Ethyrial, Echoes of Yore News

December Devlog

This month we’ll be taking a deep-dive into our Summoning system and just how that’s going to function, touch base on our founder packs set to release soon, and then we’ll also go through our T2 Arcanist Vocations.


Summoning

In a previous devlog, we covered the two primary ways of using magic to control an inanimate (or animate) object. One was through infusing raw magic into something like a suit of armor to make it move, with limited “pre-programmed” behaviors, and the other was to infuse the living essence of creatures (necromancy). While the latter is very frowned upon in the world, there are plenty of options for summoning things legally! An example of this would be something like the Ranger’s spirit companion: the Spirit Wolf.





The Ranger’s spirit wolf is a magically infused companion made available to them through their attunement to the spiritual world. Other types of summons are obtainable for players though, and one vocation highlighted below makes heavy use of them, the Infuser.

So, what do we do differently with summoning as opposed to other MMORPGs? Well, one big difference is that we want the use of your summons to be an active and deliberate endeavor. Infusers have specialized companion spells which they activate through their summoned armors, and Rangers can invoke powerful abilities from their spirit wolf by utilizing their own buffs. While Rangers have only one spirit companion, Infusers can learn to summon several companions, and each of these will have its own unique abilities for the Infuser to utilize.

Vocations

In our last vocations post, we took a look at the rogue ascensions: Assassin and Shadowblade. This time, we will look at the Arcanist ascensions, and then for our next Devlog, we will cover all the ascensions of the Archer vocation.


Elementalist

“Fire, Lightning, Frost… Oh, the fun you can have.” Elienna Alithyr, Elemental Sage




Elementalists aspire to master the destructive powers of Fire, Lightning, and Frost magic. A master Elementalist learns to control their foes with their expert control using frost spells while wiping them out with powerful fire and lightning.

Elementalists seek to take down anything in their path and have many spells that revolve around damaging multiple enemies. However, their single-minded focus on elemental destruction leaves them susceptible to attacks, and Elementalist players will quickly learn that controlling a fight will be important for their survival.

Shadowcaster

“Take control over the shadows’ power and use them to drive your foes mad and wreak destruction!”
Maelron Tolinar, Shadowcaster.



Shadowcasters hone the sinister nature of shadow magic to bring destruction upon their foes. Their spells are capable of corrupting the minds of enemies, blinding them, and banishing them to the shadows.

As Shadowcasters utilize their destructive powers, they eventually reach a transcended shadow form, from which all their spells are enhanced. Shadowcasters tend to lack in unique debuffs and buffs, however, and mostly focus on dishing out big damage numbers both AoE and single target.


Infuser

“Why do all the work yourself? Little magic here, little metal there, and boom! You’ve got yourself a companion to do all that dirty work.”
Maelron Tolinar, Shadowcaster.

Infusers utilize their knowledge of Arcane Magic to summon infused constructs that do their work for them. Infusers early on learn to control two minions simultaneously, and these minions utilize the unique summoning system that we have in Ethyrial. Each minion has their own spells and abilities controlled by the player, and Infusers have a special resource that allows them to unlock special abilities for their minions.

Infusers are weak without their constructs though, as they possess limited offensive and defensive capabilities on their own, so controlling your minions will be the key to success!



Founder Packs

We have been looking to launch Founder Packs around this time of year to give our community a chance to net themselves some sweet deals before the game’s launch. We will be launching these packs this month (December) but do not have a set date at the moment. However, we are at the final stages of their prep work and will be ready to release them soon. You can expect discounted subscription times, unique cosmetic rewards, and in-game + Discord titles. Additionally, there will be a lifetime supporter pack in which a lifetime subscription is granted, and this will be the only time these can be acquired. These packs are set to be purchasable up until the game’s launch date (late April).

Previously, we have stated that we do not wish to rely on our players to fund the launch of our game, and that statement still stands. We have our development budget for the game sorted out, so the purchase of founder packs is in no way mandatory for our players, but are more a way to show early support for the game. These packs provide NO in-game advantages such as early access or any in-game items that are non-cosmetic. If you do not wish to purchase a founder pack, you can simply wait for the game to release and then purchase a subscription, which is all that is required to play the game.

Make sure to join our Discord server and follow us on our Twitter to be notified whenever these founder packs drop!

Peace!

Amar Duranovic
Game Director

Another month, another devlog! This month we’ll be giving a sneak peek into our Caravan System and just how that’s going to function, and then we’ll also go through our T2 Rogue Vocations.

Local Economies

In Ethyrial, all economies are localized. What this means is that your bank in City 1 is not synced up and shared across your banks in other cities. Furthermore, each town within Ethyrial has its own internal economy which affects the pricing of goods, stock, and general availability of items. This is done purposefully to create a player economy where supply and demand across various zones actually matter. Pairing this together with the fact that there is no way to transfer materials through fast travel (teleport-based fast travel only lets you bring equipped gear), you suddenly have a world economy where the actual transfer of goods has a value in and of itself.

Barring the obvious that you could lumber your way across the continent with your packs full of however many goods your carrying capacity will allow you to, there is a much more practical approach to transferring goods between towns (and other players) within the game. This is where the caravan system comes into play!


Caravan System

Caravans within Ethyrial constantly fill its roads with valuable goods from both NPCs and players alike. These caravans spawn from various trading posts across the continent, and each of them has an end destination and checkpoints they stop by before getting to said destination. By approaching one of these trading posts, players can request to have goods loaded onto a caravan and sent to another tradepost either for themselves to pick up, or to be picked up by another player:


Outside of manual travel by players, this is the only way to transfer goods between towns, and there are various types of caravans that exist within the world. Some caravans might only hold minor goods from NPCs and some players, whereas other caravans might be royal caravans that hold items of the nobility being transferred. Now some of you might be wondering if caravans are completely safe, and the answer to that question is: Depends.

Royal caravans with valuable goods are protected by high-level elite guards which will prove a difficult challenge to even the most infamous of criminals. And when it comes to player caravans, well, those might be protected by either the players themselves or a retinue of guards hired to protect the caravan until it reaches its destination. However, all caravans are protected by the law. The raiding of any caravan is seen as an act of transgression towards the kingdom and will grant you infamy, regardless of the type of caravan you raid. Should you happen to achieve the mischievous task of clearing a caravan of its guards, the pack animals will scatter and the loot will be left for you to pillage!

Vocations

In our last vocations post, we took a look at the Druid, Priest, and Enchanter. This time, we will look at the Rogue ascensions, and then for our next Devlog, we will cover all the ascensions of the Arcanist vocation.

Shadowblade

“Infusing the powers of shadow with our martial talents make us unpredictable… And deadly..”
-Zenia Theraz, Master Shadowblade



Shadowblades infuse shadow magic within their martial fighting style in which they dual-wield weapons. Shadowblades are adept at weakening and confusing several foes at once while picking out a singular target that they wish to take out.

Shadowblades take on an aggressive damage role in a fight and seek to singularly eliminate opponents while confusing and weakening other nearby enemies. Their rotation revolves around building up stacks of infused shadow which eventually unleashes into a powerful shadowform that augments all of their abilities.

Assassin

“Nothing solves a conflict better than some nicely prepared poison, or a sharp dagger to the heart.”
- Relanyr Waren, Royal Assassin.

Assassins rely on their martial skill and the use of poisons to take out their enemies. They specialize in one-on-one combat and carry a handful of utility within their kit to keep them out of sticky situations. When the time is right, assassins can strike at their enemy to bring them down efficiently.

That’s all we have for this devlog, everyone! Another fun thing to share before signing off is that founder pack sales will be made available very soon.

Peace!

Amar Duranovic
Game Director

Hello everyone, I hope you are doing well!

We have decided to start a fun little community engagement with you all in which you will get to post your concepts or ideas for a boss-fight over in our Discord!
The way this is going to work is that anyone is allowed to post the idea/concept of one boss per post, up to a maximum of 3 posts. After that, you can check the forum post from time to time and vote the thumbs-up emoji on your favorite suggestions!

This competition will last until 11/14/2022. Then we will pick out a winner from among the suggestions which we will then design LIVE on Twitch.tv/ethyrialmmo at 11/15/2022.

We are super excited to see your suggestions, and also excited to get back on Twitch to stream a bit of live-dev to you all! 🤓

Also, note that the selected winner will also be IN-GAME. You will get to see your idea and concept come to life in Irumesa itself!

Peace ✌️
Amar

Hello everyone! You know what time it is… It’s Devlog time! For this one, you are provided with a brief overview of the different professions which will be available at launch, which is under 6 months away now! Additionally, we will cover the remaining Mystic ascensions (Enchanter, Priest, Spiritualist) and also go through the lore behind infusion and necromancy.


[h2]Profession Overview[/h2]

In Ethyrial, we take our professions very seriously. For each of us in Gellyberry Studios, gathering and crafting have been about as much of a game in its own right as the rest of the content in an MMORPG. While there have definitely been some crafting systems we have enjoyed throughout the years, we felt that crafting was never as impactful in any of the MMORPGs we played as we wanted it to be. A quick example of this can be tied to the player gear of course, where top-level gear is usually obtainable through end-game content such as dungeons and raids. Crafting gear always just served a purpose of a “baseline” you could craft and achieve before delving into other content to upgrade your character. Well… That’s not how it’s gonna work in Ethyrial. In Ethyrial, the highest skilled and dedicated crafters will be able to create gear on the same level as the highest available content. Of course, getting to this level of crafting as well as the materials for achieving such a feat will be extremely difficult, and only reserved for the most dedicated of crafters, but that’s part of what makes it magical.



Additionally, we wanted to make it so that professions have an effect on the world itself. It always felt kind of dead to us that players would craft hundreds upon hundreds of items solely to reach a certain skill level, then only to have “peaked” their crafting and have nothing more to do with it for the rest of the current content tier. In Ethyrial, crafters will be important for a multitude of reasons throughout the world. Villages and Towns might have crafting tasks in which they are seeking craftsmen to strengthen their prosperity or defenses, Raids and Dungeons might have special events or pre-phases to them that require certain materials or craftsmen to mitigate mechanics or damage, and people throughout Irumesa will have use for skilled crafters and gatherers for a variety of other things.

These are the professions that will be implemented for release:

[h3]Crafting[/h3]
Alchemy
While the primary focus of alchemy is creating potions of various effects, we wish to also use alchemy for transmutations and other effects to further enhance its usefulness. Additionally, we are making a lot of different consumables that have unique effects, instead of just solely providing stat boosts. Potions that provide light, dragon-breath potions, and many more!

Blacksmithing
It’s pretty much near impossible to imagine a fantasy game without some sort of blacksmithing system. Blacksmithing mainly focuses on the creation of metal-based weapons and armor, but there will also be some miscellaneous items needed for other professions. You can pretty much imagine that anything requiring some form of metalwork will potentially need a blacksmith to assist. Examples of this could be a bronze statue for a guild hall or miscellaneous items used in other professions.

Construction
This profession encompasses everything tied to player housing. From the construction of actual infrastructure to the creation of furniture. While some specialized pieces will tie in with other professions (such as blacksmithing for massive statues, or leatherworking/tailoring for intricate carpentry and whatnot), this profession will still be the general skill of your character to build things. While player housing is a massive part of the game, there are also applications for Construction for non-player cities and towns as well. Players with high enough reputation and construction will be capable of partaking in building projects within NPC towns as well to further enhance those towns.

Cooking
We are very excited about cooking for Ethyrial. Food buffs will be a massive part of the game, and the way you improve as a chef and discover new recipes using exotic ingredients is going to make cooking a very interesting profession for those who choose to focus on it. While a lot of recipes can be conjured around a fire, some more exotic ones will require the chef to have access to better facilities and the knowledge of how to prepare and create special types of ingredients.

Fletching
The primary profession for crafting bows, staves, wands, and scepters. However, for magical weapons such as a staff, wand, or scepter, there are special requirements and steps a fletcher must go through to complete them. Through their woodworking skills, fletchers will also provide some crafts that are valuable to other professions.

Leatherworking
Any crafted leather-based armor will pass through the hands of a leatherworker. While providing well-balanced armor is of utmost importance, leatherworkers can also find jobs tied to rugs, special cloaks, or other types of crafts.

Tailoring
Cloth-based armor, intricate carpets for houses, or a magnificent guild banner. When it comes to working with cloth, a Tailor is who you go to.

[h3]Gathering[/h3]
Fishing
Fishing in Ethyrial follows various rules. Each lake can hold different fish, and there is a difference between salt and fresh water. Additionally, geography plays a significant effect, and so do seasons, time of day, and a multitude of other factors. Some fish might only be available under the light of a certain moon, whereas other fish can only be caught in the springtime. As a result of this, avid fishermen who learn the seasons and weather, as well as find the most unique fishing spots, might come out on top as the most reputable (and richest) anglers!

Herbalism
The obvious use for Herbalism is to pick the various herbs available across all of Irumesa, but it is also how you gather hemp, flax, cotton, and other types of materials used for Tailoring. As such, herbalists are important for alchemists and tailors alike.

Mining
Irumesa is filled with various minerals hidden within rocks. A miner is skilled at extracting these minerals from said rocks and then refining them. While Irumesa has the standard minerals you might come to expect (Copper, Tin, Iron, Coal, Silver, Gold), it also features some magical metals and minerals which exist due to the infusion of various titan energies in the rock. These energies can occur in a variety of ways, but a common one is asteroid impacts that hold some sort of energy infused by the titans themselves. As with fishing, some of these could be seasonal, and some might even require special types of items to be harvested.

Skinning
Skinners can skin live animals and process their furs/pelts into various types of leather or similar. While processed leather is used for many different types of things (leatherworking being an obvious example), master skinners can also learn to skin some more exotic and unique animals for interesting materials such as dragon scales or unique types of pelts and furs.

Woodcutting
Although most people can put in the effort to cut any common tree in a forest, woodcutters are obsessed with finding rare and unique trees that only they have the skill to harvest and process. The progressional path of woodcutting follows the same style as the other gathering professions, where the rarer and sturdier trees are mostly just available to players who have progressed their skills in woodcutting to a high degree.

That’s it for the various professions available at launch. A profession we are sad to see go for now is Enchanting, which will be used for infusing gear and also magical materials down the line. However, we wish to take our time with it to make it a truly unique and interesting system, so as a result, Enchanting will instead become a part of a major patch, or potentially the first expansion.

[h2]Vocations[/h2]

In our last vocations post, we took a look at the Cultist and Warden. This time, we will look at the remainder of the Mystic classes, and then for our next Devlog, we will cover all the ascensions of the Rogue vocation.

[h3]Priest[/h3]

“The Great Flame burns in us all, fellow believers. We are at its mercy, but also its grace. It seeks to protect those who revere it, and it is our duty to spread its love and grace throughout the land.”
Theoril, High Priest of the Grand Temple of the Flame

Priests are devout followers of The Great Flame and gain their magical powers through invoking its name. Typically, priests are trained in magics that help treat the wounds of allies, but they are not to be underestimated in combat, as a priest can bring the divine wrath of the Great Flame upon their enemies.

Priests are considered to hold a supportive role in a fight, and primarily focus on keeping their allies healed up and cleansed of any ailments. Their offensive rotation revolves around building up marks of the great flame on the target, which unleashes a nova of healing energy upon reaching a certain number of stacks. Their primary healing rotation revolves around powerful single-target heals and defensive cooldowns in order to keep their ally at their strongest.

[h3]Enchanter[/h3]

“If you think the elements only hold power in destruction, you are missing out on the true potential of mastering them. We have learned to use the elements to aid our allies in battle and unlock their true potential.”
Liendra, Archmage.

Enchanters are essentially elemental mages who have chosen a path of mastery in air and water to enhance themselves and their allies. They have also tapped into the rejuvenating properties of water in order to heal their allies.

Enchanters significantly buff their allies through the use of enchantments that infuse an ally's weapons or body. Enchanters are also capable of direct healing, but their true strength lies in damage mitigation and buffs for allies that ensure they can keep the fight going with as much power as possible. Their deep understanding of air and water magic also gives them tools to weaken their enemies and keep themselves in battle.

[h3]Spiritualist[/h3]

“To live without the spirits is to live in silence. The spirits make our world the vibrant and beautiful place that it is, and without them, we would be lost.”
Alaria, Spiritualist of Angfen Grove

Spiritualists are powerful casters who attune themselves to the spirits in order to unleash their magic. As is in its nature, spirit magic is adept at rejuvenating allies while weakening foes, and if forced to it, Spiritualists can harm enemies with their spirit magic directly.

As a spiritualist in a group, you seek to mend your allies’ wounds and keep their spirits cleansed. Your primary healing rotation revolves around growing a seed of life in an ally, which can be spread to other nearby allies as well. This gives Spiritualists a very powerful AoE healing kit, but managing your cooldowns and seed growths will be important. Your core damage rotation revolves around unleashing powerful spirit magic on your foes to damage and weaken them.

[h2]Essence - Infusion and Necromancy[/h2]

A lot of players on our Discord have been curious about how Necromancy works in Irumesa. We thought we’d give you a little deep-dive into just what essence is, and how this can be manipulated to create a very unique form of necromancy.

First of all, the essence can from a simple perspective be viewed as a person’s soul or DNA. Each living thing has an “essence” tied to it, and upon death, this essence is released and then the person can rest. Since essence essentially is energy, powerful casters can take this essence and imbue it within another physical object in order to impart its “DNA” over to that object, allowing you to essentially raise something like a Skeleton with the same magic capabilities as a sorcerer who was slain. However, since this new entity is not a living breathable thing, a constant infusion of mana is needed in order for it to perform its actions.

It is also possible to infuse magic into things without requiring someone’s essence, but then you are essentially programming the entity's behaviors from scratch and giving it simple instructions, whereas an essence-infused construct would have a general sense of abilities and behavior.

In Irumesa, it is firmly believed that once something dies, its essence is released, and that process is vital for the dead entity to actually rest. As a result of this, using the essence for infusion is a strictly prohibited practice that is seen as incredibly taboo across the kingdom, and not to mention incredibly difficult. However, there are ways to dabble in this art and develop necromancy for your own characters, but this is a very high-level magic that is seen as banned across the kingdom, so casting any of its spells in the vicinity of other people is sure to make you an infamous criminal. But, again, it is possible (and definitely tied to a tier 3 ascension).

That’s all we have for this Devlog! Hope you found this exciting and make sure to go join us on Discord to discuss anything related to the game or otherwise.

Peace!

Amar Duranovic
Game Director

Hello everyone! We are back at it again with another devlog. This time we will go through what the difference between quests and tasks are, how you can expect them to be in the game, and what makes them different from other MMORPGs. Additionally, we will be doing our Vocation Deep-dive at the end of this section, where we will be covering the Cultist and Warden!

[h2]Quests and Tasks[/h2]

In most MMORPGs, quests are used to progress the player through levels by granting experience and gear, and typically they have a linear progression pattern in which you complete quests for one zone before moving on to the next. This never felt like what a quest should be to us, though. We have always felt that quests should be more adventurous, grand, and intricate in nature. Local townspeople asking for assistance with materials, wildlife, or bandits, should be kept separate from the mystery-delving quests. As a result of this, we have decided to split these two into Quests and Tasks.

[h3]Task[/h3]
Aside from the random tasks you might get while exploring the world, most tasks originate in a town or city at something called Bounty Boards. These boards contain requests from townsfolk and other nearby NPCs for work that needs to be done. Performing tasks in a town help that town out, and players will earn a reputation and gain rewards from completing tasks for towns. The tasks available rotate and are primarily split up into 2 different categories:

[h3]Kill[/h3]
These tasks revolve around the killing of mobs. This can be killing local wildlife causing problems, dispatching forest bandits, or similar. You will always be asked to bring back trophies as proof of your kills, but don’t worry, there’s always a trophy on each mob you kill (no more headless raptors, liverless boars, and meatless birds).

[h3]Supply[/h3]
These tasks revolve around supplying certain items. These can be anything from gathering specific materials to any kind of crafted item that the town may need. The town is simply requesting the said item, meaning that you do not need to gather or craft it yourself if you’d rather buy it off the marketplace. Sometimes, however, the task might include details about crafted items being a certain minimum quality, so make sure you find a skilled craftsman (or become that skilled craftsman yourself).

[h3]Quests[/h3]
These are a whole other type of adventure in Ethyrial. Quests are usually multi-layered stories with more than one outcome depending on your actions. Although early on in your adventuring career, some quests might still be simple, they require significantly more effort than a singular task. As you explore the world of Irumesa, you will discover all kinds of quests about anything you can imagine. Some might involve infiltrating mysterious cults, others about dismantling political ploys, and some might even lead to dangerous and mysterious ruins that must be explored and cleared by several adventurers!

With these distinctions between Quests and Tasks, we feel that it’s easier to set the player’s expectations for what a quest or task should play like. Tasks are mostly about helping local townspeople and getting the town through whatever minor hardships it might be experiencing, whereas Quests should be about true adventure and exploration, oftentimes involving more than just the slaughter of mobs.

[h2]Vocations Deep-dive[/h2]

On our Discord, we recently ran a poll to ask the community which sort of vocations they would like a deep dive into. The winners from this pool are the Cultist and the Warden. Let’s jump right into the cultist!

[h3]Cultist[/h3]



“To channel the powers of Nalazar is to command blood itself. Through your blood, his power grows, and it shall become yours as you decimate your foes and strengthen your allies.”
Vylrian, High Cultist of Nalazar’s Chosen.

Cultists have made the demon Nalazar their Patron. These spellcasters focus their blood-infused magic to deal damage to foes while healing and bolstering their allies. As with all vocations based on Demonism, these casters utilize the demonic infusion of their patron to unleash some of their most powerful spells.

Cultists can excel at healing and bolstering their allies through an offensive play-style by infecting their enemies with demonic leeches which they can trigger and explode for damage whilst healing nearby allies. Their primary healing rotation can be done through damaging enemies, but they also have hard-cast heals that can be used for direct healing of allies. Damage and healing build up demonic infusion stacks, further attuning the Cultist with the influence of Nalazar, and this unlocks the second part of their kit: Pacts.

Pacts are essentially powerful effects that are granted through a sacrifice, spending your own life essence (blood) in combination with demonic infusion stacks to perform powerful effects. Examples of some pacts available to Cultists are damage dealing dots that slow enemies, absorption shields for allies, AoE healing zones, and much more.

[h3]Warden[/h3]



“To respect our ancestral spirits and fight in their name is to fight for Irumesa itself. Without the guidance and support of the spirits, we are nothing.”
Thyrion, Warden of Elkpine Woods

Wardens attune themselves to the spirits of nature and call them in battle to increase the strength of themselves and their allies while weakening their enemies. Typically seen clad in leather armor and two-handed weapons, Wardens often defend places of great spiritual importance, such as forests, lakes, groves, and meadows.

Wardens are centered around a melee-based playstyle and are mostly played as a DPS/Support hybrid, since a lot of their abilities have the additional effect of healing and strengthening nearby allies, as well as weakening enemies. The debuffs they apply to enemies cause them to take more damage, making them very well suited for larger group encounters, and while they might not hit as hard as a Berserker, Crusader, or other types of Melee DPS, their extra added utility, healing, and debuffs make them a strong contender to bring along for your group.

Your core rotation revolves around building up ancestral attunement, which in turn is expended to activate some of your more powerful abilities and effects such as large AoE heals, stat buffs to allies, and weakening debuffs on enemies.

That’s it for the Cultist and Warden. For the next Devlog, we will cover the remaining Mystic-based ascensions (Enchanter, Priest, Druid), and will also go through some exciting lore revolving around infused magic and essence, which also covers necromancy.

Additionally, you can head over to our Discord channel to vote on which topic you would like to see in the next devlog as well, so make sure you join our server and cast your vote!

Have a wonderful day y’all
Amar Duranovic
Game Director