Say what you will about Pantheon’s long development, but its monthly production newsletters arrive like clockwork. The January missive has now landed, and the folks at Visionary Realms have zeroed in on the Aridola, which is the faction for which they dropped a video earlier this month. Now there’s a whole developer blog about the group, which is rather obviously inspired by the real-world Roma people and culture, though this is a much more fantasy take.
“Their culture is shaped by dance and song, surrounded in myth and mysticism, alive with joy and hospitality. Living in nomadic tent villages called “woda”, the Aridola have no permanent home. No nation they hail from or land they will someday return to, nothing but their woda and peoples to protect. They subsist off a mixture of their own provisions, limited harvesting of resources, and trade with locals. Thus, it is said that as long as there are birds in the air or fish in the sea, the Aridola will have a place to dwell. They’ve never met a stranger, have few foes, and even have a legacy as bear trainers, at times being seen riding the great Oggrym.”
As Visionary Realms has been discussing all month, it’s been working on the seamless world zoning system, crafting and gathering, worldbuilding, new character models, biome generation, and preparations for the reopening of Avendyr’s Pass for testers.
