Eight stones hold the valley shut. Seven are still standing.
38 of 81 overworld maps painted · not playable yetThe Wardens cut eight standing stones into the valley to hold something underneath it shut. The stones are failing in order, from the inland end outward, and the land between them gets sicker the closer you walk to the break.
You play a Warden: one class, sworn to the order that raised the stones. Everyone who logs in starts the same way, and what you become is what you wear and carry. Walk the road inland, cross the drowned causeway, go down into the mines where the digging started, and settle arguments in the Ring.
The whole overworld as it will be when the fill plan is built: nine maps across, nine down, numbered the way the editor's Map Grid numbers them.
This is the picture players get when they type /map: the same painted world in a parchment frame, with a compass, a scale bar and the names of the new places. It opens full screen and closes with a click.
The places already built are unlabelled until they get their final names. The Warden's Ring, the Sunken Causeway and the Emberhollow mines sit off this grid and are reached by warp, which is why they have their own pages.
One class. Everyone who logs in is a Warden of the order that raised the stones.
Steel helm, a tabard dyed the grey-blue of the stones, and the order's ward rune on the chest in gold. The Warden carries nothing in the base sprite on purpose.
Every item in the game is for you. Nothing drops that belongs to someone else's class, and nothing in the Ring comes down to which class you rolled.
Weapons and armour go on the paperdoll layers, which draw over the base sprite. The sword you see is the sword you are carrying, and it changes when you change it.
The Wardens raised the stones and still keep the Chapter House in Stonecross. The questline follows what the order has been doing since.
A colosseum built across four maps. Two gates face each other over a sand floor with a ward circle in the middle, and the stands go all the way round.
Teams wait in the halls behind the two portcullises and come out onto the sand together. The floor is open in the middle and broken up by obelisks round the edge, so there's cover if you want it and none if you don't.
All four maps are arena maps, so a loss costs you nothing but the fight. The stands are part of the same maps, which means anyone watching from the front row can be hit. Sit further back.
Two nine-map blocks already in the editor and reached by warp: islands strung along a drowned road, and the dungeon under Emberhollow.
A paved road runs across open water, island to island, with one span fallen in. Spurs lead off it to the islands north and south, and the Sunken Stone stands on the northern one, reachable only at low tide.
The Fenmother surfaces here on a forty-five minute timer, and everyone on the road finds out at the same moment.
The Sunken Stone. Half drowned, and there's a cavity in it the size of a barrel where something was cut out.
Drifts and galleries around a central shaft, with lava seeping up through the floor in four places. The shaft was driven straight through a stone's roots, which is why everything above ground is failing.
Foreman's Deep is the first party instance. The crew won't go down the deep shaft, and at the bottom there is no ore at all. The Ledger Office holds the shipping ledger, and the questline turns on whose name is in it.
The Root Stone. Never reached. Its roots were cut through by the shaft.
Both blocks are rendered tile for tile from the game's own map data, the copy from 17 September, so they show exactly what the editor holds. Neither is linked to the overworld yet.
Eighty seconds, with sound. Every shot comes from the game's own renders and sprites, and the score was written for it.
The camera moves over the painted world map, the Sunken Causeway and Emberhollow blocks as they sit in the editor, and the Warden's Ring. The stones are the in-game sprites, and the Warden walking is the real sheet. The only things added are light, dust, embers and the words.
What exists, what's being built, and what has to be true before anyone can play.
38 of the 81 overworld maps are painted: the walled city, the harbour, the valley, the north-east farms and the south coast.
Both nine-map blocks are in the editor. They still need linking to the overworld and filling with mobs and events.
A new skin for the HUD, bars, hotbar, chat, bags and every window, drawn to match the world.
43 maps to paint from the fill plan: the North Pass, the Highland, the Greenwood, the Ford, the Orchard, the coast road and the western sea.
Four maps from the layout on the Ring page, with spawns, gates and the arena rules switched on.
A corner map that follows you, with dots for other players, your party and NPCs.
Five people who have never seen the game, one hour on the live server.
There's no download here because there's nothing worth downloading yet. The server isn't public and there's no test weekend to sign up for. Before that changes:
This page will keep saying no until there's something to say yes to.
Three people, a free engine, and a community tileset.
Creator. Gear and drops, mobs, spells, animations, the Warden, and bugs anywhere.
Maps, dungeons, the warding stones, warps and the map grid.
Quests, quest-givers and vendors, the tutorial, and everything the player is told.
Ascension Game Dev. Client MIT, editor and server GPLv3.
The Intersect Community Graphics Pack by George, PixelFox, Zetasis, Aesthetic, Murdoc and Jack Soda, licensed CC BY 4.0. Every tile in the renders on this site is their work.
Made for this project: the Warden sheet, the warding stones, the painted world map, and the trailer and its score.
Cinzel, Lora and IBM Plex Mono, from Google Fonts.