Novus Opiate
Two vast armies with crimson and blue banners face each other across a misty plain at sunrise, a ruined watchtower between them.

The Golden Age · Darktide, 1999 – 2004

The war was the game

One Asheron’s Call world had no safe ground at all. This is its story.

Walk the hotspotsTimeline

The legend

Five beats

  1. 1999

    No safe ground

    One world of six where every character is a player killer, forever.

  2. 2000

    Blood rises

    A guild unites under one name, takes Kara, and becomes the power to beat.

  3. Late 2000

    The AB Wars

    A frontier town becomes the battlefield of the age.

  4. Dec 2000

    The oath

    Blood kneels to Bael’Zharon at Kara. The antis swear to Asheron.

  5. 2001 →

    The Last Stand

    The guilds Blood broke band together, and outlast it.

Hotspots

The ground they bled for

A coastal town of sandstone domes and upswept tiled roofs on a ridge between dark forest and a cold sea at dusk; a glowing blue lifestone crowns the hill above the houses as a raiding party arrives in its light, and an islet offshore is reached by two rows of pale pillars standing in the water.The Direlands · “AB”

Ayan Baqur

The richest, hardest-to-reach town on the map. The prize of the AB Wars.Walk the ground A volcanic island: a glowing crater with lava floes, a winged beast's aerie on a second peak, a turquoise lagoon harbour guarded by two lighthouses and coral columns, white ruins in the ash, and a portal on the harbour beach where fighters gather.Offshore · reached by emissary

Aerlinthe Island

Darktide’s one truce. When it broke, whoever held the ties held the island.Walk the ground A hidden mountain village of dark timber and tiled roofs terraced above a still grey-blue lake beneath snow peaks, a blue lifestone glowing at its heart, a smithy on the shore and crimson banners on the gate.Black Rose’s town · Blood’s seat

Kara

A hidden mountain town that became a capital, and heard the oath to Bael’Zharon.Walk the ground
A crowned monarch in a crimson cloak raises a hand before kneeling armoured warriors in a ruined courtyard as a vast violet storm-shadow looms overhead; on a distant ridge a line of white-and-gold defenders raise banners.

December 2000 · Kara

A monarch knelt to Bael’Zharon.

Read the oath

The Chronicle

Five chapters

  1. How Darktide workedPermanent PK, real losses, and ground worth bleeding for.
  2. Monarchies and allegiancesPKs, antis and neutrals, and the banners that rose out of them.
  3. The AB WarsA frontier town, a lifestone raided every twenty minutes, and the season that made Darktide’s name.
  4. The oath to Bael’ZharonThe developers sent a villain into the world. On Darktide, a monarch knelt to him.
  5. What ended itWalls, a war won too completely, rewritten rules, worn trust, and in 2017 the lights going out.
  6. Timeline1999 to the last night, 2017.

Every claim is labelled by its source and side. How we know