Good tidings, friends,

The discussion around the recent combat instruments we've shared, such as the Brudvir Great Axe, continues to spark unexpected controversy among the community so I wanted to address a couple points about the so-called Friday Shiny.

1 - The shiny is a sneak-peek of the coolest thing someone was recently working on that we wanted to share. The Shinies have been presented with minimum context because they're more of a teaser or work-in-progress of our current release cycle's work, thus the context lives in our development blogs. It's definitely not the only thing the studio was working on. It's not necessarily completed or at a shippable quality yet; just a little slice of our in-flight development to continue our desire to be transparent and share our excitement with all of you! Completed iterations will be part of our Adventure Completion blogs along with our usual descriptions of what the work is trying to accomplish and how it fits into our development plan.

2 - Chronicles of Elyria is not an historic simulation and it does not take place on Earth. A fantasy setting like ours is sometimes called Sword & Sorcery or Heroic Fantasy, which does not make it bound to the historic timelines, materials, physics, technologies, or social conventions of Earth. Consider that Game of Thrones and Conan the Barbarian are both in this corner of the fantasy genre, too. There are fantastic qualities to Elyria and they will shape many elements of the game! We've used the term Dramatic Realism before, as well as a desire to have Verisimilitude over Veracity (“It’s better to feel real than be real.”). So we're going to lean into the fantastic in places, and to depths that meet the overall vision we have for the game (both at launch and over the course of the 10-year story). There is absolutely room for weapons and armor and structures and crafts and creatures and adaptations that have no purchase on Earth, but are common in Elyria. Those fantastic creations will receive the same dramatic realism and verisimilitude as something that we adopted from Earth and didn't want to change. A good example of that is horses. People like them, they work well, we understand how they fit into a world, and most fantasy universes include them. We decided to include them as-is but we won't for everything. In the end, this isn't going to be a simulation of Earth - it will be a simulation of Elyria - and we hope it's as compelling as other fantasy universes you've, no doubt, enjoyed over your lifetime!

Now, here's a sneak-peek of something we're working on for the Kypiq that I'm quite excited about. As you may know from reading about this inventive tribe, they do not possess great strength or reach but are quick of mind and nimble of form. Not interested in direct combat if they can help it, a desirable quality for combat equipment is adaptability! This shield is only a shield when it needs to be and will allow Kypiq to keep their mobility advantages as an advantage!

Since we want this to feel grounded in the world of Elyria, you can see that there is thought being put into how the mechanism would actually work and not merely "be cool" (even though it is, isn't it?). A perfect example of the process of developing realistic technology in a fantasy setting. No, this isn't a real Earth weapon and I don't think you're going to find any YouTube videos of this one to demonstrate how it would really work in a fight...but if you do, let us know!

Stay shiny,

Vye