This week’s location showcase for our At the Heart of Ruin expansion reveals the Ember Mines, a highly contested site that once belonged to the Dwarves of Dvendar Tharr, but has recently become a den for the numerous scavenger gangs that plague Varnurud. Whether it's sacrificial burnings or the enjoyment of human flesh, these savages are hardly the kind you’d be happy to encounter in the Ember Mines’ depths. No wonder that few go near the site – to do so is to invite death – though the resources within are said to be plenty, and there is talk of far more down the shaft than mere scrap.

It’s about time we brought to your attention one of the most insane gangs of them all in our new At the Heart of Ruin DLC, who call themselves the Cleansing Conflagration. This band of murderers and pyromaniacs are just as likely to lob fiery projectiles your way as they are to parley, so if you're a vagrus who relies on persuasion to get what you want, you’ll not find these madmen particularly amenable.

This week’s article introduces not just another scalding locale where perilous heat is a given, but it is also held by one of Varnurud’s most determined scavenger gangs, the Hollow Men. Dubbed “the Bastion” by its current occupants, the ruin itself is ancient and of Dwarven origin. Following the Calamity and subsequent catastrophes on the mountain, half of its stone buildings were consumed by lava, yet at least for the time being, the rest of the scorched stone structures remain accessible. There is no telling today what the purpose of the ancient Dwarven settlement was but it had sturdy buildings and tall towers that commanded a large swathe of the area.

One of the more (arguably) cultured scavenger gangs of Varnurud, the Sons of the Mountain, take their name from their dedication to the region’s now-extinct Dwarves, lost to the fiery death that consumed the Dvendar Tharr during the Calamity. Gang members identify with and wish to uphold the great Dwarven legacy that they would say echoes through the ages.

We’re delighted to share one of Varnurud’s more inhospitable locales with you this week: Flamescar Cavern. “Delighted to show us something inhospitable?” you might ask. Well yes, because the Cavern itself represents a site of both danger and opportunity. A mere glance at its confines makes clear why so few dare to brave its interwoven passages and caves.

After revealing our trailer for ‘At the Heart of Ruin’, our second region DLC, we’re now ready to share a little more about the new realm you will be able to explore. The first area we’ll look at here is Varnurud, which is one of the traversable parts of the great Mountains of Fire. As harsh and unforgiving as it is, most vagri will spend a great deal of their time here, as they navigate searing magma flows and the seemingly endless hordes of madmen who run roughshod over it.

This week we’re gracing your web browsers and social media feeds with another teaser of our upcoming DLC. These characters belong to another gang that will attack you outright, for the Raptors are hardly a sane bunch. Most follow a descendent of their mysterious leader, who stumbled upon a rogue Wyvern and believed it to be the remains of a divine creature of the skies. In their quest for meaning and purpose, the followers of this founder – considered by many to be blessed – sought to imitate these creatures and themselves become ascendant and escape their earthbound existence.

For today’s post, we’re pushing it further with teasers, and we have one of this writer’s favorites in store: the Hollow Men. The Hollow Men are a gang of warriors, ex-legionnaires, and mercenary criminals, and they have a long history going back to Legio. IX, or “Mortis”, with their story beginning when they lost on the battlefield to Raokan in p.c. 1074.

Countless vagrants, opportunists, bullies, and broken men end up becoming highwaymen and bandits on the forsaken continent of Xeryn. These individuals are often organized into marauding gangs by the more charismatic lowlifes. Liberated tribes, made up almost exclusively of escaped slaves, also roam the Realms, taking what they will and can.

Truly, these men and women are a plague on the Empire, as there are neither enough resources to hunt them down, nor would it be entirely possible due to the many places where they can hide in the wasteland. Also, there seems to be an endless supply of people who end up becoming such lowly criminals.

The Brigand here is one such individual, and one of the first of many enemies the player can come across in Vagrus.