Jorvik Star Issue 5

 ★Jorvik Star★

Issue 5 ★ Weeks of September 27 - October 3 & October 4 - 10

Why Two Weeks?

I was going to do one, but since the recent update doesn't have a ton of new stuff I've combined both weeks into one. This may or may not be the only time this happens.

The 2020 SSO Birthday Event

Star Stable Online is celebrating their Ninth Birthday! Remember to use the code BIRTHDAYFUN for a crazy balloon pet, flower bouquet for saddle bag, Fripp ears and Birthday Cake Hat. 

The main event takes place in Moorland, so Non Star Riders can enjoy some of it! A lot of it is similar to Midsummer, but here's what's there.

• Take Evergray, Madison or Rania on a ride with you! Simply talk to them at the event location to let them hop onto your horse to join you on some adventures! Then when you're done, just ride back to where you picked them up to let them hop off. 
• Talk to the "Birthday Girl" to start the Golden Horseshoes Hunt. You'll find them around Moorland, Fort Pinta, Firgrove, Valedale and Silverglade. There's a lot of videos on YouTube or lists of their locations around if you don't want to search yourself, but if you have time to search yourself they're pretty easy to find. You won't have to find them all, since find some plus the bonus from the Birthday Races are more than enough for this year's Birthday Set. Turn in the horseshoes to the "Birthday Girl" to receive the Birthday Set tack and clothes. Once you've completed the set, you can sell the extra horseshoes for Jorvik Shillings, as far as I know anyway, but not very much. Some people have chosen to save the extra horseshoes for next year, but after what SSO did with Halloween and Christmas currencies I'm not sure saving them for next year is worth it. 
• The Birthday Set: The colors for this year are shades of blue and purple. Since last year contained Orange, mt least favorite color, and this year includes purple, I like this year's set better. It includes a sweater/long sleeved shirt, a dress, pants, boots, hat? (not sure), saddle, saddlepad, bridle, open front leg wraps and saddlebag.
• The Birthday Race is a daily extra race to gain bonus golden horseshoes and horse xp. Just click the racing board at the party area to find out where it is located.

The Birthday Event will be around until the October 14th update!I

October 7th Update: New Meaning to Jorvik Wild Horses.

The old Jorvik Wild Horses are going to be called Magic Horses or by a specific name (Solas and Dorcha, etc) to make room for the new breed of horse exclusive to Jorvik (Not a real life breed, like the Jorvik Warmblood.) the Jorvik Wild Horse. 

You can find the official trailer video from Star Stable Online by clicking this star: ★

The horses released Wednesday, October 7th. They cost 975 SC, and have two unique animations: the ability to lay down by pressing space bar when standing still and a move similar to the Icelandic's tölt or Curly's Curly Shuffle, activated the same way. They are a draft horse with some unique colors, markings and mane/tail styles, but these horses do not change color. They are said to be from North Mistfall.

The first four will be found three in Valedale and one in Fort Pinta.

I will do a review when I get one but it will be a while. I

New In Valedale...

The horse sales area in Valedale got a makeover. The large stable fixture has been removed and instead the horses stand by the logs like in other areas. Seems like they're working on Valedale then. Wonder if there will be more updates there soon?

Coming Next Week...

According to the SSO News page...

 "Have you ever dreamed about riding a proper show jumping grand prix? Well if so, your dream is about to come true!"

  

Soul Riders Book Series News...

SSO has announced that the third Soul Riders book will be out in February 2021. 

-Ruby Skywalker ♥

The Jorvik Star Issue 2

 ★Jorvik Star★

Issue 2 ★ Week of September 6 - 12

This Week's Update...

September 9 -

This week brought along the Fort Pinta Beach Festival. Many of us had guessed from last Wednesday's teaser on the SSO news page that it would be an entirely new event, considering sso had said themselves at the beginning of the summer that the beach party would not return due to it's unpopularity last year. However, they did bring it back in this update. Though it is the very same thing as before, there are a few small changes I have noticed that I don't remember being so last year.

Tim Hooper is of course back with his questline again. I have noticed many changes to it.

1. No more annoying long cutscenes in the quests. This makes the quests not take as long. I also think the cutscenes that were in the questline previously could have affected those playing it that have epilepsy. SSO had previously changed the Druid Training Symbols part for the same reason, so I find it possible that this was a reason it was unpopular last year.

2. Our quest reward this year is white sunglasses. They'll be nice for summer outfits.

3. I also think the beach race has been shortened. I could be wrong, but it felt like it was.

The Miscreants themed shop is back again. It has three Miscreants cropped t-shirts, some black shorts, black boots, and two masks: a Miscreants "Cat" mask and a fox mask.

Now the fox mask there has brought me to a question and has me confused.

A while back SSO added a secret hidden quest up in Goldenhills Valley with a little red fox. You'd play in wild horse mode and locate the fox everyday in his unknown hiding spot, complete his challenge, then do it again the next day for one week. If you missed a day, you'd have to wait until that day to do it again. Well, after spotting the fox back in his spot whilst doing a fall photoshoot I finished the questline with him and got the reward: a fox mask. So now here's my question: why exactly is there a fox mask in the Miscreants shop when we should have one from the fox for free? All I can think is so non star riders can buy it, but even so once they become star rider they'd find the fox quests eventually. If you know another explanation, please do comment in the comments section!

Back to this week's update review. We also got three minor changes this week as well (though some may be major if you think about it.)

1. Championship Times have changed so that there's a championship every hour on the hour. This is a major update if you enjoy doing championships; minor if you don't do them. I'm in between - I do them to see if I can win, but I usually don't so sometimes I go days without doing one.

2. Your horse will now recover and go back to galloping off faster now after bumping into a fence, tree, wall, lamppost, whatever it is you run right into. They also go longer before needing to press the up arrow (or W key... or mouse wheel) to continue that gait. 

3. The chat, photomode, and notifications buttons all received a new look. They look really nice compared to the old ones.

Lost Shark Has Been Found...

Myself and a few other long-time SSO players got worried when realizing the shark in Fort Pinta was gone. I noticed it was gone when I had decided to show someone it was there because they never knew about it. 

The shark has made it's return with the Fort Pinta Beach Party, proof it may just be connected to that event. However, I remember it before being in Fort Pinta permanently until it mysteriously disappeared, like how there's a permanent shark swimming near Cape West Fishing Village.

Thoughts and Theories...

Thoughts and Theories posts will return this week or next right here on my blog. I will complete, continue, and answer my previous theories about the first Soul Riders book, and will do the second as soon as I get it. My first one to come however will be focusing on the "guests" at the Fort Pinta Beach Festival and what they say that might be hints to future updates.

Spoilers Surfacing... 

Next week's update has already been figured out what it is and we know more about SSO's Birthday event clothing, tack and pet for this year. 

Next week we will be getting some new Jorvik Wild Horses. I'm going to leave it at that for now and let you check the SSO Instagram or Twitter if you want to know more.

The birthday outfit and tack for this year is in my favorite colors, blue and purple, which gets a major thumbs up from me, since last year's was yellow and orange and I don't like orange. The pet for this year however is quite funny and unexpected. I'm eager to see how many people will make use of the "pet" and if we will get more of them someday.

 

A Reminder...

The Soul Riders Book 2: The Legend Awakens is available now. You should be able to find it in stores, online, or where you buy your eBooks. A SSO YouTuber also suggested that you can get a free 30 day trial of Amazon Audible and get it in audio book if you'd prefer it that way.

Coming Soon to my Blog...

Stay tuned for a fall photoshoot and my fashion and tack must-have list for the fall! 

-Ruby Skywalker.

The Jorvik Star Issue 1

★Jorvik Star★

Issue 1 ★ Week of Aug 30-Sept 5

This Week's Update...

September 2 Update -

Three new Marwari colors were added - Black, Dark Bay Tobiano and a Cremello. The Marwaris can be found at Goldenleaf Stables in Goldenhills, Silverglade County. They cost 950 Star Coins. They also have two brand new unique mane & tail styles and a new animation: Bowing when pressing spacebar. They're currently the only horse breed that can wear the new super detailed, fancy oriental bridle, which three new ones have been added!

There is also a new white show jumping saddle to mix and match with your show jumping tack sets!

Summary of Summer Updates

Explore Jorvik Week 1 - July 1, 2020

This summer has been quite an interesting one this year. Despite the major changes this year that may have caused certain updates to be harder to finish, with the team working from home and taking summer break, summer was filled with some amazing new things. 

We started off the fun with the return of the Cloud Kingdom, where we could do the fun Rainbow Race and the golden horseshoe collecting to get extra horse xp. The Rainbow Tack was put on sale from last year's rainbow event and a new set came out this year. 

That update also brought back the popular Jorvik Wild Horses. If you missed out on them and still want one, I'm certain they will be back soon. 

A final  and permanent addition in that update was new Horse Trainers in more locations. Now it's easier to find one to unlock that amazing lead horse ability or to train your horse instantly (Although I find taking time to do races for xp is more fun than wasting Star Coins on horse xp.)

Explore Jorvik Week 2: July 8, 2020

The next week brought back Linda Chanda's Show Jumping Race. I have found it to be a bit challenging in my opinion, but maybe that's just me.

This update also brought along new saddlepads and leg wraps in beautiful pastel colors. You'll find a sky blue, light blue-green, yellow and a peach-pink. 

Explore Jorvik Week 3: July 15, 2020

The following week welcomed three new English Thoroughbreds at Marley's Farm - grey, bay, and seal brown. 

It also brought the very exciting  and long awaited ability to only see members of your club or your group in the riding hall with the click of a button. 

Explore Jorvik Week 4: July 22, 2020

The next week brought back the famous Jorvik Stables Open House. The beautiful dressage arena made it's return along with six limited time horses, three races, baroque outfits and tack,  Hugh's free veterinary care, and the petting zoo. 

It also was the beginning of redoing the Jarlaheim area, with new fences, trees, benches and extras like wagons added near Jorvik Stables. 

Explore Jorvik Week 5: July 29, 2020

The final week of July brought along a new collection - lost baby donkeys! It is a fun, challenging new addition to keep people busy - and make us all want donkey pets even more!

Explore Jorvik Week 6: August 5, 2020

The first update of August brought an interesting new race to Goldenleaf Stables - a mix of show jumping and cross country. It's a fun new addition to our horse training routes!

Along with this, Tan and Loretta in Moorland got a "glow-up" and their new models look amazing now!

Explore Jorvik Week 7: August 12, 2020

This week's update brought two long awaited updates.

First, SSO announced new changes to the chat and filter would be tested in the UK server Cupcake Valley. Many people, including myself, have many dislikes and opinions on the current filter system and hope that this new filter update will make it through the testing very well and will make having conversations easier and less worrisome. 

The second long awaited update that came was welcoming the Marwari horse to SSO. There had been lots of requests asking for the horse breed going around social media so I'm excited they were added. I have added them to my horse wishlist and will write a review once I get it.

Explore Jorvik Week 8: August 19, 2020

This week brought back the popular annual Red String Trail Ride. The extra xp and fun encounters on the trail make it a must-do! Will you welcome you're favorite Soul Rider along on the ride, or find a potato falling out of the sky?

New Western tack, boots and hats were added this week as well.

Explore Jorvik Week 9: August 26, 2020

The final week of Explore Jorvik brought a long awaited update: Lisa's House! Read more in the story below.

Welcome Home, Lisa!

Lisa Peterson was finally welcomed to her new home in Jorvik - Starshine Ranch. She has had a lot of craziness happen in Jorvik, and she and her father Carl Peterson are happy to find their new home.

Lisa also set up a beautiful altar at Starshine Ranch to honor her late mother, Xiomara Maria "Xo" Peterson, and we learned that she is Mexican. 

Lisa Peterson is my favorite of the Soul Riders, so I'm so overjoyed to learn more about her. I enjoy her love for music and her sense of style. 

Next Week's Update...

According to the hint on the Star Stable Online News...

 "Coming next week... time to get hyped for the Fort Pinta Festival!" 

 I don't recall there ever being an official festival event in Fort Pinta except the Beach Party, which was removed due to unpopularity last year. 

A Reminder...

Star Stable book series book #2 Soul Riders: The Legend Awakens comes out September 8th! Watch their official trailer  HERE ! 

That's it for this week's Jorvik Star news. 

Stay tuned for more! 

-Ruby Skywalker. 

Thoughts and Theories #1: Soul Riders Book 1

Intro
I finally finished the first Star Riders book and I'm so excited to share my thoughts and theories, which brought me to a new post idea: Thoughts and Theories. Basically each post will have to do with my thoughts and theories on things, whether it's a book or a YouTube video, to do with SSO.

So without further ado...

Thoughts and Theories #1: Soul Riders: Jorvik Calling by Helena Dahlgren.

First, if you haven't read the book, you can find it wherever books are sold, or probably right now in e-books. I have it on my Amazon Kindle fire tablet. 

Second, because this is a Thoughts and Theories post there may be spoilers to the book and the game. 

Thoughts:

First, I love that the story tells about the Soul Riders before they even knew they were Soul Riders. Also I was super excited that Lisa seemed to be the main focus of the first book as she is my favorite of the Soul Riders. I really enjoyed learning more about her story and her personality.

My first question though, since the story reveals more about her dad, will we ever see him in game? Or is he the "Carl" that was seen in the quests in Jorvik City? This will bring me to Theory #1. 

The next thing is about Linda. In the book she's living with her Aunt Amal and her cat Misty. So when will will meet her Aunt Amal? (Theory #2)

We also now know that Anne lives in Jorvik City, in a place called Millionaire's Row (Theory #3) and a little more about Alex's personality.

Lisa and her Dad find a house near Jarlaheim. Where is it in game? (Theory #4)

And last for now but definitely not least: There's a school called Jorvik Academy for the Performing Arts. (Theory #5).

Theories:

1. Where's Carl?: Lisa's dad, Carl, is hired by Dark Core. Why haven't we seen him in game yet? The only npc named Carl with a storyline that's near to it is Carl Edelman, assistant to Mr. Anwir. Except there's no proof that Mr. Anwir or Carl Edelman worked with DC. Also we know that Lisa's last name is Peterson. Wouldn't Carl share the same last name, or did the Peterson name come from Lisa's mom and Carl is Carl Edelman?

2. Where's Aunt Amal?: We've been in Linda's room now. Where's her Aunt Amal? Will we ever see her in game? Or did Linda move out to her own apartment?

3. Millionaire's Row: I'm thinking this place is in Governor's Fall, same place where Anastasia Silverglade lives. 

4. Lisa's House: Unfortunately I don't have much to go by for this, other than Jorvik Stables is close by. So it's either in Jarlaheim or possibly Epona.

5. Jorvik Academy of the Performing Arts: Lisa applies to go this school. I'm guessing because of the saving the world thing she doesn't go. But does it exist, or will it exist in game in some form? Perhaps in Jorvik City, in some type of quest? 

One last mystery now I want to point out: 

The Case of the Missing Dog.

As seen here: 

https://news-uploads.starstable.com/old/news/281/silverglade.jpg

If you zoom in, right next to the town hall, Disco the dog sits on a barrel. You might know the dog from posters seen in Jarlaheim, Jorvik City Mall, and the Fort Pinta Disco. However quite recently Disco no longer sits upon his barrel. Where did the dog go? Why was he there before, and why isn't he now?

More Info on Disco here: 

https://jorvikipedia.fandom.com/wiki/Disco

A small update.

I've been a little behind on posting here lately. I'm deciding to do a couple posts in the future:

Reviewing new horses, and adding pages for them so you can locate their information easily.

My thoughts on the new looks of Jorvik and newly updated horses

My favorite fashion looks on Jorvik... maybe a weekly thing?

My progress on Soul Riding.

Got any more ideas for what I could write about, related to SSO? Write them in the comments!

I'm also definitely going to write my thoughts on the Soul Riders book, so stay tuned for that.

💕🐴🌵🐎

-Ruby Skywalker