Lemuria Sneak Peek | Wizard101 - Swordroll's Blog

Wizard101 released a new sneak peek at RazerCon of their upcoming world: Lemuria! There's a bunch of footage to look at in this preview, so let's break some of it down and see what it tells us about the upcoming world!

Behind Closed Doors

Zander gives us some of our first insights into Lemuria, telling us that it's just a fable to explain the existence of primates in both Zafaria and Monquista. The Old One isn't convinced, saying that Lemuria might be an invention, but it isn't a fable. He describes it as a "stolen world." Bartleby claims that there is no world of lemurs, but there was an island, now long gone. Now all that's left is "a trail of discordant notes."

Stallion Quartermane is a character who worked with and was fooled by the Old One into leading him to victims. Victims, as he writes in his journal, of a "world-rending squid." When the Old One was found out, he trapped Quartermane and planned to use him (or create copies) in his new world of Lemuria. Stallion Quartermane is quite an old adventurer, having been around when Marleybone had no rooftops.

Once we've rescued Quartermane, we find our way back to the Arcanum, where he explains that the electrified Cabal door is the office of the Old One from before the Schism. And it's where we'll find Lemuria! That's where the pre-quests end and the sneak peek begins.

The Jungle

Lemuria seems to be, predictably, a world of lemurs, so it makes sense that there are a lot of jungle areas. Lemurs are native only to the island of Madagascar, so that is likely some of the inspiration for the world. We see in some of the images some ancient ruins, rivers, and bridges. We see a group of tropical bears and some Lemurs who look to be making a sacrifice to a nearby volcano.

One thing that stands out really quickly is how similar these areas look to others already in the game. They'll be new area models, but it looks like we're getting a lot of reused textures. Much of Lemuria's jungle is made of Celestia's textures and models. Some of the interior jungles with Sabertooth tigers roaming around look like Azteca.

Canyons and Cliffs

Not all of Lemuria is lush and green. We've got several canyon areas that are quite a bit dryer. These locations look a lot like a combination of Zafaria, Khrysalis, and Mirage. The interesting thing here is that we're getting our first T-Rex enemy. While it's a new enemy to fight, this is likely an alteration of the existing T-Rex mount. The only other world in the Spiral that has dinosaurs is Azteca. Exactly what time period are we operating in with Lemuria?

Into the Future

We get a little further away from answering that question with the next set of images. We seem to be in some sort of futuristic sky city with a silver rocket and modern buildings. Is this world some sort of time-traveling adventure? And yet we see more lemurs in the city, so it's all one world of vastly different environments and time periods.

On top of this city, we've got some pretty futuristic interiors including some robotic eye monsters which we saw in the pre-quests. We know that the Old One made these monsters. These could all theoretically be a part of the city we're looking at, though the lab matches the one in the pre-quest that we visit in Polaris. Something interesting is definitely happening here.

The Old One

Perhaps the common thread here is the Old One. Given his name, he's undoubtedly lived through a number of different time periods, right? The Old One was a major part of the Karamelle story, and he seems to be a big part of the Lemuria story too, both from what we've seen in the pre-quests already in the game and this preview. At first, I thought we were seeing a bunch of different cutscenes of the Old One in different scenarios, but it seems that these are all spells. That isn't surprising given that past world trailers have integrated spells into their previews also.

Although the images of the Old One in the lab do have an ice symbol on the monitor and could thus be the ice spell, I also wonder if any of these might actually be cutscenes or elements of the story. We've seen labs like this already in the pre-quests.

It's worth noting, however, that the spells seem to span different time periods and showcase different styles too. Given that our new spells are usually themed around the world with which they're released, it makes sense that these spells would be a reflection of Lemuria.

The individual who seems to be the Old One in the Lemuria pre-quests is actually The Nothing, distantly connected to the Old One - whether that's the version of himself that could retain his own memories before the paradoxes and cavities of Karamelle, or a different being entirely. Their thoughts seem to be merged. They may be one and the same. What happens if The Nothing realizes what he once was, or what he was trying to do? There's a big of foreshadowing to this split in the backstory between the Old One and Stallion Quartermane.

Bartleby talked about thievery of entire parts of the Spiral and forces more ancient than himself. We discover in the pre-quests that the Old One stole pieces of different worlds and mashed them together into his own. That explains why some of the locations look similar to what we've seen before. The lab in Polaris explains why we see bears wearing tropical outfits on the island. The Nothing, or the Old One, or whoever this guy is seems to have one goal - to save Lemuria. That was apparently the Old One's last wish.

A Matter of Time

Lemuria seems to be quite an eclectic mix of environments, and also an amalgamation of textures and assets from other worlds. Thematically, it makes sense. And it leaves the door pretty wide open for what exactly could take place in this new world. I'm personally really excited, as arc 3 was made up entirely of worlds that we had heard of before and had some idea about. Lemuria is such an odd mix of locations and so unknown with such an interesting backstory that I can't wait to see what they do with it. Check out the full clip here!