Varnurud, the stage that most of At the Heart of Ruin plays out on, is a varied realm of ruin, past glory, and faded splendor. The kingdom of Dvendarr Tharr, now mostly referred to as the Mountains of Fire, has a great deal of Dwarven infrastructure; ruins of stone are most plentiful. Although most of it has crumbled to rubble or dust in the wake of the Calamity, there are those jutting edifices that yet endure – old watchtowers, cracked roads, small forts, great staircases, and massive walls only a few among them. One does not have to look far and wide.

Today we’re taking you underground, into a realm obscured to most inhabitants of Xeryn. Beneath the broken sprawl of the Mountains of Fire lies a labyrinthine network of cyclopean tunnels: the roads of the ancient Dwarven kingdom of Dvendar Tharr. During Xeryn’s Third Age, before the Calamity wreaked untold havoc, these passages were used for trade, marching armies, and all manner of other activities. In fact, the majority of Dwarves during the period favored them over paths above ground. Small fortresses stood at important crossroads or straddled major causeways, and by now, many of them have crumbled to rubble.

‘I say: Dwarves! I’ve seen ‘em pass through ‘ere. Folks say they went up the way of the old fort inside the mountain, they did. Whass their business – nobody knows. Maybe in cahoots wif the Elves there? Aye, armor black as night, eyes aglow with malice, I tell ya. Murka said so, ‘fore he died. Poisoned, the poor wretch. Told ‘im not to go to Dum bloody Garok, but he was starvin’. Or uh… might’ve been the spiders, you see. Maybe them Dwarves are in cahoots wif ‘em? Anyhoo, are ya eatin’ that?’

Every once in a while in the debilitatingly hot locale that is Varnurud, the ground rumbles. Indeed, earthquakes are frequent to the point of becoming one of the most common sources of peril. But when the ground opens up, revealing an ancient Dwarven town, it’s really something special.

Gorge Town, the “creative” name the local scavengers have come to call it, represents one such special occasion, and today we’re eager to show it to you. It’s just one more place that you might find yourself delving into in our At the Heart of Ruin expansion via the new Exploration Encounters, and if you’re lucky, you can perhaps recover veritable treasures.

Another week, another location teaser for the upcoming expansion! This week we’re bringing you one that was already featured in our At the Heart of Ruin trailer: the Fallen Tower.

Unsurprisingly, Varnurud is home to many settlements, fastnesses, and facilities once occupied by Dwarves and their Inventor Kings during the last centuries of the Third Age of the Riven Realms. Since mines were common, so too were satellite towns, of which Ember Town is one.

What makes a great set of stairs, you might ask? Well, that’s a tough question, we say. In our At the Heart of Ruin expansion, there are many sets of great stairs, but only one is called the Great Stairs – at least that’s what the locals would say. Whether those locals are bloodletting miscreants who worship an unknown entity that demands depraved sacrifice, madmen who delight in the act of burning themselves and others alive, or men who believe themselves to be beasts after discovering a dead Wyvern that they thought was a divine creature of the skies, that’s what they would say. There are other… more cultured locals, of course – even ones that’ll talk to you – but they each share a different brand of insanity. Enjoy, we say.

One of the best things about our upcoming expansion is the sheer number of fearsome foes one will be able to bump into. So this week, we’re going to show you one of our favourites: the Basilisk.

The fearsome Basilisk is a creature of legend that exists across countless worlds and mythologies, evoking dread in even the staunchest of warriors and adventurers. In the Riven Realms, these reptiles began to make their appearance in Xeryn’s Fourth Age, some time after the Calamity tore the realms asunder. Found only in the Mountains of Fire, some say that they are sluggish lizards, yet the truth is that they can be both cunning and lightning-fast when under threat.

Today we’re paying homage to those holds, forts, and fastnesses that the Dwarves – at least those that lived prior to the Calamity – created all over their domain. It’s no secret that such bastions were symbols of Dvendar Tharr’s craftsmanship, military prowess, and ingenuity; indeed, the last of these (especially ones above ground) were the focus of the Inventor Kings. But more than anything, these fortifications speak to a prouder Dwarven past, one that endured until fire and destruction never before witnessed tore it asunder.

This week we’re coming to you with another teaser, this time of the elemental variety. As you might know, the elements, specifically fire and earth, are closely tied to our At the Heart of Ruin expansion, and the proliferation of elementals that personify these elements comes about largely because of the spirits of these lands, destined to suffer and be consumed by rage. This is the sad legacy of the Calamity.