Today we get our seventh developer journal from Tasos Flambouras and the Darkfall crew. This week, they look at the Mirdain race, as we learn more about our pointy-eared friends. We also have two exclusive screenshots of mirdain riding their mount: the aerdin cat.
Journal by Tasos Flambouras (Associate Producer)
The Mirdain of the Forest Republic
The mirdain are a sophisticated and cultured people, who tend to prefer diplomacy to warfare, and subtlety to brute force. They are a race of merchants and politicians, whose networks of intelligence and trade extend like sinuous branches from the Mirendil Forest, forming an empire which controls and manipulates extensively while remaining in the shadows.
Whether hunting game in the Mirendil, or cutting and slashing their way through the battlefields of much-contested Rubaiyat, the Mirdain move with an innate grace that other races cannot emulate. In battle, they compensate for their relative lack of muscle mass with the speed of their movement and the precision of their blows, as well with their superior magical aptitude.
The Forest Republic
Since time immemorial, the Mirdain have lived in a forest which covers the southwestern reaches of Agon’s main continent. The forest itself is called Mirendil, while the Mirdain-controlled realm which occupies it is referred to as the Forest Republic.
To the north, the Mirendil is bordered by the rolling plains of the Mahirim Tribelands. To the southeast lies Nagast, the poisoned and spell-blasted homeland of the Alfar, who are implacable enemies of the Mirdain race. Across the Ruby Sea to the south lies Rubaiyat, a desert continent which was recently overrun by the seemingly unstoppable undead hordes of the Red Pharaoh.
The Mirendil Forest is intersected by several broad, winding rivers, the most famous and majestic of which is the Irthan, which rises in the darkest depths of the forest and empties into the Eirandar swamp-delta of western Mirendil.
Along the Forest Republic’s borders with Nagast and the Tribelands lives a violent race of axe-wielding ursines called Beastmen, who despise the Mirdain, and who see the Mirendil as little more than a collection of resources waiting to be exploited.
Trouble also brews in the heart of the forest, where a circle of fundamentalist mirdain druids called the Forest Prophets have taken up arms against the Republic. In their desperate quest to return the Mirendil to its pristine, pre-civilization state, the Forest Prophets have resorted to casting terrible spells on the animals which they originally set out to protect, turning them into curse-crazed monsters which are sent to rampage through mirdain communities.
Aerdin Cats
The mirdain ride enormous cats which have been bred for size, obedience and ferocity. They resemble the snow leopards of the northern continent of Niflheim, with their black-spotted white fur, long, bushy tails, and pale blue eyes. Unlike snow leopards, however, aerdin cats have huge tusks which protrude from their upper jaws, and which they use quite effectively in combat. The mirdain tend to equip aerdin with soft and simple saddles which do not inhibit movement too much.
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