Roadmap

Order of the Dark Wheel Roadmap – Last updated January 28th, 2022

January 28, 2022

Hello Cultists,

For better (not for worse), this project has greatly evolved since I set out to build this world back in 2021. I’ve since created an even greater world, once that involves Witchez, who are powerful humans sorceresses who are working to stop the Order from ending all non-demonic life in the universe.

I’ve decided to keep the old roadmap up (scroll down if you’d like to read it) for the sake of transparency, but the new roadmap is pretty simple:

Spring 2022 – I’ll be releasing a new set of generative demons. It’s likely going to be 6,660 mints at 13 xtz each.

Summer 2022 – Along with the good folks at Devil’s Delegate, we’re launching a NFT video game called The Cult & The Coven, which will pit the Witchez and the Dark Wheel Demonz against each other in combat in a race to summon the 7 gods of each faction. First faction to do so will reap the rewards, including being immortalized in the canonical lore via an audio-visual NFT.

What’s after that? The sky’s the limit, and I’ll release more info after the game drops. We’ll see where everything goes, but merch, different mediums of storytelling, IRL meetups (assuming can be done safely), and new collections that expand the world are in the works.

Thanks for your patience and my pivot away from the demons for a bit, but they’re biting and scratching and the barrier between my world and theirs is getting thinner by the day… – Rick

Old Roadmap

Run on hicetnunc.xyz (H=N), objkt.com, and kalamint.io,  The Order of the Dark Wheel is an immersive, story-based NFT project by Rick Kitagawa. 

STORY: The Order of the Dark Wheel is a cult that is trying to summon the Seven Who Feed, seven evil gods with massive destructive powers who, when all summoned together, shall trigger a prophecy known as The Doom, which will end life in the universe as we know it.

NFT Collectors are able to choose a faction – Infiltrators, who are infiltrating the cult to save the world, or Cultists, who are actively trying to bring about The Doom. Regardless of faction/track, collectors are able to collect a new demon each week, whose attributes, description and backstory, and cost. Will the Infiltrators be able to save humanity by binding and capturing enough demons to prevent the Cultists from destroying everything? Or will the Cultists win out, effectively ending the world? 

HOW IT WORKS: The general premise is that every Friday/Saturday, a new demon NFT will be released on the open market via H=N, with a timed, max edition size of 666. There will also be a 1/1 unique NFT variant released on objkt.com in a highest bid auction running for 2 hours. The time/date/aspect of the demon NFT will be determined by a livestream hosted in theme on the Sunday prior.

As the project grows, Items will be added in as well as the ability to combine/alter existing demons.  Eventually, the project will reach full maturity, and shall end once The Doom is successfully initiated or broken forever.

If you’re into the project but are new to NFTs or crypto wallets or the like, feel free to check out this beginner’s guide to getting started with Objkt.com and hicetnunc.xyz, including an intro to buying cryptocurrency and getting your wallet and the platforms talking to each other.

INTENTION: The intent is to create a monster/demon-themed NFT project that is run on a Proof-of-Stake (P-o-S) blockchain with smart contracts with an established collector and artist base, thus the Tezos (XTZ) blockchain. This decision is based on environmental friendliness of XTZ and the punk-rock awesomeness of H=N. Also, if I get accepted onto Kalamint.io, drops will likely alternate weeks between H=N and 1/1 drops will occur on Kalamint, another Tezos-powered NFT marketplace.

Additionally, the project is designed to be friendly to early adopters, and those who missed the early days of Ethereum (ETH) and cannot afford the thousands of dollars to jump into most larger-scale NFT projects. Enough variation and price controls are instilled to allow this to mature organically for up to a few years. 

The project is also designed, however, to reward those who adopt early (as rarity/edition size is partially determined by collectors), and as the project matures, more costly, and thus rare NFTs shall become more and more frequent. Additionally, earlier, rarer drops will allow early-stage collectors to “trade up” for more costly NFTs in order to allow early collectors to compete with later-joining whales.

Note: Once Ethereum moves to P-o-S and/or OpenSea provides XTZ support, the project will potentially ALSO move to OpenSea, upon voting from the community.  However, there will never be an exclusive migration away from XTZ,  H=N, objkt.com, nor Kalamint due to the creator’s potential to grow the project financially (ie. make more money on OpenSea). The only reason an exclusive shift would occur would be complete failure of the platform(s) or security issues. Any large-sweeping changes like this will be put to vote from the community of active collectors.

CORE VALUES OF PROJECT: Environmental stewardship, Fun for project creator and collectors, Story and narrative-driven, Equitability in access/Affordability for early-stage project supporters and later-stage Crypto adopters, Community>Profits (aka I have no problem banning whales from the Discord community for toxic behavior in the community – see Discord server rules below).

RULES: 

1. The Golden Rule of The Order of the Dark Wheel: Don’t be an asshole. In-character or out, no one likes a jerk, so don’t be one. What does being a jerk look like? Name-calling, insulting people directly, trolling, spamming, violating rule 3, and doing anything else that makes people feel bad. Don’t do these things, and I reserve the right for mods to ban you for such behavior. BE NICE.
2. If it wasn’t glaringly obvious, we’re not a real cult. Think for yourself, don’t give money to strangers (except the cult leader) and enjoy the somewhat-immersive experience.
3. Absolutely no racism, sexism, homophobia, ableism, etc. or any sort of hate speech. I want this cult to respect each other’s differences, and the excuse of “it’s a joke” doesn’t fly (I’m totally humorless). This is a cult, so I’m the ultimate arbiter here. Violate this rule and risk being cast out into the Void permanently (aka banned from the server).
4. You don’t need to come up with a whole new character to interact here – just “you but in a world where demons and magic exists” is perfect. That said, please read the channel descriptions before posting. Anything that breaks the immersion (talking about demons as NFTs, roadmaps for this project, etc.) belongs in the META- Out of Character channels.
5. Yes, this is a horror-themed project. Yes it might get a little bloody here and there, but let’s stay away from rape, incest, excessive gore, and other ‘extreme’ subjects that might require trigger warnings. I know it’s a fine line between horror and some of these topics, but try to walk it. 
6. No spamming, shilling, selling, self-promotion, or otherwise conducting business except in the #pitch-and-shill channel.
7. A friendly disclaimer – this is an NFT project at its core, so please make sure that you understand that some actions, especially sending tips or capturing demons will require you to spend real Tezos (XTZ), a cryptocurrency. In order to redeem Soul tokens, receive tips, or purchase NFTs, you’ll need to have a wallet that can send and receive XTZ.
8. Once again, this is not a real cult – think of it as a big RPG. Don’t hurt anyone or yourself in order to gain favor with anyone or in order to try and get more Souls or tips. If you’re thinking about self-harm or if you seriously think this is real, please find some help: https://checkpointorg.com/global/ 

Timeline from Launch through Phase 1

URL obtained: orderofthedarkwheel.com 8/25

Twitter created: @demonhuntNFT 8/25

Roadmap made public on twitter: 9/1

Sample Demon 1 finished: 9/1

Sample Demon 2 finished: 9/1

Sample Demon 3 finished: 9/1

Basic FAQ website up: 9/1

Souls minted: 9/1

Demonic Contracts minted: 9/1

Discord created: 9/1

Flavor text for website written out: 9/07

Guide to getting started with Tezos: 9/07

Discord roles, bots to be added: 9/15

Website and full stories to be added: 9/15

Soft launch of Discord: 9/15

Discord fully flushed out: 9/18

Discord open to public: 9/18

Build out lottery monster: 9/25

First Drawing of Lots: 9/26

First Demon finished + minted: 9/30

First 1/1 Unique Demon finished and minted: 9/30

First Drop/Portal opens: 10/1

Project Launch 

• Roles created
  • Either act as a force for humanity infiltrating the cult or as a legit cultist trying to end the world.
  • Higher ranks are gauged by the number of demons bonded with/bound by magic, and offer access to special Discord channels and other future benefits.
  • You can choose one of two tracks:
    • Infiltrator – A force for humanity, infiltrating the cult to bind the demons into another space where they can’t harm others
      • Infiltrator
      • Demon Hunter
      • Demon Slayer
    • Cultist – A force for evil, attempting to bond with multiple demons to ultimately use them for nefarious purposes
      • Initiate
      • Occultist
      • Dark Wizard
    • Your role track can be changed only ONCE (for reasons seen in the Endgame).
• Souls + Demonic Contracts
  • There are 6,666 souls minted. They can be obtained by trading in Demonic Contracts at a rate of 13 Demonic Contracts to 1 Soul.
    •  Demonic Contracts can generally be bought for .13 XTZ on the open market (currently here), or sometimes at lower cost for promotional purposes. Permanent pricing unless XTZ goes to the moon.
      •  Intent: provide affordable ways for people to join and collect, while also allowing for limited Soul econ.
  • New types of Demonic Contracts might be created that have better conversion rates to Souls, and Demonic Contracts might also be given to cultists for participation in the Discord server, upon joining, or other services rendered.
  • Souls must be traded in when making major transactions in the mid-late game, such as using Items for Rituals, or even attempting to Initiate The Doom.

Phase 1 – Initiation

• The Great Old One draws lots weekly to determine: (Sundays)  First one: Sept 26, 2021
  • Location of drop (determines time of drop) -LA / NYC / London / Sydney
    • Initially, this will probably be determined by the geographic regions of Order members. Eventually timezone drawing will occur to make it more equitable for a global community.
  • What type of portal (what aspect of demon)
    • Blood
    • Pain
    • Rot
    • Flesh
    • Madness
    • Bone
    • Darkness
  • Power level of demon (determines the story/powers + range of price of NFT).
    • Creeper – 1.33 – 6.66 xtz
    • Nightmare – 7.77 – 13  xtz
    • Terror – ?? xtz
    • Catastrophe – ??? xtz
  • No aspect of demon will occur consecutively (eg. Week 1 = Rot, Week 2 = not Rot).
  • There is a 7/13 chance of a Creeper, 5/13 chance of a Nightmare, and 1/13 chance for a Terror to drop. Catastrophe level demons are too powerful for The Order to summon at this point. 

• Drop – Fridays/Saturdays – First one: Oct 1/2, 2021
  • Demons will continuously stream from portals for about 24 hours or until all 13 demons are bound.
  • After the portal closes, a random number of demons that have not been bound (if any) will be burned, stuck forever in the Abyssal Void. Some might even escape to be captured later, but it will be clear how many have survived and might be encountered in the wild. 
    • Demons encountered in the wild might be easier to be bound, as they’re by themselves. But being isolated might make them more violent and more difficult as well. 
  • A 1/1 named, unique variant demon will lead the pack. This demon is much more difficult to bind due to their personality, so only the most powerful spell-casters will be able to bind it during the 24-48 hour auction. If this demon is not bound, it will escape back into the Abyssal Void. Will it return? Only time will tell.
• Alternative drops – Random
  • Portals are inherently unstable by nature, so smaller tears may occur where unique demons may drop. They might also be variants of variants! The Void is a crazy place.
  • These Alternative Drops may occur at a sporadic basis, but only the timed, weekly drops are sure things. 

Phase 2 – Evolution + Items

• We now know what the cult was planning this entire time. Besides just trying to summon stronger Demons, they’ve been experimenting with spell Components, arcane Relics and creating blasphemous Artifacts. Collectively, these are referred to as Items. 
  • Demon odds begin to favor Nightmare and Terror level demons. Creeper odds decrease, and the small chance for Catastrophe demons begins.
  • No consecutive power level nor aspect of demon will occur from week to week, meaning that there won’t be two consecutive weeks of Nightmares, for example.
• Each Item has at least one aspect and an effect associated with it.
  • Items can only interact with demons that share the same aspect regardless of whether the shared aspect is a demon’s primary, secondary, or tertiary aspect.
  • Items might be airdropped, found in events, put up for auction in the black market, or released in a regular drop. They might find their way to the market in other, interesting, methods as well, including being scavengable from rifts.
• Components are ingredients that vary by rarity. 
  • There will be components of various rarity.
  • Spell recipes will be made public to members of the Order as they are discovered, and they will require various Components in order to activate.
    • Spells might bind demons, pulling them from the Void, or it might even allow you to control the nature of rifts. There might be other spells discovered as the Order’s archivists continue to decipher ancient grimoires.
• Relics are ancient tools used by previous magic-wielders, demonologists, and previous incarnations of the Order. Relics are 1/1 with various power levels (e.g. there might be a Pristine Bone Wand, which is more powerful than the Cracked Bone Wand). Relics will be much more rare than components.
  • Being that these Relics are from antiquity, the more powerful and better condition a Relic is, the rarer they are.
    • Common / Flawed (cracked, chipped, missing parts, etc.)
    • Uncommon / Good
    • Rare / Great
    • Legendary / Pristine
  • By themselves, Relics are just showpieces. But when combined with Spell Components, they often can create more powerful spells that may be able to summon demons of the Terror or Catastrophe level that would not otherwise enter our realm. 
  • Relics can be used multiple times (whether for oneself, or if an enterprising cultist would want to rent it out to others for the good of the Order is yet to be seen), but each use stresses the physical nature of the Relic, and with each use there is a chance that the Relic will be damaged, lowering the quality of the Relic permanently. 
• Artifacts are crafted by cultists by combining multiple Relics and Components.
  • These will not be scavengable, or usually even discoverable in their entirety. Most of the time, they will need to be assembled piece by piece.
  • The Order’s Artificers will share schematics, including necessary Components and Relics in order to craft various artifacts.
  • Artifacts can switch aspects of demons, merge demons of the same power level, or raise/lower power levels in order to create new, evolved demons through dark Rituals. 
• There will be a new Discord channel known as #the-temple
  • The Order will construct a dark temple where they can safely perform Rituals.
  • Due to the destructive and transformational aspect of Rituals, there will be a verification process created prior to being allowed into The Temple.
    • After verification of wallet ownership, Order members must have at least one demon bound (two for mergers) as well as ownership of an artifact.
    • After the demon(s) and artifact are transferred to the Head Cultist, the ritual will begin.
    • Often, due to the large number of permutations these rituals may take a few days. Merging of demons into brand new demons is said to be the most lengthy, switching aspects the next longest, and raising or lowering power levels is said to be the quickest. 

Phase 3 – Endgame

• The Order of the Dark Wheel has matured, and grows close to their bid to end all of life as we know it. With new Catastrophe-level demons emerging from rifts more regularly, enough cultists are able to begin to summon the Dark Gods.
  • There will be a smaller chance for Creepers and Nightmare-level demons to be summoned (but this chance will never be zero). Terror-level demons and Catastrophe-level demons become much more common.
• Dark Gods are interesting, as they can take on many forms, and might be so powerful that they can exist in multiple spaces at once, just not in the same form. 
  • Gods require the blood of multiple demons – many multiple of demons if they’re of the Creeper level, or a handful if they’re of the Catastrophe level.
  • Demons sacrificed this way are forever lost, as the Seven Who Feed literally feed off the souls of their minions in a cannibalistic manner.
  • From the flesh and blood and gore of these sacrifices, a cultist can summon a manifestation of one of the seven Dark Gods.
• If anyone manages to summon one manifestation of each of the Dark Gods, they can attempt to trigger The Doom. 
  • What is The Doom? Not even the Head Cultist knows. But when this event is triggered, the cultist shall be recognized permanently as the one who has achieved what few humans could even imagine. 
  • This is when the split between Infiltrators and Cultists come into play. 
    • The initiation of The Doom is something that can only be invoked once a month. It does not consume the seven manifestations of the Dark Gods, but there will be a verification process in order to ensure that all the qualifications of initiating The Doom have been met. 
    • Every initiator, regardless of success of triggering The Doom, will be named in the Annals of Annihilation, an NFT sent to everyone who has attempted to trigger The Doom. If an initiation is a failure and The Doom does not occur, and another cultist attempts to initiate, that first initiator will get a second Annals of Annihilation with the updated name sent to them as well.
      • Once you get an Annals of Annihilation, you will get all future updated versions as well, so only the very first initiator will get a 1/1.
    • The chance of success of triggering The Doom will depend on the total ratio of members in the same role track as the person initiating The Doom.
      • Success or Failure depends on some game of chance where the odds are manipulated by how strong the faction is. By recruiting more people into the faction, one can tilt the odds in your favor. 
  • If The Doom initiation fails, the initiator is unable to initiate again for 6 months with the same set of manifestations. 
    • They can immediately attempt next month IF they have another set of 7, completely different manifestations.
  • If The Doom is successfully triggered, a global apocalypse occurs and The Order of the Dark Wheel will end. 
    • What does that look like? No new NFTs will be minted or released, and the creator will likely move on to a new project. 
    • Why trigger The Doom? 
      • If an Infiltrator successfully triggers The Doom, they will fully interrupt the prophecy, forever rendering the cultists unable to summon The Doom. Humanity is saved, and the successful Infiltrator will be immortalized as the Savior of Humanity in a custom NFT format. They will also receive a variant 1/1 NFT of every demon to have passed to our plane from the Abyssal Void as a trophy of their accomplishment. 
      • If a Cultist successfully triggers The Doom, they will fulfill the prophecy, dooming humanity to oblivion and will summon The Doom. The successful Cultist will be immortalized as the Harvester of Humanity in a custom NFT format. They will also receive a variant 1/1 NFT of every demon to have passed to our plane from the Abyssal Void as an army to command in the darkness.

Questions?

The best way to reach out to Rick is via Twitter @darkwheelNFT. Please note he is not on Twitter 24/7, so be patient. 

Additionally, this is a roadmap, not a promise. Features may be tweaked in the future in order to provide a better experience for everyone.

He’s open to questions or suggestions, but please make sure they align with the core values of the project. 

Feedback is great, but please make sure to give specific feedback with steps/resources to improve. Thanks!