Greetings Wielders,Today is a good day. At least if you enjoy stories, old grudges, and more undead than is probably healthy. Rise Eternal, our latest Tale DLC, is now live.

You’ve been asking for more story-driven content for Songs of Conquest. This is exactly that.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2977430A new Wielder. New research. New buildings. New artifacts and skills. All centered around the undead side of the Barony of Loth. You step into the rotten boot of Kastus Maal, a former researcher of the Unseen Society.

You have actually met him before. He was one of the Necromancers serving under Grand Seneschal Wiesh during the battle of Grey Tor at the end of the Arleon campaign map 4. He died there; in fact, you killed him. But that apparently didn’t stop him from returning to serve.

Rise Eternal starts with Kastus digging himself out of his own grave and returning home to find Faey forces under Stoutheart banners occupying what used to be his land. The village is burned. His family… you’ll find out soon enough!

https://youtu.be/onw17ZMUwrg Kastus is now one of the Risen. He is not a grand warrior like Merkoth or one of Aurelias old inner circle. Just one of many bound to Aurelia’s Oath, although a bit more eloquent than his Risen brothers and sisters.

Across four connected missions, you’ll see what became of the Barony of Loth after Cecilia’s victory. You’ll work alongside other Loth Wielders, push back against those who put your people in chains, and learn more about how the Unseen Society continues to fight for the return of the good old days.

Kastus also brings a new skill, Call the Faithful. It steadily adds more Risen to your ranks. If you put your back into it, you can end up fielding a frankly unreasonable number of undead. The Risen aren’t the strongest unit in the Loth roster, but they do get the job done.

We leaned further into the necromancy this time. Into what it means to serve Aurelia after death. Into the uglier parts of the old Empire. It’s been fun for the writing team to spend time there. And Kastus fits perfectly for a darker themed Loth Tale because he really is willing to step over corpses to get to his goal.

The Tale runs about ten hours and is priced at 5.99 USD, with regional price adjustments. Rest assured that we’ve taken previous feedback into account and moved away from standard Steam regional pricing.

Rise Eternal isn’t tuned as a tightly balanced experience. It’s meant to tell a story. One about revenge, faith, and what happens when someone refuses to stay buried. Sometimes you’ll feel unstoppable, and sometimes you're running for your unlife.

That’s necromancy for you.

/Anders, and the rest of the Lavapotion team of Necromancers

What’s this? Another Steam post about something other than your favorite HoMage? Well, yes. But to be fair, this is pretty cool news, and in many ways it is connected.

By now, you probably know that we’ve been developing a separate, smaller project on the side. Something a lot different from, for example, our work on the Yulan DLC. Something that is still very much a work in progress.

With Steam Next Fest coming up, we saw an opportunity we didn’t want to miss. So we decided to show you what we’ve been working on in the most straightforward way possible. A demo.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4097070/Wielders_of_the_Essence_DemoDefend the swamp and Wield the Essence (demo-style)

Wielders of the Essence started as a bullet-hell survivor experiment. A bit of a palette cleanser for us, and a chance to explore what else we could do with our rather extensive collection of awesome pixel art. As development went on, we kept changing things, based on our whims, hunches, and the crucial feedback we have received from testers.

The result is no longer just a straightforward survivor. It has evolved into something closer to an incremental survivor. Short runs, meaningful progression, and a loop that feels more in line with how we tend to design games, well planned with a definite strategic choice.

Dreaths might be cute, but you really want to kill that one.It has been well received by our testers so far, which is encouraging. Wishlists have been steadily growing, and we’re very curious to see what kind of impact Next Fest will have.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1vje18rf6ETo see someone else play the demo, well, we recommend this one!

But this post isn’t meant to fully explain what Wielders of the Essence is. That’s what the demo is for.

So give it a try. Wishlist it if you find it interesting. And consider it a small glimpse of what our art and systems can do while you wait for Rise Eternal and the next faction DLC.

/Anders and the rest of Lavapotion

And why not a little insight into how it can look when Lavapotion works on Wielders of the Essence?

Today’s Steam post is all about Kastus Maal, an idea we had years ago that has finally clawed his way out of the grave, quite literally, in this case. We started working on his Tale back in 2024, but had to bury it again for some less exciting real-life reasons. With a new plan in place and the success of our Faction DLCs behind us, we were finally able to exhume it properly. And with over 40k wishlists for Rise Eternal, how could we let it rest? So for those of you who haven’t yet stepped into Songs of Conquest, this might be the perfect time to answer the call.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2977430/Songs_of_Conquest__Rise_Eternal/Join the hordes, wishlist Rise Eternal!

Now it’s just a few more bricks to lay on that pixelated mausoleum before it's done. Or, to put it more plainly: Rise Eternal releases on March 5th. And that date is coming ever closer, a little less than two weeks as we release this. 

Our testers are currently playing through the Tale, hunting bugs, uprooting Roots, and swarming castles with their ever-growing ranks of Risen. Someone has to make sure the dead march in the right direction. We’re thankful for every bug they find.

Oh no, an ambush!With four connected story maps, a tombstone weight of lore,  new artifact sets, a new Wielder, and new map entities, this Tale brings a fair share of fresh graves to dig into. We hope you enjoy this way of expanding the story of Songs of Conquest. If all goes well, there are more restless spirits waiting their turn.

For us, this is a creative way of deepening the lore of our existing factions. The campaign left questions unanswered. Some stories refuse to stay buried.

Kastus will find himself in many strange places in search for his vengeanceSo mark March 5th in your tomes, dust off your necromancy tools, and sharpen your quills. It’s only a matter of time before you are summoned in Aurelia’s name to carve a path through the enemies of Loth and avenge what they did in the Arleon campaign. 

We can’t wait until you get to walk a mile in Kastus's one good, rotten shoe and dig up all the secrets, lore, and stories of Rise Eternal.

/Anders and the rest of the undead hordes at Lavapotion

A few months ago we shared that a small team at Lavapotion had been working on something new: Wielders of the Essence, a fast-paced survivors-like set in a familiar world. Some of you wishlisted it. Some of you raised an eyebrow. Either way, we have an update! Wielders has changed quite a bit since then. And there will be a playable demo launching February 23rd during Steam Next Fest.

When we first revealed Wielders, it was a fairly straightforward survivors-like. It worked, and it was fun, but in a genre with a lot of strong competition it felt like it needed something more. So we started experimenting, looking at ways to give each run a bit more long-term weight. That led us to introduce incremental progression.

The structure now revolves around shorter runs where every attempt, win or lose, gives you resources. Those resources are used to develop your town, unlocking new Wielders, troops, spells, and skills over time. If you’ve played Songs of Conquest, you may recognize the pattern. We tend to gravitate toward systems where progress carries forward. Why not learn from ourselves?

We've made a new trailer that shows the changes better than we can describe them here, a picture says a thousand words, and there is a lot of pictures in a video.

https://youtu.be/paOVv5Mj1toSo what’s it like playing Wielders of the Essence? Well, you start a run on a randomly generated map. Enemies gather. Spells fly. Your troops fight alongside you. Maybe you fall early. Maybe you make it to the later waves. Either way, you return to your town with something to show for it.

Back in town, you expand, unlock, and adjust. The next run is slightly different. Slightly stronger. Slightly more controlled, and perhaps you have a new plan in mind, a goal to reach. That rhythm between field and town is what the game is built around. And yes, there is an Essence system of sorts in here as well!

Build all the stuff!

And since we can’t resist talking about our favorite game, Songs of Conquest is still going strong. We know many of you are here for Songs of Conquest, and only that. Nothing has changed on that front. We are still on track with Rise Eternal, Yulan, and everything else we’ve outlined. Wielders is a smaller project running alongside our main development.

And now to a little call to action regarding the game this devlog is all about. Try the demo, test it for yourself. If you’re curious, our demo goes live February 23rd during Steam Next Fest. Give it a few runs and let us know what you think. We’re especially interested in hearing from the Songs of Conquest community.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3546610/Wielders_of_the_Essence/If you want a reminder when it launches, add Wielders to your wishlist and Steam will notify you, they are nice like that.

See you next week,

/Anders & the Lavapotion Team (especially that small group that works with Wielders of the Essence)

It’s time for the very first Yulan Devlog, where we take the time to dive just a little bit deeper into one aspect of our new faction, and this time we’ve chosen the Tale. This has been one of the major points of feedback after we released our earlier Faction DLCs. 

We’ve received a lot of love for our shorter Tales, like the one about Root’s Grow or our favorite sad Vanir troll, Sorg. And even if you’ve enjoyed these story-focused missions, especially after we added different difficulties, many of you have still been missing something more connected. A series of missions tied together by a continuous storyline, where you follow the same thread from start to finish. With the Yulan Tale, that is exactly what you’re getting. 

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4341060/Songs_of_Conquest__YulanWishlist Yulan now, that support really helps!

Three connected maps, following the Wielders of one of the three families, letting you learn more about Yulan’s lore, its history, and where the faction fits into the larger picture. You will meet many new Wielders and a few familiar ones as well. Through playing the maps, you’ll learn what makes the Yulan faction tick, both lore-wise and in terms of playstyle.

So why aren’t we calling it a Campaign? It has many of the major ingredients of our larger campaigns, so why insist on calling it a Tale instead? The answer mostly comes down to the Songs. That’s what we named our older, full campaigns. Those Songs came with custom-made, performed, and cutscene-enhanced songs created by our very own in-house bard.

It would feel wrong to call these new stories campaigns when they are missing that tavern-song element, so we are calling them Tales. Tales is our umbrella concept for story content, covering both shorter experiences, like Mehry and the one-mission stories in Vanir and Roots, as well as longer ones, such as the upcoming Rise Eternal Tale. They now have their own place in the menus, making sure they get their moment in the pixel-like sun, as the expression goes.

Just like Tales of Wonder, the Tale of Yulan will have its own space!But enough about explaining what we call things. Even if it helps straighten out a few of those feedback questions you’ve had, let’s talk about Yulan’s story and tease a bit about its Wielders.

We will adventure in Yulan through the eyes of the House of Sheng, one of the three houses, and the one that focuses on Creation as its Essence. The House of Sheng seeks to find joy in life while also honoring its position of power within Yulan society. As hinted at, or perhaps rather outspokenly and brashly stated in our Faction reveal Steam post, a main focus of this Tale will be the revitalization of Roots, a force long thought to be under control. But something has changed, although we won’t spoil what just yet. 
Our awesome artist is Maja Misztal, check out https://www.artstation.com/steelsuit
What we can say is that the Houses of Yulan are not united. They aren’t allies. As the story begins, they are three rivals competing for power, bureaucracy, and influence. There is an old struggle between them that, throughout history, has resulted in bloody conflict, with Essence wielded as a weapon against other Houses, much like the baronies of Arleon.

Carl is hard at work crafting the Tale, while our art department is simultaneously completing everything from map entities to unit animations, buildings, and Wielders. And speaking of those Wielders, we thought you deserved the latest update on the Wielder lineup.

All three families together, a sight that is far from common, This one is made by our new Art intern Einarhttps://x.com/3inart/media So did I write all of this just to brag about our beautiful art? Well, maybe, but there is a lot more to come in the following months.  And as a final thing, thank you all so much for your support, praise and feedback (And thousands of wishlists) that we recieved after our Yulan reveal two weeks ago, those kind of things really give us energy to just keep up the work!

/Anders and the rest of the Lavpotion team

The time has come for us to unveil a new Faction DLC. (Or at least the store page!) Up until the actual release, we will be doing monthly behind-the-scenes devlogs, with insight into just about everything your hearts can desire about our upcoming faction.

But you don’t have to wait for those devlogs to get to know Yulan. Why not start right now? There is no time like the present, as the saying goes. You will, of course, find much more information neatly listed on the store page, but we wanted to highlight a few things you’ll get with this new DLC.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4341060/Songs_of_Conquest__Yulan/ With each of our Faction DLCs, we have tried to make them stand out, to be just a little bit different while still feeling like a natural part of the world. We want the Yulan experience to feel distinct. One of the ways we achieved this was by creating the Houses of Li, Sheng, and Xuan.

For those who have followed the game since the very beginning, you might remember that there has always been an idea to create a faction called the Dynasty of Roses. That concept eventually evolved into Yulan. And while there are no roses, there are plenty of magnolias, which also became the faction symbol. 

We are having a great time working on this faction. There were seeds and a foundation to build on, but unlike Vanir and Roots, Yulan has been more of an exploration in design. That gave us the opportunity to create something new, drawing heavily on inspirations such as Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Chinese dynasties, myths, stories, and a good number of movies and books (Carl especially liked The Monkey King). The work has been a good mix of fun and challenging, and the final unit lineup speaks for itself.

And this isn’t even all of the units, well, all variations at least. Some of you have probably already guessed it by now, as we’ve dropped enough hints already. Yulan will have several upgrade options for some of their troops. Each House has its own Essence focus, giving you the option to choose which Essence you want to lean into depending on your playstyle.

Will you focus on one Essence, or will you diversify as you conquer more settlements and mix things up for that tactic you have planned? Li stands for Order, Sheng follows Creation, and Xuan focuses on Arcana.

So which units get these upgrade options? It’s easier to say which ones don’t. The fiery bird Feng, the mercenary cavalry Riders and their fox-like companions, the Hu, will not have branching upgrades. The rest, the citizens of Yulan (and a dragon-like creature called Tian), will.

And all of these will have different abilities, fitting to their Arcana.A faction DLC is, of course, more than just new troops. Yulan also includes a trio of connected story-focused maps. These let you discover the playstyle of Yulan, introduce its Wielders, and place the faction on the Aerbor stage. The story focuses on the reawakening of an ancient threat, long thought to be under control: the Tree Mothers and their sentient creations. We will also learn more about the conflict between the different houses and meet a ton of rebels that needs to be put down, all in a days work. For these three missions you will be playing as the House of Sheng a house that likes to enjoy the good things in life and embrace Creation as their Essence.

One of the main feedbacks from our earlier factions has, after all been that we should focus more on stories, and Carl has been busy working on just that these last months. 

The Conflict against Roots is going to be a core part of the story.What is Roots doing in Yulan? Where does Yulan fit into the wider lore? Will we see the new faction test its strength against our old factions? All of these questions will have their place in the new faction Tale.

There is, of course, more. New map entities, Wielders, a new biome, new music, and five new Conquest maps to showcase everything. One of these maps will be available to everyone, letting you face the might of the three Houses whether you own the DLC or not.

It's important to defend what really matters!If you want more information, there is plenty we haven’t mentioned here. We don’t want to keep you from visiting the store page and reading up on it yourself. And we will, as mentioned, go deeper into Yulan in the upcoming devlogs. 

We can’t wait for you to try Yulan out on the battlefield. What do you think about our newest faction? Do you have a must-have idea for us? Let us know in the comments!

/Anders and the rest of Lavapotion

• Small balance changes to battles in the first Tales of Wonder tale map
  
• Replace Archery with Chaos as starting skill in Tales of Wonder
  
• Make “map completion checkmarks” in Tales buttons also check for completion of tale maps from before 1.8
  
• Make DLC menus “map completion checkmarks” check for completion of 1.8 tales maps
  
• Fixed issue with not being able to level up an existing skill as a reward from map entities if you had no empty skill slots
  
• Fixed Poachers never showing up in randomized neutral armies
  
• Fixed case where research purchase buttons would not show the correct current levels if you lost a corresponding research building
  
• Battle: Fixed troops moving due to Charge ability, Bullrush ability or the Repel spell not triggering Overwatch or Spearwall abilities on the final hex
  
• Battle: Improved AI target selection when using Blind Hatred spell
  
• Map editor: Fixed “Random Value” trigger criteria not working correctly when playing using certain languages

Greetings Wielders

We are back from a refreshing break, and that means it is time for updates. The team has been split into smaller groups to work on several things in parallel. Right now, our main focus is on two upcoming DLCs, one Tale and one new faction. In this post, we want to shine the spotlight on the Tale, called Rise Eternal.

We will not share an exact release date just yet, but it will not be long before you can take on the mantle of Kastus Maal and quite literally walk a mile in his singular shoe. He is missing the other one (occupational hazard).

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2977430/Songs_of_Conquest__Rise_Eternal/Stay ahead of those pursuing Arleon thugs by wishlisting Rise Eternal!

With release day slowly approaching at the pace of a shambling corpse, we felt it was appropriate to share more details about what you will get in this undead-themed DLC.

First, the Tale itself. Rise Eternal features four connected, story-driven maps that follow Kastus Maal, his rise as a Wielder, and his quest for vengeance against those who wronged him and his family.



I think he's just happy to be here personally

As the image suggests, Kastus is very much dead. He was raised again through his oath to Aurelia. He fell at the Battle of Grey Tor in the final mission of the Arleon campaign, one of many casualties as Cecilia Stoutheart secured victory over the Barony of Loth by defeating the powerful Wielder Wiesh. Now, Kastus returns, changed in more ways than one. Death does that to a person.

When you purchase Rise Eternal, Kastus Maal joins your roster as a new Wielder for the Barony of Loth. He comes with his own Specialization and a new skill, Call the Faithful.

We know some of you just love a good stat-blockKastus enters the war at a critical moment. The Tale shows what happens next as the Barony of Loth and the Unseen Society struggle to regain lost ground. But Kastus is not only a devout follower of Aurelia. He is also a father, a husband, and a scholar, driven by goals of his own.

Rise Eternal also introduces a new set of artifacts, especially suited for Kastus. These will play an important role in the unfolding story, and you will have plenty of time to see them in action.

There is a lot to uncover, or maybe unearth?Finally, the DLC also brings a generous batch of free content to the base game. New research, the artifacts we mentioned, and a range of new map buildings will be available for everyone to enjoy, giving map creators even more tools to work with.

We will not show you more pictures than we already have, though. Some surprises are best left unspoiled.

We hope you are as excited as we are for Rise Eternal. It has been a long time coming, and while there is still some writing left to do, the work is moving steadily forward.

Rise Eternal, for her!

/ Anders and the rest of the Lavapotion team

It is that time of year again. The time when game developers in our part of the world swap hoodies for knitted jumpers and coffee mugs for… slightly different coffee mugs. What we are trying to say is that Lavapotion will soon close the office for our winter holiday and return in early January.

There may still be some activity on our social channels and Steam during this time, but things will certainly move at a slower pace. It’s time for us to take a short break, spend time with our families, and work through the never-ending list of Steam games we've bought but never quite found the time to play!

You would think that is a gif from Songs, but it's just the view from the office

Looking back, it has been an eventful year for Songs of Conquest. We released the Roots faction on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. We introduced Simultaneous Battles, improved co-op play, and made meaningful changes to random maps. Along the way, we passed 750,000 copies sold, and work on our next faction continues steadily behind the scenes. All in all, we are very proud of what the year has brought.

It is still surreal to see how far this small HOMMage has come. What began as a love letter to a genre we grew up with has become something much bigger, and that is entirely thanks to you. Your support, feedback, and enthusiasm made all of this possible. We know we say this often, but it remains just as true.

We will not go too deep into what lies ahead. We only recently shared our PC roadmap, and repeating ourselves would take some of the fun out of it. Soon, we will release the Steam page for Yulan, and after that, it will be time for my personal favorite Kastus Maal and Rise Eternal to take the stage and put the death back in undeath.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2977430/Songs_of_Conquest__Rise_Eternal/Before we power down our workstations and head into the break, we do have a small Christmas gift for you. We are sharing a short scene featuring some of the art assets for Yulan, our upcoming faction. Please keep in mind that this is still a work in progress, but it is already shaping up as a unique addition to the varied biomes of Songs of Conquest.

We can't wait to see what you create from this and all the things still under production!

And with that, we want to wish you all the best in the weeks ahead, wherever you are and however you choose to spend your time. We look forward to continuing the journey together in the new year.

/ Anders and the rest of the Lavapotion team

P.S.One final note. We recently sent out the first rough demo of Wielders of the Essence to colleagues and friends, and the feedback so far is very promising! We are looking forward to sharing it with you early next year. It may be a smaller project, but the team working on it is deeply invested. Wishlist it to stay up to date with development and future updates.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3546610