The next character to be revealed is another enemy, although this one can often be encountered as a temporary ally as well: the elemental shaman of the Sadirar people.

The ancestors of the Sadirar survived the Calamity in underground vaults and left those several generations after the catastrophe. Upon going back to the surface, they found endless sand dunes, blinding sunlight, and searing temperatures in place of their dense forests and hills. In their hour of despair, however, the Great Spirits spoke to them and guided them to oases in the cruel desert. These spirits have been worshiped by the Sadirar ever since. Each spirit is the embodiment of an element: Fire, Water, Earth, and Air. Those that communicate with the Great Spirits and in turn command these elements are the shamans. The Sadirar are now a nomadic people who thrive in the deserts called the Searing Plains. They rose above cruel barbarism through spirit worship but are far from docile.

Time for another project update! Seventy-seven days have passed by and even though it was summer - supposedly calmer times - it felt pretty frantic. In the good sense.

A huge Thank You! and wishing all the best to Marci

As your might remember, our previous post started with the news of Marci joining the team to complete his summer internship with us for his degree in software development. Marci has been instrumental to the progress we made on the Codex & Journal functionality and UI, as well as to catching up on our design documents. Now that he has returned to his studies, we wish him all the very best for his goal of finishing his Bachelor's degree. We're pleased to see that he is on the right track to become a great game developer!

Javek is one of our main characters in the Prologue and he'll hopefully make his return in the main game, too. A budding sorcerer with telepathic powers, he can read thoughts, see glimpses of the future, and even cause pain and damage to someone's mind.

His combat phases/poses reflect these abilities. Here's a list of skills the above displayed images are connected to:

It's spring 1990 and I'm in elementary school. My best friend brings a book to school that he reads aloud to a small group of us during our big walks at lunch break. The book has a weird old wizard on the cover conjuring smoke from a crystal ball. More interesting are the illustrations on the inside: intricate black and white drawings of strange fantasy creatures and dungeon locations. The little book is Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson's Warlock of Firetop Mountain, translated to our native language. Most of you probably know that it's a gamebook that you do not read from start to end but in branching numbered chapters that make the story personal and add replayability. Yet they are much more than simple choose-your-own-adventure books because they include a stat and combat system you have to manage throughout the adventure - albeit a really simple one.

The Bruiser returns with some combat phases/poses! These are:

• Cheap Shot (top left): A melee hit that puts a severe debuff on the target. Also, ouch.
• Dodge (top right): Triggers when the Bruiser avoids an attack.
• Bull Rush (bottom left): The Bruiser rushes the target and pushes it back.
• Smack (bottom right): A melee attack against a single target.

The Bruiser is a basic frontline character in the outlaw roster. Though not armored or particularly good at avoiding damage, he is fairly tanky and is able to dish out a lot of pain as well as debuffs and other effects. It can be extremely effective in cooperation with the Brigand and the Slinger.

It's time to share some combat images for the character 'Slinger' (more on him here: https://vagrus.com/news/character-artwork-slinger ).

It is finally time to look at the stats and systems related to the vagrus, that is, YOU, the player's character in the game (aka Leader). You can interact with the Leader UI screen (opened by clicking the leader's medallion in the bottom left) in order to manage said stats and improve your character.

Here's another little character art post. This time, there are four combat poses/phases for the Priest of Sergorod.

It is time for a combat update!

Time for dynamic character combat poses again!

The Executor of Sergorod is in full swing on these images, courtesy of Szonja. The phases are (from left to right):

• Shattering Blow - and armor point reducing attack.
• Block - the Executor uses his shield to block attacks.
• Smashing Blow - a base attack against a single target.
• Idle - Exector stands idle.

More info on the Executor can be found in an older post: https://vagrus.com/news/character-artwork-executor