Age of Wonders 4 News

Sovereign greetings my Thrall kin, Art Director Rich Burgess here for another image-heavy thread of tentacles. Be warned of minor visual spoilers, don’t tread further if you want to go into the Abyss fresh!

For this Dev Diary I’d like to discuss the process of pulling this DLC out of the darkness of the Umbral Abyss and into the light. With some behind-the-scenes exploration and some technical processes.



I can't think of any games where you can customize your own monstrous Eldritch leader, so we had a lot of fun exploring what this could mean and look like. To start and hit the ground running we took the existing Lost Mage unit as a base and built on top of it.

Making sure the unit always floats and doesn't hold any weapons (albeit a Relic hovering in front) meant we were freed from many animation restraints and could really push the silhouettes and bodies of the leaders.

Tentacles are cool, but what other variations could we push? Folded moth wings instead of arms, a mermaid or sinew body, and insectoid legs, we tried to fulfill different eldritch fantasies. We started off with blue sky sketches exploring possibilities -



We split them into different categories so you could mix and match what you liked best. Do you want to be all about the tentacles, sure! Or if you want to lean into being a creepy mummy, we have you covered. Here we see some head and back piece explorations -



We then take those Photoshop 2D sketches into 3D using ZBrush and push the shapes further, here at the top left we see a head, back and body type all being worked on at once as part of an ‘obsidian set.’ We then split these into different sliders for you to play with. We also made sure it wasn’t all monstrous as that makes for a monotone look, you can also create beautiful monsters with merfolk bodies and petal motifs -



We never have a specific number of customization options in mind, we just keep going until we run out of time, much to the stress of our poor producers!

We then have a set of bodies that might move in different ways or have some unique hook. We spend some extra animation budget here leaning into those tropes to make sure the mermaid tail flows properly, the mummy cloth sways according to physics and the eyeballs look around and blink. On top of the customization assets we also added proportion sliders for head, arms, legs and wings. We also tried a different approach to skin colour by tinting it with 2 different colours that results in some really interesting combinations!



A few examples of what you can create, we can’t wait to see your beautiful monstrosities! -



On top of looks you can also choose a starting Relic or forge your own in the Item Forge, here we see the dodecahedron with our custom Rune font, seen throughout the game -



Or a gloopy flesh slimeball, notice how we really try to push effects and motion through our leaders and items. This really requires the whole team to pull off; a 3D artist, a tech artist, VFX artist and an animator -



As your Eldritch Rulder levels up, you can take them down different paths of your choosing. 3 things happen; firstly they scale up in size, a fully leveled up Eldritch Sovereign is comparable to a giant. Next they get new visuals, smokey PFX appear around their bodies with embers and eventually they gain a magical crown truly living up to their sovereign names. These visuals depend on the path you choose -



A magic Eldritch Leader wouldn’t be complete without new and powerful spells and hero abilities, here are a few examples -





For this fleshy DLC we wanted to lean into the heritage of Age of Wonders 2 Shadow Magic and bring back the much-beloved shadow realm, now known as the Umbral Abyss.

Your new realm layer is setup in the frontend and in-game can be accessed by none other than a tentacle entrance :) They are essentially portals to the other world layers or between other floating Umbral Islands. The icon above the portal shows you where it leads. Notice how the Umbral biome leaks through these portals, infecting other lands -



The floating islands of the Abyss contain a whole new biome to explore -



For this biome we created a new mountain set, mountains come with 3 different sizes and multiple mesh variation per size. Random rotation adds even more variation to the game world -



Other ambient details like eyeball bats spawn around forest tiles -





We’ve added a lot of new locations to the Umbral Layer, from Visit Sites with fun visuals and properties, to powerful Nodes and a new Magic Material. We threw in some shiney Pickups to boot so the Umbral Abyss is a treasure trove of places ready to be looted. This gives the new layer a distinct feel and reason to enter.

Games are not a static medium, when creating new ideas we try to push visuals with the help of particle effects, shaders and animation. Motion is an added element that breathes life into otherwise static objects, and importantly helps with readability by drawing our attention to it. For instance see how we are adding motion to these new province improvements below -



Or here with the floating rocks, rising mists and runes of this new Monolith Node -



The cool thing about Visit Sites is we can have 2 states, active when you can go there, and cooldown after you’ve visited and taken whatever splendors it holds. It presents opportunities to add visual surprises like with the Quicksilver basin below -



The Umbral Illuminati are always watching… I wonder what happens when you visit this site…



Not only are there creepy things in the dark, but we made sure there are locations of safety that fight back against this darkness. This brings a visual contrast as you seek a heaven in the depths below -



Shield of light particle FX -



What other secrets are there? New visit sites, nodes and powerful pickups await.



For this DLC we made the foundations of a new system that supports unique monsters as Dwelling Rulers. We might expand upon this system down the line allowing you to interact with wildlife Monsters like Giants, Ogres and more as they rule their own Dwelling or as recruitable heroes themselves.

The Eldritch Hive comes to life, with its own monstrous leader, what dark trades can be made here? Inspired by termite spires, and a nod to the Planetfall Kirko cities, the Umbral Dwellings act as the beating heart of the Abyss -



Eldritch Dwelling event and city background -





The biome also comes with its own flavour of vegetation, from trees to small plants. Shown here are some early concepts for trees, fleshy tendrils and twisted coral-like shapes. We have limitations so units can still stand around the base and use them for partial cover. You can see how the rough concepts got translated into 3D through iteration -



Here we see the vegetation in context of the game, with added motion through a combination of bone animation and shaders -



Obsidian is a material used in the game to communicate magic and power, from the Mystic weapons to the foundation of the Wizards Tower Ancient Wonder. By retexturing the rocks and cliffs to be obsidian, it really helped give the umbral layer its own flair. Here we see the Temperate Gold Node Map change into the Umbral Abyss, the textures, trees, rocks and lighting all swap out to place you in another world -



While some maps appear more natural others feel more dangerous with sharp insectoid shapes, the spawner and Dwelling maps for instance have additional sets -



Since we are a small team we have to think creatively to save time, this delights our producers! In this instance we had the idea to retexture roots using Substance Designer to be used as tentacles for map decoration -



As it’s a top down game the ground textures make up 90% of what you see at any given time. Spending extra effort here really helps the overall visual fidelity and mood. Here are some tests with torn tendril textures, we ended up toning it down as ultimately the readability of the units are the most important and they got lost in the noise created by this texture, but still makes for a very cool look and feel. We ended up making a whole host of tactical combat maps with these new creepy assets -





Fans of Age of Wonders past might recognise these 2 new forms; we brought back the fan favourite insectoid, and the Syron, albeit reimagined -

[h2]The Syron[/h2]

The game already has a lot of monstrous and gritty forms, with Eldritch Realms we wanted to introduce a counter to that with a beautiful form - the Syron. A race from previous game entries resembling elves. Instead of going down that road (since we already have elves) we decided to pivot them in a different direction. Initially, we leaned into something more aquatic with a squid-like form that would compliment the Eldritch leaders with strange tropical fish-like patterns or glowing deep-sea features that resembled stars -



Ultimately they felt too alien so we continued the exploration, maybe the tentacles were more like hair?
Let's try making them a bit more humanoid? -



Further exploration in 3D, pushing more beautiful features like large eyes and designed lashes, we also start playing with varied expressions to avoid a bland look. The pointy elf ears of the original Age of Wonders Syron were brought back as well as a few aquatic details and astral body patterns from earlier sketch directions. Lastly we played with emissive hair for an ethereal feel -



Since we don’t have the resources for facial rigs and animation we decided as part of the art direction to push expressions in the base heads as much as possible. This gives greater variation in the heads you can pick from and avoids the aforementioned bland expression look. This is not only apparent in forms, but you can see this below with some of the other creatures we made for the game -



[h2]Shadow Demons? Kir’ko? Insectoid![/h2]

Insectoid creatures have been a long-running feature in Age of Wonders, from the Shadow Demons of AoW:Shadow Magic, that inspired the Planetfall Kir’ko, we come full circle, bringing them back in Eldritch Realms. With this new Insectoid form you can use transformations to turn them into the original Shadow Demons, or angels, or undead etc. -





We made 17 new illustrations for the 2 new story realms, really focussing on character-driven composition with vibrant colour design. Below is a sneak peek of 2, what do you think is happening here?





To flavour the new Cosmic Happening events we ended up creating a new fullscreen UI. We leaned into the Empire Tree smokey tendrils as if everything is interconnected through its shadowy branches. Everything here is animated and moving from the stars and dark tendrils to the runes making the whole scene comes to life -



The happenings might give new interesting enchantment visuals -



Constellation particle FX -



Or new wildlife and maps -



Or temporarily change the lighting of the World Map -





You guessed it, MORE TENTACLES!

Since the Umbral Abyss is quite a dark place filled with gloom, we decided to make sure the wildlife were lighter in value - pale and fleshy with glowing hotpink kicks of colour. This way they would be readable on top of the new biome. Below we have a selection of some of the new creatures at different stages of production, through to an in-game model -





Early animation test trying to capture the feeling of a swarm, with stack scale and placement variations -



Throughout development the concept artists brainstorm many different ideas, the brain creature on the right is a self portrait of a concept artist doing just that. I thought it would be fun to take a peek down the road not traveled… There are many reasons some ideas don’t pan out, from design changes to technical limitations or simply having a better idea for something. So here’s a selection of creepy crawlies that didn’t make the cut -





I’d like to take some time here to highlight iconography and interface. What I find astounding is that every icon here represents a new gameplay concept with localized descriptive tooltips, and coded gameplay. There might also be additional animation or particle FX with bespoke audio -



Tome artworks, 3 new Eldritch Realms tomes and 3 representing the new Mystic subcultures as part of the free patch -



We couldn’t have an Eldritch DLC without having a reskin of the UI frame to match, you guessed it…even more tentacles -





New Eldritch-themed Pantheon content to unlock…



And thank you to our brilliant community, we do all of this for you! Thank you Damndirtycat for this hilarious fan art!



That’s all folks! We really hope you enjoy Eldritch Realms as much as we enjoyed crafting it! If you’re hungry for more art please check out The Art of Age of Wonders 4 Dev Diary and The Art Of Primal Fury Dev Diary.

[h2]Wishlist Eldritch Realms:[/h2]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2401860/Age_of_Wonders_4_Eldritch_Realms/


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Hello everyone! My name is Luis and I am a designer here at Triumph Studios. This is the second dev diary for our Eldritch Realms expansion that is coming out on the 18th of June.

Hope you have made your tributes to the elder gods because we will be talking about the new leader type, the Eldritch Sovereign. After that I will give a quick rundown of the new tomes you can unlock and some of their content.





The Eldritch Sovereign is a new leader type you can play as in Eldritch Realms. When a Wizard is banished to the Astral Void they must endure the Torment of Shadows. Those who fail the trial are doomed to become Lost Wizards, husks of their former selves. But some manage to continue growing in power and regain a twisted sense of sanity. Eventually they manage to pierce the planar veil and find their way back from the Astral Void, where they enthrall whole populations to do their bidding in order to fulfill their corrupt ambitions.



At the start of the game you will pick what your Eldritch ruler looks like and what Relic they use in battle. Each Relic is tied to a concept for this leader, defines their starting damage type and gives one of the initial hero skills from their new Eldritch Sovereign skill tree.



The Eldritch Sovereign starts with 3 abilities:

• Spike: This is a long range low damage ability that allows this ruler to stay at the back while their enthralled race protects it.
  
• Rebuke: When an enemy gets too close, this magical rebuke is an excellent option. It deals decent damage and can finish off injured enemies.
  
• Eldritch Mind Control: This allows the leader to mind control an enemy unit for 1 turn, turning an adversary into a temporary stepping stone to your victory in battle.
  

[h2]Thralls and Ritual Spells[/h2]



They also have another trick up their tentacles in the form of Ritual Spells and the new Thrall resource. As an Eldritch Sovereign ruled faction, battles will gradually gather Thralls to be used in ritual sacrifice to cast powerful and unique strategic spells. The Eldritch Sovereign doesn’t even need to be in those battles as their servants will gather the Thralls for them.

They can also harvest Thralls from their own population or vassalized Free Cities with the Spell Enthrall Population, which converts 1 Population into 3 Thralls.

Once you have the Thralls, ritual spells are easy to cast as they only require Thralls and Casting Points. Here’s some examples of ritual spells:

• Clairvoyance Ritual: All Eldritch Sovereigns start with this one; it lets you sacrifice a Thrall to reveal the closest Infestation or Ancient Wonder.
  
• Phantasmal Ritual: This spell deals 20% of an army's maximum Hit Points as damage as well as reducing their status resistance for the next battle.
  
• Mage Bane Ritual: Summon a Mage Bane! This costs 10 Thralls to summon and comes after needing to unlock 2 other hero skills, but having a Mage Bane at your side is a very strong option for this leader.
  

Thralls can also be used (or sometimes gained!) in events. You can sacrifice thralls to permanently dominate an enemy, give a boost to relations to newly found Free Cities or bypass difficult options.

[h2]Signature Skills[/h2]



Signature Skills for the Eldritch Ruler come in two flavors.

1. Specializations: These give a more defined role to your Eldritch Sovereign by giving new abilities and passives.
   
2. Forgotten Tomes: Like Lost Wizards, they can get powerful abilities that have endless range in combat.
   

[h3]Specializations[/h3]

Minor Specialization



At level 4 the leader picks a Minor Specialization gaining a new active and passive ability. The Minor Specializations are:

• Madcaster: Focus on spellcasting and random effects. They gain:
  
  • Chaos Pulse: Applies an effect to a group of enemies, from turning them to animals, making them Blind until the end of combat or, if you are unlucky, healing them. Each unit in the area of effect has a chance to roll one of these effects.
    
  • Expert Channeling: A passive that reduces the mana cost of certain spells.
    
• Mindbreaker: This one focuses on mind status effects and damage. They gain:
  
  • Eldritch Truth: An ability that places the new Madness condition which, until the end of combat, makes the unit Insane while also sustaining damage each turn.
    
  • Eldritch Breach: A passive that bypasses up to 3 Status Resistance the target has.
    
• Fleshweaver: The support specialization with a flesh modification theme. They gain:
  
  • Possession: Increases the damage of a unit by 40% for 2 turns. The affected unit dies when this effect expires but they come back with low hit points after combat if you win it.
    
  • Fleshweave: At combat start, summon 2 Fleshlings, slimy bomb monsters that can self destruct to deal damage as well as apply Bleed and Status Vulnerability.
    

Major Specialization



At level 12 the Eldritch Sovereign can pick between two signature skills based on their first specialization.


The Madcaster can pick:

• Cosmic Caster:
  • Their Chaos Pulse changes to Cosmic Pulse, which reduces the randomness of Chaos Pulse to instead be more damage oriented, always rolling on dealing Fire, Frost or Lightning damage. The radius also increases from 1-hex to 2-hex.
    
  • Gain a new passive, Forgotten Tome Mastery that boosts the damage of the damaging abilities you can gain from the Forgotten Tome Signature skills.
    
• Havoc Caster:
  • These Eldritch Sovereigns go all in on randomness and have their Chaos Pulse become Havoc Pulse. It functions like the original except it applies 2 effects to the affected units
    
  • Gain a new passive, Chaos Channeling. It adds a 90% chance to apply a random negative status effect to all damaging combat spells.
    

The Mindbreaker can pick:

• Enthraller:
  • Their Eldritch Truth becomes Enrapturing Truth. This new ability now applies Dominated, Berserk and increases the target’s damage instead of driving them mad. Being Dominated means you can acquire the unit at the end of combat!
    
  • Gain a new passive, Manipulator, which makes some of your mind affecting skills like Eldritch Mind Control target an extra target within a certain range of the original target.
    
• Mind Devourer:
  • Eldritch Truth becomes Mind Shattering Truth, which not only applies the Madness effect but also deals physical damage that ignores the target’s defenses.
    
  • The passive Mindrend: The Eldritch Sovereign deals +70% more damage to any unit that has a Negative Mental Status Effect (Berserk, Insanity, Madness, etc)
    

Finally, the Fleshweaver can pick:

• Puppeteer:
  • Possession becomes Puppeteer’s Possession, which can now give the damage increase to 3 allies instead of just one.
    
  • Changes the Eldritch Mind Control to Puppeteer’s Domination, which changes the effect from Mind Control to Dominated, which means you can keep the unit after combat for a mana cost.
    
• Fleshsculpter:
  • Possession becomes Greater Possession: The damage bonus is increased to 80% while also giving the unit Status Protection so they can rampage until they drop.
    
  • Fleshweave changes to Fleshsculpt. Fleshsculpt makes it so that instead of 2 Fleshlings you summon a more long lasting summon, the Flesh Abomination, a Tier 3 Fighter.
    

[h3]Forgotten Tomes[/h3]



At level 8 and 16 the Eldritch Sovereign picks from a list of Forgotten Tome Passives. The way these work is that at the start of combat, they give you one of 3 random abilities related to the Forgotten tome you picked and every 4 turns that ability gets randomized and its cooldown removed.

The special thing about these is that these abilities have unlimited range in combat, acting almost like Combat Spells (except that since they are abilities they cost no mana). For those who fought the Lost Wizard before, some of these abilities will be recognizable, but there’s a lot more new ones!



That’s all I want to say for now on the Eldritch Sovereign, and I am not even going over all the new Hero Skills unique to the Eldritch Sovereign. (Tentacled Escape, one of the master hero skills of the Eldritch Sovereign, has my favorite animation in the entire game so far!)

And we are not done yet, up next is the Tomes!




[h2]Tome of Tentacles[/h2]



This is a Tier 1 tome focused on summoning and using Tentacles to restrain and damage your enemies. It has a new status effect, Constricted, which deals 10 Physical damage each turn while Immobilizing the target. A lot of the units from this tome apply this effect. You can also have your Mages and Support units apply it with their attacks with the Constricting Focus unit enchantment.



Conjure Tentacle and the hero skill Manifest Tentacle let you conjure an otherworldly Tentacle unit in combat which deals damage as well as attempting to Constrict your enemies. These are very good at early game control and protecting your more squishy units from melee trying to rush them.



Next I want to show you the aptly named Constrictor! This is a new and terrifying racial polearm unit that can use its long tentacle arms to pull units closer to them and constrict them in the process. (They give very good hugs).

[h2]Tome of Corruption[/h2]



The Tier 3 Tome of Corruption lets you unleash your inner Umbral Demon while also capitalizing on your enemy’s buffs, removing them and gaining something instead or just outright stealing them.



Gloom Strider lets your racial units become Umbral Demons as well as gaining floating movement. This makes your units immune to the Umbral Malady and gain a powerful passive in Curse Eater, which consumes a negative status effect on the unit and converts it into a heal.



This tome has a new Tier 4 unit in it called the Umbral Mistress, which can chain herself to an enemy and then use her Gratitude, Fury or Surrender abilities to cause different effects on the unit she is linked to. Additionally, while linked to an enchained unit, their Wrack ability can never miss, and since a lot of her skills are Free Actions, you can play with your enemy’s emotions and then Wrack them for damage on the same turn.



Corrupt Boon and the hero skill Boon Stealing both remove positive status effects from your enemies. The first by turning them to their opposite, so for example regeneration would turn into poison. And the second by giving your hero’s attacks the ability to steal them on hit.

[h2]Tome of Cleansing Fire[/h2]



To combat all this darkness, we have a tome that helps you purify it. Cleaning Flame is all about making your units Zealous while burning you enemies with the new Cleaning Flame hazard.



This hazard burns those who aren’t Faithful or Zealous while removing negative conditions from those who are. Additionally, Condemned units lose their positive effects when they are burned by the flames of righteousness.



The hero skill Cleansing Flameherald not only creates Cleansing Flames as your enemies dies, but any Burning hazard created in combat become a Cleaning Flame hazard instead, making it a powerful combo for those who picked the Tome of Pyromancy or have other abilities that place burning hazards.



The Pyre Templars not only look amazing but they are the Cleansing Flame come to life and were tailor made to fight the corruption of the abyss! This Tier 4 Polearm unit has a Fire Cleave that mows down enemies in a 1-hex cone, while the Pyre Cloak burns all adjacent enemies and creates Cleansing Flames all around them while putting the Templar in defense mode.



To let your other units in on the fun of purifying the darkness, Pureflame Staves and Flame Blessed Champions both allow your units to create Cleaning Flames hazards. In addition, the former allows your mages and support units to Condemn your enemies and the latter lets your melee units Burn them to a crisp!

There’s a lot of content to explore in this new expansion and I couldn’t go into detail on everything with this dev diary, but I hope you liked reading about it! The Eldritch Realms expansion comes out on the 18th of June, so make sure you don’t miss out on all this content!


[h2]Wishlist Eldritch Realms:[/h2]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2401860/Age_of_Wonders_4_Eldritch_Realms/


I love you, you love me, we're all one Eldritch family~

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Rulers!

In case you missed it, we've posted a full-length video giving you an in-depth look at what is coming in Eldritch Realms! Watch our devs build an Eldritch Sovereign, pick new tomes, and explore the brand new Umbral Abyss!

[h2]Watch the First Look Stream[/h2]

What's more, we will be having another stream this Thursday at 2pm CEST! If you missed our previous stream, this is your chance to experience some sneak peek content! You can expect more otherworldly gameplay, dev shenanigans and of course, tentacles~

To be notified when we go live, visit our YouTube! We hope to see you there.

[h2]Subscribe to Our YouTube Channel[/h2]

[h3]What time is the stream for me?[/h3]

• PDT: 5am
  
• MDT: 6am
  
• CDT: 7am
  
• EDT: 8am
  
• GMT: 1pm
  
• GMT+3: 3pm
  
• GMT+7: 7pm
  
• GMT+8: 8pm
  
• GMT+9: 9pm
  
• GMT+11: 11pm
  

[h2]Wishlist Eldritch Realms:[/h2]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2401860/Age_of_Wonders_4_Eldritch_Realms/


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Dear Godir,

We are excited to announce that the Eldritch Realms expansion and the free Mystic Update are going to be available in less than a month — on June 18th!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2401860/Age_of_Wonders_4_Eldritch_Realms/

You can find below:

• Eldritch Realms key art reveal
  
• Feature highlights
  
• First Look Stream
  
• First Dev Diary about Umbral Abyss

Watch the teaser to see the breathtaking key art of Eldritch Realms:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
[h2]Age of Wonders 4: Eldritch Realms Key Features:[/h2]

• New Map Layer - The Umbral Abyss: New tactical combat maps, unique locations to explore, and new independent factions of Umbral dwellers wait for players who can withstand the hazardous environs!
  
• New Ruler Type: Ancient beings of terrible power, the Eldritch Sovereigns have been corrupted by the Umbral Abyss and possess a unique Thrall spell casting mechanic. Choose your path as an Eldritch Sovereign ruler and decide between Dominating your foes, Manipulating the flesh or Wild, chaotic magic.
  
• 3 New Tomes: Tighten your grasp with the Tome of the Tentacle, turn your enemies’ strength to weakness with the Tome of Corruption, or drive back the darkness using the Tome of Cleansing Flame.
  
• New Event System: Mini-crises threaten all rulers at once in the Cosmic Happenings, a series of events with unique tactical maps, units, and mechanics - and powerful rewards!
  
• 2 New Forms: Swarm into battle as a faction of Insects, or lead the return of the Syrons from Age of Wonders’ past!
  
• 2 New Story Realms: Return to Athla and come to its defense in epic clashes that will determine the fate of the world.
  
• So Much More: 2 new mounts, 3 new Realm traits, 2 new Realm templates, 5 new premade rulers, 6 new music tracks, and a gloomy, unsettling new interface skin all await you in the Eldritch Realms!
  

Alongside Eldritch Realms, all Age of Wonders 4 players will receive a free content update on June 18. The Mystic Update will include new features such as randomized realms with hidden traits, new pantheon content, and an expanded rework of the Mystic Culture. Full details on these free additions will be shared in the game’s patch notes shortly before launch.

[h2]Watch the First Look Dev Stream[/h2]

[h2]Read the Umbral Abyss Dev Diary![/h2]



Hi crusaders and eldritch sovereigns! I’m Bas, a game designer at Triumph Studios. We’ve been hard at work chanting incantations and plunging esoteric daggers for summoning something both wondrous and horrific.

I’m talking of course about the upcoming new expansion for Age of Wonders 4: Eldritch Realms! Which is coming on June 18th. Which is SOON(™)!

This expansion is all about lovecraftian monstrosities, fiery templars who defy them, and the opening of an old wound in the Age of Wonders universe as a new plane awakens and seeks to corrupt all.

I’m happy to present to you with that very last feature, worthy of the name Eldritch Realms!

Behold, the Umbral Abyss!

Disclaimer: You must be at least halfling size to enter. Keep arms, legs and extra appendages within the Umbral Gates at all times.



The Umbral Abyss is the domain of Urrath and home to the Umbral Demons, a new type of creature in Eldritch Realms. The Umbral Abyss exists beyond both the Astral Sea and the Void but is seeking to manifest and corrupt the realms.

In this expansion’s Story Realms, you’ll be able to discover more of the origins of the Umbral Abyss and its exotic denizens.

As some long-time fans will recognize, it bears many resemblances to the Shadow Realm in Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic. The Umbral Abyss is the evolution of the Shadow Realm into something new yet familiar.



The goal of the Umbral Abyss was to be a terrifying place where players could embark on high risk high reward ventures that felt like little dungeon crawls.

Furthermore it needed to provide a new way to traverse the world map like the Shadow Realm did in Shadow Magic and lastly, we wanted it to present a creeping threat and corruption upon the rest of the realm.



The resulting Umbral Abyss we created exists as a new optional World Map layer enabled via a Realm Trait. It features a number of hand-crafted eldritch islands floating in a void rather than fully randomly generated landscapes. The islands you see are randomly placed every time, so that you will find new ones each playthrough!

Each island is filled with wonder and rewards in the form of exotic locations and treasures. But it is also full of peril and danger with patrolling Umbral Demons and the corrupting Gloom.



Let’s begin by looking how the Umbral Abyss can be traversed by our mere mortal troops.

In a realm with the Umbral Abyss enabled, many portals are spread across every world map layer. These portals are called Umbral Gates and connect the Umbral Abyss to the Surface and Underground.

Unlike Underground passages, their position in one world map layer does not correspond to their position in the Umbral Abyss.

This means Umbral Islands can form many shortcuts, bridging large distances within the Surface and Underground. Some Umbral Islands were designed with this in mind, creating small transport hubs with many Umbral Gates close to one another.



Traversing in the Umbral Abyss takes time, its terrain has a higher move cost than on the Surface and vision range is decreased, making exploring the Umbral Abyss a lot more intimate. But traveling in the Umbral Abyss is not without danger.



One of the first things you may notice as you enter the Umbral Abyss is your units slowly losing health. While in the Umbral Abyss or in Gloom terrain, your units will be suffering from Umbral Malady, lowering their Vision Range and depleting their Hit Points every turn in the World Map.

This is Age of Wonders 4’s version of Shadow Sickness (from Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic), and represents the ever-growing madness and casualties plaguing your troops as they traverse the hostile Gloom terrain surrounding the Umbral Abyss.

It also lowers City Stability of any City with Gloom terrain in their domain, as the population finds their minds filled with nothing but gloom and doom!



Furthermore, powerful Umbral Demons guard treasures and patrol the shadows, eager to snuff out the life of your troops. Without a way to regenerate in the Umbral Abyss, your armies may need to escape to recuperate before going further.

The Umbral Abyss is also home to Umbral Nest Infestations and Umbral Dwellings (more on those later!) which spread the Abyss’ corrupting influence out from Umbral Gates, turning the surrounding landscapes in the Surface and Underground to Gloom.



If ignored for too long, the creeping Gloom will affect your armies and your cities without having even entered the Umbral Abyss, forcing players to crusade inwards and take out the source of corruption. Your troops will have to weather the Gloom though while seeking their target.

There are ways to ward off Umbral Malady, one of which is also how you get to reap your hard-fought rewards! Let’s talk about Beacons of Light and Sanctuary Outposts.



Within the Umbral Abyss, you cannot build regular outposts, found cities or annex provinces via Umbral Gates. Instead, you’ll need to build Sanctuary Outposts, and for that, you’ll have to find a Beacon of Light.

Beacons of Light are special locations in the Umbral Abyss where holy light still shines. They also appear when destroying Umbral Nest Infestations in the Umbral Abyss. Only on these locations can you build Sanctuary Outposts.



Sanctuary Outposts are, as the name suggests, a type of outpost. They cannot be converted to Cities (who would want to live in a tentacle riddled hellscape? Don’t answer that) and cannot build the Watchtower or Work Camp upgrades.

Instead, they themselves already grant a plethora of resources. They also allow you to annex up to 2 provinces adjacent to them within the Umbral Abyss, granting your empire access to those powerful nodes and magic materials nearby.

Finally, they are also a sure way to grant your units immunity to Umbral Malady while within their domain. This lets your armies recuperate before heading out again into the great unknown.



To make the trip to the Umbral Abyss and building Sanctuary Outposts worthwhile, we created new exotic locations that grant powerful benefits, either by being picked up, being visited or being annexed. Let’s take a look at some of them.

First off, the Umbral Abyss will feature 2 new base Nodes which can be found often, let’s show one of them: The Monoliths node!

The Monoliths grant 30 knowledge. This is triple that of what nodes normally grant on the surface and the underground and is also one of the only base nodes that grant Knowledge!



There are also powerful new pickups that can only be found in the Umbral Abyss; one of my personal favorites we created is the Tome Fragment, granting a random spell from any of the existing tomes in the game that you haven’t researched yet or aren’t researching currently.

The other two, which you’ll have to discover for yourself, grant an immense amount of various resources. All of these are hidden away in nooks and hard to reach locations in the Umbral Abyss, rewarding players who go off the beaten path every now and then!



A new world map layer also calls for a new Magic Material. Behold the Void Stones! These otherworldly orbs help you communicate with.. Umbral Dwellings..? There’s that word again. I guess I have some explaining to do later about those, but as is typical with lovecraftian content, it will for now remain unknowable.



They are also unique as they form their own set bonus, having 3 of them unlocks this bonus, allowing you to extract knowledge from your vassals and Umbral Dwellings (Really, what are these things???).



Lastly, I’d like to show something you guys have been asking for more. Let’s introduce some new Visit Sites that can be found in the Umbral Abyss!

Back in older Age of Wonders games, visit sites allowed armies to gain temporary buffs for future battles, explore the world faster or heal. We’ve been wanting to create more of them for a while for Age of Wonders 4. The Umbral Abyss is the first place where you’ll find some of these new ones!

Each one was designed to grant both benefits in Combat and in the World map. Let’s take the Soothing Shrine for example. A relic of light is a rare but welcome sight in a plane full of darkness. Visiting it heals your units for 50% and grants them Faithful and Zeal for 5 turns, letting them continue their journey in the Umbral Abyss with renewed vigor!



But let's say all those exotic rewards are not enough. What if you’d want to coexist with the Gloom and the Umbral Demons, accept Urrath as your true master, and let corruption willingly take hold of the world?

Well, my diabolical friends, as an avid evil player myself, I’m happy to say we considered this as a possible route for your empires to take. The first step down this path is to meet an Umbral Dwelling (at last! The forbidden word’s meaning shall be revealed to you).



Umbral Dwellings are part of a new type of content called Dwellings, taking inspiration from Age of Wonders 3’s and Planetfall’s Dwellings. We wanted to make something similar to a Free City, an independent faction with which you can wage war or enter diplomacy. But they’re ruled by fantastical types of wildlife rather than the regular races.

Umbral Dwellings are our first type of Dwelling in Age of Wonders 4 and are ruled by Umbral Demons. They can only be found in the Umbral Abyss but can extend their domains through Umbral Gates to the Surface and Underground. Like corrupting tendrils, they will transform everything within and adjacent to their domain to Gloom terrain. They are pretty problematic neighbors to have, but you can try to befriend them!

To raise Allegiance with Umbral Dwellings, you’ll have to make continuous offerings to them.
They are not swayed by trinkets like Whispering Stones and sweetened by words.



Diplomacy with Umbral Dwellings involves sacrifices. Upon first meeting them, they will make their first demand and you’ll have to pick your poison. While not at war, they will continuously demand more sacrifices in the future. If you’re eager to please them, you can even freely offer another sacrifice through Boosting Relations (which normally costs influence).

Sacrifices can include giving various resources you have available, but every now and then they will want a more delicate treat: they will demand you declare war on one of your allies or vassals. Will you betray your former friends for a pact with these evil beings?

Each sacrifice given will grant a relationship bonus with them which raises allegiance gained per turn. It will also count as an evil act and naturally steer you towards Evil Alignment. Denying them of their demands will instead see your allegiance with them go down until another sacrifice is made or war is declared.

The Masters of the Umbral Dwellings are fickle and their appetite will change with each sacrifice you have made. You may not always be able to satisfy them. But don’t worry, there’s always the next demand from these evil overlords.



Upon reaching the final diplomatic state with an Umbral Dwelling, called an Eldritch Pact, you will gain access to war coordination and rally of the lieges just like with Free Cities. This will include being able to recruit Umbral Demons into your retinue. Furthermore, you will gain access to forbidden knowledge in the form of special research skills which can be bought from the Umbral Dwelling you have a Pact with via the Cooperation screen!



Each of these skills were designed to benefit from Gloom and the Umbral Abyss, as well as being able to spread it yourself. Now you will be able to plunge the realm itself into darkness! For the glory of Urrath!



Of course, if that doesn’t strike your fancy, destroying all Umbral Nests and Umbral Dwellings within the Umbral Abyss will ensure the end of the Umbral Abyss corrupting the realm with Gloom. But destroying Umbral Dwellings is no easy task: like with Cities, they must be besieged which is naturally made more difficult by your troops suffering from Umbral Malady every turn they spend sieging.



Succeed in destroying an Umbral Dwelling and you’ll be rewarded with a hefty sum of Imperium, a beacon of light, good alignment and its domain will vanish, stopping Gloom from growing even further!



So! That’s a lot of stuff to be found in the Umbral Abyss, and it’s not even everything. We’re all very excited to hear your stories of how you dared to enter and how you will return.

Will you be a crusader of light, venturing in and cleansing the seeds of corruption before they can germinate? Will you be an opportunist, capturing and harvesting the many riches that the Umbral Abyss holds? Or will you be a warlock of darkness, siding with the Umbral Demons and covering the entire realm in Gloom while your empire flourishes?

Whatever you choose, the Umbral Abyss will not hold back its horrors and wonders. It will be unleashed with Eldritch Realms expansion on the 18th of June!

But that’s not all included. Keep those eldritch portals open to receive another unholy vision (Dev Diary) next week. For now, I hope you enjoyed this peek into the unknowable future!


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