Divine gateways

When you play the MMORPG you're going to be stepping through what are called these divine gateways from a planet called Sanctus and Sanctus was really a safe haven that was forethought by the Goddess of Fate and Creation as a sanctuary to provide the people of Verra who could survive the fall, the apocalypse, the exodus essentially.^[1] – Steven Sharif

Divine gateways are portals located in the ruined cities of the four ancient races of Verra.^[2]

Divine gateways are where players first arrive in Ashes of Creation.^[3]
- Each divine gateway is in proximity to one or more starting area.^[2]
Players can choose their starting gateway.^[4] This choice is not restricted by their choice of race.^[5]
- Tulnar characters have the same option of starting at any of the divine gateways as other races.^[6]^[5]^[7]
The divine gateways were created by the Goddess of Creation in response to a warning from the Goddess of Fate that The Ancients and The Others would return from exile and seek retribution for their defeat at the hands of The Seven gods.^[1]^[8]

Where players start, they enter this portal from another world called Sanctus. Sanctus is a place of no magic, low technology; and players are the first expeditioners that are coming through this portal into the world of Verra.^[9] – Jeffrey Bard

Starting areas

Alpha-1 early preview starting area.^[10]

There is no railroaded driven theme park experience here. You will have the opportunity to create your own destiny in that regard, which means you don't have to necessarily follow the quest line nor do you have to participate in events or experiences around the starting area. Now it may be more beneficial to do that; and in that regard I guess there could be a meta around doing that, but you could branch out proceed to other areas and do different content.^[11] – Steven Sharif

Alpha-0 Empyrean starting area concept art.

Starting areas (starting zones) are located in the ruined cities of the four ancient races of Verra.^[2]

Starting areas are located near one of the four divine gateways where players spawn into the world.^[2]^[12]
- The Tulnar have a starting area without a divine gateway.^[5]^[7] They have the same option of starting at any of the divine gateways as other races.^[6]
- Starting areas have some distance between them.^[5]

Each race has its own starting area.^[13]
- Players may choose their starting gateway regardless of their choice of race.^[4]^[5]
- Points of interest exist that represent Tulnar NPC structures in a similar fashion to the starting areas around divine gateways.^[12]

Starting areas include expeditionary NPC settlements that serve as initial quest origination points.^[12] Lore-wise, these settlements represent scouts that were sent ahead of the main expedition back to Verra.^[14]
- These settlements are designed to acclimatize new players entering the world.^[14]
- While it may be advantageous to do so, there is no requirement for players to play through any specific starter zone content.^[11]

Starting areas are not tied to the node system.^[12]

A problem that a lot of MMOs have is that those starting areas become just vacant of players and it's so sad because the greatest aspect of an MMO is that community that you get to experience, so one of the great things about the node system is that it really works from new player acquisition standpoint, where these nodes tend to develop larger near the starting location areas around the world; and it brings these players back to those locations if they're citizens and want services within those cities. So, as new players enter the world they're going to actually be surrounded most likely by more population because people are coming back to those larger nodes.^[15] – Steven Sharif

Tulnar starting area

Points of interest will exist that represent Tulnar npc structures. In the similar fashion that the starting areas around divine gateways will include expeditionary npc settlements not tied to the node structures but serve as initial quest origination points.^[12] – Steven Sharif

Tulnar have a starting area that does not involve a divine gateway.^[5]

Points of interest exist that represent Tulnar NPC structures in a similar fashion to the starting areas around divine gateways.^[12]

Tulnar have the same option of starting at any of the divine gateways as other races.^[6]

Tulnar have the same option of starting at any of the divine gateways. Their civilization, though within the underrealm, has also begun to explore the surface.^[6] – Steven Sharif

Unlike the other races, the Tulnar won’t be returning to Verra. Instead they will be returning to the surface from the Underrealm for the first time in generations.^[16]

The Underrealm itself does not have a divine gateway.^[7]

World map

Updated Ashes of Creation map.^[17]^[18]

The new world map in all its 1,200 square kilometer glory. So you're gonna see some names here- a little bit of a reveal of some of these locations in these areas- and you're also of course seeing similar biomes that are present as well. But more importantly what you are seeing is the orientation of these continents and these islands that are facilitating specific types of inter-continental trade gameplay; and they support the relevance of these caravans moving across the land mass to locations that will now incorporate these harbor areas, which aren't identified on the map here... But the important part was providing a lot of coastal naval gameplay between these zones and trade routes between land base.^[18] – Steven Sharif

Alpha-2 work-in-progress map UI.^[19]

The world of Verra features an in-game viewable world map. This map is not randomly generated, and begins covered in a fog of war.^[20] Players will not be able to see the world until they have explored it or gathered information about it. The world is also full of imperfect information, which will require the player to act on it for verification.^[21]

For example, you may hear a rumor in a tavern that tells you the location of a cave full of weak Kobolds, but this was not accurate as the rumor was started by well-equipped bandits in order to waylay overconfident adventurers.^[21]

Information about the world will be presented directly to players through the world map UI as it is gathered.^[22]^[23]
- Node tax rates will be visible on the world map by hovering over a node location on the UI.^[24]
- The map UI will potentially incorporate player created location markers that are visible by other party members.^[25]
- Previously, detailed information about the world was only available through the Library unique node building.^[26]

Not every server will share the same map, as player decisions will vary between servers.^[27]^[28]^[23]

The map will have geographical choke points caused by non-traversable obstacles (such as Mountains).^[29]^[30]^[31]

Even though we're an open-world that doesn't mean that from a design perspective, especially with the way our economic systems work, that we will want to create Geographic choke points.^[30] – Steven Sharif

Some of the following information has not been recently confirmed by the developers and may not be on the current development roadmap.

Zones in Ashes of Creation will cater to all levels.^[32]

Sanctus

Kaelar divine gateway concept art.

When this creation of Verra occurred, the Goddess of Fate and the Goddess of Creation were very close; and the Goddess of Fate essentially warned the Goddess of Creation- only the Goddess of Creation- that the Ancients and the Others- that they had not seen the last of them; and that there would be a time essentially when those forces would seek out and try to pervert the new creation as essentially a way to thumb their noses at the other gods in retribution for their defeat. So the Goddess of Creation created a separate planet Sanctus that she knew she could bridge with these Divine Gateways at a time when it was necessary for the descendants of Verra to escape their destruction.^[1] – Steven Sharif

Sanctus is the world where the people of Verra found their sanctuary.^[33]

The Goddess of Creation created the planet Sanctus along with the Divine gateways to allow the descendants of Verra to escape their destruction at the hands of the The Others and The Ancients.^[1]
Very little will be revealed about the Sanctus story arc prior to the betas.^[34]

A long long long time ago, everybody lived on a planet called Verra. Something cataclysmic happened that forced people from that world to another world called Sanctus. Verra is a place of really high magic. Sanctus is a place with no magic whatsoever. People escaped through these portals into the world of Sanctus. They had to rediscover technology, because so much of their current technology was based on magic, so they had to figure out how to interact with the world. Thousands and thousands of years go by. A long dark age passes. This history that I just told you falls into myth and legend. After this time passes, these portals reopen and the players are going to take the part of people who are coming through those portals once again back to the world of Verra to rediscover that magic, rediscover their history, and try to figure out what happened to this world to force them out of it.^[9] – Jeffrey Bard

Sanctus is a key story arc, that will likely have very little revealed about it prior to the Betas.^[34] – Steven Sharif

Lore

Sand Momma statue screenshot.^[35]

The story of creation tells us of a race of beings known as The Ancients. Created in the likeness of what was once The Ten. The Ten imbued all of their qualities into one race to have stewardship over all of creation. The power of the Ancients grew and a rift divided the Ten in how to accommodate their new creation. Three of the Ten separated from the others and began to teach the Ancients the Secrets of the Essence. When the Seven learned of this, a great celestial battle ensued. Eons passed and you watched as the fight continued within the celestial kingdom. Some say it was the fight that created the stars and heaven we see today. With every blow between the Ten a star was born. When the battle was complete, the others and the Ancients were banished by the Seven into the Void. The Seven found the error of their ways and decided to split their qualities into four races instead of one; and this is how the Humans, Elves, Orcs and Dwarves came to be. You watch as the Seven created Verra and placed each of the races within their respective locations. As the story came to an end, a dark figure at a distance grew closer to you. Until all you could see was the darkness. And you wake up in a sweat after a nightmare.^[36] – Steven Sharif