Deep beneath the broken earth of the Mountains of Fire, there exists a subterranean realm where amber crystalline growths, fungal forests, ancient Dwarven roads, lava-rivers, and long-abandoned mines await intrepid explorers. It is a perilous world full of secrets, wrapped in near-boundless gloom, and it leads every which way one can imagine. And yet, dear traveler, these things are not all that await interlopers.

Today’s lore post is focused on the Dwarven kingdom of Dvendar Tharr, and it’s connected to At the Heart of Ruin’s release thematically, which has seen players venturing deep into the Mountains of Fire. A place which, long before the Calamity struck, was a bastion of brilliance, ingenuity, and innovation. Perhaps most importantly, Dvandar Tharr is not a place so easily shown in one expansion, as much as we would like to. It is an entire region with a rich history of ascendance and, subsequently, peril. Moreover, it is easily among the most difficult places to traverse due to its terrain and insane natural conditions.

Like most years, 2025 has been a year of ups and downs, but certainly at Lost Pilgrims, it’s been a satisfying year full of releases and interactions with our community. We’re happy to put the year behind us and welcome 2026, but today we’re going to do a bit of a retrospective on the past 12 months or so. If that sounds like your bag, stick around. We’re going topic by topic, and there’s a lot to talk about!

We’re excited to announce that At the Heart of Ruin, the second expansion of Vagrus – The Riven Realms, is now available on Nintendo Switch!

We’re excited to finally reveal that At the Heart of Ruin will arrive on Nintendo Switch on December 22. It is the last platform to receive the expansion due to its longer approval process, but that extra time worked in everyone’s favor. Drawing on the wealth of feedback from players across all other platforms, we’ve been able to refine, tweak, and polish the experience even further.

Hey everyone,

This update not only brings another round of fixes and tweaks, but also adds a lengthy quest called “The Gangs of Varnurud”, changes a location in the expansion, and introduces Fog of War to certain parts of At the Heart of Ruin.

Shoutout to Trese Brothers on Cyber Knights: Flashpoint

Before getting into 1.260, we’d look to mention our good friends at Trese Brothers, who’ve just hit a big milestone for their tactical RPG, Cyber Knights: Flashpoint, released earlier this year, while also running a sale. This deep tactical RPG puts you in charge of cyberpunk mercenaries, sending squads on tense heights amidst the megacorps and crime syndicates of the 23rd century. Like Vagrus, it’s a challenging, complex game. It’s not an open world experience or narrative-focused, instead mixing hand-crafted content with clever procedurally generated systems and a huge variety of character build options, for extreme replayability. If you like games like XCOM or Shadowrun, this one’s worth a look!

Players’ reactions to At the Heart of Ruin are coming in hard and fast, and we’re delighted to see how our community is interacting with the expansion, providing praise, feedback, and articulate criticism, as well as reporting the bugs they find. Apart from tackling these, we’ve already started planning what follows – more on that later – and tying up some loose ends.

‘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?’

We are absolutely stoked to announce that our expansion, At the Heart of Ruin, is finally OUT! As usual for us, the project’s scope was vast, and after putting as much as we could into it, be they stories, features, locations, factions, artwork, enemies, or rewards, we’re proud of what we’ve achieved and excited to see what you make of it!

In the leadup to the release of At the Heart of Ruin on the 22nd of October (accompanied by the Ruinous Supporter Pack), we’ve already talked about new mechanics and features, like the updated throw-out or Exploration Encounters, but we thought it’s also time to touch upon the narrative and graphic art side of things.