Commerce in the Riven Realms is held by the iron grip of Trading Houses through official monopolies or the control of locations that produce valuable goods. A simple merchant who deals in smaller quantities of wares can not begin to imagine what profit these factions work with, especially compared to what the actual manufacturing or harvesting costs. Yet there are considerable expenses involved in these operations, too. If the hardships of travel over the accursed wastelands were not enough by themselves, factions regularly wage bloody wars for resources, mostly in the shadows but often openly as well out on the frontier - and these are astonishingly expensive.

'Ah, Larnak, the city of contradictions. It sits in the middle of the hottest, driest desert of the continent and yet you could not find a more damp and dark place. The reason is, of course, the presence of the vast underground lakes around which the settlement was built. The waters are sacred to the desert-dwelling Sadirar tribes and yet these days the Imperials use them as industrial ponds to grow their precious brightkelp. But that is not the strangest thing to see in Larnak, oh no. For that reason, take in its wonders but tread lightly, good master.'

Should the darkness cruelly whisper,

Call upon a kindly sister

Sister, sister, blood drops glister

Revoke now your cruel dark whisper

- From an Imperial children's rhyme

Kindly Sisters are members of the Nosferatis Sisterhood, a coven of mystics and sorceresses who delve into the deepest, darkest arcane secrets one can think of. The organization is one of the Pillars of the Empire, a religious order that serves the realms in an important capacity, although in the case of the Nosferatis, most Imperials have no idea what this service entails - except that it is most ominous. The wise seem to believe that it involves espionage, magical warfare, and arcane research. Members of the coven worship Bal-Ur-Kaal the Demon Prince and Ahskul, King of the Underworld, which is quite telling in and of itself.

We've got a bit of an announcement on our hands, folks! As it happens, you are about to get a new, previously unannounced companion for your travels in the person of Nedir, the lovely (but cruel) lady you can see on this character art image. It's no easy task adding new companions to the game but it is certainly rewarding to create them - we hope it'll be equally fun to find Nedir and have her as a member of your team. So who is she and what does she do?

Hey Folks,

this patch is a beast in all sense. So many new features and changes have been added that if you ever considered starting a new play-through, this might be the perfect time for it. A shedload of tweaks has been applied to make the early game a little more forgiving (without making the late game easier), and we look forward to your feedback on the direction of these changes.

Hey everyone,

and first of all, Happy New Year! We made it to 2021 at last.

We hope you all had the chance to relax during the holidays. 2020 has been a challenging year for us at Lost Pilgrims as much as for anyone else but it also brought a number of things that we really appreciate.

'They came at night - in the darkness that enveloped the valley, thick as ink. But then pale ghost light appeared and danced all over the carvings of the old tombs. The stink of terror was awful. And then I heard the screaming. Not that of the horrifying specters... but that of my comrades.'

Hey everyone,

first of all, Happy New Year. We made it to 2021 at last.

It's been a while since we posted a devlog entry and we figured that this would be a great time to do so. Today's topic, Dynamic pricing, has been on our minds for a long-long time, and finally, we've decided to pull the trigger on implementing it. To provide a little background on why we need it, let's review what happens in the current build of the game when you go trading.

This week's enemy breakdown post takes a look at he Dark Elf Marauder/Mercenary, one of the newer enemies added to the game. Let's dive in!

As we have previously discussed, these Dark Elven warriors either fight in lockstep formations in their Prince's armies, maraud on the surface at their lord's behest, or serve as mercenaries in the Riven Realms (mercenary variant).

In this week's animation sneak peek, we take a look at Finndurarth, one of the companions you can recruit during Vagrus' main campaign who has become something of a fan favorite. Apart from being generally pleasant to be around, the Dragonmage can also summon devastating lightning strikes and force shields, so no wonder she's popular. In her idle animation, she is casually awaiting action while keeping tempestuous energies at her fingertips.