Important Multiverse-related Questions, Answered:

Who created Duel Monsters? Aerick Estenson, a historical physicist who sought to develop the cards after an unprecedented encounter with a Duel Monster Spirit crippled him.

Who currently oversees Duel Monsters? The Nirvana Foundation, an organization responsible for collecting data and redistributing the resources necessary to Duel globally.

How are Duels held? Using Solid Vision, Duels can take place just about anywhere thanks to the invention of Duel Disks.

Who is the current King of Duels? By technicality, a new King of Duels has not been crowned since the boom of Duel Monsters. However, the current World Duel Champion is Dan Freis.

What year is it? While the year 20XX is a catch-all manner to look at things, it should take place sometime between the 2027 and 2035, if necessary.

Where does ENCORE take place? In Ippon City, where the skies could never be any brighter and new duelists bloom in preparation to challenge the Lunar Duel Tower. Nearby is Marble Island, a home to various talents in search for Estenson’s treasure among many others in an attempt to unravel the mysteries of the world through, of course, Dueling.

Are Legendary Duelists present akin to Arc-V? While dimensional-counterparts could be fitted in by the nature of the concept, it will probably be done on a verse-by-verse basis unless said otherwise, since the ENCORE dimension is meant to mirror the mainline anime and manga continuities.

However, because Arc-V is one of those series being mirrored, albeit a bit spoiler-y, I do intend to utilize video game-only characters in their place as there are peculiar characters and concepts I feel like I could have fun with given the AU nature of ENCORE.

Important In-Universe Questions, Answered:

What is Ippon City, really? As you might have expected, Ippon City is effectively the main city and hub world of the setting so-to-speak. It is based off both DM’s Domino City and Arc-V’s Miami City, boasting a very lax atmosphere and a lot more sand than both by far.

Historically-speaking, it has close ties to Clover City; its sister city that was simultaneously built after a cataclysmic event shook the region to its core and devastated the original city, whose name has faded with the passage of time as the highly advanced Clover City (based on 5D’s New Domino City and VRAIN’s Den CIty) and port-happy Ippon City cast their past self in their shadows. Which is to say, Ippon imports a lot of Dueling Tech from Clover, while Ippon exports whatever extra goods Ippon needs to sustain itself due to the lack of farmland in Clover.

You could say that Clover City is more of a busy industrial city while Ippon City is closer to a tourist town despite having its own Duel Academia.

What is Marble Island? Marble Island is similar to Duel Academy Island in the way a plethora of skilled and gifted duelists are present indirectly on the whims of a large corporation, except any students that are present on the island were roughly handpicked and permitted by their academia’s authority figures to join the hunt for Estenson’s treasure and uncover the secrets of Duel Monsters both on-and-off the island.

While interns/assistant and various big-shots may pop in-and-out as they please to either Duel other talents or join expeditions - apart of the appeal of unraveling the mystery behind Estenson is the lack of evidence he ever died and the nonsense speak in his notes that led curious researchers to a tablet made of unearthly materials and decorated in currently indecipherable symbols that rose from the ground after boredom struck and a custom game gave birth to what is called Expedition Duels.

Expeditions Duels functionally being special duels that uncover and/or decipher runes upon meeting certain conditions. The general rules being a raised Life Point total of 6000, the absence of Main Phase 2, and a double draw at the start of every turn.

What is the Lunar Duel Tower? The Lunar Duel Tower is a mobile variant of other Duel Towers seen in select Yu-Gi-Oh! series (think the Battle Pyramid from Pokemon), specifically designed to break challengers’ limits in their effort to consecutively climb all 13 floors and defeat their respective Duel Masters.

For plot-related reasons, duelists have rarely made to the 5th floor - never mind past the 5th floor, but it is rumored whoever climbs all 13 floors will have their deepest desire granted. And, as such, is seen as a beacon of sorts for duelists worldwide.

What significance is there to the title of Duel King? To be the King of Duels in ENCORE is a complicated matter, but it generally means to carry the prides of everyone you have and ever will face in a Duel. And since the title is typically claimed in a tournament where many of the strongest duelists meet, but the last time anything like that was held was when Dan Freis was in his youth.

Therefore, between his absence in the competitive scene upon becoming World Duel Champion over the decades and the Duel Masters feeling it would be inappropriate to let challengers bypass the gauntlet with a bracket system so soon, the title of strongest is up in the air between both parties and among a plethora of rising duelists.

But it is very likely whoever becomes Duel King will define what it means in the current era.

Are there any monsters world renown in ENCORE? Yes, there is Crimson Tierra, Sophia Gold and Azure Avida: the Star God cards, powerful standalone monsters that borderline guarantee victory when summoned successfully.

The Duel Academia of the ENCORE dimension uses them to similarly divide the ability of duelists as Slifer Red, Ra Yellow and Obelisk Blue, except the color of ranks are rarely referred to in favor of class.

Are there any “Numbers” monsters? Due to Astral and by proxy Yuma’s absence from the main story (which is still a work in progress) no character present I play will have them, since the 1 through 100 Numbers come straight from Astral while the rest are tethered to other characters. Although in a Duel Links variant of the world, that could change depending on how they expand upon the Anna Kaboom event in later entries.

But to kill two birds with one stone, Pendulum Monsters do exist in ENCORE, however the “how” as to how that is possible will be tackled based on a head-canon I have for the Arc-V Manga utilizing a very specific OC to either be involved in their creation or to introduce them themself.

Will Duels use Anime/Manga Cards, Effects, and/or Custom Cards? While I tend to double check any cards in a Character Deck I made to see if an Anime/Manga Effect is present, I also go as far to see when it was last played albeit using the yugipedia to avoid complications between verses.

Which is to say, if it appears in the anime/manga but is later shown again with its IRL Effect, I will use the latest rendition of the card such as using the pre-errata version of Future Fusion for Ryo Marufuji opposed to the equip version shown earlier in GX and the errata we have nowadays. However, I will typically try to avoid using them or writing them in to try and make my character’s choice of cards stand out just a bit more, since spamming Pot of Desires for modern players or Mirror Force for old school players can get rather repetitive after like ten duels.

And while I could easily go on a tangent about Character Deck Creation to explain why Soulburner’s Deck is OP due to how it thematically works compared to someone like Ghost Girl & Go when it comes to how consistency numbs the spice of Duel-writing. It is better I say this:

Custom Cards can be cool, but they can get out of hand very fast, so I would need to implement them on a case-by-case basis, typically with the prior knowledge my partner wants to use them as I otherwise tend to use a lot of IRL cards for the sake of reenacting written Duels on EDOpro without too much worrying about rulings.