The last thing we heard out of New World was from this past February, and that was to let players know that the game’s launch is being delayed, but it also provided a peek at things that are being worked on for its next closed beta test on July 20th, including five-player Expeditions, 20v20 Outpost Rush PvP encounters, and the endgame region of Ebonscale Reach.
It’s that last one that’s prompted a recent lore-filled post that sets up the backstory for the location, with an adventurer receiving a tale from an innkeep about the Corrupted Empress that resides in Ebonscale Reach. The story talks about how the empress, Zhou Taiying, was driven from China by her brother on her coronation, and now seeks to raise a dangerous armada to enact revenge and lay claim to the world itself after being made one of the Corrupted.
Of course, none of this provides any sort of new information about the game’s development progress as it moves into closed beta, but it does provide at least an emotional motivation for the zone. And who knows, this could be the run-up to more reveals in the coming months.
