Spring 2025: Secrets of the North

 

Welcome Thainites to the Spring 2025 Update – Secrets of the North!

 

Faction Update:

• Craggen Village
• Remnants of Bak’non
• The Rikjack and Rikr Rites
• Class Lore Update: Northwarden and Windsoother

Northlands Expansion:

• Beyond the Walls
• Unclaimed Lands
• The Sea of Secrets

New Bounties:

• Vhuriko
• The Frost Jarl’s Hall
• The Mountain of Secrets

New Discoveries of the Old World:

• Shrines

Updates and other New Content:

• New Accessories: Danglymesh Cloak Accessories
• The Mountain of Secrets
• New Class: Shaman

 

 

Settlement Update: Craggen Village

 

While Craggen has existed since the very early days of Thain, numerous projects have tried to finish it and the Northlands and bring them some semblance of connection to the broader Thain story. This update marks the latest attempt in this line following the lore updates we’ve seen since the closure of the Rift Portals in Thain: New Beginnings – one that we hope will resonate most clearly with our players.

Craggen’s core identity remains a frontier struggle at the edge of the world, tinged with old Shamanic and ritual story devices and Nordic visual and aesthetic elements. Nestled in the ruins of three great and ruining walls, Craggen Village was settled by Lady Arienna Kampfer in roughly 565 TA. A young princess disillusioned with the intrigues of the court and wanting to escape palace pressures, King Kampfer’s thought-to-be sole heir renounced her claim to the throne and settled the village in the Far North. 

As she and those who settled the place with her reconnected to the history of the land and met with the local Frostcutter Barbarians, they struck an uneasy truce and managed to carve out a place in the Wilderness of the World in which men and women might survive together through strength and determination. The laws of the North are harsh, and the young princess grown to a wiser and older woman now – there is little mercy in the Longhouse of Craggen Village for those who even once break fellowship and endanger their comrades – and yet there are opportunities here on the far flung reaches of the world where so few might go looking for those who find themselves outcast elsewhere.

Craggen is a settlement that warily accepts the presence of Metallic Dragonkin – so long as they are vouched for and willing to be magically overseen by the Northwardens – Craggen’s own version of knights who often oversee and magically bind the mighty Rikrjack to their sides. It is a place too for those looking for a fresh (and due to the grim justice of the North, often last) start – even inked men and women from the Watch might find themselves dwelling here, in a place that values strength and comraderie over asking questions. The truly monstrous and dangerous are still turned away in the North: and justice meets swifty any those who prove themselves to be a danger, even if they have been called “Brother” for decades.

 

 

 

Remnants of Bak’non

Bak’non, keeper of secrets, left his mark upon the great Northlands in the second age of Thain when he settled within the place. Those who wished to know the deepest reaches of Thain’s magics came to the bleak North and with his guidance raised a once mighty civilization that crumbled during the Godswar… Yet buried beneath the great frost that coats the North are many of these secrets: rites and rituals and magically built structures that Bak’non himself once gave instruction in. The people of Craggen have a willingness to explore these magics and build upon them: They have developed their own rites and rituals for keeping the walls using lost magics, and identify them with various spirits of the North: Dhytrrivegg, Western Wall of the Great Wolf, a mythical titanic wolf; Einhyrivegg, Northern Wall of the Einhyrn, a mythical stag; Svartrosstvegg, Eastern Wall of the Crow, a mythical Bird Spirit. 

 

The Rikr Rites

The Rikrjack are giantblooded and made, rather than born. Craggen folk have many stories surrounding them – and yet the truth is known only by the chief of the Windsoothers, Craggen’s Magistrates: The Windsinger. The Windsinger alone holds the rituals that can make one a Rikrjack, and it is a grim but noble fate: The body is transformed and made mighty and great in size, but the mind wars forever after with the muddied memories of Giantkind, especially of the Frost Giants and their bleak history in the North with their Frostmaiden creator.

After the transformation, it is only a matter of time – sometimes months and sometimes years – before the mind gives way to the giantish greed, superstition, and aggression that Frost Giants are known for in the modern age of Thain… At this time, the Northwarden who has been tasked with overseeing them uses the last of the great and magical rituals to subdue and kill the Rikr. It is a fate for the brave, the devoted, or the doomed: those who wish to help Craggen survive and those who have only a choice between the Rites and death are the most common candidates.

 

Class Lore Update: Northwarden and Windsoother

More clearly defined now are the roles of the Northlands’ Knight and Magister faction classes – freshly renamed from “Knight of the North” and “Magister of the Northlands” the Northwarden and Windsoother. While their powers remain the same, their role within the settlement has grown and become more clearly defined:

 

Northwardens oversee the justice of the North and are often custodians of those semi-monstrous people like Dragonkin and Rikrjack until their natures finally best them and the Northwarden bears a headsman’s axe on their behalf. They also oversee the wide varieties of unsavory people who settle the North looking for one last chance at life: Lowtown criminals fleeing persecution following the fall of Lenio, gangers whose power struggles resulted in their exile from the Watch, horse thieves, and more. These people must exist alongside those whose virtue or desire for freedom from allegiance to kings or gangsters drive them to the edges of the world: and the Northwarden must keep that peace, often at swordpoint if needed.

 

Windsoothers keep the rites and rituals the Northlands have rediscovered in the heart of the land: some rituals of old Bak’non, others of the Frostcutter tribes. They are a marriage of the old traditions and the new, often overseeing rites and rituals that maintain the walls of the North, or venturing beyond the walls or to distant lands in pursuit of answers to questions the North has given but none still live who can answer.

Northlands Expansion:

Beyond the Walls

To Craggen’s South is the stretch of Everwinter Pass to the coastline of Frostmaiden’s lookout, in which new arrivals to the Northlands often find themselves after crossing the Frostbitten Channel that separates the Mainland from the North – and ringing the village are three great walls built long ago: some whisper by the men following Bak’non, while others tell of them being even older. 

Beyond the three walls that surround Craggen to the West, North, and East are great dangers to mortals:

To the West of Craggen lies the great expanse of the Northlands and in it dwell giants in the pass men call “Avalanche Pass”. 

To the North one finds a great valley and the curse of the North: the Kaldr, a deathless curse placed upon the North long ago by the goddess Adlina that all who should die in the snows should rise again in her name. 

To the East one might be plagued by the strange spirits of Svartrossburg – the great mountain of crows that none have ascended in centuries and that temes with a strange black wind that often blows down off the peak and assaults men and women with strange visions and spirits. 

Within the walls, one is said to be safe from these things: for the giants in their superstition fear the Westwall, the North wall sits atop a great chasm the undead cannot climb, and the Eastwall bears still some remnants of the magics that keep fell spirits out: yet each year maintaining the walls gets harder, and the Windsoothers struggle more to keep that which they have made safe from the world’s many dangers.

 

New Mechanic: Warmth

Beyond the Walls, the storms of Thain grow deeper – sight is reduced and to wander too far from fire results in the steady drain of one’s strength. We’ve added a Warmth meter that runs out gradually as you get away from fire sources in the wilderness. Going too long without warmth will see your defenses debuffed, and you’ll find it harder to defend yourself from the North’s dangers. You’ll see braziers scattered about the wilderness where you can refill this warmth.

Unclaimed Lands

Beyond even the lands men dare to tread are more fearsome places still: “Unclaimed lands” housing great Frost Giants and the many dangers of Thain. In the Unclaimed lands, expect the presence of fearsome Northlands Giants to be highest – these are some of the most dangerous creatures on Thain, and the presence (and lack) of warmth as a new mechanic makes them all the more fearsome. We certainly recommend bringing friends!

The Sea of Secrets

The Sea of Secrets lies even beyond the Unclaimed Lands – a great bay that has frozen over that holds secrets one can find by going deep below the ice. These role play spaces build upon the many themes of the Northlands, making excellent destinations for a story set in the exploration of the North – and giving you the opportunity to hide many stories of your own beneath the ice in the North through player events.

Updated Bounty System, New Bounties:

Part of the purpose of bounties has always been to see players explore the world and role play together, in addition to accumulating the points themselves that often reward them with cool things like faction specific rewards or bounty hut prizes. As we now have a wide variety of rewards in place for RPing while doing things like bounties, it felt like the right time to update the system itself to better encourage that. We’re doing two things in this update to the bounty system: 

Updating the Bounty Tables, Adding Tier 5

A number of tier 4 bounties were so challenging that they almost always warranted a group. While grouping is the purpose of the bounty system, this certainly set them apart from the lower tiers and made them a bit random if you were trying for a Tier 4 alone: netting a later Labs boss or something would almost certainly result in your dropping the bounty. As a result, we have created a Tier 5 bounty for those that we know take a significant time investment and almost certainly require partying with friends to do. This Tier 5 bounty includes:

– The Four Abyssal Layers Bosses

– The Labs bosses

– The Lord’s Tomb bosses

– Bevolkere Bosses

– All other future and new Story Dungeon Bosses

 

Adding: Team Bonus

When you do a bounty with friends, you’ll receive a “Team Bonus” – in a party of 3 or more people, all the point rewards for your bounty are doubled. In order to get this bonus, all three players must have the bounty active, completed, be online, and be present in the turn-in location. 

 

New Bounties

The Northlands includes a variety of new bounties, including a new tier 3, 4, and 3 new tier 5s. 

• Vhuriko is a great Bear who dwells beneath the snows East of Craggen – in a cavern beneath the walls of Dhytrivegg. He represents a new Tier 3 bounty with all new loot and a reasonable challenge for those who might brave the new lands alone. He can be found by exploring east of Craggen Village near the southern portion of the wall. 
• The Frost Jarl’s Hall is a frostgiantess priestess dwelling in the North in the Unclaimed Lands. She is surrounded by many fearsome Northlands Giants and protects herself with powerful magics. She represents a Tier 4 bounty that it is recommended players bring allies to help with, and also has an all new level appropriate loot table. She can be found by exiting the Westwall and heading North up Avalanche Pass, then exploring Northern Avalanche Pass and the surrounding areas until one finds “Ascent of the Einhyrn”. 
• The Mountain of Secrets is a new story dungeon and inside of it are three new bosses, each a “Tier 5” bounty. They can be found beyond the Unclaimed Lands, in the farthest North of the “Sea of Secrets”.

New Discoveries of the Old World: Shrines

The past ages of Thain feature heavily in this update, and one piece of this update spans beyond just the Northlands: the addition of Shrines.

 

Shrines are objects from which you can gain permanent “enhancement bonuses” to specific things like skills and stats, as well as once-per-account unlocks of things like Attunement and Convergence. Enhancement bonuses are not base skill or stat increases but share the same “+12” (attribute) and “+50” (skill) bonus limits as bonuses granted by gear and spells. There are 200 total shrines to find across all the areas and lands of Thain:

 

Attunement Shrines grant an amount of attunement when found, adding to your total currency that you can use to unlock things in the attunement shop. They can be unlocked once per account.

Convergence Shrines grant +1 Convergence when found, adding to your Convergence total. They can be unlocked once per account.

Skill Shrines grant an enhancement bonus to a skill when found, permanently increasing that skill. Each Shrine can be unlocked once per character.

Atttribute shrines grant an enhancement bonus to a stat when all 8 of that type are found, permanently increasing that attribute (as part of the above mentioned +12 bonus cap).

New Accessories and Unlocks: Danglymesh Cloaks

Keen eyed observers of our trailer will see that the cloak model attached to the cameraman’s armor moves and sways with the character, even blowing dramatically in areas that have wind. These cloaks are an enjoyable feature that we wanted to share with everyone, and so we made several dozen new models with color matching to Cloth 1 or 2 that have this feature – these can be unlocked in the attunement shop for currency.

We also added a variety of special appearance cloaks that may be rewarded as part of a character’s epic journey or as the result of completing a specific achievement unlock. These cloaks often contain special appearances, shapes, color schemes, and effects.

The Mountain of Secrets

An all new story dungeon detailing the lost history of the Dwarven peoples can be discovered in the Northlands – far beyond the Unclaimed Lands of the Giants in the Sea of Secrets. This “Mountain of Secrets” is filled with lost Dwarven lore, features the three new Tier 5 bosses mentioned in the Bounty Update section, and contains 23 new loot table items in addition to the ones added in the Giant, Bear and Random Kaldr tables – bringing the total new Loot Drops in this update to 45 new items.

 

New Class: Shaman

“The land of Thain is rich with magic, alive with a beating heart – and sometimes with those whose ears can hear its call, whispers of things that must yet be done. The land’s demands are many – and each who can hear it hears a different call. To be a herald of Thain’s edicts must seem mad to those who cannot hear them, and madder still to those who hear differently: and yet the heart of the world is ever open and pouring out magic in subtle ways – in the air and the trees and the earth and the water. Those who hear the land’s call receive instructions, along with gifts and curses: rituals that bring forth a measure of its magic and the burden of doing as it instructs, lest they are faced with the coldness of its silence. Some dwell among men, seeking to shape their works and deeds to what the land demands – others dwell in the wilds, surviving against the harshness of nature and beasts until they are sought for their wisdom.”

 

Shaman represents a new kind of caster, one that we wanted to experiment with in future updates if it turns out to be successful: rather than using spells per day, it spontaneously casts from a small list of chosen spells and uses a mana style resource when casting. This resource refills slowly in combat, faster out of combat, completely after resting – and unique to the Shaman, it drops off of enemies and can be collected when they fall. 

 

Shaman occupies a mid to backline caster role, with a D6 Hit Dice, Medium Armor and Shield allowance, and very few defensive spells. It primarily serves as a primal themed “Striker” – a damage dealer who can unload massive damage swings without worry as long as it finishes its enemies off. A variety of playstyles can be found in its spell list – but due to its narrow spell range (with only 2 available spells from its list at 6th level and higher) Shaman are often narrow in their presentation.

Each spell level contains eight spell choices, which you can take only a limited number of: These always include one offering of Fire, Earth, Air, Water, as well as Thain’s paths seeing representation in an offering of Spirit, Blood, Aether and Void options. Shaman are encouraged but not obligated to push toward these directions – utilizing a variety of spells that best suit the kind of calling the land of Thain pushes them toward.

 

Shaman’s full details can be found on the Shaman Page of the Thain wiki.