Hello everyone,

It’s been quite the year since we started developing Sunfire and Moonshadow, our first expansion. Those of you who’ve been following us know that it is introducing a new vast region to explore with a swathe of new settlements, new enemies to conquer, new stories to be a part of, a large cast of characters, and new quests to complete through which you can make your mark on the continent of Xeryn. That’s not all, however, as the Bronze Desert introduces a central conflict involving three new factions – the Ahari, the Chimera Legion, and the Handjari. The expansion features content approaching half the size of the core game.

As we approach our expansion’s release, the teasers become more granular – but as today’s post would indicate, more expansive, too. We’re stoked to show off the key art for the Bronze Desert and delve into a few of the details regarding the lands. If you’re interested in what we’ve been working on, or if you’ve simply been following along, then you know full well that the events of the expansion take place in the Bronze Desert, called thus for its orange-hued sands.

In this week’s post, we’re proud to present you with one of the more perilous locations in the already conflict-ridden Bronze Desert: Hakhtarast. This sullied oasis and the eponymous town in it are home to a colorful cast of characters – Imperial, Handjari, and Bandul live and work inside its confines. War has seen the settlement beset by the Ahari, engulfing it in a series of ongoing skirmishes, murders, and a bid for control of both the oil operations as well as the once-sacred ponds and lakes. Most Bandul scowl at its ruinous nature, eager to admonish the defiling that has so marred its confines but none go as far as the warlike Ahari.

The teasers just keep coming, and with good reason; we are inching closer and closer to the release of Sunfire and Moonshadow, and we’ve no shortage of intriguing points of interest to share with you. This week features one of the Bronze Desert’s more mysterious locales: the Katharaka Hills. Once covered in a lush forest that surrounded the long-lost Elven ruins of Vaelenesthil, the land here succumbed to the destruction wrought by the Calamity, leaving it in a rocky, barren state.

It’s been a while since we posted an update on the release of Sunfire and Moonshadow, and given our previous announcement in May on aiming to release the expansion in Q3 2023, it’s only fair that we share a project update.

In the last few months, the whole team has been hard at work to set up and fill the huge new region we picked for our upcoming DLC that slowly grew into an Expansion. It’s been a daunting task given the size of the Bronze Desert and our goal to keep the standards we set in the main game regarding engaging storytelling and activities. We wanted to pick a region that was not tied up by existing in-world historical events too much, so we can be more free of those constraints when designing new storylines but that freedom also meant that there were more things to expand upon and work out the finer details of – locations, NPCs, dynamics, and storylines. Overall, it has taken a lot longer to create all the content we set out to but we are finally getting there.

This week we’re excited to share one of the expansion’s most intriguing locales: the Fadhuldak Mountains. Part of the forlorn Brown Mountains spanning the western border of the Bronze Desert, the peaks, valleys, and ranges that make up these mountains are home to beastly denizens mostly, although allegedly there are some wayward people prowling these lands, too.

Wazirhai, an oasis deep in the Bronze Desert, has been neglected and overlooked for a long time – until the Ratharnak Alliance has boldly purchased its exploitation rights. Soon, a fortified encampment was set up so that the agents of the Trading House could easily access the oil reserves under the lakes only to find that no such pockets existed. Slightly disheartened, the Ratharnak decided to stay nevertheless and build up a different sort of operation in this land so far from their beloved Dragonlands.

This week we’re here to bring you another teaser from our upcoming Sunfire and Moonshadow expansion, and this time it is something all but unheard of in the Riven Realms – a settlement virtually saturated with sylvan hues and replete with lush and lively flora and fauna. Revered by many for its serene lakes and verdant life, the oasis of Shahsgabat is a place of wonder and beauty in the otherwise arid wasteland of the northwest.

The Bandul are desert-dwelling nomads native to the Bronze Desert. They live in so-called "sakrets": a couple of families banded together, herding their animals across the arid wastelands of northern Xeryn, between oases they hold sacred and that are integral parts of their roaming lifestyle. If you choose to venture into the northwestern part of the continent, you are bound to encounter them. Whether they will be on your side or your bitter enemies is up to you and the decisions you make in the upcoming expansion for Vagrus.

With our expansion Sunfire and Moonshadow looming ever closer on the horizon, we decided to talk a bit about the most valuable treasure the expansion region has to offer: oil. Yes, indeed. Ever wondered where denizens of the Riven Realms get their precious oil? This week's teaser showcases one of the prime locations where they are found: throughout the Bronze Desert.