Dreams of Estorra

, shortened as Estorra, is a Minecraft roleplay series, originally set to premiere on August 5th, 2016. It was officially released on August 7th, 2016. The series was first announced on Aphmau's vlogging channel on June 28th.

On July 6th, following the announcement, Aphmau posted on her social media a "World Tree" concept art by Sean Dillon. This would be the first image of the brand new series.

A teaser trailer was posted on July 22nd, 2016, showing the setting of the series with three characters. Additionally, Aphmau also posted a concept art of the main protagonist on the same day on her social media, resembling her greatly. After the announcement, more promotional and concept emerged for the coming weeks until its debut.

However, the date was changed to August 6th, 2016, so Aphmau and her production team could take a break and relax until the launch.

On August 6th, Aphmau posted an update vlog on her vlogging and gaming channel, stating that the premiere is going to be delayed once again, with the official launch of the series on August 7th. The series is currently labeled as a stagecraft, a new term for series with a script, recorded via cinematic camera, and fully voice acted.

Overview
The series takes place in a video game known as "Dreams of Estorra" or Estorra for short. It focuses on the three protatonists who are Aphmau, Rune, and Simon as they familiarize themselves into this new fantasy world of Estorra.

Like an RPG, the characters take on quest or jobs which are given by EVI's. From there they can either take on the quest alone or form a party to ensure a better outcome. However, precaution must be made as each player have one limited life.

Development and Production
The series has been in the works since the finale of the second season of ''Minecraft Diaries. ''This was first hinted as Aphmau's uploading schedule was missing a slot, which is intended for a roleplay series.

According to Aphmau, new models, skins, characters, and story are being woven into a new world. Characters from her previous series and roleplays will not return.

It is being produced by BluJayStudios, the company Aphmau and her husband Dom started along with her gaming channel. The company primary consists of Aphmau, Dom, Castor, Kristina, Sean, Will and Jordan, taking different roles for the current and upcoming series. Deb was previously announced as a member with her role being a part of the management group. The production team was formed in February 2016 and has been together since. It is going to grow within the coming months as well as more people join the team.

The BlueJay Studios team has known each other during their college years. Aphmau met Sean, Will, and Jordan in college while Dom also met Castor in college.

Previously, Aphmau and Dom took the roles of writing, directing, and producing the content on the gaming channel. However, since the second season of MyStreet, Aphmau, along with Castor and Kristina have been the head writers for the series and Estorra. Dom returns to become the producer of the series and Kristina is also revealed to be the video editor of the production team.

Additionally, Sean, Will, and Jordan are the artist for the series. This group are in charge of creating the concept art, promotional art, and 3D models respectively.

Sean Dillon drew the concept art for the series. This is shown on social media, showing the World Tree and character designs. In addition, Jordan Brantner partake as the promotional artist of the series. The two artist are also responsible for the animated teaser trailer and Minecraft skins for the new characters.

Will, better known as KamiWasa, has been working on 3D models of weapons and instruments for the series. Prior to this, he was also responsible for giving an upgrade on Kawaii~Chan's Minecraft skin by adding 3D cat ears and tail, present since the second season of MyStreet. These upgrades are present in Aphmau, the main protagonist of this series. Additionally, he also created several swords, daggers, lute, and quest board. He showcased these models until the official launch.

Will, on social media, explained that he used Monster Hunter as a reference when designing the current and upcoming weapons. These new weapons are swords, daggers, and axe. On August 14th, Will announced a weapon contest on social media. The contest involves the viewers of the series to draw a weapon of their choosing from either a sword, axe, dagger, spear, or staff. The contest ends on August 20th and the crowned winner will have their weapon featured in the series.

Most of the group are experienced in voice acting. Aphmau has continuously voiced herself in her many series, Dom voiced Aaron, Castor voiced himself (and several characters), and lastly, Will voiced Jeff from MyStreet Phoenix Drop High.

July 24 - July 30
As the series was announced, Aphmau continued releasing promotional and teaser images of the upcoming roleplay series. This chain continued for the following two weeks until the premiere date.

On July 24th, a new image was uploaded on social media. This image was the first to feature the characters in Minecraft skin form. She greatly resembles Aphmau and is at a stance, wielding her signature lavender sword.

The next day, July 25th, a new promotional art surfaced. The picture focused on the three protagonists huddled around a campfire. The group are relaxing while the male protagonist plays his instrument.

On July 27th, Aphmau resumed the chain by showcasing a concept art of the green-haird protagonist. Her name is revealed to be Rune and wields a short sword.

The following day, July 28th, a promotional image of the purple character and Rune leaping trees emerged. The caption on social media says "Sometimes people meet in weird ways!" This hints the origins of their friendship.

On July 29th, a promotional image of the purple character arrived. She is seen wielding her sword once again. At the end of the week, the brown-haird protagonist is revealed to be named Simon. He is seen holding his musical instrument.

July 31 - August 6
To begin the final week, Aphmau released more images centering the main characters. On July 31st, the Minecraft skin of Simon is shown. He is again seen with his instrument and a ledge. Behind him appear to be a foresty area and a market seen below of him. On August 2nd, Jordan revealed an 8-bit art of Simon.

After several days of inactivity on social media, Aphmau and her production crew annouced the series launch would be delayed by one day. On the update, her channel schedule was to be at a pause until the series premiere. This gave the crew more time on the production and a much needed break. With no new videos on the gaming channel, vlogs on her vlogging channel and her friends would be in placed for the time being.

On August 4th, Jordan revealed the promotional image of Rune on social media, the last one of the trio. She is seen winking and waving to her right.

On August 6th, the intended new date, Aphmau and her team created a video on the series delaying again, with the permanent set date on August 7th. On the video, the series suffered glitches from the new technology, causing errors to surface. The update video also included a non-canon puppet play which starred the three core characters. Despite it being canon, some of the parts match with the first episode, such as Aphmau chasing down Rune and enountering Simon at a later part.

Later that day, a new image of a character named Owen surfaced. He is seen wielding a brown revolver and is dressed in a western style clothing. A few hours later, another photo was revealed of two new characters. One is a man reading a book and a woman who appears to be a mechanic.

On Jordan's channel, he explained that the production team did not take the days off, but instead worked on the premiere episode. This resulted on the team to stop producing new episodes of MyStreet and focus on the brand new series.

As of August 9th, several concept art, skin teaser, and promotional art are yet to be revealed publicly.

Characters
Since the release of the tease trailer, only three unnamed characters are shown. The trio arrive at a city, however they stop to gaze at a "World Tree."

These characters are:
 * Aphmau: A dark blue-haired woman wearing purple clothing, silver bracers, and her outfit is outlined in gold trimming. Her most notable trait is her feline-like ears and tail. In social media, she is seen wielding a curved lavender sword. The guard is maroon, the grip is gold, and pummel is brown.
 * Rune: A light-green-haired woman wearing a one piece and brown gloves. Her head is mostly covered with a green hood. She wields two thin, short swords, that resemble a ninjatō.
 * Simon: A brown-haired man wearing an armor with a red-blue color scheme. His armor appears to be like plate armor. Out of the trio, he is carrying an instrument that bears resemblance to a lute on his back.
 * Owen: An EVI with light brown hair turning gray. He wears brown vest, underneath is a white long-sleeve, and blue pants. He uses a brown revolver, matching his western aesthetic. He specializes in giving quest to players.
 * Val: The Captain of the Sentinels and a respected player. She is a young woman with long hair, pale skin, and wears heavy armor.
 * Braxton: An EVI whose job is to heal and cure ailments of players by using his staff.
 * Two unnamed characters were shown on social media. One is a man who appears to enjoy reading books and the other is a woman who appears to have a knack for mechanics.

Episodes
On the update video, Aphmau confirmed that the series would contain about 30 episodes, matching this number with her MyStreet series.

On August 14th, late at night, Dom announced on social media that Aphmau was suffering from a minor internal bleeding and is in the hospital. Although promised of new video on August 15th, she explained on her latest video that there will be no videos at the current time as she takes time to recover.

As of August 17th, Aphmau has been discharged from the hospital and is resting. She will also take a few days off before she can fully recover and start posting videos.

Trivia

 * In Norse mythology, Yggdrasil is the world tree. Yggdrasil is attested in the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, and the Prose Edda, written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson. In both sources, Yggdrasil is an immense ash tree that is central and considered very holy.
 * In the description of the first episode, there is a link for a hero kit. In it are wallpapers, icons, and pixel art for phones and computers. It contains images that were previously released by Aphmau and production team, however it did have new unreleased art located in the icon folder.

Swort Art Online

 * Dreams of Estorra is possibly based on Sword Art Online, a Japanese light novel and anime where characters are placed inside the online VRMMORPG world through a VR headset.
 * In the teaser trailer and first concept art, it shows a massive tree known as the "World Tree, which is similar in Alfheim Online. Both of which are inspired by the Norse mythology.
 * Early in the episode, someone is seen logging into Dreams of Estorra, which draws similarity to the opening of Sword Art Online, where Kirito enters the SAO world.
 * The scene with Aphmau and Rune fighting back the boars parallels that of Kirito gaining experience points by slicing the boar.
 * It was also mentioned that a player only receives one life. Although less extreme, in SAO, if a person died in the game their real body would die as well. Despite the similarities, this is likely from a mode in Minecraft as Ultra Hardcore, where a player only has one life and dying results losing their world and unable to retrieve it. If a person needs to replenish their hearts, they must drink a potion or eat a Golden Apple.
 * After the trio settles into their room, Aphmau "sleeps" in Estorra to logoff from the game. She returns to real life, where she is seen sleeping on her bed with the VR headset on. This is the same as Kirito entering SAO for the first time.

Final Fantasy

 * Since Aphmau is a fan of the Final Fantasy series, it is likely that she took inspirations from the series. There are many similarities to the game Final Fantasy XIV Online, like the title screen, a variety of classes and races, party quests, real time quests and probably more to come throughout the Estorra series. There is also Aetherytes in FFXIV, which is similar to the World Tree in Estorra.