I wrote this in 2017 but never finished. Thanks to Dave Hayden for looking at the final draft.
by Michel "Jace" Venne
Does Jonas Cooke still matter?
I have been away from the United States for almost 5 years (Or more, I am not keeping track, you are) and I have been meeting different people from across the globe. Occasionally I tell stories about this cool thing called LARP or roleplay. Sometimes I have to explain in detail what these experiences are like. Yet why when I think back to my short-ish time in the Realms to tell my stories, I think back to the villains that defined the conflicts which were inevitably encountered during quests.
During my time in the Realms, there were only a few great overall antagonists which my player character Squire Jace Moonshadow of Eagle’s Rook, had the (dis)pleasure of interacting with. In order of my initial encounters; first was the Shadowking Jonas Cook and his Shades, second was the immeasurable force of Bedlam, third are the Metal Lords of Grimloch, fourth are the Forces of Hell, after which there are a smattering of other monster-of-the-week baddies. Also let's not forget Lord Voldemort :). Of these big baddies mentioned, the only two villains which were relevant during my time in Realms was with Jonas Cooke and Bedlam. Both quest lines were at their respective penultimate moments and I got to experience both of them during my first event, Feast of Chimeron 2013.
With regards to Bedlam, I received, what I would kindly call, an information overload for the two days of the event that followed. Details about Bedlam’s vast and storied past which frankly still does not make 100% sense to me to this day but was impressive nonetheless. It was all everyone was talking about both positive and negative. I never really had a passion for this quest line though because my personal investment, both as a player and a PC, was in support of my new friends and allies and not the actual threat itself. There was no time where I felt personally attacked by Bedlam because it was consuming everything, irrespective of who or what it was.
So that leaves Jonas Cook. Why then does some dude stick in my mind more than Metal Lords, Voldemort, Forces of Hell, or even Bedlam? The short answer is that I had more space to think critically about how Jonas Cooke the villain affects me personally as a PC and a player.
Back in 2014 I wrote a small op-ed on Jonas Cooke (which you can find here). In it, I lay out what kind of character Jonas Cooke is portrayed as, how well-developed as a PC and NPC the character is, and how many players/PC’s can fall into similar traps of insecurities and laziness. Here I want to focus more on the questline, also better known as Shades Plot, which gave the depth to the character.
From my own Shades Plot experiences, I attended Feast of Chimeron 2013, Folkestone Questing 2013 and 2014, plus I NPC’ed for an unofficial event as a roaming Shade Squad. I partied up with Eagle’s Rook during Feast of Chimeron 2013 with the intention of just having a fun time when I came to realize that Eagle’s Rook and Blackwood were at war with Jonas Cooke. Eagle’s Rook had declared the war against Jonas Cooke due to a mind scalping attack on Balthazar at Fern’s Grove. So, while I was absolutely frontloaded with a conflict already in play, there were online resources which were easily accessible to learn and stay up-to-date on the major plot points (linked here). There was also a community-driven excel sheet for Vene Potions and their composition which was a very fun activity to do in our spare time at events. So even when you were not playing Shades Plot, you could still play Shades Plot in an interactive and critical manner.
During Folkstone Questing 2013, Eagle’s Rook and friends (TV show pending) were tasked with raiding the Shadow Realm to retrieve the secret to Jonas Cooke’s ability to bind himself to Shades, making him essentially unkillable. The challenge to retrieve this document was great and we succeeded to return in time for the Siege of Blackwood. During the downtime, I initially though that Jonas Cooke, whom everyone was calling the Shadow King at this point in the questline, was similar to Bedlam and was just an ‘unstoppable force.’ In between the retrieval mission and the Siege of Blackwood, I had enough time to understand why this was all happening and that the Shadowking had a name, family and even some friends. Yet he had done all these terrible things to gain power.
The threats that made this plotline personal, even if you were not invested in Jonas Cooke’s story, were used as a way to remind us that Jonas Cooke was not a ‘clown’ pretending he has power. In fact, his action affected real change. Shadowblight and mind scalping were two ways that ensured the phrases “Shades” or “Shadowking” evoked a real threat to you or someone affected by above mentioned afflictions. Mind scalping was essentially a brutal invasion of privacy and personal space by stealing your memories while Shadowblight was an illness of the soul which must be spread to prevent your death. These two mechanics created personal narratives which encourages player engagement. You were also left wondering, “Why on earth would a normal human do these things?” It feels so much more personal since the leading figure behind these attacks to the PC’s physical and mental well-being was one of us PC’s (a point which I raised in my last article).
All of the points about Shades Plot allowed for many different types of engagement across the board which supported a number of playstyles. I also critically thought about how to best use my knowledge and skills and apply them in real-time to help my friends and colleagues excel at what they were good at. I was able to, in my capacity as a fresh newbie, hold a wall of a Blackwood castle to allow the more skilled players to defend the weaker gates or prepare Vene potions in my spare time. As I gained more knowledge and skill, I was eventually able to not only follow instructions but also serve as a leader when needed during the last Shades event. Many of the things which Jonas Cooke wanted to be recognized for through no work, I achieved through my own hard work. Hell Yeah.
So why does Jonas Cooke still matter? It is because the villain, the quest line, the challenges that we were faced with encouraged engagement at all levels with a villain who had an origin story like the rest of us PC’s. Now that we are all stuck inside, now is an excellent opportunity to reflect on the challenges and trials you or your PC have faced to understand why these events have left such an impact on you. You might be surprised at what you find!