Astral Shards

Seven. Not one less. The light does not hold together on six.

Sister Ysolde, healer of Dreadhollow

Once, a staff was made of the rainbow itself. It broke, and its shards went into the hearts of the lords of the war lands. Any lord may leave a rainbow shard when it falls; in Dreadhollow seven of them are bound into the Rainbow Staff, and every blow of it is seven bolts of lightning.

The laws of this world

Three rules the game stands on. Each is set out in full in the knowledge base.

You grow by doing
No points per level, no talent trees. The experience of every blow goes into the skill it was struck with: a swordsman hones the blade, a mage their element. Only rare elixirs raise characteristics.
Skills and experience
A world that does not forgive
A fallen hero leaves everything worn and carried where it fell. You can go back for the bag if nobody gets there first. Closing the game mid-fight will not save you either: the hero stays in the world five more minutes.
Death and revival
The lords of the maps of war
The best sets are not sold. Eight lords on four maps of war each leave one piece an hour, and very rarely a rainbow shard.
Maps of war and lords

Six peoples, two sides

The side is chosen when the hero is made and never changes: it decides where the hero starts, where it is at home and who its enemies are. The race changes only the looks; any class is open to any race.

Where heroes may fight, they strike only heroes of the other side. The Alliance speaks the common tongue, the Horde the tongue of the dead, and the other side's words can be understood only by their sense.

Sides and races

Alliance

Peoples: humans, elves, dwarves
First land: Ashvale
Capital: Highcrown, west of Dreadhollow

Horde

Peoples: undead, orcs, trolls
First land: Barrowmoor
Capital: Bloodkeep, east of Dreadhollow

How to begin

Five minutes and you are in the world.

Download the launcher, a small archive.
Unpack it and run Start.bat: it downloads the game and puts a shortcut on the desktop.
Sign in to Steam.
Start the game from the shortcut, make a hero and enter the world.

Download the game

The game downloads on the first start and then keeps itself up to date.

Updates and bugs

What has changed in the game and what is already fixed. Found a bug? Report it, no sign-up needed.

Reviews

What players think of the game. Leave your own review; the developer reads every one.

Knowledge base

Every item, spell, creature, townsperson, land and quest, with numbers straight from the game's data.