ALMIRATHWikiEARLY ALPHA

EARLY ALPHA

The broken world

World

Lands, the places hidden in them, and the fires and benches where you make what you need.

Lands

HearthlandsThe heart of the world around the Cold Hearth, where the envoy first wakes. Mild meadows, oak and birch woods, villages and old graveyards — the gentlest land, though the dark patches of Gloomwood lie within it.

Biomes

GreenwoodDeep woodland of dark oaks and golden autumn groves, close to the Hearth. Mossbacks wander it at night, ravens and spiders haunt the shade, and gold sleeps under the Golden Wood.

Biomes

SunlandsHot, dry country of yellow savanna and open desert, close to the Hearth. Gnoll raiders camp here and nowhere else, and cobalt lies deep beneath the sand.

Biomes

Cold MarchesThe frozen north of the mainland, further out from the Hearth. Spruce taiga gives way to snowfields where the dead knights of Lord Orik keep their watch and the cold itself can kill.

Biomes

The TideThe open sea between the lands, rough with storms. Archipelagos scatter the wide seas around the far lands, out of reach of raft or swimmer, and their islands guard vaults of legend.

The AshA burnt land far across the open sea: ash and basalt, charred trees and smouldering emberstone. Orcs hold it, and star metal lies deep below.

Biomes

The Ashlands

Red MarshThe most dangerous of the far lands: a high, sodden mire across the open sea. Murky water, willows and drowned dead trees, with brimstone crusting the shores.

Biomes

The Swamplands

The DeepThe caves beneath every land. The deeper you go the older the bones: foes grow a rank stronger below 40 metres and two ranks below 90.

Boss arenas

The Great OakHearthlands · Greenwood · GloomwoodA giant oak some thirty metres tall grows in every forest, a hollow at its roots and the Keeper's Stone Table before it. Lay three Tree Seals on the table to wake the Greenwood Warden, the first guardian.The Frost ShrineCold Marches · The Frozen WildsA glowing stone on a small pad, crowned by a ring of ice pinnacles fifteen to twenty metres high. Plant three Banners of Lord Orik before it and the Wraith Knight, the second guardian, steps out of a blizzard.The Bone ThroneGloomwoodDeep in every Royal Crypt a throne hall faces north over a grave slab. Set three Soul Candles on the throne and the Necromancer King, the third guardian, rises from the grave.

Dungeons

The Royal CryptGloomwoodOne to each patch of Gloomwood, at its very heart: a crypt like any other, but with the hall of the Bone Throne opening off its lowest floor.The CryptHearthlands · Greenwood · SunlandsA walled graveyard with a mausoleum whose spiral stair leads down into a two-level crypt. A keeper waits in the altar hall at the bottom, by the sealed chest that holds Tree Seals for the Great Oak.AditHearthlands · Greenwood · SunlandsAn old mine driven into a hillside: a pale spoil heap and a trodden path outside, a dark mouth under heavy timbers. Inside, tidy workings turn rough and open suddenly into a high chamber.DelveHearthlands · Greenwood · SunlandsA living adit, held by those who took it over: goblins, goblin skirmishers and spiders in the galleries, gnolls in Sunlands, and the Foreman guarding the face.Deep LandingThe DeepThe lower level of a living adit, cut where the mountain above is thickest. A headframe marks it on the surface; below wait a dead lift, a gravel vault and the Pit Warden's seal.Glass IsleThe TideAn island whose slopes glitter with crystal druses. Beneath it lie marble halls and a dead lift down to the Broodmother's seal.Storm SpireThe TideA tall basalt needle rising from the sea, with a vault beneath it. Magi hold its ledges, and the Storm Caller waits in the keeper's hall under the spire.Sun RingThe TideA ring of standing monoliths on an island, with a shaft of light down into the vault below. The Sun Warden waits in the hall the sunbeam lights.Blue HoleThe TideA ring of broken arches around a dark, water-filled funnel. Its flooded halls sink deeper than any other vault, down to where the Drowned waits.WreckyardThe TideAn island strewn with the ribs of beached, mastless hulls. In the hold beneath, orcs crew the halls and the Hull Breaker keeps the seal.

Outposts

The Frozen WatchCold Marches · The Frozen WildsA walled fortress of Lord Orik's dead order in the snow: four towers, a walkway along the walls and a commander's house in the yard. Its chest keeps a Banner of Lord Orik.The Pass GarrisonCold Marches · The Taiga · The Frozen WildsA walled gate across a mountain saddle, where the road climbs out of the taiga into the snows. Towers, barracks and cellars line its walls, and magi keep the heights.

Camps

Bone CampGloomwoodNo walls and no tents: only a spot deep in Gloomwood where a band of four to ten skeletons keeps watch together. Half of the bands march with a berserker.Gnoll CampSunlands · The Savanna · The DesertA raiders' camp behind a palisade of stakes, with a campfire and a chest. Gnoll bandits guard it and attack any traveller on sight.Trader CampCold Marches · The Frozen WildsA warm island in the snow: an awning, a counter, lanterns and a campfire where a far trader sits. One stands in every second region of Cold Marches.

Villages

VillageHearthlands · Sunlands · The Open PlainsUp to eleven folk around a square with a fire: cottages, longhouses, farmsteads and a smithy, with a well, tavern, chapel, granary, barn and market stalls.

Shrines

Soul BonfireHearthlands · Greenwood · SunlandsWild bonfires burn across every land, a few hundred metres apart. Each takes you in exactly once: rest, spend your souls, and when you stand the fire is done.Beacon BrazierThe TideA cold brazier on the summit of every isle vault. Once the island's guards are dead, three Tide Shards light it, and it burns forever.

Landmarks

The Cold HearthHearthlandsA ring of stones at the very centre of the world, around a cold blue pit and six dark nests. Almira's envoy wakes here, and here the world shows how much of it has been mended.Sunken RuinsThe TideBroken stone walls on the sea floor, 9 to 44 metres down. A single tide crystal glows inside each, the only way to find them in the dark water.The Seaward LightThe TideA square stone tower, 26 to 32 metres tall, on the mainland shore facing each far sea. Two flights of its spiral stair have fallen, and a cold brazier waits on top.

Islands

Castaway CampThe TideAn awning, a long-dead fire and a chest on a lonely island: all that is left of those who washed ashore.Wreck on the ShoalsThe TideHalf a hull run aground on the shallows of an island, with a chest still on its deck.Tide CairnThe TideA stepped cairn at the water's edge, crowned with a glowing tide crystal.

Crafting stations

WorkbenchStationThe main crafting table, two blocks wide. Almost every recipe needs one; only a few basics can be made by hand.CampfireStationLay raw meat or fish on its corner shelves to roast it; the cooked food drops beside the fire after 12 s. Rain puts an unsheltered campfire out.Campfire with cookpotStationA campfire with a pot hung over it. Cooks stews, soups and hot drinks that need several ingredients; it needs no fuel of its own.FurnaceStationBurns fuel to fire sand into glass, clay into bricks, stone into smooth stone and logs into charcoal.SmelterStationA hotter furnace for metal. Iron smelts with any fuel; silver, cobalt, gold and star ore need Coal or Charcoal.Alchemy TableStationBrews draughts in Empty Flasks: mana, stamina, swiftness, fire protection and underwater breathing.Spinning WheelStationSpins wool and flax into thread. One wool gives two threads, one flax stalk gives one.AnvilStationRepairs gear by combining two of the same item, and tempers weapons, bows and tools with a numbered whetstone plus souls (staves need souls only). Tempering caps at +3, plus 2 for each boss group you defeat. Also forges Iron Plate armor.Smith's BoxStationA portable anvil: place it anywhere and right-click to repair and temper with the same rules as an anvil. It drops back as an item when broken.Enchanting TableStationLays enchantment scrolls onto weapons. Scroll: Bleeding makes every hit of the weapon open a bleeding wound.Tailor's StandStationSews a Plain Cloak and a Paint Bag into a Heraldic Cloak, with a design you paint on a 24×40 canvas.Dye LoomStationPaints your own banners and pictures. Each design uses one Paint Bag; pictures also need a frame of their size.