Hey everyone!

I hope everyone enjoyed the first Chapter of Fire Dance! Fire Dance, and the short stories to come are meant to give you backstory on the nations in the game and many of the main characters. It is a harsh world out there, especially for mages – keeping alive is difficult when the 5 major nations are often at war with one another. Of course, since most nations have assassins, magic and highly trained soldiers, allying yourself with one of the nations will usually keep you alive a little bit longer. As O’in found out, even blood ties can’t keep you alive in Slahor if you wield fire magic, but there are some in the world that do appreciate the good that fire magic can do (or at least, how destructive it can be against your foes). If you haven’t read Fire Dance yet, be sure to check it out here. We’ll be posting up the second chapter of Fire Dance in a couple of weeks where we will be introducing more of Wajanderu and follow O’in as he meets other mages and other people – people that aren’t trying to kill him for once.

Since O’in will be heading to Wajanderu soon, I wanted to show you all some actual in-game screenshots of Wajanderu. Bear in mind that the maps are subject to change, not to mention they might not fit precisely into the game by the time we release.

First up is a small travelling trail through the large forest Herwald near Blauflus. Blauflus is the Wajanderu city which floats on a river on the eastern side of Mount Xue’feng. The Herwald surrounds Blauflus, from north to south and provides protection for Blauflus – enemies that attack are often beset by Wajans in the trees (at least until they burn down the trees). This particular portion of the Herwald is used by merchants travelling to and from Slahor and Kosekya (a nation we’ll see later).

Mount Xue’feng is a massive mountain range similar to the Rockies in North America. Mount Xue’feng splits the continent in half, and ranges from freezing high altitudes to mellow almost tropical hills. A lot of precipitation is trapped on the western side of Mount Xue’feng, which is why a lot of Rupani (on the west of the mountain) is swamp and Slahor (on the east of the mountain) is a desert. It is difficult to travel across the mountain range, although there are a few mountain passes which will go between rest points. The below is one such point high up in the mountains. Since Wajanderu has many citizens from Narsput, and since Wajanderu and Rupani are usually closely allied, the two nations use their magic to keep the pass clear. Narsput citizens moved the mountain earth and bolstered the sides of the mountain to prevent avalanches/rock slides, Rupani moved the snow and Wajanderu keep snow and earth from blowing back into the pass. The joint effort allows caravans to pass through with little trouble or delay, which would otherwise be impossible. The passes through the mountain are based loosely on Noctis Labyrinthus on Mars – cold (for different reasons) and imposing with their sheer cliff sides – you can’t climb out, only keep going forward. With a guide you can get through the mountain, but without…

Do you see the tiny black dots inside of the red circle? That is a hint to the size of Mount Xue’feng and the scale of the task that the three nations have undertaken to shift this tiny part of it without getting anyone killed (usually). This is also the scale of game we’re looking to make, large maps with plenty of room to plan strategy and tactics with large (or small) armies. Perhaps in a defense having people climb high up on the mountain to drop rocks on the enemy’s head could prove to turn the tide in a defensive battle – it would be impossible for them to fight back if the enemy is far out of arrow reach.

This is the size of the actual soldiers in the mountain pass.

Well, that’s it for this week – have feedback or questions? Comment here, or on facebook/twitter! If you like Pyrrhic Victory, help spread the word please with one (or more!) of the buttons below! If you found the tidbits of world lore interesting, we have Nation pages up for Wujanderu and Rupani, and we’ll be adding one for Slahor soon!

-Kyle