Icons of Theia

Icons of Theia is a decentralized platform focused around fun and engaging strategy games. Our first game is a free-to-play 1v1 tactical strategy game that can best be described as a cross between League of Legends, Fire Emblem, and Chess.

The blockchain gaming space is experiencing monumental growth, taking the gaming industry by storm. However, most games launched right now are asset investments wrapped in a monotonous and tedious game, which we believe isn’t sustainable long term. Therefore, as part of our core vision, we aim to return to the principle that a game should be, first and foremost, fun to play.

Built on the blockchain, our game will allow players to fully own their game assets, thus supporting our second core principle - that time spent in the game should be rewarding. Community-owned economies are intertwined with the future of gaming itself, and we are proud to be part of this global movement which is introducing millions of people to the world of blockchain.

With these core principles, we are planning to create a living universe, filled with fascinating stories, characters, and adventures, with players taking a central role by showing their skill and ability and being rewarded through our game's mechanics. These mechanics will be fully customizable, so you can enjoy Theia any way you want.

We truly believe that the union of blockchain and gaming can create a community-owned, decentralized game that restores power back to the players. This is just the beginning of our journey and it is our pleasure and honor to have you joining us on it.

Icons of Theia is set in an alternate world called Theia, where the continent of Aurora has experienced dramatic changes as a result of the appearance of large crystalline, floating structures. Named simply The Crystals, these structures give a few select humans enhanced abilities and powers, to a point where they are considered to be demi-gods. These powerful individuals are called the Icons.

Since this discovery and the subsequent realization that whoever controls The Crystals has immense power over the fate of the world, dramatic political changes have taken place on Aurora. New empires and nations have risen, replacing the bygone relics of the past. As a result, three main alliances have been formed across the continent, each of them centered on their plans for the Crystals and the Icons.

Each alliance is setting plans, vying to dominate, study or preserve the Crystals - while keeping them far from their enemies’ reach. A clash between these newly created superpowers seems imminent, and with the Icons holding such extraordinary power, a small spark is maybe all that is needed to engulf the continent into war…

Factions

There are seven factions in Aurora, organized into three alliances:

The Ogenean Pact ("The Pact")

-Dynasty of Digyu

-Free Republic of Jukur

The League of the Blue Lotus ("The League")

-New Vijayan Empire

-City of Khufu

The Union of East Aurora ("The Union")

-Commonwealth of Bainbridge

-Serene Republic of Edrea

-The Halsful

Gameplay

Icons of Theia is a virtual turn-based strategy game. Players take turns moving their characters (“Icons”) on the map, attacking the enemy, and fighting for neutral objectives with the eventual goal of destroying the enemy's tower.

The central struggle of the game is to out-think your opponent, positioning your forces for the long term and taking advantage of tactics when they leave their forces vulnerable. The game borrows ideas from many different genres to produce a unique set of circumstances that differentiate the game from others that exist today and make the strategy nuanced and intricate.

In order to give a sense for the game, here are the basic rules:

-Players take turns drafting 5 characters for their team from a pool of Icons, and then place the characters in the Start Zone. Each character has a different set of abilities and stats which give them unique strengths and weaknesses, so the team should be chosen wisely!

-Turn order is per character. Each character has a speed stat which is used to determine when in the turn they will make their move.

-During a character’s turn, the player is allowed to move the character a certain distance, and then attack an enemy within their range.

-The goal is to destroy the enemy tower, which sits behind enemy lines. The tower has a health pool and can be destroyed by attacking it until it runs out of health.

The core gameplay is simple to understand, making it easy for a new player to pick up and just start playing. However, there are several concepts that exist to introduce multiple layers to the strategy, forcing players to manage their resources effectively, prioritize objectives, and make risk/reward decisions that can open up opportunities but also weaknesses:

-Characters have archetypes and unique abilities, making team composition essential and allowing for interesting combos.

-There are various resource constraints that a player will need to manage and decide when to use. These resources must be rationed carefully so the player has enough resources to attack or defend at crucial moments.

-There are several objectives (ex. Dragons) that each present different challenges to the players. Completing the objectives give “buffs” that players can use to power up their teams. But diverting too many resources to objectives can leave you vulnerable to attack.

-Certain areas of the board (ex. the Jungle) are invisible to the enemy. These areas allow for sneak attacks, and in some cases can provide an extra layer of defense.

Guilds & Factions Wars

Guilds are groups of players that play and interact together to earn rewards and renown for their deeds. A player can start a guild and create a unique name, crest, and align to a specific faction. Each guild also has an upgradeable guild hall, which is used to earn specific bonuses and benefits for its members. Some examples include XP boosts, better odds at rolling special cosmetics as well as more token payouts for winning battles. Guilds also have a leadership structure and treasury to manage them. Guild leaders can also charge their members dues, which can be used to further purchase upgrades for the guild hall, or participate in faction wars. We may introduce different governance mechanisms that guild leaders can choose to deploy to their communities.

Our continent has a world map that spans the three Alliances, with territorial borders constantly changing. The idea behind Faction Wars is to give the world a sense of tug of war, and see which faction can win each season.

Each season lasts 2 months, and the map resets each season. This way if one faction does end up dominating the map, you can wait till next season to try and regain control again.

Faction Wars works as follows:

At the start of the season, 25% of the map is controlled by each of the three Alliances and 25% is contested territory.

Guilds can capture tiles on the map for the faction that they represent. Each capture creates a mini contest between factions that lasts 48 hours, where players can battle the opposing faction to earn glory. Whichever faction wins the most amount of Glory in that time ends up with ownership of the tile.

At the end of the season, the faction with the most glory wins, and gets a special skin for all members in that faction, as well as a unique profile cosmetics and title for their participating characters, and a trophy in their clan halls.

There’s also a guild leaderboard for each season with the amount of wins that guilds in faction wars have won. Prizes will be rewarded to leaderboard leaders.

Some benefits of this system are that it creates a concept that allows players to invest in certain things in the game that grow in value over time. Winning faction wars, gaining trophies, being high in the leaderboard, getting dues from members, all creates incentives for guild owners to invest in their guilds to make them better.

Non-Fungible Tokens

In order for our users to have true ownership of the items they obtain in Icons of Theia, our game items will be Non-Fungible Tokens, or NFTs. There are four main NFTs in our world:

-Icons

-Skins

-Sigils

-Sigil Forges

Fungible Tokens

There will be two fungible tokens in our ecosystem: Essence of Theia ($EOT) and Crystals of Theia ($COT).

EOT is our native currency powering our in-game economy. The total max supply is uncapped with the total amount in circulation based on users spending and earning behaviors. We will not sell EOT directly to players.

Some ways to earn EOT:

-Playing games, with amounts determined based on rank, win/loss status, and Sigil Embeds.

-Account leveling, quests, and achievements

-Guilds & Faction Wars

Some ways to spend EOT:

-Purchasing Icon NFTs

-Purchasing Sigil Forge NFTs

-Creating Sigils

-Unlocking and Upgrading Sigil Enchants

COT is our governance token that additionally powers our meta-game economy.

Earning COT:

25% of the total COT allocation will be allocated to our game’s users through gameplay and metagame mechanics. Each day, there will be a set amount of Crystal Tokens earnable through our users. Users will do various activities in our game and earn Crystal Tickets for them. At the end of the 24 hour window, the daily Crystal Token amount is distributed amongst ticket holders. Tickets will be earnable through:

-Completion of the daily quest to win a game

-Account leveling, quests, and achievements

-Playing games with your Crystal Ticket Sigil Embed

-Participating in our Create to Earn Program

-Guilds, Faction Wars, & Tournaments

COT Utility:

-Embedding Sigils

-Upgrading Embed Sigils

-Staking & participating in governance

Allocation

Game & Staking

50% of the Crystal token supply will go directly towards rewarding our players. 25% of this will be through the game itself through gameplay and metagame mechanics, as detailed . This allocation can be seen as both a marketing and retention tool for the Theia ecosystem. The remaining 25% will be distributed to users who stake their token. Staking will lock the token up for a set amount of time, reward the holder for having a long-term mindset, and give them voting rights and say through our DAO.

Roadmap

We divide our roadmap into 4 phases, each with its own milestones and deliverables.

Phase 1

Game Ideation: Q3 2021

NFT Art Created: Q4 2021

Game Prototype: Q1 2022

Governance Token Private Sale: Q1 2022

NFT Pre-Sale with In-House Marketplace: Q1 2022

Phase 2

MLP Closed Alpha Game Launch: Q2 2022

Open Beta Launch: Q3 2022

Game Public Launch: Q4 2022

Phase 3

Faction Wars Guild Pre-Sale: Q1 2023

Faction Wars Game Alpha Launch: Q1 2023

Social & Create to Earn: Q1 2023

Faction Wars Game Public Launch: Q2 2023

Phase 4

Voting through DAO: Q1 2023

User-generated sandbox map mode: Q3 2023

Other games and game formats: Q2 2023