Era of Magic (EoMa) 4.8.2 - now on Ko-fi!

[bvanevery]

Regarding Nomolas:

Spoiler:

Ok, I'm getting zero synergy on "Mehir falls," so clearly it suffers from a few flaws:

• it's my idea, not someone else's
• Others think it would be painful to implement

Sometimes too many cooks spoil the broth, so I'm not going to worry about it for now. Instead I'd like to worry about something that really is important: Nomolas. His character is pretty much fundamental to the Abyss. In the early part of "To Lands Unknown" he is introduced pretty much as the Abyss. Failure to decide what Nomolas is about, is failure to decide what a campaign about the Abyss is about.

In contrast, Rashti's character is already defined. As long as Rashti's character isn't violated at the start of the story, she doesn't pose a problem. She could transition to something else, if there's some theme that's best served through the vehicle of Rashti. You know I have my doubts about the "takeover" or "inversion" themes. I just don't think the Summoners are dumb enough to move somewhere where they automatically become powerless. If the Summoners lose their power, it has to take time.

I personally think that Mehir should have to deal with madness. If the environment of the Abyss drives humans mad, then Mehir is the best human to portray that. Nobody else has had enough screen time to have any impact.

A few ideas have been put forth for Nomolas:

• Nomolas the bad guy. Personally I don't like it. It's cliched and doesn't say anything cosmologically interesting.
• Nomolas the bored guy.
• Nomolas the insane guy. It begs definitions of sanity, particularly for super-powerful beings.
• Nomolas the ineffable. Personally this is how I feel he was originally portrayed and what one would expect from a super-powerful jinn who can accomplish nearly anything by snapping his fingers. Why should he remotely care what petty humans ask him to do? Compare the Organians from STTOS.

Fundamental question: Nomolas [is | is not] a source of antagonism? Personally I prefer "is not," which implies antagonism must come from somewhere else. Could be another being (remember the Great Efreet), could be the environment (a colonization story).

[inferno8]

Spoiler:

Fundamental question: Nomolas [is | is not] a source of antagonism?

No, he's not. If there is antagonism in the Abyss it comes from the "red part" of that dimension (the Red Abyss), which is something like a balance (ying & yang; creation & destruction). Being an ineffable being, Nomolas is a mix of these two powers/ideologies. That makes him a perfectly neutral being but still obedient.

You know I have my doubts about the "takeover" or "inversion" themes. I just don't think the Summoners are dumb enough to move somewhere where they automatically become powerless.

I must agree with you. Let's forget about my old, not well though-out ideas.

If the Summoners lose their power, it has to take time.

By loosing power I would mean loosing mind. Also, we should remember that Summoners' power comes from the Abyss. They can summon creatures from there, but since they have moved to that world, their magical circles no longer work. Elders knew about this fact, but it wasn't a problem for them because they were planning to use jinns (especially Nomolas) to control the Abyss after their arrival.

I personally think that Mehir should have to deal with madness. If the environment of the Abyss drives humans mad, then Mehir is the best human to portray that

I agree with you. This should be the best direction to go. But we need to decide how Mehir is going to deal with the madness. I think the only way is to escape from the Abyss back to Earth. Of course we can invent something else, if you want.

Yesterday I finished a single scenario showing Mehir and his troops falling in the Abyss. I just wanted to check whether the game engine can handle this and I must say, I am impressed! Here's the .zip archive with this mini-campaign:

Abyssinia.zip (Mediafire)

Extract the content to your add-ons directory (it works only on 1.9.x!).

Working on this as a base, we can make a falling scenario or two. I am thinking about a plot like this:
Mehir and his troops land on Al-Kamija, but it is only an illusion created by magi, who came before him. When the floor disappears, everybody starts falling down. Mehir discovers that his magical circle doesn't work in the Abyss. He needs to rely on his troops, especially jinns (Rashti is confused and cannot speak at the beginning). A jinn is required to create a stable surface. Mehir orders one of his jinns to make a floor, but because of strong winds his voice can't be heard, so he needs to catch one in mid-air and tell him this order right into his ear. Eventually he manages to do this (which was a difficult task because of those strong winds changing direction of his moves). After landing on the newly created floor, Rashti regains her consciousness. She lost it due to her new form (she left the Abyss as Rashti and returned as True Rashti) but the Abyss accepted this change. Now Summoners under Mehir's command need to find Al-Kamija, which is going to be a real challenge in the world with no directions...

What do you think?

[bvanevery]

The Abyss (anyone notice the Section commands don't work now?)

Spoiler:

Also, we should remember that Summoners' power comes from the Abyss. They can summon creatures from there, but since they have moved to that world, their magical circles no longer work.

Why not work at all? Why not work differently or haphazardly? Let's pretend the power of the Abyss is like a lake. If you run a pipe out of the lake, into the open air, water may or may not flow. It will flow if you put the exit of the pipe lower than the level of the lake, even if the pipe goes up above the lake for awhile. Of course, you have to apply suction to get it started. If you put the pipe exit in the same lake, nothing happens. If you put a pipe exit underwater, in a different lake, something does happen: the water level between the 2 lakes will be even. I realize that magic doesn't have to be analogous to physics, but circles are clearly based on bringing "something from there to here." Whether it works or not depends on what "there" is and what "here" is. By this reasoning I might not expect to summon anything near me in the Abyss, but I might expect to summon something far away, or something on the other side of a natural barrier such as a massive energy flow.

Elders knew about this fact, but it wasn't a problem for them because they were planning to use jinns (especially Nomolas) to control the Abyss after their arrival.

How do Elders control jinns? Or are they just lucky that jinns do what they are asked? That would seem to make jinns rather political, as an Elder could ask them to do one thing, and a commoner could ask them to do something completely different. On Earth, the commoner didn't have the power to summon a jinn, but here they don't need to. Taken to its logical conclusion, it would democratize and possibly destroy the Summoner society.

Yesterday I finished a single scenario showing Mehir and his troops falling in the Abyss. I just wanted to check whether the game engine can handle this and I must say, I am impressed! Here's the .zip archive with this mini-campaign:

That's really windy! Very convincing.

Mehir and his troops land on Al-Kamija, but it is only an illusion created by magi, who came before him.

By "Magi" do you mean Summoners or Enlightened Ones? Why would the Enlightened Ones bother to trick Mehir, when they could just point him at the real Al-Kamija? As far as the Enlightened Ones are concerned, Summoners are incapable of returning. If the Enlightened Ones had intended to trick the Summoners into their deaths, they could have accomplished that in far more ways than bothering to open a portal to the Abyss. The most obvious thing would have been to wait in the sky boat, until Mehir's circumstances are most dire, then swoop down and grab the 1/2 Sun Ray for themselves. Or murder them on the way back to Sky City. I think "it's a trick" very much changes the motives of Guru, and not for the betterment of the story.

When the floor disappears, everybody starts falling down.

I prefer that they materialize just out of reach of the real Al-Kamija. Oops. Almost everything else is still the same. They are falling, although someone at Al-Kamija may see them start falling and try to do something about it. In fact, that could be where Mehir gets a jinn. It's not a given that Mehir entered the Abyss with a jinn; in fact there's a pretty good chance that Mehir's troops got killed at Sun Dome.

I had thought that to make them fall next to Al-Kamija, all you need is a big map with Al-Kamija on the right hand side, an area of open air to the left, and a force that pushes them back and down at the end of every turn, away from Al-Kamija. In this manner the castle itself doesn't have to scroll. Once Mehir exits off the bottom of the map, you can go to a different map that doesn't have Al-Kamija on it.

Smacking into solid surfaces at high velocity doesn't sound like a good idea to me. If you want to "write some people out," you could have them smack into the side of Al-Kamija and die in a big splat. Then the challenge is to keep oneself away from Al-Kamija because it's not safe to land. The unconscious Rashti could smack into Al-Kamija and put a big crack in it. She doesn't die but she's out of the story for several scenarios.

I think the jinn needs to impart an ability to float more gracefully, somehow. Creating a floor and smacking into it doesn't make a lot of sense. The region of the Abyss needs to become "more gentle" after a time.

[bigkahuna]

Abyss

Spoiler:

About the Magi being in the Abyss:

At the end of TLU, the Guru says, "Now we are safe... forever..." meaning he "disposed" of the summoners, so there were no more threats to their society. So, why would they follow Mehir into the Abyss? Doesn't make much sense.

About trying to get to Al-Kamija -

The summoners teleported their ENTIRE COUNTRY to the Abyss; meaning the four cities and EVERYTHING in between. Since Mehir was waaaaaaaaay on the other side of their world, when HE got taken to the Abyss, he would be hundreds of miles away from Al-Kamija, unless of course distance is different within the Abyss.

[bvanevery]

Oh Abyss Tree, Oh Abyss Tree,

Spoiler:

About the Magi being in the Abyss:

At the end of TLU, the Guru says, "Now we are safe... forever..." meaning he "disposed" of the summoners, so there were no more threats to their society. So, why would they follow Mehir into the Abyss? Doesn't make much sense.

The Magi would have gone in before Mehir, probably when Mehir was off acquiring the Sun Ray. The Magi construct an illusory Al-Kamija in the Abyss, right next to their portal, to convince Mehir and company to go through. Did the Magi come back? The answer would seem to be "yes." Guru fished Aerius out of the Red Abyss at least, so coming back is possible. The Magi (arrogantly?) believe the Summoners can't come back, that they don't know how. I still don't like this illusion storyline though. It's an awful lot of trouble compared to creating an illusory gangplank on the sky boat and letting Mehir fall to his doom.

About trying to get to Al-Kamija -

The summoners teleported their ENTIRE COUNTRY to the Abyss; meaning the four cities and EVERYTHING in between. Since Mehir was waaaaaaaaay on the other side of their world, when HE got taken to the Abyss, he would be hundreds of miles away from Al-Kamija, unless of course distance is different within the Abyss.

I presume that the Enlightened Ones have a way of opening a portal to the Abyss anywhere they want. However, that doesn't mean such an opening has to be accurate within feet or inches! If you step into empty space 10 yards from the top tier of Al-Kamija, you're falling straight down. In fact it makes perfect sense if you look at the artwork of Al-Kamija as seen through the portal. It doesn't look like it's right on the tower balcony, or that you're stepping into the throne room, it looks like you're seeing the top tiers from a slight distance. The Enlightened Ones probably didn't think too hard about it, as they're used to living in the clouds and have various magics to deal with those sorts of problems. Even if somebody did think about it, they probably figured "close enough" and the Summoners would extricate themselves somehow.

If the entire country was teleported into the Abyss, doesn't that imply that pieces of the entire country are falling somewhere? Also that if there is anything solid floating in the Abyss, there will be impact craters from pieces of the country hitting it. If there are whorls or eddies in the Abyss where particulates become trapped in a movement cycle, then we may see 'Katamari Damacy' type blobs of accumulated stuff. Might even have a hapless lizard or cyclops or two.

What parts of the country don't fall? Al-Kamija doesn't fall; anything else? What about the magical lines of the circle? Additionally, why doesn't Al-Kamija fall? What's the technique?

[inferno8]

Spoiler:

I realize that magic doesn't have to be analogous to physics, but circles are clearly based on bringing "something from there to here." Whether it works or not depends on what "there" is and what "here" is. By this reasoning I might not expect to summon anything near me in the Abyss, but I might expect to summon something far away, or something on the other side of a natural barrier such as a massive energy flow.

It may work that way, although in my original concept a magical circle is a gate between two worlds (not between the same location in a one world). If it is a big problem, let's forget about it and make summoning possible in the Abyss.

How do Elders control jinns? Or are they just lucky that jinns do what they are asked?

Elders control jinns like Summoners do. Of course we are talking about summoned, human shaped jinns. In the Summoners society only Elders and Leaders of Trinity (Mehir, Malib and Sharif) have the right to control jinns. These magical beings take orders only from these people and cannot be controlled by commoners.

By "Magi" do you mean Summoners or Enlightened Ones?

I mean Enlightened ones. You're right. Another not well-thought out idea...

I had thought that to make them fall next to Al-Kamija, all you need is a big map with Al-Kamija on the right hand side, an area of open air to the left, and a force that pushes them back and down at the end of every turn, away from Al-Kamija. In this manner the castle itself doesn't have to scroll.

Big maps with animations like these consume huge amounts of system resources. Because of this fact I can't make a big map, but I like the idea of having the castle falling down with Mehir and his troops. I need to run some tests. Maybe I'll succeed in creating a good composition of scenery.

If the entire country was teleported into the Abyss, doesn't that imply that pieces of the entire country are falling somewhere?

No, the whole country is falling in one direction.

What parts of the country don't fall? Al-Kamija doesn't fall; anything else? What about the magical lines of the circle? Additionally, why doesn't Al-Kamija fall? What's the technique?

At the beginning Al-Kamija could fall down, but Nomolas would stop it (he has the power to do this).

Creating a floor and smacking into it doesn't make a lot of sense.

Sooner or later they will have to stop falling and put their feet on a stable ground. Falling down for a few scenarios can quickly become boring. Also, I have some ideas for scenarios, that would take place in strange palace-like structures created by jinns and affected by the Abyss.

[bvanevery]

Abs(y)

Spoiler:

Elders control jinns like Summoners do. Of course we are talking about summoned, human shaped jinns. In the Summoners society only Elders and Leaders of Trinity (Mehir, Malib and Sharif) have the right to control jinns. These magical beings take orders only from these people and cannot be controlled by commoners.

But how do Elders and Summoners control jinns? How does it relate to making circles?

Big maps with animations like these consume huge amounts of system resources. Because of this fact I can't make a big map,

On what kind of system have you actually seen a performance impact? I've been playing on a 2GB RAM system for 3 years and have never seen any performance impact, even on the largest add-on maps with the most ridiculous numbers of troops. I do see some slowing down when the combat is complicated. I could counteract it to some degree with "skip AI moves" if I really wanted to, but it's no big deal. There are some user tweakable Display settings if you're really worried about these problems.

If the entire country was teleported into the Abyss, doesn't that imply that pieces of the entire country are falling somewhere?

No, the whole country is falling in one direction.

The whole country might stay intact if it were falling in a vacuum, but the Abyss doesn't seem to be a vacuum. It seems to have energy, torrents, and flows. This would tend to break the country up as it falls. Otherwise being in the Abyss would be like being on Earth, only everything is blue. That doesn't sound like a very interesting Abyss.

At the beginning Al-Kamija could fall down, but Nomolas would stop it (he has the power to do this).

How easy is it to use Nomolas' power? Nobody ever used his power to solve anything in "To Lands Unknown," where for instance it might have helped a great deal during the invasion of Mag-Magar, or for the completion of the Great Circle. I'm just trying to understand when Mehir and company start falling, why Nomolas isn't used to save them.

Creating a floor and smacking into it doesn't make a lot of sense.

Sooner or later they will have to stop falling and put their feet on a stable ground. Falling down for a few scenarios can quickly become boring.

I agree that they need to stop falling. I'm saying that the way their fall is stopped should not be catastrophic.

[wesfreak]

Spoiler:

In the terrain artist add-on, terrain is created from a blank, canvas terrain by the unit that passes over it. (with only leaders being able to create castle). Created terrain can no longer be changed. Maybe this could be how abyss scenarios work? A human, jinn or magical creature could use the energies of the abyss to create their preferred terrain. The fluff explanation for non-magic users being able to do this would be that magic is much easier to do within the abyss, because the entire dimension is made of magical energy. Entire levels don't need to be like this though: there could be already created terrain (such as Al Kamija and land made by Jinns), with spots of empty abyss. Although, if this is the case, then the idea of the Abyss would have to change from an always falling dimension to a pure energy dimension.

[bvanevery]

Abdominal System

Spoiler:

In the terrain artist add-on, terrain is created from a blank, canvas terrain by the unit that passes over it. (with only leaders being able to create castle).

It's a game mechanical idea, but I would ask how it serves story. I don't see any necessity in off-the-shelf avant garde game mechanics, such as available in this add-on, because I can code and I'd just code up whatever was ultimately wanted. That is, presuming I get sufficiently involved in the campaign's development. I already came to the conclusion that I'm not sufficiently motivated to run off and create a campaign about Mehir and the Abyss on my own, or I would have coughed out "falling and summoning stuff" already. I need the synergy of working with others to pull my interest along, that's how it stays entertaining for me. I saw that "my ideas" about the game mechanics weren't resonating, precisely because they're "my ideas" and not someone else's, so they were perceived as a bit of a groaner. An off-the-shelf game mechanic probably sounds like less of a groaner, but to me it's more of a groaner in terms of devising a coherent story, which I see as the point of working on Era of Magic stuff. So, I decided to stop worrying about game mechanics, and instead push people along about story, because I think game mechanics will become clearer once the story is more known. Things like Nomolas do / did need to get pinned down; I figure it is best to tackle the "low hanging fruit" of what needs to be done, rather than worry about importing game mechanics modules that may or may not be useful. If we happened to devise a strong story that never needed new game mechanics to explain it, I wouldn't be opposed to that.

I have imagined that the Abyss is full of energy and whorls. An angry, windy place, where things do fall down, but some pockets of energy are so strong that things fall up. I imagine that the Abyss is like an ocean, and colonizing it is rather much like surviving an ocean. Occasionally there are islands, environmental respites from the chaotic conditions of movement. An "island" doesn't have to be solid, it could just be a place where the conditions of circulation are milder and more stable than elsewhere. In the real world we live on one of those actually, it's not an accident that we're at the edge of the Milky Way galaxy. The center of our galaxy is quite a bit more violent.

A sci-fi person might ask if things are usually falling in the Abyss, what are they falling towards? What gives gravity its orientation?

Another analogy might be, the Abyss is like the surface of the Sun, if you didn't die from it, and it wasn't particularly hot.

[bvanevery]

The Story Arc

Spoiler:

We've talked about the environment and the physics of this place. We know that Nomolas is ineffable, that he's not going to be the source of conflict for the story. We need to decide what the major story arc of the campaign is going to be, so that we remember what we're supposed to be dealing with, and not get sidetracked by other concerns.

We agree that Mehir is going to go mad, and that his madness will represent the plight of the Summoners in general. Perhaps other Summoners have already gone mad and now it's Mehir's turn to face the problem. Whether Mehir experiences isolated madness, group madness, or societal madness is important.

Isolated madness might be like Tom Hanks in Cast Away. "Chuck" crashes a FedEx plane on a deserted island and is the only survivor. He faces survival problems and tries to escape, but it's a hugely daunting problem that takes a long time to solve, and the loneliness tests his sanity. He partially deals with it by inventing a friend, a volleyball named "Wilson." He nearly commits suicide but instead takes his chances with a raft. He loses Wilson while making his escape and it's emotionally devastating to him, like he's lost a real friend. When Chuck makes it back to civilization it's very difficult for him to re-integrate, because his wife has remarried and so forth.

For group madness, compare many sci-fi episodes, too many to count, although as usual I'll point out a STTOS episode, The Naked Time. Oddly enough you can watch any STTOS episode in full nowadays, either on the Star Trek website or the CBS website if some episode is missing. So if you're too young to know what I'm talking about, you can rectify that. Hmm they've got ads, so they're not doing it out of the generosity of their hearts, or just to promote the modern Star Trek (2009) movie. Anyways, in this episode the crew contracts a virus that lowers their inhibitions. This gives all the actors a chance to act, to flesh out their characters. Plot-wise, the crew goes through the usual problem of not knowing what's going on. Their aberrant behavior puts the ship's orbit in dire peril and the clock starts ticking to their doom. Not everyone is affected yet, so the sane members of the crew try to cure the madness before everyone goes mad. The doctor succeeds and everyone is inoculated, although it's the usual nail-biter ending. I guess plot-wise that's pretty simple and not comparable to what we'd do. STTOS of course had to wrap everything up in ~50 minutes, so there's only so much to it.

Societal madness would be a society that has devolved into something psychologically unhealthy, for whatever historical reason. STTOS The Return of the Archons is an example. A computer controls everyone's brain on the planet, leading to robotic, calm, emotionally blissful behavior most of the time, and wild violent orgiastic "Festivals" at periodic intervals. STTOS For the World Is Hollow and I have Touched the Sky is another example. A civilization is living inside a hollow asteroid and doesn't know it. A computer prevents them from understanding the true nature of their environment, on pain of death. STTOS The Way To Eden may also be relevant. Space hippies live in rebellion of Federation political priorities, and seek the Garden of Eden to live peaceful lives. Unfortunately their guru, despite a highly principled world view, really is crazy. Although the crew of the Enterprise assisted in finding the "Eden" planet, they hijack the Enterprise, steal a shuttle, and nearly kill everyone on board the Enterprise to make their escape. The "Eden" planet they land on is filled with acid grass and other violent botanicals. Most of the hippies die, in particular their leader, who is so determined to believe in Eden that he swallows poison fruit. All of these "societal madness" stories have an underlying notion that "the leaders in charge are crazy."

Another major concern is how many characters with some depth and character arcs will we have. In "To Lands Unknown" it's really only Rashti. Mehir gets promotions but his character doesn't change much in the course of it. When I first started contributing dialogue, I started to try to shoehorn a "more serious" take on Mehir's character, and an arc, but soon realized that the tone of the story was essentially comedic. It's also heavily weighted towards "introducing the world," like the Great Circle, the Abyss, the Dark Elves, etc. Mehir starts to go through a character conflict about betraying the Kharosians vs. reaching the Abyss, but it is not dealt with or resolved in the campaign. So Mehir as a complex character is pretty flat, although he is funny, and has a defined personality.

"To Lands Unknown" is primarily plot driven, not character driven. For Mehir to experience madness, we may have to deal with his character. It may be possible to deal with "madness" in more generic terms, but it may lack psychological punch. Also, unless Mehir goes mad alone on a deserted island, other characters will be affected by his madness. This implies that they should have at least a minor amount of development, so that we can see the difference between what's sane and what's mad.

[inferno8]

Spoiler:

Whether Mehir experiences isolated madness, group madness, or societal madness is important.

I think Mehir should experience all these types of madness during his visit in the Abyss, although I'm afraid we don't have enough scenarios to show this (this is going to be a mini-campaign of 1-2 scenarios at the end of each campaign). But it would be interesting to show Mehir facing a group madness in the first part of the story, then meeting him as a loner, who got lost inside strange buildings created by jinns and finally seeing him finding Al-Kamija full of crazy people and leaders, who experienced societal madness.

"To Lands Unknown" is primarily plot driven, not character driven. For Mehir to experience madness, we may have to deal with his character. It may be possible to deal with "madness" in more generic terms, but it may lack psychological punch. Also, unless Mehir goes mad alone on a deserted island, other characters will be affected by his madness. This implies that they should have at least a minor amount of development, so that we can see the difference between what's sane and what's mad.

I agree with you. In this mini-campaign we have the chance to develop Mehir's character and we should definitely make use of it.

Regarding your earlier questions about the Abyss and related things: don't ask me. I'd like to see your interpretations. Let's say I'm giving you a free hand. Create your own Abyss, fill all plot holes you'll find with your own ideas and in the end write a story for the first two or more scenarios. If it is good enough, I'll accept it and give it official status.

[bvanevery]

Regarding length:

Spoiler:

I think Mehir should experience all these types of madness during his visit in the Abyss, although I'm afraid we don't have enough scenarios to show this (this is going to be a mini-campaign of 1-2 scenarios at the end of each campaign).

In this mini-campaign we have the chance to develop Mehir's character and we should definitely make use of it.

I don't understand what you mean by a "mini-campaign." Are you saying you personally want to work on 5 different campaigns at once, such as what's happening to The Enlightened Ones, the Kharosians, the Barbarians, the Darkblooded, and the Dark Elves? Although that might maximize your personal artistic output, it would minimize that of others, as nobody would really be able to stay in sync with you. Working on 5 things also carries the significant risk that you won't finish any of them. I don't know how you personally feel about this, but I don't like to work on things "just for the exercise." I like to see them shipped and actually played by people.

Are you saying you want to work on 1 thing that's extremely short? Are you saying you don't want to do as much work as you did for "To Lands Unknown?" I really don't get it. From a story standpoint, 2 scenarios is nothing. I don't know of any campaign in Wesnoth that's that brief, and still calls itself a complete work. Please explain what you're trying to do, or not do.

[inferno8]

Spoiler:

I'm going to make a short campaign (6-9 scenarios) about Mehir's adventures in the Abyss, then divide it into 3 parts (2-3 scenarios) and put these parts at the end of the 2nd, 3rd and 4th campaign about different races.

[bvanevery]

Regarding format:

Spoiler:

I'm going to make a short campaign (6-9 scenarios) about Mehir's adventures in the Abyss, then divide it into 3 parts (2-3 scenarios) and put these parts at the end of the 2nd, 3rd and 4th campaign about different races.

This doesn't make sense to me as a storytelling format. It makes chop suey out of the continuity of the campaign, as there will be large gaps of time before the player sees all the material. People don't necessarily play 3 campaigns in a row, as they have real life to deal with and so forth. They may try out other campaigns in between, not in the Era of Magic. Furthermore you can't guarantee the order in which the campaigns are played. The player might experience the end, the beginning, then the middle of Mehir's story in the Abyss.

If you already had 3 campaigns completed, that people were already playing, then it might make sense to extend them. As it stands, you're talking about postponing a story about Mehir as long as possible. I'm going to decline to work on that. As I said, I believe in finishing things. I'm happy to have contributed the conceptual material that I have so far.

Also, from a gameplay standpoint, having my carefully leveled army of Darkblooded / Barbarians / Dark Elves removed from play, then being handed Mehir, is not satisfying. Not unless I get my army back. It may be better to inject stories about Mehir in the middle of a campaign, if you're very determined to try out this storytelling format.

Also, "ending" a campaign, then following it with something rather short that's very different and over quickly, is going to be anti-climactic. An interruption during the campaign is less risky but still could be a problem. You might just slow down the pace of the story, providing an unwanted distraction, or you might create some suspense if the main campaign is left at a cliffhanger. Still, it's a strange interruption unless Mehir's actions actually have something to do with what's occurring in the main campaign. It almost sounds like you're trying to sell more boxes of cereal: special prize inside each and every box!

Do you have any particular campaign already in progress? Are you determined to finish it before working on more campaigns? Focus is pretty much a precondition of me working with someone. Otherwise I'm better off on my own.

[inferno8]

Spoiler:

This doesn't make sense to me as a storytelling format.

In this situation I think the best option would be to make another campaign about Summoners (something like TLU 2 with a similar number of scenarios - about 20 or less). If we decide to go that way, we will need to tell this story only after the 2nd campaign is released (because I don't want to make two campaigns about one faction one after another).

Do you have any particular campaign already in progress?

Yes, I am working on a campaign about Tharis but it's in early stage (creating events and places). Currently all the work is on hold due to my exams in January.

Are you determined to finish it before working on more campaigns?

Yes, I think. It should be ready next year.