The Black Dawn - What is this about?
The story
The on-going tension between the North and the South keeps growing, and a new war is upon us.
However, Nilfgaardian spies have learnt of the Council and tried to disrupt the successful agreement of the northern rulers. Wilful assassinations have claimed the lives of Radovid and Anna Henrietta, but the North managed to united nonetheless. King Foltest has become the face of the northern campaign, and the elves promised him to refrain from cooperating with Nilfgaard and not involving themselves in the war.
Even though Nilfgaard has crossed Yaruga at this point, effectively invading the North, Foltest took a risk, and his first steps were aimed elsewhere. Redania was missing its king, and army generals, priests from the Order of the Eternal Flame, and Dijkstra, the head of the Redanian intelligence, were fighting for power here. However, Foltest stormed between the arguing factions to finish all disputes and add Redania to his kingdom. Thanks to the earlier alliance with King Henselt, King Demavend and Queen Meve, he now also commands Aedirn, Kaedwen, Lyria, Rivia and Cidaris, as well as the Hengfor League.
In the meantime, King Bran of Skellige has died, and so a new ruler had to be chosen. However, the elections were hampered not only by worldly schemes, but mythical powers as well. In the end, Skellige manage to unite, and Udalryk of clan Brokvar was appointed the king. However, he has declared a neutral stance to the war on the Continent. King Foltest has asked him for help, but has not received any response yet.
The situation on the mainland has reached a critical point, and an open war conflict has erupted. This is a total war to decide the fate of the whole Continent. The united northern realms are represented by King Foltest, who rules almost the whole North. Its diversity can help him in the upcoming conflict, but it can also prove a disadvantage.
Against the North stands Nilfgaard, a military and economic power under the leadership of the authoritative emperor Emhyr. He has attempted to forcefully invade the North several times already, but has never succeeded in conquering it yet. What is more, in its heart, Nilfgaard is not as united as it seems, either.
Blavicon: The Black Dawn is the culmination of the wartime/political trilogy of the story. Since this is an open war between the North and the South, you will meet not only representatives of Nilfgaard at Blavicon, but also important persons from the Northern kingdoms and nations.
This time, you as a Blavicon visitor will not decide only the fate of individual sovereigns, rulers and monarchs – you will decide the fate of the whole Continent. It is therefore up to you, whether this will be a Black Dawn or Black Twilight more like.
The whole-con game
Details about the whole-con game
How does it work?
As a visitor, you have the option to participate in the whole-con game. Enjoy the programme and earn influence tokens. These tokens represent war effort: soldiers, weapons, food, provisions, human resources, etc. You can use all this to support one of the warring factions, tip the scales between the North and Nilfgaard, and change the progress and result of the war. However, you don’t have to deal with politics and war at all; you can exchange the tokens with other festival goers or save them for some additional programme, like the casino in Novigrad.
You will earn tokens for enjoying the programme or for random activities during Blavicon. You will get tokens for the food you purchase, mead or whiskey tasting, or buying a hookah, for example.
The goal is clear: Defend the North, or help Nilfgaard break the defence and conquer the Northern Realms.
How will the story progress?
Each day, there will be several story scenes, which will be influenced by the current situation of the balance of power. Note that the influence tokens will be counted and evaluated continuously during the whole Blavicon, at times unknown to the public. One of the factions will get a victory point for this, and the votes will reset. This means that the winning faction does not necessarily have to be the one with the highest number of tokens altogether; rather, it will be the faction with a better distribution of votes, which earns more victory points.
This is why it is recommended to hand in your tokens at the info booth as often as you can and not keep them for the final tally, because it might harm your preferred faction.