Arcane

Arcane is an American video game series created and owned by Hardwire Software. Most installments in the series are side-scrolling Metroidvania-style action games, though some spin-offs have broken away from this format, most notably the Chronicles of Mythia series. The first game in the series, Arcane and The Flesh Beast, was first released in January of 1999 and was the first title ever developed by Hardwire. Since then, the series has become the developers' flagship title and Arcane herself has become the unofficial mascot of the company.

The series primarily focuses on the titular protagonist Arcane, who is a magic user (referred to as a "magician") living in a fantasy world called Mythia as she attempts to battle the forces of evil, sometimes with the help of her friends and allies. Apart from the mainline titles, there are also multiple Arcane spin-off series that have become successful in their own right, such as the aforementioned Chronicles of Mythia as well as the Blue Moon, Spriggan, and Magician series. Arcane has also widened its reach into other media, such as comic books, novels, and television.

Characters & Story
Main article: List of Arcane characters

Most of the series is set in the fictional country of Mythia, which is full of mystical creatures and a magic wielding race of humans referred to as Magicians. The primary protagonist of the series is a Magician named Arcane, who is a child of ambiguous age that is still training her magical abilities. She battles against different magical threats throughout the series, usually wielding a rapier in combat. However, some games have broken away from this formula, such as the third game in the series Nightmare Eyes which is set both in Mythia and in a parallel dimension called "Nightmare". The spin-off games Blue Moon and Spriggan also don't follow Arcane, instead following a young version of her mentor the White Woman and her sister Spriggan, respectively.

Mainline Titles

 * Arcane and The Flesh Beast (1999)
 * Arcane: Second Wind (2000)
 * Arcane: Nightmare Eyes (2003)
 * Arcane: Demon Quest (2005)
 * Arcane Infinite (2009)
 * Saga of Arcane (2013)

Spin-Off Titles

 * Arcane: Return of Lockely (2002)
 * Arcane Advance (2003)
 * Arcane: Runes (2008)

Chronicles of Mythia Series

 * Arcane: Chronicles of Mythia (2006)
 * Arcane: Chronicles of Mythia II (2011)

Spriggan Series

 * Spriggan (2001)
 * Spriggan 2: Yannick's Revenge (2004)

Blue Moon Series

 * Blue Moon (2007)
 * Night of the Blue Moon (2009)

Magician Series

 * Arcane: A Magician's Secrets (2010)

Animation
In 2000, shortly after the release of Second Wind, Hardwire Software was approached by a representative of Herb Scannell, then president of Nickelodeon, who claimed that Nick was interested in producing an animated series starring Arcane as the protagonist. An unidentified Nickelodeon executive at the time had seen their son playing Second Wind on their PlayStation and took an interest in the game. After playing it themselves, they thought the characters in it would make for a good television show and pitched the idea to Nick, who agreed. However, the show never got past the concept art phase due to disagreements between Hardwire and Nick about the direction the series should have went in and rights over toy tie-ins.

In 2006, a second attempted at making a series was made, this time by Hardwire themselves who were looking to branch out into other media. Having witnessed the rise of shows such as Ben 10 and Avatar: The Last Airbender, both of which had ongoing narratives throughout, as well as the anime boom in America, Hardwire thought it was safe to make a show more in-line with their initial vision of the Arcane franchise. After their previous poor experience with Nickelodeon, they instead decided to approach Nick's primary rival, Cartoon Network Studios, about the series. Due to the previous failure of video game tie-ins, Cartoon Network was initially planning to pass on the idea, but after watching a pilot short film that Hardwire had commissioned they were impressed enough to pick it up.

The partnership between Cartoon Network and Hardwire was officially announced in late 2006 and a trailer for their project, Arcane: The Animation, was dropped in early 2007 before the first episode of the show as released a few months later. The series was a combined effort from Hardwire Studios and Man of Action Entertainment, who had created the previously mentioned Ben 10, and ran from 2007 to 2009 with a total of two seasons, starring Olivia Hack as Arcane. It also starred Cherami Leigh as Spriggan, the series being Leigh's first role outside of anime, and Jennifer Hale as the White Woman, who had ironically recently been replaced as the voice of Arcane in the series.

However, the series was cancelled not long after the season two finale, but they were given permission to work on a direct-to-video movie to wrap up the series. Hardwire and Man of Action worked from 2009 to 2010 in order to get the film done, with it eventually releasing in December of 2011 under the name Arcane: Epiphany's Song. Hardwire writers that worked on the series blame poor timing for the series' cancellation, claiming that it was "a lore-heavy action series in a time when action shows were on their way out".

Many years later in 2019, Hardwire had once again noticed a shift in the animation industry as well as a rise in more experimental shows. They believed that animation, even children's animation, had become refined and more willing to tackle more mature subject matter, as had Hardwire itself. Because of this, they decided it was time to try and put their foot in the animation industry again. They approached Netflix and showed off what they had at the time as well as explaining the concept of the Arcane games to them. Netflix was completely on-board with the idea and agreed to help with the series creation, though due to already producing a series titled "Arcane" based on League of Legends, it was deciding to change the name of the show.

Production was already off to a hard start, as the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic put a wrench in things. However, in mid 2021, the project finally started picking up some steam again, with a teaser trailer being released on Netflix's YouTube page, revealing Hardwire and Netflix's partnership to the public as well as revealing the series name to be The Mythia Tome. The first season of the series, which consisted of 12 episodes, was then released in mid 2022 and became a relatively big success, with people praising the art, animation, and storytelling of the series. The series ran for six seasons, the final of which was released on June of 2027 with a total of 72 episodes and an hour-long special released between seasons two and three.

Comics
Beginning in 2002, a line of comic book mini-series have been published by Dark Horse Comics under the name Arcane: The Official Comic Adaptation, commonly abbreviated as OCA. These comics are all around six issues each and are adaptions of the games' plots, beginning with Arcane: Second Wind. This series would continue on throughout the years, adapting each game as they came out, even eventually adapting the initially skilled Arcane and The Flesh Beast as a one-shot graphic novel. However, the series ended in 2009, with the final adaption being Arcane Infinite. The reason for the series' cancellation is unknown, though it is commonly theorized that it had something to do with the series' new direction beginning with Saga of Arcane.

There was also an official comic tie-in released for Arcane: The Animation simply titled Arcane but with subheading "The Comic of The Animation", to differentiate it with the then still being published OCA. The series was released by IDW Publishing mid-way through the first season, publishing monthly from 2007 until 2009 when the show was cancelled. Years later in 2018, another comic series set in the universe of the series, Arcane: Vale Erga Omnes, was published and was meant to serve as a "goodbye" to the animated universe.

Lastly, a second ongoing series once again released by Dark Horse was announced shortly after season one of The Mythia Tome was released, entitled Mythia Tome: The Lost Texts, serving as a tie-in to the series. The comic was published in 2022, not long after the series dropped on Netflix and ran throughout the show's lifetime.

Notes & Trivia

 * Arcane Infinite was released on Arcane's tenth anniversary.
 * There is a line in Saga of Arcane that has become infamous among fans where Spriggan claims that Arcane has defeated the villain Lockely "three times". In spite of this, Lockely had actually made four appearances up until that point in Second Wind, Nightmare Eyes, and the spin-offs Return of Lockely and Chronicles of Mythia II. This has called into question if one of these games may not be canon in the eyes of the fans.