Alpha-1 starting area

Alpha-1 preview reworked alpha island starting area.

There's been some significant lighting changes here in this area. There's been some work on the foliage, on the trees that are available, toned down some of the ruins, rearranged some of the tents and it's starting to look pretty good. – Steven Sharif

The Alpha-1 starting area is set in the ruins of a Pyrian divine gateway to the south of alpha island.

Mobs at this location

• Amanita Verna
• Animated Armor
• Auricula
• Brown Bear
• Cave Raptor
• Cibarius
• Edulis
• Enchanted Aranea
• Enchanted Raptor
• Enchanted Scalerunner
• Ensnaring Widow
• Forest Charger
• Gibbering Maw
• Grasslands Bear
• Grasslands Charger
• Grasslands Raptor
• Grasslands Scalerunner
• Hopping Gnasher
• Odora
• Scalerunner
• Swiftclaw Raptor
• Towering Troll
• Underrealm Mycena
• Undying Guard
• Venomous Stalker
• Webspinner
• Young Drakeling
• Young Dustling
• Zelleri

NPCs at this location

• Attendant Wynden
• Captain Quinn
• Corporal Cuhlum
• Corporal Perian
• Darian Laurant
• Eswyn
• Headmaster Varus
• Jhal
• Lieutenant Griori
• Olexia Fobrasna
• Scholar Rhea
• Sergeant Cowles
• Sergeant Landry

Alpha island

Map of Alpha-1 preview testing zone.

The Alpha One map including nodes, dungeons, quest givers, POI, teleporters, and camps will be explorable! Note that this is only a small portion of the world of Verra.

Alpha-1 testing tropical zone featuring a war beast and a tribe of pigmy goblins.

This is a rather large tropical area; and what we use some of the creatures for is kind of like establishing character for different parts of this tropical place. So that even though it's the same biome, it feels different when you are going from place to place based on what's there and how those things are interacting with the environment. – Jeffrey Bard

Alpha-1 testing takes place in a zone to the north west of the world map. This zone has many islands and a mainland area.

• The Alpha-1 starting area is set in the ruins of an Pyrian divine gateway.
• There are 12 different (sub)zones in the Alpha-1 testing location.
• The Alpha-1 zone is almost 100 km² in size. This is about 17% of the total world size.
  • Previous estimates range between 20-25% of the map.
  • Traversing the width of the zone (10 km) on a mount would take about 30 minutes.
• Alpha island (also called Alpha-0 island) was the first open-world testing zone for Alpha-1 participants.
• There are approximately 4 biomes in Alpha-1: Flood plains, Sahara (Desert), Snowy mountains.
  • A tropical/jungle zone was added for the December 2020 Alpha-1 preview tests.
• Temporary teleportation points will be present in early tests until ships are introduced later in the alpha testing.

Divine gateways

Empyrean divine gateway concept art.

When you play the MMORPG you're going to be stepping through what are called these divine gateways from a planet called Sanctus and Sanctus was really a safe haven that was forethought by the Goddess of Fate and Creation as a sanctuary to provide the people of Verra who could survive the fall, the apocalypse, the exodus essentially. – Steven Sharif

Divine gateways are portals located in the ruined cities of the four ancient races of Verra.

• Divine gateways are where players first arrive in Ashes of Creation.
  • Each divine gateway is in proximity to one or more starting area.
• Players can choose their starting gateway. This choice is not restricted by their choice of race.
  • Tulnar characters have the same option of starting at any of the divine gateways as other races.
• The divine gateways were created by the Goddess of Creation in response to a warning from the Goddess of Fate that The Ancients and The Others would return from exile and seek retribution for their defeat at the hands of The Seven gods.

Where players start, they enter this portal from another world called Sanctus. Sanctus is a place of no magic, low technology; and players are the first expeditioners that are coming through this portal into the world of Verra. – Jeffrey Bard

World map

Ashes of Creation map. The circles on the map are divine gateways that are located in the ruined cities of the four great races of Verra. The diamonds are the starting settlements for the returning races.

If you have tuned into our live streams and update videos, you may have caught glimpses of Verra. The world is very large and meant to hold around 10,000 concurrent players. With elaborate trade routes and sea-play, the Verran landscapes must provide complex obstacles and intricate passages between its regions. Alpha One will be the first test phase in the actual world map of Verra. For the first time ever, our community will step foot on the world we hope you'll call home. – Steven Sharif

The original Ashes map from my pathfinder world of Ashes made 10 years ago. Obviously some adjustments had to be made for the mmorpg. But the main two continents and their points of interest have a lot of the same. – Steven Sharif

The world of Verra features an in-game viewable world map. This map is not randomly generated, and begins covered in a fog of war. Players will not be able to see the world until they have explored it or gathered information about it. The world is also full of imperfect information, which will require the player to act on it for verification.

For example, you may hear a rumor in a tavern that tells you the location of a cave full of weak Kobolds, but this was not accurate as the rumor was started by well-equipped bandits in order to waylay overconfident adventurers.

When information is gathered, or the player has successfully explored an area, points of interest are marked on the map.

• These points of interest are determined by Node progression; and not every server will share the same map, as player decisions will vary server to server.

In addition to node progression being a factor on map generation, zones in Ashes of Creation will cater to all levels.

The map will have geographical choke points (such as Mountains) that are not traversable by players.

Even though we're an open-world that doesn't mean that from a design perspective, especially with the way our economic systems work, that we will want to create Geographic choke points. – Steven Sharif

Artwork

• 

  2021-03-28
• 

  2020-03-27

See also

• Alpha-1
• Starting areas
• World map