Astral Shards test
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In development · open test

Astral Shards

An online RPG whereskill decides the fight

The Alliance against the Horde. What you strike with is what grows. The fallen lose everything. The best gear drops from the lords or is made by players.

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Free · Windows 10 and 11 · sign in through Steam

AllianceHordeAshvalethe road beginsBarrowmoorthe road beginsThornmarchfrom level 30Blackmirefrom level 30Cinderreachfrom level 60Gravemerefrom level 60Dreadhollowfrom level 90the ArenatrainingBloodfenfrom level 90Wraithshorefrom level 90Skullgorgefrom level 90Cindermawfrom level 90AllianceHordeAshvalethe road beginsBarrowmoorthe road beginsThornmarchfrom level 30Blackmirefrom level 30Cinderreachfrom level 60Gravemerefrom level 60Dreadhollowfrom level 90the ArenatrainingBloodfenfrom level 90Wraithshorefrom level 90Skullgorgefrom level 90Cindermawfrom level 90

Click a land to open its page in the knowledge base.

Seven. Not one less. The light does not hold together on six.
Sister Ysolde, healer of Dreadhollow

Once, a staff was made of the rainbow itself. It broke, and its shards went into the hearts of the lords of the war lands. Any lord may leave a rainbow shard when it falls; in Dreadhollow seven of them are bound into the Rainbow Staff, and every blow of it is seven bolts of lightning.

The laws of this world

Three rules the game stands on. Each is set out in full in the knowledge base.

Craft feeds the war

Two main professions of six, and two every hero knows. Everything heroes fight with, someone gathered and made.

A copper vein in the ruins of Ashvale; the hero's staff is sharpened to +5

Miners and herbalists supply smiths and alchemists; smiths supply jewelcrafters and sharpeners. Only jewelcrafters make rings, amulets and bracelets, alchemists brew elixirs for half an hour, and a cook's meal keeps a hero fed through a long hunt.

Sharpening takes weapons and armour up to +5. Every step adds damage and glows in its own colour, from pale blue to fire; a failure costs only the stones.

Professions in the knowledge base
The main menu: six peoples at one fire

Six peoples, two sides

The side is chosen when the hero is made and never changes: it decides where the hero starts, where it is at home and who its enemies are. The race changes only the looks; any class is open to any race.

Where heroes may fight, they strike only heroes of the other side. The Alliance speaks the common tongue, the Horde the tongue of the dead, and the other side's words can be understood only by their sense.

Sides and races

Alliance

Peoples
humans, elves, dwarves
First land
Ashvale
Capital
Highcrown, west of Dreadhollow

Horde

Peoples
undead, orcs, trolls
First land
Barrowmoor
Capital
Bloodkeep, east of Dreadhollow

Open test

In development. Testers wanted

Astral Shards grows with every update, and you can play it today. An open test is on: every weak spot you find makes the world stronger.

  1. Play

    Download the game and play as usual: go to new lands, learn professions, join clans, fight the heroes of the other side.

  2. Report bugs

    Found a bug? Describe it on the Updates and bugs page. No sign-up needed; you can attach a screenshot.

  3. Say what is missing

    What you like, what gets in the way, what you are waiting for: tell it in the Reviews. The developer reads every one, and fixes come out in the updates feed.

What needs checking most right now: professions and sharpening, clans, the maps of war.

Download the gameReport a bugWrite to the developer @twixon_

How to begin

Five minutes and you are in the world.

  1. Download the launcher, a small archive.
  2. Unpack it and run Start.bat: it downloads the game and puts a shortcut on the desktop.
  3. Sign in to Steam.
  4. Start the game from the shortcut, make a hero and enter the world.
Download the game

The game downloads on the first start and then keeps itself up to date.

Updates and bugs

What has changed in the game and what is already fixed. Found a bug? Report it, no sign-up needed.

Reviews

What players think of the game. Leave your own review; the developer reads every one.

Community

The players' forum: questions, advice, guilds and trade. Write in your own language; everyone reads in theirs.

Knowledge base

Every item, spell, creature, townsperson, land, quest and recipe, with numbers straight from the game's data.