The object of the game is really quite simple ...be the last player standing when all your rivals have died or conceded. This is usually the person sitting upon the Great Throne but players have won the game without ever making it to the Throne. In one game, a player won because two other players were fighting to-the-death in the Great Throne and they killed each other in an exchange of blows leaving one lone rival to become ruler.

The game is played out as a grand adventure with no two games even remotely alike making it infinitely re-playable. You should expect a full length, 6-player game to last 3, possibly 4, multi-hour game sessions. Keep in mind that this is a relaxed board game allowing players to really stop and consider their options, their opportunites and how to best use their supplies and abilities to deal with an ever changing environment. In other words, don't rush yourself or other players. Just relax and enjoy the adventure.

This chapter will present a brief history of the Kingdom, bringing it up to current events, and a general overview of what you'll need to do to become ruler of the Kingdom. You could skip the history by just hopping to 1.2 - The Quest "To Be King", if you like, but it's a quick read and will provide a good deal of context for things to come.

King Karson is dead. He'd been ruling for a couple hundred years and, although the later part of his reign wasn't a particularly proactive one, he was well liked and it was quiet. Now that he's gone, several factions (known as clans) have started vying for power and various creatures, with no one on the throne to stop them, have begun roaming freely causing great concern among the populace. So, it's time for a new king or queen to take over and rule the land before things get out of hand.

More than a couple centuries ago, Karson and the wizards, Zerox and Spigo, were the best of friends. Karson was a natural leader from the beginning and, supported by the powerful arcane abilities of his friends, became the hero of the people and began the greatest reign in the Kingdom's history.

After a few decades, Karson met the fair maiden Laurica and immediately fell in love. Their relationship was glorious and many tales and songs were written about their fairy tale romance. Karson built a magnificent palace for Laurica standing on the summit of Breene Island. It's said that on a clear day, one can see the entire Kingdom.

Karson, Zerox, Spigo and now Laurica spent a good deal of time with each other, traveling around and coming up with ideas of how to improve the kingdom and its people. It was during this time that Spigo was secretly becoming infatuated with the beautiful Laurica. At first, he was able to keep his feelings in check but they eventually became so strong that he finally revealed to Laurica how he felt. Surprisingly, she had feelings towards him as well and they started an affair. It didn't take long before Karson became aware of the affair creating a terrible rift in the friendships of all four.

Zerox backed off and stayed out of it realizing his interference would cause more harm than good but watched closely from afar in case his abilities were needed to keep friends from destroying each other. Spigo threatened to keep Laurica in her palace on Breene Island while Karson was threatening to invade the palace with as big a force as he could muster just to get her back. Zerox was terrified that a war was brewing and was desperately trying to come up with some sort of diplomatic compromise that would prevent it. But, as it turned out, he didn't need to.

Before the situation could become totally insane, Laurica suddenly fell ill and passed away. All attempts to save her failed. It was believed that she was so ridden with guilt over the pain she had help caused, she simply couldn't bear it.

Stricken with grief, Karson returned to the Great Throne and spent his days lamenting his loss and simply running the routine affair of taking care of business without joy or hopes for the future. His death is somewhat mysterious and there are those who believe he may have just withered away in lonely sadness.

Spigo's grief had a much more profound effect. Being a wizard, he began practicing the dark arts in some mad attempt to somehow resurrect Laurica. His experiments opened dangerous portals and brought forth evil creatures best left sleeping as well as Mutts; creatures Spigo made by mixing and matching various species of animal together.

It had become clear to Zerox that Spigo had gone mad and there was no telling how dangerous and destructive he could become. Although it greatly pained Zerox to do this to a lifelong friend, he had to stop him. Through a long ritual that nearly killed him, Zerox managed to strip Spigo's ability to access most of the arcane plane of magic depriving him of only the most basic magical abilities and spells ...he essentially turned Spigo into little more than a magician and illusionist.

Still, in the midst of his madness, Spigo managed to develop a cult of followers and he now resides in Laurica's palace surrounded by all manner of beings that protect him and the palace.

With Spigo gone mad and Karson now dead, it was up to Zerox to decide who would be the next ruler. He could probably just take over the throne and the people would be just fine with him being king as they held the great wizard in high honor. But, he's simply not interested in ruling the Kingdom, he's far to busy studying the arcane arts. It's enough for him to watch from afar and only interfere if the safety of the Kingdom is at stake.

However, it was quite important for Zerox to come up with some challenge that would weed out the lesser mortals and develop a group of people worthy of the throne and then let them work out who should be the ultimate ruler of the land. Thus, he developed the Quest for the Relics; the basis behind the object of the game.

This section will give you an idea of the various tasks you'll have to accomplish to be successful in your quest. Some of these are merely suggestions but you should give them serious consideration nonetheless. The links will take you to the relevant section of the rules for details, but for now, you may just wish to read through this section without hopping around too much.

You will start as a representative of one of six major clans, who will provide financial backing, and you'll begin your journey in the Southern region of Mariah Island known as the Mariah Lowlands.

This region is the most populated and least dangerous area of the Kingdom. The merchants are always open and all are represented ...although, depending on the map configuration, some may only have one shop while others may have 2 locations. So, the first order of business you may want to concern yourself with is scoring some supplies.

Some important items you may consider is a bladed weapon (Blacksmith) and a woodworkers kit (Market). These items will allow you to build things like rafts and bridges. Add a roll of canvas (Mariah Dock) and you can build a boat. If your clan was generous and gave you some serious cash to start with, or you find some gold and/or gems while exploring, you could buy a boat (Mariah Dock) and secure it at the dock for when you need it. Keep in mind that you don't have to consider these things right now but, once you get your quest, you are most likely going to need a boat to get to Breene Island.

To get your quest, you are going to have to visit Zerox the Kingmaker. He lives in the Mariah Midlands; a small area just north of the Lowlands.

The Midlands are much less populated by normal folk making it somewhat more dangerous. There's plenty of ways of getting into the Midlands with the most direct being the Guardian.

He has a power and psychic of 8 so you may wish to build your character up a bit before confronting him or find an alternative like building a raft to paddle across the channel, if you have the proper equipment. However you get across, you will need to see Zerox.

He will give you your quest and that will be to find a specific relic in Laurica's Palace at the summit of Breene Island. Once you have your quest, you'll make your way to the southern coast of Mariah and sail the Waterway to the other island (this is where you'll need a boat). This journey may pass quickly or slowly depending on the wind which changes every round.

Breene island is basically a massive mountain rising from the ocean with Laurica's Palace at its summit. It's sorta like the wild west out here, ugly encounters are many and the merchants are few ...not to mention, more expensive. Your speed of travel may be greatly hindered by the weather, which is constantly changing as depicted by the weather plaque in the middle of the main Kingdom map.

  

To make matters worse, unlike Mariah Island, which gives you freedom to choose your direction of travel, Breene Island must be traveled up or down a singular path with Breeneport at one end and the Palace Grounds at the other. You may find some shortcuts along the way but mostly it's just a matter of trudging up the path, in bad weather, till you get there.

Eventually, you'll make it to the Palace Grounds at the center of the island.

The palace consists of 12 rooms with many of the doors locked. The layout of the rooms will be different with each map configuration file. You will have to search the rooms, one by one, until you find the relic you seek. Once you've found it, you can throw it into your inventory and head back to Zerox.

You can either go back the way you came, by taking the path back down to the Breene coast, sailing back to Mariah and making your way to Zerox, or, if you found a Catacombs Doorway in the palace, you can take an alternate route through the Catacombs.

The Catacombs is a labyrinth of tunnels that was built by the dwarves centuries ago. They are extremely hazardous to travel through. Not only will you likely encounter dangerous events, but the rooms rotate randomly causing doors to appear and disappear from one round to the next. If you successfully get through the tunnels and corridors, you'll make your way to the Mariah Gateway.

From there, you'll teleport back to Mariah Island. Once you've made your way back to Zerox and given him the relic he's asked for, he will give you the Knowledge of the Mystic Realm (KotMR), which will allow you to enter the room with the Great Throne. Now that you have the KotMR, you must make your way through the Wastelands.

As the name implies, there's not much out here so you may actually have a fairly quick and uneventful journey. You'll need the respite as you must then pass through the Mystic Realm to get to the throne.

It's a small region but it may be the most dangerous of them all. If you manage to get to the Great Throne, you'll be declared Regent of the Kingdom and the throne will grant you special abilities to collect more equipment, launch adverse events onto your rivals or even teleport out to them to cause as much damage as you can in an attack, then quickly teleport back.

The only way to stop you now is for a rival to enter the throne room and fight you in a confrontation to-the-death. If you have the KotMR and you're the last player standing when all your rivals have died or conceded, you will be declared king or queen and ruler of all the Kingdom.