This week's character reveal is the Orc Marauder. Orcs are popular fantasy characters with many different iterations since their addition to fiction by Tolkien. The Orcs of the Riven Realms are creatures prone to violence, sharing a mystical past and origin but they were created fairly recently. They are tribal in their homeland called Darkmoor but rarely travel in groups when far from it.

It is time for a combat update!

One of the largest continuous desert areas on a continent of many deserts, the Searing Plains spans several provinces that used to be forested regions and fertile plains before the Calamity, but became scorching hot and arid lands of sand dunes and little else. Some parts of the plains have low mountain ranges, rock gullies, or ravines, but, yellow sand dunes and salt flats remain the most common features. A constant, hot wind blows from the East and North, creating sandstorms regularly.

Character Artwork Day!

This time, another enemy that sometimes can appear as an ally: the Sergorodite Priest.

Priests of Sergorod are the lowest ranking but already ordained members of the Church of Sergorod. One of the three new gods of the Triumvirate - the patron gods of the Empire -, Sergorod lords over the spheres of vengeance, anger, curses, grudges, and malevolence. Those who enter the service of the Church usually train as novices to become ordained priests of Sergorod (some of them join the more militant Cult of Retribution or other more obscure sects, though).

This week we have another character art for you: the Executor. These unholy men are enemies in the main game, but the Prologue does give players the opportunity to have them on their team, albeit briefly.

But who are these grim individuals?

Executors are the armed enforcers of the Church of Sergorod. As one of the three new gods of the Triumvirate - the patron gods of the Empire -, Sergorod is known as the god of vengeance, anger, curses, grudges, and malevolence.

After the Dragon Lords arrived and descended upon the broken continent in the wake of the Calamity, they settled down in the middle of the landmass and cast their ancient magic on an area large enough to comfortably sustain their nests and broods. The magical energies crushed the plains and physically elevated the region, molding it into spacious highlands and great mountain ranges, as well as carrying up earth and ore from deeper below, thereby banishing the fallout of the Calamity, making this land fertile once again. Thus, the Dragonlands were born.

Avernum is the most important city in the Northern Searing Plains. The reborn Empire moved back to the scorched and abandoned region soon after the Calamity and found it ideal to settle because of the new resources that can be found in the vicinity: salt, rare minerals, and even obsidian. Thus, Avernum was built at the center of the Smolderbone Flats. The city mostly lacks the religious apparatus of large provincial settlements, but has a fairly large military presence there under the direct control of the Prefectus, its governor. Rumor is that due to its backwater status, the city of Avernum follows Imperial regulations more loosely, and it has become essentially the private kingdom of the reigning Prefectus.

Our next character reveal - and related artwork - is that of the unfortunate mutant Crifta (literally meaning 'feathers' in Imperial). The player meets the cunning archer in the Prologue, where she debuts as a tough enemy. She can be recruited later in the game, however.

Crifta was born named Navassia Degado in the kingdom of Viran. She became an archer in the army of the northern continent after her brother got killed in earlier battles and she felt compelled to avenge him. Captured during the battles for Santo Lucadas in Viran, she became a slave in the Empire. She was forced to be a prostitute for some time in military camps, but in a year or so she contracted the Taint, and after her transformation she was not so attractive any longer. They moved her to a stone quarry near Deven where she was both a worker and a prostitute. There, she joined some slaves who organized an escape into the wastelands; they became fugitives, escaped slaves, but at least they were free.

Hey guys, we've got another location artwork here for you, and a little backstory to match it:

Before the Calamity, Dvendar Tharr was the homeland of all Dwarves on the continent, a kingdom unmatched in technological advancements, inventions, and inventive ambition. One of the most ancient of Dwarven royal lines, the kings of Dvendar Tharr were sympathetic to humans and aided them from as early as the Second Age. The Inventor Kings showed early Imperials the art of metalworking and stonemasonry, helped build their cities, and taught them the art of mining. Dvendar Tharr itself was abundant with metal and precious stones, so much so that in their arrogance, the Inventor Kings of the Third Age forgot the wise ways of their forefathers and started rebuilding their massive stone fortresses and arching bridges purely from iron. 

Sedarias posed mightily on the Patreon high-resolution wallpaper reward back in January 2018. Now it is time unveil him to the public. Enjoy!

Meet Sedarias, one of the characters who can join your travelling company in the game. He is an Imperial human serving the Ordis Negras Solis (the Order of the Black Sun). Sedarias was knighted after a period of squire service under an infamous knight Konarius. Knights of the Black Sun worship Sergorod, God of Malevolence and Vengeance, and Ahskul, God of Death. The Order itself was created to bring the two clergies of these competing new gods closer in cooperation for the good of the Empire. Having been around for over 600 years, Ordis Negras Solis is the first and most powerful of the Imperial knightly orders. Its members are picked from the best soldiers, nobles, and warriors of the Empire.