Illyriad - Grand Strategy MMO News

[p]In a stunning development, the 2025-2026 class of Illyrians have finally manageed to solve the elustive Heart of Corruption quest, a puzzle that has baffled the server for 15 years. A multi-alliance team of game veterans and avid questers worked together tirelessly to trigger "Audrey" and get the complex, multi-faceted quest started again, this time receiving widespread support from a wide range of players to complete the quest.[/p][p][/p][p]The last time the server had gotten close to its completion was in 2014, though, in retrospect, that class only got about halfway through the HoC. This new attempt revealed never-before-seen phenomena, such as direct Melder attacks on quest cities and the unprecedented de-misting of the Misted Lands. [/p][p][/p][p]Those who completed the quest won one of 4 exclusive racial discoveries, which allow them to build 1 of 4 pieces of gear: the Elven Spirit Bow, Dwarven Champion's Armour, Orc Marauder Sword, and Master-Crafted Chainmail (stats to be updated soon.) [/p][p][/p][p]The final message to successful questers revealed what must be a recent edit to the old quest language, as it references the Giant Eagles -- a recent edit to the game that saw a rewriting of the Eaglesbrood faction:[/p][p][/p][p]“Sir, the most miraculous thing occurred this past evening, when the full moon came into its fullness across the horizon. Our troops, all wearied by the perilous journey and miserable conditions on this peak, did what they could to slumber in the cold, dank conditions.[/p][p][/p][p]As the light from the moon cast down its delicate light, there amid our camp, the weapon appeared, its resplendent finish reflecting the brilliance of the moonlight. Aside from what we thought were the faint sounds of laughter, we saw no trace of life, nor do we know how this thing came into our possession. My only assumption is that we have proven our worthiness in repelling the insidious force of the Heart of Corruption to the sublime forces that seek to curtail it, and our grand city has been gifted this incredible item.[/p][p][/p][p]It was my intention to guard this gift with my life and the full force of our army as we planned to break camp and head home, until yet another fantastic occurrence took place on this otherwise bleak mountaintop. There appeared from the east a great eagle – one of the mythical giant eagles of the Eaglesbrood – which I myself doubted as even existing![/p][p][/p][p]The eagle descended into our camp without making any hostile gesture, and introduced herself as Soronel. 'The Eagles have sensed that a great achievement has been made by those who inhabit these mountain peaks in the light of the full moon. As the Eagles serve the same light that you do in repelling the evil of the Corrupted Heart of Kumala, we wish to aid you in safeguarding this precious gift. Should you agree, I will transport it home to your city directly.'[/p][p][/p][p]At a loss for words upon being in the presence of such mystery and wonder, I nodded wordlessly in agreement and Soronel took flight, the 'gift of ages' held carefully in her grasp.[/p][p][/p][p]I trust that it will arrive safely into your hands, so that you may deliver it thusly.”[/p][p][/p][p]The new Giant Eagles-themed completion message segued perfectly into the February Spring tournament, which is now underway across the server. For the first time, alliances are competing to win sets of exclusive Giant Eagle units, which offer a perfect complement to the dragons that were offered back in the Summer. With an expanded prize pool, the tournament will give the top-10 alliances a chance to win at least 1 Giant Eagle unit![/p][p][/p]

[p]Illyriad's class of 2025-2026 have managed to do what many believed was impossible: complete "The Greatest Quest on Illyriad." Yesterday, during the start of the new moon, the everlasting mist from from The Misted Lands -- an enchanted, mountain-flecked forest glade in Kal Tikikan -- mysteriously lifted, revealing its stunning geography . . . namely, the 14 bleak mountain peaks that typically pierce the veil of fog. [/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]For the first time ever, armies were able to navigate and encamp in these lands. Those who are still on the Heart of Corruption quest -- as well as fortune-seekers, troublemakers, and other adventurers -- have moved quickly to explore and control the Bleak Mountains of the Misted Lands in hopes of finishing the final task of The Greatest Quest in Illyria![/p][p][/p][h2]So, what is this "greatest quest?"[/h2][p][/p][p]The greatest quest on Illyriad is the elusive Heart of Corruption quest that has befuddled players since its appearance in 2011, when it appeared in the Elgean region of Tal Kiriken circa June 13th of that year. Dubbed "Audrey" due to its similarity to the massive man-eating plant of the same name in the dark musical comedy Little Shop of Horrors, the Heart resides in the jungles of Kumala, west of the Kumala Bay where it empties into the Bitter Sea. Sending units to it would occasionally lead players to earn "corrupted tentacles" from Audrey, but aside from this and some cryptic messages from an Old Crone who would occasionally visit cities that were on the quest, little progress was made.[/p][p][/p][p]That changed in 2014, when the server managed to wake the Heart up: it began to beat, and the mysterious events began to unfold. The quest ended that year in a kind of "tentacle infestation" around questing cities, but no more clues on how to finish all of the Old Crone's tasks.[/p][p][/p][p]As Illyriad dipped into several years of lower quest activity, the server never managed to wake the Heart up again . . . until late 2025.[/p][p][/p][p]A new class of motivated Illyrian questers sent droves of troops at the Heart in hopes of waking it up and pushing it towards the next step in the quest.[/p][p][/p][p]Since that time, our current questers have unlocked all kinds of new developments in the quest: successfully repelling the tentacle infestations around their cities, fighting off an onslaught of undead Melder armies that issued forth from the jungles around the heart, and now this: a cryptic third task from the Old Crone, delivered in a riddle:[/p][p][/p][p]You wish to know where to venture next? Ask yourself: [/p][p][/p][p]Where do fourteen great stones stand above the veil? [/p][p][/p][p]What claim is proven not by arrival, but by enduring until the very end? [/p][p][/p][p]What light comes only after fullness?[/p][p][/p][p]The server guessed the Misted Lands and its 14 peaks that can be seen above its fog as the location, and yesterday changed everything when the mist finally lifted, and the 14 Bleak Mountains became reachable for units.[/p][p][/p][p]Will the questers manage to complete this final task and finish "The Greatest Quest on Illyriad?" If you're an ex-player, why not re-join the game? If you've never played, why not do the same? Creating an account is free and easy.[/p][p][/p][p][/p]

[p]Illyriad is pleased to announce the launch of Illypedia, the game’s first official wiki resource. Illypedia offers players a unique blend of game-oriented content, including a definitive, up-to-date knowledge base of descriptions and stats for all of the game’s units and structures, as well as deep, immersive lore entries that expand Illyriad’s legendarium beyond its in-game features.[/p][p]The launch of Illypedia is the result of 4+ months of steady, behind-the-scenes work to create, assemble, and present the content in a format that is easily searchable and accessible. The site, which is built in a subdomain of the main Illyriad website, features a responsive search field, A-Z navigation, and several menu drop-downs that organizes wiki content for easy user access. Additionally, Illypedia features an extensive list of contextual internal links that allows users to freely navigate related content and interact with a wide range of topics relating to the game and its lore.[/p][p]At launch, Illypedia has already published 2,666 individual entries. These entries include individual entries for:[/p]

• [p]Buildings and City Structures, including their in-game descriptions, resources needed to build and level them up, and other critical information[/p]
• [p]Game Units, including military, diplomatic, faction, trade, natural, and city-based units. These include descriptions, build times, combat stats, and other critical information.[/p]
• [p]Game Items, including all of the published game information about basic, T2, and T3 resources.[/p]
• [p]Research Information, including the research description, cost in research points and time, and research category.[/p]
• [p]Stats and criteria for things like population milestones for building a new city, terrain bonuses in combat, and more.[/p]

[p]In addition to the basic information that governs the game, Illypedia also presents and vastly expands on game content related to factions, lore, and the game map. New content includes:[/p]

• [p]Regional resource pages that offer technical data on every region in Elgea and the Broken Lands.[/p]
• [p]Memorials and special squares on the map that memorialize significant events and players.[/p]
• [p]Local regions and places that are referenced in the lore, including new details and lore as well as their associated factions and races.[/p]
• [p]Every faction trade hub and outpost, including their descriptions, locations, affiliations, and more.[/p]
• [p]All Faction profiles and lore, with links to their associated locations on the map, default racial standings, and inter-factional relationships.[/p]
• [p]Racial info pages on the 4 playable races, as well as summaries of all the other races in the game, cross-linked to their respective faction profiles.[/p]
• [p]All Illy lore, including the creation stories of the 4 major races, as well as newly-written lore that expands on what already exists in-game, including:[/p]
  • [p]In-depth character dossiers of living and historical leaders, loremasters, commanders, and other important figures.[/p]
  • [p]Full texts of famous books and writings that are cited in the game’s current lore.[/p]
  • [p]Info pages on rare items that exist in the world of Illyria, including their histories, physical descriptions, and powerful effects when wielded by players.[/p]

[p]Many of the wiki entries are accompanied by one of over 1,500 pieces of new image content created for the site. The artwork was created by training our AI-powered image generators by only using the artwork that Illyriad’s previous human art teams created specifically for the game over its 15-year history. Therefore, while the new art is AI-generated, it is pulling the style and feel of the art exclusively from the work of graphics designers like GM Cerberus, who created proprietary image content for the game. We’ve used 2 different image-creating engines across the content to vary the style.[/p][p]Players also have an opportunity to interact with the content by suggesting additions and edits to existing content, as well as suggestions for new entries. Clicking on the “hamburger” menu icon at the top left of any page reveals several features to registered users, including[/p]

• [p]A Google Translate feature that will translate any entry into any target language.[/p]
• [p]Any entries that users have liked.[/p]
• [p]A Suggest feature that allows users to point out edits and additions to existing pages, as well as suggestions for new entries.[/p]

[p]NOTE: Submissions by users are not guaranteed to be published,is and their use are at the discretion of Illypedia’s editors.[/p][p]Illypedia is not merely a static resource for players; as in-game content is added and updated, so too will the content be updated on Illypedia. Fresh, new lore content will also be added regularly, as well as blog articles in our news section. Players can subscribe to our weekly newsletter, which will keep subscribers up to date on all of the new content.[/p][p]Finally, we’re happy to offer a fun challenge for the launch of Illypedia — an “easter egg” hunt of sorts. A never-before-seen piece of information that is not visible in the game has been published on Illypedia. The first player who IGM’s GM Jejune the correct answer on that this new information is will receive a set of elemental units (1 each of the earth, fire, air, and water elemental units). The winner’s in-game player name will be published here and in the forums once the information is discovered.[/p][p]NOTE: The only way to win is to be the first person to IGM GM Jejune with the correct answer — submissions in the forums or in comments will not be considered.[/p][p]What Illypedia does not currently include are guides for playing the game, player-made content (such as land claims, Faction Play, etc.), and information on past and present alliances. We acknowledge that many players over our 15-year history have published incredibly insightful and innovative guides on how to play Illyriad, and we invite the community to continue to refine those guides for the benefit of new players wishing to accelerate their gameplay.[/p][p]We also acknowledge the incredible work that several players have done in the past and present to build their own wikis from the game’s content, and we look forward to working with players such as these to leverage their passion and knowledge of the game’s extensive lore.[/p][p]In the meantime, we hope you’ll enjoy Illypedia and everything it has to offer![/p][p][/p][p]Illypedia[/p]

[p]It's an understatement to say that it's been a minute since we've updated our Steam profile. That's the bad news. The good news is that we've been updating the game over the past 2 years and making meaningful improvements and content updates on a major scale. Here's a comprehensive update on everything we've done to improve the game:[/p][p][/p][h2]New Designers & Moderators[/h2][p][/p][p]Illyriad's DEVS added GMs Jejune, Duran, and Malek to team, with Jejune working on the designs for the upcoming Faction AI release and lore-related content, Duran taking the lead role as game moderator, and Malek bringing his Illy combat experience to designing and updating new combat systems and content. The new GMs -- all three of which are ex-players -- have bridged the gap between players and DEVS, leadiing the game into a new era of crowdsourced, player-inspired updates and a healthier community.[/p][p][/p][h2]Cleaned-up Global Chat[/h2][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]GM Duran has done a fantastic job of cleaning up GC. Global Chat is a major focus of Illy's user interface, and the community rules are being enforced so that new players can get resources and answers from veterans, with an emphasis on players having fun, eing social, and talking about the game.[/p][p][/p][h2]Patches & Bug Fixes[/h2][p][/p][p]Lots of bugs were fixed and things updated last Summer. We had an update in May, on June 5 and June 14, and in September. We still have a lot planned for improving and updating the UI while still remaining true to Illy's retro graphics aesthetic, but we've made a lot of strides in fixing things that were broken.[/p][p][/p][h2]New Server Hardware[/h2][p][/p][p]Illyriad Games LTD. made a big upgrade in seriously updating the game’s server and hardware. If you are tech-minded, you can read about that fun stuff here. One of the reasons why we did this was to vastly increase the capacity to run Faction AI.[/p][p][/p][h2]Military Unit Movement Speed Increases[/h2][p][/p][p]All units got a racially-inspired speed increase. We did this for unmounted units last Summer, and updated the mounted units in February. Next up are siege units, which are going to get “raceified” in some interesting, new ways.[/p][p][/p][h2]New Faction-related Content[/h2][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Faction AI is upon us. The DEVS have been working on it for nearly 3 years, and it is about 90% complete. Along the way, we’ve been launching and updating lots of new Faction-related content, for example:[/p]

• [p]We vastly expanded Inter-factional standings and default racial standings for all factions, in anticipation for Faction AI.[/p]
• [p]We re-wrote and re-launched the Eaglesbrood faction, debuting new Giant Eagle units onto the map.[/p]
• [p]In the biggest content launch in over a decade, we placed 155 Faction Outposts on the map, each with their own lore and connected to specific Faction hubs. Those who occupy Faction Outposts will receive a major ranking boost with its corresponding faction, so we’re excited about the PvP/Faction crossover here.[/p]

[p][/p][h2]15-year Anniversary Content Update[/h2][p][/p][p]Some of the biggest updates came in February, when the game celebrated its 15th anniversary. In commemoration, we’ve launched a Jubilee year and have done some exciting things:[/p]

• [p]Launched a Discord server for players, which is very popular. Y[/p]
• [p]Introduced a new “Gigantes” faction race and put the giants, trolls, ogres, and centaurs into it, separating them from being mere “monsters.”[/p]
• [p]We made the Cyclopes into their own faction, rather than just being regarded as beasts. They have new lore and will play a key role in Faction AI.[/p]
• [p]There was another major IFS and DRS update for Factions, in anticipation of Faction AI. This one was crowdsourced by the players, who came up with some great lore-based rationales.[/p]
• [p]This update is also where the mounted unit speeds were updated, so you can check out those stats here.[/p]
• [p]GM Malek also made a major, racially-inspired update on unit production speeds, decreasing the time it takes to make units.[/p]
• [p]We launched dragons into the game. We did this by rewriting the Dragonkin faction into a dragon-workshipping cult, and launching a straight-up Dragons faction. There are 5 new, powerful dragon units, as well as deep lore that goes with them. The dragons and giant eagles are arch-enemies.[/p]
• [p]We gave every active account an exclusive set of diplomatic Envoy units — 1 for each race. These will be used to boost rankings with Faction AI.[/p]

[p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][h2]Dragons Come to Illy[/h2][p][/p][p]The debut of the dragons is being very well received, and right now we’re having the 15th Anniversary Jubilee Year Summer Dragon Tournament, where we are giving away dragon units in the prize pool. We expanded the prize pool so that lots of players win at least one dragon. We anticipate that upwards of 1,000 accounts will be in possession of one by tournament’s end, and the tournament will generate over 100,000 casualties. [/p][p]Also, any player who sends a minimum of 1 troop into combat on a tournament square wil earn an exclusive Dragon Priest military unit (courtesy of the Dragonkin). These units will have unique and significant value in Faction AI with the dragons.[/p][p][/p][h2]What's Next?[/h2][p][/p][p]The Dragon Tournament will wrap up at the end of August. From there, we have a string of new content updates planned through the remainder of 2025:[/p]

• [p]There will be another major Faction/Lore content update coming soon.[/p]
• [p]We are hopeful that Faction AI's MVP will launch end of year. This will be the first new, major system in over 10 years.[/p]
• [p]We'll see additional updates on movement speed, this time for siege units.[/p]
• [p]Additional, new systems and updates are coming to the combat system as well.[/p]

[p][/p][p]Illyriad is one of the web's oldest and most vaunted MMOPRGs on the web, and its dedication to preserving its sandbox design ethos is the reason why it continues to endure. Now is a great time to get into the game as we continue to support a true Illy renaissance. We'll see you there![/p]

Illyriad is now free-to-play! Jump into this grand strategy game with a huge, persistent fantasy world full of magic, shifting alliances, political intrigue and warfare. Build a city and create an empire with thousands of players in this award-winning, critically-acclaimed MMO.


Forge Alliances with thousands of players. Craft and Trade 380+ resources and items in an entirely player driven market, across a vast, varied world. Side with 100+ warring NPC factions and their 700+ unit types.

Research 400+ technologies, and build 70+ building types to create your own specialised cities. Gather exotic resources, craft rare items, master mighty magics, command thieves and assassins, explore and settle new lands in the 8.6 million square world of Illyriad.

Illyriad is a strategy game of extraordinary depth and variety. With a great community, multiple paths for city specialisation, and frequent updates and new releases, this is a vast fantasy world where you can be the kind of ruler that you wish to be.

Here’s what people are saying:

“Fantastic city-builder... a ton of depth, a great community... play at your own pace... perfect gameplay... absolutely wonderful Lore... the map is incredible... reminds me of Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones - those great big epic stories." - Massively

"Solid and deep MMO play experience. This is certainly a sweeping, epic strategy game." – Independent Games Festival

Build, plan, gather, craft, trade, scheme and fight in this free to play strategy epic!