London Through the Eyes of a Wizard

Have you ever wondered how KingsIsle came up with all the location names that are in Marleybone? I had always wondered the same but that changed three years ago.  

I went on a big trip to London, England right after I finished questing through Marleybone.  Now are you wondering what London, England has to do with Marleybone?  It has to do with a lot of things.  While you probably already know that Marelybone is based off of modern Britain, there are plenty of specific references to real life places and structures that you might not be aware of.  For example: Hyde Park, Chelsea Court, Kensington Park, Newgate Prison, and more that will be shown below.

During my trip I was on a tour bus and walked around a lot with a tour guide.  The tour guide would tell everyone where we were and to a great surprise I would realize, "I know that name!"  Stop after stop, over and over again, I would hear the name of a place I recognized.  Not only was I not expecting it but was shocked to think that questing through Marleybone would help me with my trip.

KingsIsle based some locations in Marleybone from an area in London, England (a district in London called Marleybone); both incredibly remarkable and beautiful places.  Here are a few pictures of, both, the areas in Marleybone in game and the actual places in London, England.

Big Ben

Big Ben is a very well known and beautiful clock tower in London.

Barkingham Palace = Buckingham Palace

Buckingham Palace is one of the main workplaces for the British monarch.

Wolfminster Abbey = Westminster Abbey

Westminster Abbey is very big church in London.  It is one of the biggest churches and considered one of the best in the United Kingdom.  In fact, it was where Prince William married the lovely Catherine Middleton on April 29th, 2011 (a month after I travelled to London).

Scotland Yard

Scotland Yard is the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service.  In the 2000s, it was moved to a new and improved building.

Do you have any questions or comments?  Feel free to comment below!

Khrysalis (Part1), New Magic, Castle Tours and More!

Wizard101's newest update brings the new world of Khrysalis, available to players that have completed Azteca, Level 90+ and have completed the quest "Speaker for the Dead". Part One of this world has just hit the Live Realm, and Part Two is expected early next year.

After the PC's failure in Azteca, Morganthe has retreated to Khrysalis, the core of the Shadow Web to plan the destruction of the entire spiral. The Council of Light sends you off into the heart of the Shadow to help troubled civilians, weaken the Umbra Legion, and, most importantly, stop Morganthe once and for all.

Khrysalis brings a new level cap, Level 95, and an exciting world for players to adventure through. Additionally, there are more than a few smaller updates that players have frequently requested and are sure to enjoy.

In addition to the new world, each school gets an 8 Pip spell from the first quest of the new storyline:

The forbidden magic Morganthe has sought is known as Shadow Magic, which a resident of Khrysalis will teach to you! Thus far, there are 3 available spells, and each school will train one for free. They are very powerful, and can result in Backlash damage if the caster is unprepared... are you up for the challenge?

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Housing/Castle Tours

A new feature has arrived for housing; Castle Tours. Castle Tours allows you to place your houses (in categories) to Myrella Windspar's database for all the wizards in the spiral to view and Rate! Once your house is rated, you can view it on the leaderboard (Top 100). So what are you waiting for? Get Touring!

That's not the only update to Housing, when you visit someone elses house during a castle tour you can use the Housing Item Identifier, which allows you to view what a specific item is!

For the PvP community, new types of Tournaments are available! Instead of just the traditional, standard match, you can now choose between types of Tournaments with special circumstances.

Classic Tournaments:

No pets

No treasure cards

No amulets of any kind

Quick Match:

10 minute match

Increased damage each round

School Perk Tournaments:

Increased armor piercing

Bonus to spells of a certain school.

Gardening

As with every new update, KI have increased the Gardening Level to Rank 16 and given us some new spells. To access these spells, you will need to speak to Zaltanna the MirrorMask after completing the quest "Uneasy Allies" in the Last Wood.

Quest Finder

Wonder what quest you should do next?  If you click Quest Finder (last page in your quest journal), your quest arrow will point you to the nearest available quest!  It locates the nearest quest by the world you are in.  If the world you are in does not have any available quests, you'll have to move to another one.

Quest Finder is off by default so you will manually have to go to your Options Panel and turn it on.

Also, check out the new Bee Dance Emote!