- Behind Evil Mojo games, y'know, what- what ticks, how we build stuff, and kind of how we uh, we flesh out the world of Paladins for you guys before it hits PTS and then live servers around- around the world. And then we're also gonna talk a little bit about uh, lore in our segment we're calling Pyre Side Chat, right? Which is just gonna be a lore dedicated segment to kind of, sit down and talk through everything in the world of Paladins before finally, hitting some Q&A questions, which I know today, I'm personally very excited about, we have some great questions today, um-"

**Neco:** "Oh yeah."

**Avialence:** "-to talk about on the lore side of stuff. So, I guess, y'know, kind of going into it, right? We should probably jump into this- into this podcast thing now. So, dev talk, moving in, right? Let's talk a little bit about... lore today, right? So, Neco, who kind of is the lore team of- Evil Mojo? What do you guys do?"

**Neco:** "Depends who you ask, right?"

**Avialence:** "\*laugh\* Right."

**Neco:** "Art's like "Yeaaah, I wanna do this thing!" and I'm like "No, it doesn't match the lore". Um, so, yeah, y'know, it's- it's- it started off as a relatively small initiative, um, it's still fairly small as far as resources go, but essentially it's a group of- of Evil Mojo developers who are, super interested in consolidating and expanding and disseminating all the information that has to do with the really cool lore that we have with Paladins and the champions. Um, we... feel... that the old storylines are important, but we're keeping our eyes focused on kinda the current events in the lore specifically. Um, we want to... bring impactful and interesting narratives to Paladins, kind of now and in the near future, and we've been kind of tying some old stuff together, um, paving the way for some new information. We want to reference and build on old information that's not forgotten, we don't want it to, y'know, we don't ever want you to think we've forgotten the old stuff. Um, and- and build on, like I said before with the kind of current cinematics, the current reveals, and the current champions, and the current lore arcs. Um, so essentially, we spent- we meet uh, fairly semi-regularly, um, to organize and align some of the old information we have, and to build up new information. Um, I think actually we have kind of a cool little tidbit, Jacob, there's something we wanted to share with people in the short term, right?"

**SweetRedHoodie:** "Yeah, we have a lot of stuff- we have a ton of stuff behind the scenes where we have... notes from the past, answers to questions that are outstanding, like one question that I don't think we ever actually answered was Ascension Peak, who actually won Ascension Peak? And, I guess to me-"

**Avialence:** "Lore(?) question."

**SweetRedHoodie:** "-it's a little obvious, but... \*laugh\* definitely the Resistance. If the whole point was to get Jenos behind your side, the Resistance definitely won, but for whatever reason we just never actually officially came out and said- said that answer, and that's part of what we wanna do is make sure that we can answer a lot of those, both outstanding questions and questions that are gonna come up in future, in future stories, future characters and things like that."

**Avialence:** "It's awesome-"

**Neco:** "Y'know what we need, Nick, we need um, we need one of those stamps, right?"

**Avialence:** "Yeah! \*laugh\*"

**Neco:** "That says like, alright approved! The Resistance definitely won! Approved."

**Avialence:** "Ascension Peak! Who won? The Resistance! Approved!"

* everyone laughs\*

**Neco:** "Ah man."

**Avialence:** "That's- the- the stamp is definitely becoming a thing. Like, I- I- it's always funny when you see those on various TV shows and stuff where it's just like, a nice slam, you get the nice, like, slam noise in there, right?

**Neco:** "Yeah."

**Avialence:** "And then it's just like, it's in. It's done. Uh, and- and so now I guess we've technically stamped our first thing with Ascension Peak on the podcast, guys."

**SweetRedHoodie:** "\*laugh\* Yeah."

**Neco:** "You heard it first here. And just kind of-"

**Avialence:** "That's what it's all about."

**Neco:** "Yeah, exactly. Just kind of reiterating, y'know, we- we want to uh, to maintain that consistency we have with the existing lore and answer questions, but we want to avoid as much as possible uh, retcons. We want to focus on what makes each champion kind of unique, and uh, make the lore match that, because the real core of the game at the end of the day is- is the champions and how everything fits together, so, super exciting, uh, I've been super proud of the people already who are part of the lore team and I can't wait to see-"

**SweetRedHoodie:** "Yeah..."

**Neco:** "-I can't wait to have you guys see, what everyone's doing internally."

**Avialence:** "It's awesome, man, it's awesome, like I gotta say too, it's really fun working with the lore team, y'know, as- as a community manager I know we're gonna- we're gonna start talking a little bit about some Corvus stuff here in a minute, but uh, it's- it's really awesome working with you guys to- to give these- these narratives and these stories out to our audience and, y'know, do it in a way that's really cool and compelling and uh, able to flesh out these champions, right? Like you said, Neco, these- these champions are the heart and soul of our game, right? So, being able to flesh out, not only their gameplay and how they feel in the Realm and, y'know, their various competitive comps, right, for our pro scene, it's just, really cool to focus it in, lay it out- all out on the table rather, and talk about lore, right? And where they come from, what their motives are, what their backgrounds are, and everything along those lines. And I mean, kind of- kinda going off that, right, guys, like... we should probably just talk about lore. I think that's kind of what everyone's here for, I know that's what we're here for."

**Neco:** "Let's do it."

**Avialence:** "We- we may have had um, this- this guy join the Realm recently, I don't know if you guys have heard of him, uh, I think his name starts with a C... Jacob, help me out here. Um..."

**SweetRedHoodie:** "Was it "Ca-Raum"?"

**Avialence:** "Cr- man, it sounds- it sounds like his dad in a way."

**SweetRedHoodie:** "Ca-Tiberius?"

**Avialence:** "Ti- no, that's T unfortunately."

**SweetRedHoodie:** "\*laugh\*"

**Avialence:** "Um, man, y'know-"

**Neco:** "Was it- was it- was it Khan? Wait, no."

**SweetRedHoodie:** "Khan's in the game now?!"

**Avialence:** "Khan- Khan- wait, Khan works with the Magistrate? I- I- wait, I think it was- it was Corvus, right?"

**Neco:** "Ahhhh."

**SweetRedHoodie:** "Ah yeah."

**Avialence:** "Corvus, I believe, yeah. This-"

**SweetRedHoodie:** "Of course, of course."

**Neco:** "Of course."

**Avialence:** "-this, uh, yeah, y'know, it's... so, so many Cs. So many Cs."

**SweetRedHoodie:** "\*laugh\*"

**Avialence:** "Um, \*laugh\* but Corvus joined the Realm recently, and I- I know we've really enjoyed watching everyone play Corvus and uncover his lore and things like that and Corvus was, a really kind of awesome, campaign bit going into that, but I think this is a good time for us to kinda move into, y'know, our next segment here and kinda kick things off with- with Pyre Side Chat, right? Where we can sit down and talk a little bit about the lore behind Corvus and essentially what he's doing, right? And how he's kind of building into various things, so, y'know, on a base level then, Neco, who... is... Corvus?"

**Neco:** "That is the big question, right? Who is Corvus? Corvus, is the son of Karne, who is the current leader of the Magistrate. Um, Karne being one of the original Paladins actually, so Corvus, uh, as he would say has the strength of will to what others can or will not do, in the name of the Magistrate and its ideals. So, he's known as the Magistrate's Blade, he's kind of, a tool to the Magistrate with a purpose, um, and I can give kind of just a little bit of his backstory in the- the quick and dirty um, in the teasers, plenty of people picked up on some of his history and what he's worked with and how he feels, uh, I don't wanna spoil too much, so, definitely go back and check those out. But like I said, I can give you a quick summary. Um, so, he- he uh, rose through the ranks of the Magistrate uh, by his own merit, worked with the Outer Tribunal judges for a time, um, the be- the beginning of his training where he kind of began to prove himself, um, we see that with a little bit of his interactions with Lex and Andro, um, they deal with criminals, but also the supernatural, and so in- in his time in the Outer Tribunal, he's comes across maybe some things that normal... normal people aren't supposed to see, maybe a little bit of Abyss stuff, a little bit of this and that and the other, a little bit of dangerous stuff. Um, for example, we see Andro get cursed, um, and turn- and turn into who he is now. Um, Corvus survived something- some things that most people could not, um, but he was kinda the linchpin, he received- he received a medal for it even when he uh, when he was working with the Outer Tribunal, and that's kind of why he started with- to work with... the supernatural and uh, the more you work with something, the more you're known as the guy who works with something, so he ends up getting picked a lot for kinda the- the- the weird tasks in the Magistrate that other people maybe didn't have the expertise to deal with, um, and that kind of, y'know, launches in his- his career, his existence uh, as um, kind of an- um, an uh Abyssal-themed existence, so to speak, um-

**Avialence:** "Yeah."

**Neco:** "-and his- his- his own kind of journey through the Magistrate to where he is now."

**Avialence:** "And it's- it's interesting, like, looking on that too, right, because essentially... Jacob, like, Corvus is a- a tool for the Magistrate with a purpose and he slowly like, starts to build out into his- his own world, right? That's kinda the- the baseline for him."

**SweetRedHoodie:** "Right. Yeah."

**Avialence:** "So, it's interesting to kinda play off that and see how it goes."

**SweetRedHoodie:** "Yeah, I- I think we get a- a big- a big show of that, the first time we see him is with the Rise of Furia, specifically the destruction of Seris-"

**Avialence:** "Right."

**SweetRedHoodie:** "-and this is, sometime in the future, after- after the Outer Tribunal when he's actually kind of found his footing, and that's what we start our cinematic with, for the... Corvus trailer. And that's a pretty important time for him because he's- that's a point where he has to start making decisions that other people don't want to make, and he has to decide if he's okay with these things or if he regrets doing these things or if he has to stick with them. And then fast forward to the current, we see this completely different character as a result of all these different little things that happened in his life already."

**Avialence:** "Absolutely, and, y'know, Corvus goes through one heck of a path, right?"

**SweetRedHoodie:** "Yeah."

**Avialence:** "I mean, we're- we're kinda going to touch on these, like you said, it kinda kicks off with the Corvus cinematic as a whole, y'know... Neco, kinda looking into this cinematic and building this up, obviously this was a starting point for us with Corvus and how we presented him to- to our audience uh, and our fans around the globe uh, of the Realm, right? What was it like, kind of, looking into that path and building it out from there?"

**Neco:** "So, it was- it was actually a really interesting experience, um, kind of, building the cinematic internally, um, working with the people we did and- and getting everything kind of, working together, y'know, the goal is that we get a sense of why Corvus exists, why he's here, why he's a playable champion, and then how better to do that than some of his relationships with some of the other characters in Realm. Um, so, you see a number of people uh, in the Corvus cinematic, and each of the characters kind of, shows a different facet of the Magistrate and why people might want to work with them, um, just like the Resistance, everyone is there for different reasons, but they're all allied behind the same banner, or at least shared banners between certain groups, right? So, for instance, Corvus will uh, still support the Magistrate, even though his father is not happy with him messing around with the Abyss, um, they're- the- the Resistance- the Magistrate in general is not particularly happy with him, um, and, but he still supports their goals and their ideals, even though they've kind of, y'know, distanced themselves from him."

**Avialence:** "Right."

**Neco:** "Uh, and then all the other characters are kind of also kind of specifically selected for different reasons, I'll go through a couple and then maybe Jacob, you can talk on a couple, but um, Vivian for example, is all about personal ambition, right? So that's why she's there, um, she just wants to get ahead, and she's gonna do... kinda what she needs to do um, to do that."

**Avialence:** "Yeah."

**Neco:** "Viktor, for example, um, slightly different than Vivian, is all about duty, so it's kind of surprising that he's following Corvus, but, y'know, orders are orders, and uh, that's- that's- that's kind of the way it is for him. Um, but what about uh, what about Strix and Tyra, Jacob?"

**SweetRedHoodie:** "Yeah, so, people actually had some questions about those, I thought Viktor was gonna be the surprising one to be working with him-"

**Avialence:** "Right?"

**SweetRedHoodie:** "-but for Strix- Strix, yeah, well, Strix is kind of the opposite of Viktor where, Viktor does what he's told, but Strix does his job, and he's still- he's still definitely working with the Magistrate, he is Magistrate, and remember, the Magistrate kind of doesn't like what Corvus is doing right now, so it would only naturally follow that Strix would also question that, and he wants to know what's going on behind the scenes. So when Tyra shows up, who wants the same thing, Tyra kind of represents the- the Resistance part of this, where as the rest of them are Magistrate with these different facets. Tyra and Strix have no bad blood together, they've worked together before in the past, and they both currently want to know what's happening with Corvus cuz it's bigger than just their sides, and a big takeaway on why we picked these two characters is to say, these two are willing to put- put aside the Resistance and Magistrate for the greater good of the Realm to find out what's going on, and Corvus is kind of the opposite of that, where he is really putting the Magistrate above the Realm, using his own sort of... mental gym- mental gymnastics-"

**Avialence:** "There you go."

**SweetRedHoodie:** "-or justification or whatever to, kind of reach the conclusion that he has reached. And that's a really big-"

**Avialence:** "Right, absolutely."

**SweetRedHoodie:** "-shift in perspective."

**Avialence:** "It's- it's always interesting to like, dive into that Corvus element too, I think that was one of the fun things that, y'know, was- I know it was cool for me to see in the cinematic after it- after it kinda came from the team, right? Was looking at all these different characters and how they kind of play, right? There's- there's always this assumption that our characters are relatively like, simple, when it comes to a lot of their- their downplays and stuff, I remember when we saw Strix and Trya, y'know, uh in the cinematic, everyone was like, whoa, my mind, like-"

**Neco:** "What's happening?"

**Avialence:** "-why would he be fighting this? Why would this be working? What is happening?"

**SweetRedHoodie:** "Yeah."

**Avialence:** "Um, but- but in reality, right, it's- it's a little bit more complex than that, y'know, playing- playing with all these different elements, and essentially it's- it's one of those things and you go, right, where you're gonna have a lot of characters that are gonna kind of, shift and- and move around and have their personal beliefs that may not necessarily align with what their bio says, right?"

**Neco:** "Right, I think- I think it's important to keep in mind that we're aiming for consistency within the greater band of like, who the character is and their beliefs, um, but uh, it's- it's unrealistic for us to, for example, update the um, specific details every single time something doesn't exactly line up um, with uh, for example the lore description, the bios you mentioned, cuz those were written kind of, as a description for the champion as they're released. As we do different things with them um, it's still within the core tenants of their beliefs of their- of their worldview, of their image of themselves, but there's a little bit of room to- to play around with, and I think we had fun doing that, and I'm glad to see so many people kind of engaged with that um, and hopefully will continue to engage with that as we do similar things in the future. Um, of course, he's also related to some other characters too, right? Not just- not just the ones we see in the cinematic."

**Avialence:** "Right."

**Neco:** "For example-"

**Avialence:** "There's a lot of different ones in there."

**Neco:** "Oh yeah. Um, for example, Seris and- and of course Raum. Um, maybe we see a little bit of Terminus, especially in his uh- his card art, and we'll, you know, we'll go over some of these- some of these in a minute or two. Um, but uh, y'know, these- these people we've talked about before, the members of the Magistrate, are definitely um, on his side of their own free will, y'know, he's charismatic despite his uh, his character flaws, but uh, yeah-"

**Avialence:** "Right."

**Neco:** "-what about- what about some of these other characters, Nick, or- or Jacob, what do you think?"

**Avialence:** "I- I mean personally I think it's fun to start touching on, y'know, Seris a bit, right? Cuz this is where it, like, his- his story essentially starts, right? Uh, and- and was a- a basic like defining moment for him. Jacob, do you kind of what to touch a little bit on what that idea of the defining moment was and how that started to build Corvus' character?"

**SweetRedHoodie:** "Sure, yeah, so, the whole thing with Seris if people aren't too familiar with that uh, with that event, that- Seris, the town, was pretty much destroyed, and it was once sort of a fount for the Abyss, and we see two characters come out of that, Seris, who- who was sacrificed by Corvus as far as we know, or as far as we've said, and Furia, who uh, was the sister of Seris before she was sacrificed, two more characters that- that have a lot to do with Corvus, and a big part of the Corvus side of that whole event was he had to make these decisions that most people probably wouldn't even want to consider making, and he had to decide to go through with them, decide if he was okay with them, decide if he has any regrets, and in some of the Corvus teasers, in some of the journal pages he wrote out, we get to see some... some of him... thinking through whether or not he was okay with those things, cuz at the end of the day, he's not really a good guy, we don't want him to think- we don't want people to think that he's a good guy, but we do want him to have very clear intentions, like, you don't have to agree with him to understand why he's doing what he's doing. I mean, there's a reason the Magistrate doesn't want to work with him anymore, he's- he's made some mistakes as well, and he's not evil evil, but he's definitely supposed to be sort of a villain type of character."

**Avialence:** "And he's doing what feels is necessary to him, right?"

**SweetRedHoodie:** "Right."

**Avialence:** "I mean that's the whole motif of Corvus, right, like, this is- this what he firmly believes is the right path forward, right?"

**SweetRedHoodie:** "Yeah."

**Avialence:** "I mean, speaking of that right path, lot of kind of mistakes along the way, right, so like, moving from that um, we've another champion that uh, that our- our boy Corvus brought into the Realm uh, you could say, Neco, a little bit of a Raum-page, uh-"

**Neco:** "A Raum-page through the Realm. \*laugh\*"

**Avialence:** "-y'know, coming into the Realm here, yeah I- listen- listen, I don't have my post-it notes around my monitor telling me to make all these puns, but I'm gonna make this one, right?"

**Neco:** "Alright, y'know what, I got- I got one for you too alright, so, the one that I was most proud of, most proud of, when Raum came out, was we were talking about how, y'know, um, he's not exactly a good guy, right? He's gotta sacrifice a few innocents uh, for the good of the Realm, y'know, and eh, y'know, a couple people are gonna die, but what are you gonna do? And I think he was- I- I forgot- it must've been- it must've been Adanas, right, I was talking to and I said, I had a moment of inspiration, I said "You gotta crack a few eggs to to make a Raum-lette", and I think that was the best thing I-"

* the others laugh\*

**Avialence:** "That's smooth, that's smooth."

**Neco:** "-had said in weeks; I'm still riding the high, I'm still riding the high. So, uh, but yeah, so Raum-"

**Avialence:** "That's a smooth Raum-lette, well done."

**Neco:** "-it's a smooth, thank you, thank you, thank you, uh, it was egg-cellent."

* the others laugh\*

**Neco:** "Um, but Raum essentially was Corvus' kind of, big mistake, it was- it was- it was a moment of weakness, y'know, so many- so many of the Magistrate's men and women had died already in this, y'know, this useless fight against the Resistance, their futile- their futile efforts kind of thing, and he was desperate because more and more peo- of his- of his men were dying, and he needed to fi- to figure out some way to, y'know, some way to stop the slaughter, so, there comes uh, there comes Seris the prophet kind of sneaking up and be like "Hey, y'know, you wanna- you wanna summon an Abyssal Lord? I'm sure that'll- that'll- that'll- sort 'em out real quick." Um, so, Seris kind of- kind of manipulated Corvus into summoning Raum to the Realm, and that's part of the reason why the Magistrate said he went too far, I mean, Seris was already- Seris the town, the events at Seris, was already kind of a step too far, but summoning a literal Abyssal Lord into the Realm was way too far. And uh, thankfully, uh, Tiberius, the Weapons Master, did kind of, use that- or found that to be his call to action um, where he- Tiberius is kind of vaguely aligned with the Resistance, or at least anti-Raum for sure, um, was kind of the one to clean up the mistake, not Corvus himself, right? So, Corvus wants to right his wrongs, but Tiberius has fought Raum to a standstill, although Raum is very much still kind of, present in the Realm. Corvus still believes in the Magistrate and his ideals regardless of if they believe in him anymore, um, which is his strength and his flaw, but it's kind of tough because he's, y'know, kind of left with kind of a, al- almost a core few people who still believe in him and his own strength pretty much. Um."

**Avialence:** "Right."

**Neco:** "Yeah."

**Avialence:** "And kind of building off of that too, right, I mean, there's- there's this idea too, Jacob, right, where you have, y'know, in Tiberius and Raum's story and how it kind of relates to fo- Corvus, like there's- there's a pretty substantial amount of time that kind of- that kind of passes in between that, right?"

**SweetRedHoodie:** "Yeah, that's- that's something I actually really like about Paladins is we're in- we're in a unique position where things can actually change in our world, when people come in and- and this isn't just something that happens, y'know, back to back to back, we saw Corvus in previous uh, in previous releases we saw him hinted throughout pretty much the- an early lifetime of Paladins until now, and we saw him go to the Shattered Desert where he was stopped by Atlas and the Resistance there. And that's kind of why he makes this hail mary move with Raum, and then post Raum and Tiberius, we see Corvus change a bit, he went from the southern most part of the continent, which is the Shattered Desert, all the way to the northern most point among the mountains at Crosswind Hold, and uh, and we kinda see he had to heal from Io shooting him, in the arm, and his hair grows out a little bit and things like that, but most importantly, he ends up at the Magistrate's Archives again, which we get to see now that he's kind of done his thing with it, and this is the point at which he becomes a champion rather than just being a player or a leader in the uh, whole conflict."

**Avialence:** "And that's- that's what's awesome to see, like, I- I think it was really fun, uh, you guys may have heard, for those of you listening or watching, uh, we did influencer kits this time around, right? With- with Corvus and kinda touching on a lot of these different elements which I know was, a lot of fun for us, here on the show, but also on the team, right, to kinda touch on a lot of these different places, but, y'know, Raum was one of those moments that we wanted to touch on in those pages of his journal, right, and like focusing on, how much of a turning point this was for him, where he kind of takes into his own hands, right, and decides like, I- if someone's gonna do it, it's gonna be me, right, and that- that's kind of where we see him when he ends up in the Realm after all this time has passed. And so, like, y'know, reaching that stalemate as you mentioned, Jacob, after all like, kind of, the time had passed between Tiberius and Raum and Corvus ha- having that realization, by the time we see him in the Realm, Neco, where is Corvus' head at, like where is he at, how is he feeling, y'know, what- what are we seeing when he first comes in and joins us in battle?"

**Neco:** "Y'know, so he at this point has dealt with some pretty wonky stuff, um, he sacrificed, y'know, sacrificed uh, a girl at the town of Seris, he summoned an Abyssal Lord to the Realm, all of this has been for the- for the good of the Realm in his mind, he wants to stop the conflict with the Resistance as soon as possible so that no more people have to die because he believes so firmly in the ideals of the Magistrate, um, but he has- he has been met with kind of, roadblock- resistance, so to speak, at every turning point, um, in his- in his journeys so far, so he is very much kind of, focused on this uh, the need to, at this point um, not only stem the tides so to speak of- of- of the consequences of his own mistakes, especially Raum, but to kind of enter the fight himself using whatever powers, whatever means he has, and make sure that things are done properly because apparently, the only way to do something is to do it yourself, uh, at this point for him. Um, in the past, something that he didn't really want to deal with, but at this point, like I said, he- he- he believes so firmly that something needs to be done, that he's taking up arms uh, to get it done right. And that is kinda scary because you don't, I mean, he's already gone far past what most people would- would be comfortable doing, uh, and you don't-"

**Avialence:** "Right."

**Neco:** "-know what he's willing to do at this point because it's so far gone in his mind."

**Avialence:** "Right, I mean we've- we've made- let's see, we've made a sacrifice, we've summoned an Abyssal Lord, we control Abyssal powers, I mean, what more could be on that list, right? \*laugh\* It's a lot."

**Neco:** "I mean, what more could be on that list? Who knows?"

**Avialence:** "I mean, those are the kind of questions that these gentlemen constantly answer for us, so uh, listen I'm just the guy that tweets about it on the internet, right, that's how it plays out for me. But no it's- it's cool seeing Corvus and kind of bringing it that full circle and, y'know, kind of building off of that and looking into him, um, y'know, this was something that we obviously wanted to kind of try to tell and build through- through those journal pages and through the various elements, I know we've got a great Corvus champion page if you guys haven't read it yet where you can read all the journals, um, y'know, the photos of those exist online I- shoutout to Jacob over there for his wonderful calligraphy, which I gotta ask, Jacob, calligraphy, like, how did you get into that, was it just something you picked up when you- cuz Jacob was the one that helped us write all the journal pages, what- what was that process like?"

**SweetRedHoodie:** "It- I guess it is, it was kind of something that I just sort of picked up, like doing art stuff- artists stuff, uh, I guess I've also been kind of into handwriting, so uh, I had the inks and things like that already. I- I really liked those, I loved that people would read into... the pages, and the ink, and the factor in mistakes on them, which are all very intentional, cuz this is Corvus writing in certain headspaces trying to... put down his thoughts and also sort of justify his actions, and some people read into like, certain words being crossed out and replaced with other words, and they're like "Was this a mistake? This seems intentional." Oh, it was very intentional, that is- that is Corvus in those sort of moments of weakness or strength based on how you look at it."

**Avialence:** "No, I love that- I love that, we- I remember like, we were working on those pages, Neco, and we were like, let's just put a strike through there, ooh that- that's neat, I like that, right? Build that character out a little bit, which is a lot of fun. Um, and, y'know, that- that's one of the things too, Neco, I know that you helped kind of tackle a lot of these- these journal pages and fleshing out Corvus as a whole, like, it's fun to note that, he does- he's not perfect or he's not stone set in one way, I mean there's a lot of back and forth in that buildup, which is really awesome for him as a character. What was it kinda like, y'know, fleshing that baseline out for him and- and kind of making him have those struggles, right, and kind of build back and forth into it?"

**Neco:** "Uh, I mean, it was fantastic, I think one of coolest things for me was kind of imagining myself um, in a similar position how would I feel, y'know, what kind of experiences or feelings would I be going through? I'm actually kind of sad that we didn't get an opportunity for even more, because I think the original drafts had actually... probably significantly m- longer set of journal pages uh, that we kinda had to pair down a little bit, um, but kind of, just the idea of how somebody who believes so fervently in what he believes in- in hi- in- in- in the ideals of- of some group was able to deal with um, ultimately traumatizing events, traumatizing not only for the people, y'know, for instance who he- happened to die because of his actions-"

**SweetRedHoodie:** "\*chuckles\*"

**Avialence:** "Right. Just maybe. \*laughs\*"

**Neco:** "-but also traumatizing for him, like- just maybe, y'know- y'know sorry, some people gotta die, but also for him because he had to make decisions that... nobody wants to make and does leave a lasting impression on- on him- on- as it would on anyone. Um, so, kind of, writing- writing that out was a bit of a challenge, but tempered a little bit by the fact that, y'know, this was kind of informal writing, it was a journal page so it doesn't need to be perfect, in fact, as Jacob touched on, the imperfections um, were actually an integral part to it, I thought it was really interesting couple reactions I saw to the creator content kits were like uh, "They didn't have any more- I guess they only bought enough parchment for first drafts or something"."

**Avialence:** "Yeah."

**Neco:** "They made mistakes. Um, but I- I- I thought that was really interesting, and I was happy to see people engaging with what if, y'know, what if was intentional? It totally was. But if it was intentional, what do they mean by it, what does this mean for Corvus, what kind of, y'know, what kind of actions or feelings or experiences was Corvus experiencing as he was- as he was "writing" them, um, which I thought was really cool."

**Avialence:** "It was intentional, stamp approved. Everyone stamp it."

**Neco:** "Approved!"

* everyone laughs\*

**Avialence:** "So, yeah, I mean, there's a lot of secrets behind Corvus and it was a lot of fun and it was, y'know, it's always interesting, like, I gotta say like, one of my favorite parts about working with you guys in the lore team in order to like tell the stories of these champions from a social media standpoint, right, is just seeing all the reactions, I know a lot of people are always like, man, I wonder if they're gonna rea- we read all of it, we talk about all of it all the time uh, it's so much fun like, to kinda go into those theories and stuff, and I know like, there's so many times where I like, I'm looking around and I'm like, looking through all the- the tweet deck and I'm like, oh, this guy- this guy's close, and then we'll like start talking about and like, he's pretty close, we wanna give this guy a medal. \*laugh\* Good times."

**SweetRedHoodie:** "I had to resist so many times just being like, you nailed it, this is exactly what we got, but gotta keep it quiet because he hasn't been released yet."

**Avialence:** "Right? Oh my gosh."

**Neco:** "Somebody replies to a tweet and they're- they ask you a direct question and you're like, I don't know, maybe you'll have to find out like, y'know."

**Avialence:** "\*laugh\* Yeah. You're- you're far too good at the "I don't know" speeches, it's very good."

**Neco:** "I don't know what it is, but, y'know, we're going with it."

**Avialence:** "I think it's all in the handwork, I think that's where it all lies-"

**Neco:** "Oh yeah, yeah, yeah."

**Avialence:** "-Neco. Ah, so good, yeah, I- I absolutely love that stuff, like with Corvus it was- it was super fun, I know we got to work on like a narrative campaign on social, which was a lot of fun to work with on you guys- with you guys on, uh, and move that forward and, y'know, kinda- kinda bringing this full circle right back into Corvus as a whole, um, y'know, Corvus, as many people started to pick up on, while we're doing those teasers, right, is someone that's been around for awhile, he's been a recurring character kind of in there, right, and like, looking into some of the secrets about Corvus and basically how we built him out over the years, y'know, what- what was kind of that first look at Corvus like, Neco, what- what did we kind of look at and- and kind of see him in, I mean, I know Jacob mentioned Rise of Furia, but was that kind of buildout looking like?"

**Neco:** "Yeah, so... One of the cool things about Corvus as a character is that he has been present for so long now and it's been really really cool and interesting seeing how the community has engaged with that. Um, his first version was not initially meant to be a recurring character, he was kind of just um, one of our artists really cool rendition of some Magistrate dude with a coat and a knife. Uh, but later glimpses of him were definitely intentional in a really cool way um, placing him in circumstances that would make him relevant to storylines. When we finally got an opportunity to kind of transform him into a playable champion, um, we kind of just ran with it so, he got um, snuck into some splash art long before his release, some people caught onto that uh, um- And, kind of from, not necessarily the first, but from subsequent um, sightings of him, so to speak, he was always a character, but like we said before, maybe not necessarily a champion. Uh, so he is the guy in the Atlas trailer for example, um, his quest for power led him to release something world destroying in Atlas' timeline. Uh, this timeline's a bit different, he's stopped by Atlas and the Resistance at uh, Shattered Desert, uh, he was looking for, y'know, some kind of power, that was his hail mary. Um, but he was thwarted."

**Avialence:** "Right. Atlas is like, one of those things too, whenever you're- whenever I hear the word "Atlas", I just immediately go into the timeline speech-"

**Neco:** "Oh yeah."

**Avialence:** "-where I'm like, oh no, where are we going, right, there's so many doors, there's so many mirrors."

**Neco:** "I don't want to talk about the timeline.(?)"

**Avialence:** "It's- it's actually pretty- pretty wild."

**Neco:** "So, I was gonna say- I was gonna say-"

**SweetRedHoodie:** "It's kind of funny."

**Neco:** "-how- sorry, Jacob, go ahead."

**SweetRedHoodie:** "Go ahead, go ahead."

**Neco:** "Okay, I was just gonna say briefly that uh, it's really really cool thinking about some of the things that go into the Atlas timeline versus our timeline, I don't really want to go too much into it explicitly, but uh, y'know, that's- that's all we'll say for now. That kinda thing."

**Avialence:** "Yeah, there you go, and you- you gotta do the maybe."

**Neco:** "Yeah, y'know."

* everyone laughs\*

**SweetRedHoodie:** "It is worth pointing out that in the Atlas timeline, he was going to the Shattered Desert anyway, and that was a hail mary, and because Atlas came back and stopped him, he then got tricked by Seris into- into summoning Raum. That's why he had that crack moment is, his hail mary failed, now he needs something beyond that and that was, a pretty big mistake that I think he- even he knows was a pretty big mistake that he made at that point."

**Avialence:** "I mean, I've read the journal page, guys, it seems like he knows. I don't- I could- I could be a little, but man, it seems like he's- he's a little upset about- about what he did there-"

**Neco:** "Maybe a little bit.(?)"

**Avialence:** "-maybe he should've done it himself the first time. \*laugh\* But what do I know, I'm not Corvus, right. Uh, and y'know, kinda- kinda going into that too and like, with Corvus, right, we have all these little secrets that are kind of spiced throughout, I am totally going to bring up that Atlas question once again, next episode, cuz I know people will kill me if I don't, we're gonna have to keep on that timeline life, but on Corvus too there's a lot of defining elements, right, I mean, the Outer Tribunal has been mentioned a few times, right, and- and looking at Corvus, are there any kind of like, easter eggs or hints you guys can give us about like, what we can see in-game on Corvus and what those might mean?"

**SweetRedHoodie:** "I mean, we try to put easter eggs on our characters and calling reference back to things like during his inspect you hear Seris' voice, obviously she's a big part of who he is, but Matt, the modeler for Corvus, who's actually, also a member of our lore team, he snuck in a modified Outer Tribunal symbol underneath Corvus' cloak on his back; I don't think you can usually see it in-game, but little details like that shows that hey, there's- there are other things in this world that still matter to him as well. So, if there's a way that you could see that, it's kind of a cool little easter egg snuck back there."

**Neco:** "Yeah. That's pretty cool."

**Avialence:** "That's so neat. I- I love the little things like that and maybe we can like post it or something on- on the- on the Twitter after this podcast airs or something, who knows? Just some, food for thought."

**Neco:** "I know a guy who uh, who tweets."

**Avialence:** "Do you? I can't imagine."

**Neco:** "Yeah, y'know."

**Avialence:** "I'm- I'm- I'm sure- I'm sure his schedule's free in the second half of the week-"

**Neco:** "Oh yeah, oh yeah."

**Avialence:** "-to tweet out some easter egg perchance."

**Neco:** "We'll see what we can do."

**Avialence:** "Uh, y'know, it- I- like- kind of like wrapping all that up, right, like, with Corvus, I gotta ask, right, we've talked about his lore, we've talked about his timeline, I know on the Update Show we've talked about him as a champion and kind of, what he builds into, but I wanted to ask you guys, what was your favorite element of his lore to work on, I think, Jacob, go ahead and start- start us off on this one-"

**SweetRedHoodie:** "Sure."

**Avialence:** "-what was your favorite part to work on with Corvus?"

**SweetRedHoodie:** "I- I think with Corvus, my favorite part of Corvus was bringing back all these old champions who have stories; there's tons of people who are big fans of Corvus and have always been big fans of Corvus, and as exciting for them to s- to finally get Corvus, but it's also nice with a champion that's so faceted, cuz of course with Tiberius and Raum they are simpler champions, they're not meant to be super faceted, they like to fight, whereas Corvus is such a lore heavy champion, being able to call back to all these things that people have been seeing us build up to in the past and having the payoff now, that was just, so much fun to work on and it was very exciting for us and hopefully for the audience as well."

**Avialence:** "Absolutely, touching on all those characters was really great, and that's what's fun, everyone's interconnected, right, way more than people think it is."

**SweetRedHoodie:** "Oh yeah."

**Avialence:** "What about you, Neco? What was your favorite element to work on-"

**Neco:** "So, for me it's- it's kind of a unique experience because part of my job as a game designer for Evil Mojo is, especially with new champions, I uh, have the opportunity to cast and write- cast a voice actor or actress and write the lines for the champion, so for me personally, I think my favorite was um, seeing his voice brought to life uh, based on the line I wrote and- and um, kind of, what I envisioned him sounding like, so shoutouts to, I think it- I believe it was uh, Ricco Fajardo, was the voice actor for Corvus-"

**Avialence:** "Yeah."

**Neco:** "-he did a fantastic job. But um, stop dying you fools! I think was one of my favorite-"

**Avialence:** "Yeah. \*laugh\*"

**Neco:** "-but I think for me- for me, sneaking in different um, fun tidbits of uh, lore, so maybe a little bit of military knowledge, y'know, I think uh, acknowledged was- was one of the lines that I wrote for okay, I think. Or fun jokes, I think a lot of people picked up on a couple of the fun jokes. Um, or-"

**Avialence:** "Yeah."

**Neco:** "-but especially some of the lore tidbits that we were able to mix in there, and then hearing- hearing the voice, uh, Ricco's voice, kind of bring the- the vision of the art team and- and Matt especially as a character modeler did a fantastic job, um, seeing him say things that made sense in the lore and have him look like he would say those things was hands down I think my favorite aspect of the- of the process."

**Avialence:** "That's so awesome. That is like, one thing I'm totally when- when we're out of this and back in the office, I'm gonna have to sneak in and listen to because, man, I-"

**SweetRedHoodie:** "It's really good."

**Avialence:** "-I love me some good voice acting and easter eggs and stuff, it's- it's so much fun. And, y'know, I- I- going off of that, I mean, we still have another couple minutes here and I- honestly, guys, I think it's about time for us to move over into some community questions to kind of, bring our first episode to a head here."

**SweetRedHoodie:** "Let's do it."

**Avialence:** "Um, so, y'know, moving on from that, moving in, good old Q and A, everyone's gotta do it!"

**Neco:** "Hell yeah."

**Avialence:** "So, as I mentioned at the beginning, guys, every podcast episode, we're going to put a tweet out, a Facebook post out, post across social media, and we're gonna pull your questions to answer on this show, so, always keep an eye out for those, like I said, we're doing these monthly. Um, but let's go ahead and kind of, hop into our first one. I'm going to immediately apologize for butchering names because it always happens, like, no matter how much time I rehearse, I always butcher a name, uh, and it- it's- it's just something else. So, our first question here is from BrokenGoddessIo uh, and the question is: what is Corvus' relationship with Terminus, Vivi- thank you. Terminus, Vivian, and- Cassie, excuse me, uh, does Vivian's secret plan include Corvus, is that maybe why she left the Magistrate to work with him and more importantly, will we be learning what Vivian's plans are in the near future? That's a solid question, I like that.

**Neco:** "Solid question."

**Avialence:** "Thank you, BrokenGoddess."

**Neco:** "BrokessGodessIo- BrokenGoddessIo. So, uh, I'll tackle the first part I guess. Corvus' relationship with Terminus, Vivian, and Cassie. Um, I'm not sure Corvus has too much of a relationship with Cassie, but definitely with Terminus and Vivian, uh, they- you see them working together- Terminus- Corvus holds some kind of power, sway over Terminus, uh, Terminus is able to be controlled, I'm not gonna give you explicitly like the mechanisms behind the magic, so to speak, but uh, Corvus is able to con-, kind of, control Terminus- Terminus from a- from a grand scheme of things, and Vivian, as we kind of mentioned earlier, is all about personal ambition uh, they've worked together in the past and Vivian sees it as an opportune moment to continue working with Corvus to further her own plans um, right now and maybe you can talk a little more about that, Jacob. Short term."

**SweetRedHoodie:** "Sure, yeah, I don't want to actually give too much away here either, but uh-"

**Neco:** "Good point."

**SweetRedHoodie:** "-yeah, well, Vivian's working with the Magistrate, she's not gonna give up that cushy job, she's in Deepwerks, probably kind of bored at this point if she's still sort of stuck there, so if Corvus says, hey, I got a thing, Vivian's gonna be like, yo, get me in on that thing, I'm here, I'm here anyway."

**Avialence:** "I'm ready."

**SweetRedHoodie:** "And \*laugh\* hopefully we get to see more of Vivian in the future. Uh, cuz there's a lot she can do in uh, the current conflict and any sort of conflict that could come up, especially now that she has this in with Corvus, we may see a bit more of her, but uh, I wanna keep that vague for now."

**Neco:** "We may, may we?"

**Avialence:** "Cool, no thank you guys."

* everyone shrugs, makes a noise, then laughs\*

**Avialence:** "I- it's our first episode and we already have the stamp and the dance and I just know we're gonna get memed on it and I'm so ready, I'm so ready, I expect- I expect gifs, I- I'm ready for it. Uh, so moving on from that, thank you, BrokenGoddessIo for- for submitting your question again, be sure to submit these questions online, we post our Q and A segment questionnaire so you guys can send stuff. Uh, this one's kind of a quick one, but I think it is a fun one to touch on, um, so let's go ahead and hop into this one, it's... Teonya4? I think? I- I'm sorry again if I butcher your name, um, but the question here is um, y'know, uh, basically kind of touching on what we already- what we already talked about, Neco, with is Corvus the one controlling Terminus and how exactly is he doing it, which I know you said you don't want to hop into a little bit, but uh- a little bit, uh, but, the follow up on this, are all purple crystals Abyssal, do crystal colors have meanings and or properties to them? I think that's a fun bit."

**Neco:** "That's a fun question. So, let's see, so, is Corvus the one controlling Terminus? Uh, uh, okay, TLDR, yes, but like I said before I- we're not gonna go into the mechanisms behind it, you don't want to, y'know, how exactly does the hyperdrive work?"

**SweetRedHoodie:** "It depends."

**Neco:** "Um, so, that's something that I think would be fun to touch on later, but I think right now it's- it's better that we don't go into the nitty gritty. Uh, are purple crystals Abyssal? So, this, from a personal worldbuilding standpoint, I think, kind of, separated slightly from Paladins in particular, I- I think consistency and theming is extremely important, so I'm gonna go ahead and say something along the lines of uh, not every purple crystal is explicitly Abyssal, but many crystals that also happen to be Abyssal in nature, are- are purple, if that makes sense, and-"

**Avialence:** "Yeah."

**Neco:** "-is that- does that- does that work with you guys too, Jacob? Does that make sense kind of?"

**SweetRedHoodie:** "Yeah, that makes sense."

**Avialence:** "Yeah, that makes sense, yeah, that makes sense in my head. I mean, it's- it's not all black and white, right?"

**Neco:** "Yeah, it's purple most of the time."

**SweetRedHoodie:** "You can definitely tell- you can tell that dagger has Abyssal energy beyond just being the color, like you can tell in it, so yeah, not all crystals are going to be- not all Abyss- not all purple crystals being Abyssal, makes a lot of sense."

**Avialence:** "Right?"

**SweetRedHoodie:** "But you should be able to tell when a crystal is an Abyssal crystal."

**Neco:** "Why is that crystal floating in the air?"

**Avialence:** "The- the Abyss is kind of obvious, y'know?"

**SweetRedHoodie:** "Right."

**Avialence:** "Yeah, I don't know, um, maybe there's some fishing line, y'know-"

**SweetRedHoodie:** "Seems suspect."

**Avialence:** "-we just fishing lined it up. Um, but, so yeah, there's- there's a lot with the crystals and it sounds like we're gonna get into some of that later down the road, so, very excited to kind of hop onto that. But uh, thank you again for you question on that one, and I think we're gonna go into our final question here, which is fro- oh my gosh, alright, we're gonna see how this goes. Um, every- everyone judge me on this one. So, it's Rimmy... TikiTiki5? I think it was-"

**Neco:** "I think- I'm gonna take a stab at it, alright-"

**Avialence:** "Alright."

**Neco:** "-we're uh, gonna go with RimTooteeTookee5."

**Avialence:** "See, that's better, you- you- yeah-"

**Neco:** "Approved!"

**Avialence:** "-that's better. I just, man. That's it, alright well, I- Rim, I'm sorry, uh I- thankfully Neco's here to help us out because I- I totally just butchered that. But, great question here and I- I think this will be our final one of the podcast. So, how did Corvus gain his Abyssal powers, did he take them for himself, or was it a gift from Seris who is trying to manipulate fate? Do we kinda want to touch on his powers first and then maybe go into some of the Seris on this one?"

**SweetRedHoodie:** "Yeah, I- I- I- that's actually a really good question because it's perfect for talking about Corvus lore, I think the big takeaway is that he, early on, had uh, run- run-ins with the Abyss and that kind of supernatural thing, and he obtained them by repeatedly bein the guy that has to deal with the Abyss, as well as research, I mean, he's in the Magistrate's Archives, that's kind of his- become his domain, so, if you constantly research and obsess over something, you're definitely going to become the expert when it comes to dealing with that thing, and then they're gonna send you in to deal with that thing and you'll become the expert even further, so, he gained his powers from just continuously working with it and sort of of his own merit, it wasn't really given to him, he earned that. And for... Seris-"

**Avialence:** "He's the one that uncovered it."

**SweetRedHoodie:** "Yeah, in a sense, yeah he- he's the- he's the Magis- he's kind of the e- the evil side of the Magistrate in a- if you think of it sort of that way."

**Avialence:** "Right."

**SweetRedHoodie:** "As for Seris, Neco, do you have uh, sorta answer on that?"

**Neco:** "Yeah, so, that's actually kind of a really interesting question to me. Um, so, the idea that Seris is larger than just the things that she's explicitly done in the Realm. Um, and I'll take this opportunity I think to address something that's been asked to me a couple times- asked of us a couple times, is um, Seris does not have the power to physically travel in time. Um, I think it's relatively safe to say, Jacob, you can agree or disagree- uh, y'know, back me up on this or n- not, but uh, I think it's relatively safe to say that Seris approaches um, reality with the ability to see past, present, and future, um, kind of as potentials, as threads, and she acts-"

**SweetRedHoodie:** "Yeah."

**Neco:** "-upon um, she acts upon maybe the most likely potential circumstances based on what seems most likely to her and try to guides it towards a path that she kinda wants. Um, so, Seris is always trying to manipulate fate, right, but she doesn't- she doesn't actually travel in time to do so, but you see some kind of really key linchpin moments, like for example, manipulation of Corvus into summoning Raum, and that's where she gains a lot of, kind of that, mysterious, she's everywhere, all the time kind of feeling, I think, if that makes sense."

**SweetRedHoodie:** "Yeah. I- I think it's also, you- you- you mentioned that maybe realize Corvus came before Seris showed up in the Realm-"

**Neco:** "Yes."

**SweetRedHoodie:** "-as a force, he definitely had some power before then, and Seris, when she came in, is just pushing stuff in kind of, directions and Raum was definitely her pushing really hard when Corvus was at his weakest."

**Neco:** "Yeah, so I think that's a good point actually-"

**Avialence:** "Taking advantage of that situation."

**Neco:** "-that uh, that Seris did not give him his powers, he did get them um, kind of of his own merit, yeah. Great question."

**Avialence:** "So, Corvus is a smart guy, is what you're telling me."

**Neco:** "Oh yeah."

**Avialence:** "He's a smart guy, and he learned a lot of this himself. There's a lot of books in the Magistrate's Archives, I- there's a lot of really fun stuff if you look on those tables, that's all I'm saying. We did just kind of remake that map, put some fun stuff on those tables. So, take a peek, let us know if you can see them."

**SweetRedHoodie:** "Oh yeah, speak of easter eggs."

**Avialence:** "But uh, yeah, we love easter eggs. \*laugh\* But awesome, thank you, guys, and thank you, Rim, for that question, really appreciate it. And that, guys, is actually kind of be it for us today. That kind of flew by, I just love hanging out and talking with everybody here, uh-"

**SweetRedHoodie:** "So much fun."

**Avialence:** "-and having a good time. But uh, y'know, our- our first podcast from home, thank you guys so much tuning in and hope you guys enjoyed it. Neco, Jacob, thank you guys so much for joining me today, and uh, for all of you guys in the Realm, we'll see you there, play some games, and uh, we'll see you on the next episode of the Evil Mojo Podcast. Take it easy, guys, thanks for watching."

**Neco:** "See you next time."

**SweetRedHoodie:** "Approved."

**Neco:** "\*laughs\*"

”

## Trivia

* Several things were mentioned in this episode that ultimately never became true or remained consistent.
	+ Episodes were planned to released monthly, which after the second, they never did.
	+ It was mentioned the developers wanted to be able to answer notable questions both at the time and in the future, though instead, most questions would receive vague non-answers.
	+ The mechanisms behind Corvus controlling Terminus was said to eventually be elaborated on, which it never was.
	+ Vivian was mentioned as potentially appearing more due to her connection with Corvus, which she never did and only made her next appearance as a small cameo in the "A Conflict Reignited" cinematic, one that Corvus was completely absent from.
	+ The modified Outer Tribunal symbol on Corvus' back was mentioned as potentially being tweeted out following the stream, which never happened.
	+ Corvus is constantly mentioned to not be a good guy, not outright evil, but more leaning towards that side, yet despite Corvus acting cocky and arrogant, is largely a good person who just so happens to use Abyssal energy and have a poor attitude at times, which leads to his various mistakes.

* This is the only standard episode of the Evil Mojo Podcast to feature SweetRedHoodie, with him only reappearing in the special podcast during Hi-Rez Showcase 2022.

**Hi-Rez Expo Streams**  •

**Who's Got the Mojo?**  •

**Evil Mojo Podcasts** **Evil Mojo Podcast Episode 1**

**Developer Q&As / Developer Insight** Developer Q&A #1

**Community Art Shows**  •