Help your home town thrive and grow into a bustling city

At its smallest, land is broken into parcels that are 64 square meters each. Initially, all known land on the starting continent will belong to a County, which is in a Duchy, which is in a Kingdom. Depending on the region and biome, land will have different natural resources. One may be ripe for planting crops, another for mining ores, and another as a natural crossroads for trade. Settlements, as a result, will tend to be located near the resources that were important to its founders. Settlements can thrive in different ways such as having access to trade routes, water, or ease of protection.

Elyria is a land steeped in mystery and filled with numerous, untold dangers. If the natural hazards don't kill you then you may find yourself at the wrong end of a bandit's sword thrust or worse. The only assurance of safety for players is to band together into the security of community; sanctuaries where nourishment and protection can be shared among the group.

From housing and structures, to land management and agriculture, players are at the heart of settlements in Elyria. As a player, you can build-up and cultivate your tiny hamlet into a bustling hub of wealth and prosperity...or build up an army to siege and conquer instead. However, everything in Elyria is destructible and resources are finite, so the conqueror must be careful not to lose their own homes in the process.

The strength of a settlement will depend on many factors: its location in the world, access to natural resources, how defensible its terrain is, what buildings have been built, what crafts or education it has available, which people it has attracted, and how it is governed. Each settlement will be unique, but all provide their citizens with basic survival options. In the wilds, your survival will be entirely up to you.

The residents of Elyria, both NPCs and player characters alike, are driven to action based on their own motivations and needs. A lack of resources such as food, water, security, or work may mobilize the citizenry towards areas that can provide these necessities. Elyrian migration happens much in the same way as those in the real world. The creation of new industries and opportunity can bring crowds in while war and famine can drive others away. Unique to Chronicles of Elyria, a period of development prior to launch called Exposition will allow backers to get a head start on customizing the settlements and infrastructure generated for their server. On launch day, many settlements and regions will have unique offerings and varied reputations because of these pioneering backers.

Much like on Earth, your social network in Elyria will tend to be centered around the place you live. Thus you'll likely start the game in the same family or town that your IRL friends have chosen in order to play together. Similarly if a guild from another game was looking to migrate to Chronicles of Elyria to play together, they'd likely want to start their own Settlement. That would not only give them a base of operations, but economic impact and political clout as well.

We expect most Elyrians to live their entire lives within a 30 mile radius of their settlement. Settlements aren't quest hubs and we don't expect players to visit most of them. You also won't be dropped into the world in a Starter Zone, but instead will join a family in their household and they will teach you the ways of the world.

One of the things your family will provide is a set of maps for the surrounding area. As a survival game, Chronicles of Elyria doesn't use a mini-map to show your surroundings. Instead you'll need to take out a map to chart your place in the world. Since maps are physical items, they can be created, destroyed, and changed, and will also go out of date as the world around you changes. Cartographers will add settlements to maps when they encounter new ones, giving them the name heard locally. Why is this such a powerful feature? Because the Soulborn Engine keeps track of all the names given to a town, village, watershed, lake, Kingdom, etc... And whichever name appears most frequently on maps for that landmark, that's the name that it will be referred to by NPCs and by recent in-game lore.

Explorers who first discover a new lake or a forgotten ruin are free to name them as they like, provided they share it with others. Border disputes and coups could lead to a region falling under a new name and government, but the populace won't immediately follow suit without a reason. So, instead of blandly typing in a new name, there is essentially a social mini-game to play; even naming things in Elyria will benefit from player-skill! This aligns with our goal of making Chronicles of Elyria truly dynamic and immersive.