SpellForce

SpellForce is a combination Real-time strategy and RPG game created by German game developers Phenomic.

The original game SpellForce: The Order of Dawn was followed by two expansions: SpellForce: The Breath of Winter (2004) and SpellForce: Shadow of the Phoenix (2005).

SpellForce (Gold Edition) includes the first two games in the series, while SpellForce (Platinum Edition) includes all three games. SpellForce: Universe includes all three of the SpellForce games as well as both the sequel games.

A sequel, SpellForce 2: Shadow Wars was released in 2006 and Spellforce 2: Dragon Storm was released in 2007.

In 2010 JoWooD Entertainment will release a second expansion called Spellforce 2: Faith in Destiny.

Gameplay
SpellForce focuses on the RPG elements of controlling an avatar, and on many levels the RTS elements of leading an army as well. The player begins by creating a hero, called an avatar, and then selecting which character properties they want their avatar to begin with. Besides the storyline, there are also plenty of side-quests, that when successfully completed, usually grant experience and/or item rewards.

The Circle
The Circle was a grouping of the 13 most powerful mages from the corners of the world, that gathered together to explore and study magic. During their studies together they vastly expanded their already considerable powers, and learned to master the Allfire (known as Archfire in SpellForce2). This act granted the Circle Mages immortality.

In their lust for power, they came across a book left by the old gods that taught about a ritual known as the Convocation.

The Convocation
SpellForce - The Order of Dawn, begins a few years after the Convocation. The Convocation was a ritual that would supposedly grant immense power. It had to be done when the will of Aonir the star god was momentarily broken, weakening the bonds on the elements. The circle mage's hoped to take advantage of this by taking the power of the elements for themselves but only one could do it and before long they were fighting each other the elements raged shattering the lands and leaving them scattered and broken. The only parts of the world that survived the Convocation, were those that were protected by magical towers that held the power of Aonir-the Star God.

Runes
The Circle Mages needed vast armies that would be loyal and could be gathered quickly,This is when they had the idea of the runewarriors. The runewarriors were fighters and mages whose souls were trapped in stones their masters could summon them forth to do their will any deaths would be meaningless as they could be brought back even after death because they had the gift of immortality. With these stones the mages could form armies quickly and easily sending them forth in unhaltable tides they would serve their masters for eternity had it not been for the convocation.

Story of The Order of Dawn
The story starts with the retired Circle servant Tahira, who reluctantly agrees to help a soldier find her lost companions and complete their objective, to find a powerful Runestone believed to be in the hands of the local orc tribe.

she battle the orcs with the aid of the runewarriors and claims the runestone, and rescues the missing soldiers, and hands over the Runestone to them who, unbeknownst to her, were serving Rohen Tahir, the last known surviving Circle Mage.

Rohen arrives, and takes the Runestone, he sets of to the shadow pass near greyfell and finds an altar there he summons the Runewarrior, who is both the protagonist, and the player's avatar in the game. He gives the RuneWarrior his own Runestone, thereby freeing him from his slavery, he tells the runewarrior that he has held what is left of the world together and that the "circle is closing and these lands need a protector" and asks him to follow a messenger to the nearby town of greyfell where orders will be awaiting him. He then leaves the avatar and travels to the Wildland Pass, after receiving news that "creatures of black steel" are breaking through. The last thing Rohen says is "so it has begun"

The scout leads the avatar into an ambush from another, unknown mage. After freezing the avatar in ice, the mage talks about how Rohen is walking into a trap and refers to him as an "old fool", and tells the scout to kill the Runewarrior, and deliver a magically sealed casket which contains plans for an invasion before leaving. The messenger however fails to kill the Runewarrior, and the Runewarrior begins his quest to save Rohen from his fate.

The Runewarrior has many adventures along the way, but eventually he meets up with Rohen before any harm has come to him, however, Rohen, surprised to learn that another Circle Mage has survived, gives the player a book about the Convocation and tells him to find hockans legacy and that it is the only thing that is powerful enough to stop a Circle Mage. Rohen then unlocks the casket, only to find it was empty suddenly the circle mage appears and freezes them both, the unknown Circle Mage kills Rohen and tells the avatar to return to the Order of the Dawn and tell them that "the time of dawn had past the time of war has begun".

The avatar returns to the Order, and then begins his quest for the Phoenix Stone. Lead by the undead ghost of Hokan Ashir, a Necromancer of the Circle, whom the player gives the Mask of Belial in return which he takes half of from korshar and the other from a wizard the player resues, the avatar eventually finds this powerful artifact in the ruins of Mulandir.

The avatar is about to return with the Stone to the Order of the Dawn, when in an attempt to help the avatar, the army of the Order attacks the army of the iron ones and breaches the barricade lines. The orders army however is left in ruins in the process. The avatar uses this opportunity and pushes onwards towards the Circle Mage.

He however walks into a trap, and has the Phoenix Stone stolen from him along with the book of the convocation. He continues his desperate pursuit of the Circle Mage, eventually fighting his way to the Circle Mage, who at last is revealed to be none other than a young version of Rohen himself, intent on attempting the Convocation again, sure that this time it will work for him. Rohen thanks the avatar for his hard work, and then, using the power of the Phoenix Stone, walks into a time-gate, that sends Rohen back into the past, years before the Convocation. We see an illustration of how time passes, with Rohen growing to be his mature self again, and we see him just before the Convocation, muttering to himself how his younger self, about to perform the Convocation, doesn't know what he is doing, and how he himself was a fool, which still refers to his younger version. after seeing the cutscene the player is taken back to the main menu and can start a new game with a different character if they want.

Story of Breath of Winter
In the Wake of the world, when the elven people where young, a great and powerful dragon named Aryn, the Frostweaver, is about to freeze the whole world. Suffering the bitterness and loneliness of his existence he brings frost to everywhere he seeks for a partner. Only Cenwen, the elven queen, stands against Aryn, and warms his heart with her singing. Aryn grants his gift to the ice-elven people, in return taking Cenwen with him forever, weaving a protecting Glacier around them.

The player starts with a completely new avatar in the Swamps of Urgash. Summoned and freed by Grim and Lena, two sub-leaders of a refugee group, the avatar is to find and bring back Dunhan and Reowys, two other runewarriors who lead the group shortly before. After many adventures, the avatar manages to recover the runes and bring Dunhan and Reowys back to the refugees under his order.

Then Grim reveals a plan to attack the ice-elf city in order to bring Cenwen back to Aryn, for the ice-elves want to bring ice all over the world through making Aryn search for his partner. The Attack is successful, but Grim does not free Cenwen, who is not in the city at all, but frees a Fial Darg, a prince of Darkness, and leads an invasion army into the land of the ice-elves. Lena and the avatar realize that they have been fooled by Grim, and that they have to save at least the refugees from the dark elven Red Empire. They manage to bring the humans to the Capitol of the ice-elves.

Here, Lena and the avatar hear about the plot of the Fial Darg: He wants to use the blood of Cenwen, a firstborn, to bring back the dark gods, Zarach and Nor, onto the world. The avatar has to seek out for the only weapon that can stop a Fial Darg, the shadow sword. But to stop the Fial Darg and save the world, the avatar has to pay an enormous price: the sword transforms its wielder into a shadow, invisible strangers from outside the world, mysterious and hidden before the normal eye.

The avatar ignores this price and finds the shadow sword, then he kills the Fial Darg (who in return kills Lena) and brings Cenwen back to Aryn, who return to the Glacier and bring peace to the world.