A Useless Pile of Bones… Or is it?
As with many things in The Red Village world, the Mystic Bones aren’t exactly what they seem.
Inside her eyes there burns a hatred,
A fierce desire to scorch the earth,
She lurks within the village gated,
Fuelled by evil since her birth.
The blood rains from her mantled crown,
It stains the blackness of her teeth,
It pools beneath her ornate gown,
Then colours the ground beneath.
The Darklands surrounding The Red Village press ever inward upon its heavy gates. As there is evil within the Village, so there is evil encircling it. Terrors of the night awaken and snake between giant oak trees, unmoved for thousands of years. Unease and distrust spread in the townships beyond the Forgotten Forest; small misgivings turn into bloody arguments, minor grievances lead to broken allegiances. Friends turn against friends. Sightings abound of broken bodies impaled on rusted spikes, cautioning travellers of an unknown peril waiting for them on the Royal Roads. Dread is rife. In this environment of fear and horror, the Blood Queen calls Mystic Champions from across the world to her side.
How will the Mystic Bones drop work?
In the wake of huge demand, The Red Village team ran two whitelist raffles for the Mystic drop; a public whitelist raffle with 500 spaces available for the public (100 of which were used for giveaways and promotional activity), and a Blood Portal holder specific whitelist, with 1,500 spaces available. The public raffle was oversubscribed by about 14x, and, showing their faith in the project, almost all Blood Portal holders entered their wallets in the other, Blood Portal holder specific, raffle. The demand for violence is certainly high.
Both raffles will be drawn on-chain, using Chainlink Verifiable Random Function (VRF), the same as the first drop in November. Mystic Champions will also be distributed using Chainlink VRF, to remove all human fingerprint in their distribution. It is important to note that Mystic Bones are again an ERC-1155 token, so can be batch-minted to save on Gas. It is also a highly optimised contract which generally needs less Gas to begin with (more on that later).
The Mystic Bones drop will go live in two sections:
- The Pre-sale (for all whitelist raffle winners) will commence at 4PM ET, Monday 24th January, 2022. It will run for 24hours, during which raffle winners will be able to mint ONE Mystic Bones per winning raffle entry.
- The Public sale (for everyone else) will commence at 4PM ET, Tuesday 25th January, 2022. There will be 3,965 Mystic Bones available (35 are being kept for promotional use), plus whatever is unsold from the pre-sale. The public sale will run until sold out — though a reminder, that only took 11 minutes for the Blood Portal public sale in November.
And what do Mystic Bones do, exactly?
Growing up on a diet of RuneScape, 56k internet, and Pop Tarts, The Red Village team (and maybe its community) has learned to expect the unexpected, both in gaming, and in life. The Mystic Bones are our homage to the greats. A useless pile of bones, you may remember, from RuneScape…Or were they?
Mystic Bones are powerful and enchanted relics; they symbolise a fallen Champion and carry with them its spirit. Whilst every Mystic Bones minted will give rise to ONE Mystic Champion, their utility won’t stop there. The Red Village team are collectors at heart, fascinated by relics of bygone eras and gaming lore. The enduring power of the legendary Easter egg is always front of mind. But more importantly, let’s just say for now that Mystic Bones will want a home, a resting place. They’ll need to return to the cold ground, laid at peace at last; ashes to ashes, dust to dust.
Only those who hold Mystic Bones or a Blood Portal will be able to give them the burial they deserve.
For anyone just joining The Red Village, read on for an overview of the game, to get an understanding of how the Blood Portal drop worked, and to learn about our plans for the rest of 2022.
A recap of the bloodshed in 2021
2021 was the breakout year for The Red Village. While the founding team were building in stealth since early in 2021, they did not announce the project to the rest of the world until November. After launching socials in November, The Red Village quickly came to dominate the blockchain P2E gaming space. The first ever dark-fantasy game on the blockchain, TRV fills a void severely lacking in the space; where traditional games like Diablo, The Witcher, and Skyrim sell tens of millions of copies and drive the industry forward, there has historically been very little catering to a mature gaming audience for the blockchain crowd. Until now.
Announcing partnerships with giant blockchain projects including The Sandbox, ZED RUN, Metakey, and BYOPills and the full service blockchain development team, Pellar, The Red Village showed that it means business. After selling out their 5,000 strong Blood Portal drop on November 18 in an astonishing 11 minutes at a price of 0.1ETH, the project has gone from strength to strength. Genesis Champions, which were airdropped to Blood Portal holders, have seen sales as high as 7ETH, and there has been over 1400 ETH traded in secondary. The project was verified on OpenSea only 12 hours after launch.
Without paying for fans and without an army of bots descending on other discord channels waving TRV flags, The Red Village twitter has grown organically to over 13,000 followers. There are nearly 10,000 in the discord, which is active, engaged, and truly committed to the Village vision. Battlemasters, as community members holding Champions are known, are absolutely ready for blood.
How did the Blood Portal drop work?
While The Red Village game itself utilises the Polygon network to drastically reduce gas fees and improve transaction times, the first drop for The Red Village was done with an ERC-1155 token on the Ethereum network. Using Ethereum meant the least amount of friction for new entrants to the space, and was an easy-to-navigate way for the community to begin their journey toward the Village gates. It also provided a bridge for the traditional gaming community to enter the unfamiliar terrain of the blockchain.
These first-ever TRV tokens are known as Blood Portals. From every Blood Portal a Genesis Champion emerged (airdropped to its holder); vicious, savage, and ready for battle.
It is important to remember, however, that this was but the first bit of value to be bestowed upon Blood Portal holders; these tokens will continue to provide their owners access, privilege, and utility in perpetuity.
And suffice to say that there’s much more to come on that very soon for the lucky Blood Portal army…
And what about Tournaments?
The Red Village game is scheduled to go live on the 31st January, 2022. Tournaments are at the heart of The Red Village experience; this article provides a run down of individual Champion fighting styles, and this article will give a full breakdown of Tournament mode and what to expect from future gameplay in The Red Village.
All in all, while 2021 was undoubtedly big for blockchain gaming, and huge for The Red Village, it will pale in comparison to what’s in store for 2022.
Be ready, Battlemaster, or be dead.
January is here, and blood is upon us.
