Citadel Studios, best known around these parts as the folks behind sandbox MMORPG Legends of Aria, has pulled back the curtain on a new multiplayer game it’s developing known as The End. As explained on PC Gamer, The End is set in a dark Viking-styled fantasy universe described as a “crumbling heaven,” where players can venture out on solo quests that grant them access to powerful spells and equipment, and then join up with up to five players to form a warband to fight for control over domains, a process which involves summoning a Feud Stone to declare a war against a defending warband, engaging in a period of warfare, and ultimately entering a “Battle for the Hamlet” that can take place in the open world. Combat will be action-based instead of driven by stats, with most spells acting like targeted AoEs instead of single projectiles.
Multiplayer warbands are meant to make up the backbone of The End’s experience, with Citadel Studios promising to “guarantee that smaller groups of friends or strangers can fully experience and engage in our gameplay.” As for individual progression, there will be a Norse-inspired record of player-earned feats like engaging in combat, cleansing and summoning, or slaying monsters. And when a player character dies, they respawn, but their entire record is wiped clean.
This, of course, isn’t to completely suggest that Citadel has forgotten about Legends of Aria. In fact, the fall 2020 Arena season is now underway, bringing some new rewards, adjustments to certain spells, and a system that alerts GMs to players engaging in win trading activity.
As for this new title, development is still early, but there is a website where interested parties can subscribe to a newsletter for more details.
