Another fortnight passes, and it's time for another experimental release! It's been a busy few weeks for all of the dev team in the real world, but as well as all the improvements below, we're also starting to sketch in the details of some bigger developments for the near future.

For now, however, we present Experimental Version 109:

Culture
Ghaunadans and Star Spawn are now aberrations

Religion
Interlopers can recruit planewalkers
Followers of Vergadain can appeal to the merchants

Graphics
Aberration, Orc and Goblinoid holding graphics
Crinti holding graphics reworked
Star spawn are blue
Goblin religion shield frames
Tweaked ghaunadan and obyrith portraits
Changed abishai portrait backgrounds
One more static portrait

History
Expanded history in Kelereng Valley and Salju
Shield dwarf dynasties of old Delzoun greatly expanded

Bloodlines
New bloodline for the Lords of Felbarr

Gameplay
New standard function for randomising ages of newly spawned adult characters
Siege event that can wipe out armies seriously nerfed
Various societies are less likely to kick out members for being a poor fit
Clones of characters with secret species will have the same secret species

Optimisation
Hermetic society features updated for CleanSlate, covering the Arcane Brotherhood
Merchant Republic maintenance events updated for CleanSlate
CleanSlate improvements to nickname assignment

Localisation
Dark elf and dwelf trait localisation

Bugfixes
The Great Spire will be populated in random worlds
Summoning a Mulhorandi divine minion will cost piety, as it should
Historical wars should fire correctly
Telamont Tanthul will spawn in with his correct bloodline

Enjoy, and keep the feedback coming!

It's that time again! We're intending to release experimental versions regularly on alternate Mondays, and we've been steadily developing the mod over the past fortnight. Here is Experimental Release 108, which brings the following changes:

Graphics
New dwarven, drow, elven, and Crinti holding graphics
Separate undead dwarf portrait set
Lamia portraits enhanced with more snake elements
Three new static portraits and corresponding biographies
Direguard inventory icon
Code refactored to use more sensible cultural gfx names

Culture
New Green Folk, Neter, Couatl, and Lillend cultures, and corresponding new aasimar types for the celestials
Karari Archers retinue for Green Folk

Religion
Mulhorandi faith reworked: Summon Divine Minion decision, tend to the poor for Hathor decision
Followers of Sharess/Bast can carouse without needing the related focus, have improved feasting outcomes, and are better at using Sway
Interlopers can build spelljammer ports

Gameplay
The 'undead realm lord' modifier blocks the Nomadic Tribal government
Culture and religion triggers for summoning celestials updated to provide new types for some groups
Very monstrous characters cannot take the seduction focus

History
Many new characters, including senior Harpers, added, and the histories of existing ones expanded
New bloodlines for Wulfgar, Drizzt, Yvonnel Baenre and Telamont Tanthul
Nimbrese characters now use Nimbrese culture correctly

Localisation
New title localisations for newly-added cultures, as well as Tallfellow, Nexalan, and Payit
Temple baronies which have 'Temple' or a synonym in their proper names will use the 'short name' property

Optimisation
Cleanslate fixes applied to nicknames and some CBs
Various entity names refactored for clarity

Bugfixes
Class-related conditions on certain buildings should now work correctly
Tiago Baenre no longer has a spurious marriage
Elven cultures now use the correct character encoding
Artefacts which are destroyed on death cannot be sent to Shou Lung
Orcus' static portrait will now appear correctly
The Become Exalted ambition will no longer cut itself off wrongly
Secret liches will not squander prestige on unwanted spouses
Inspire Soldiers decision should show its availability correctly
Polygamous characters will not suspect themselves of cuckolding themselves
Shaaran dynastic connections corrected
Various typos in localisation fixed

Remember - this is an open beta, so if you want to play with the latest viable version, these experimentals are the ones to use! We always welcome your feedback - bug reports, suggestions, everything.

Enjoy!

Well met, friends! After the epic of the release of 0.7.1, we're resuming our cycle of experimental releases. These are planned to come out every two weeks, on a Monday. So without further ado, here is Experimental Release 107. Here's the all-important change log:

Rules
Former 'major events' rule split in order to make the Spellplague and the Return of the Archwizards separately controllable.

Graphics
New holding gfx for dwarves and halflings (with thanks to Geheimnisnacht and Scratchmen).
Temple gfx better differentiated by culture.
New portrait set for Strongheart halflings.
Dragonspawn headgear no longer changes with culture, preventing glitches.

Gameplay
Characters of evil faiths will generally be more tolerant of undead characters and lycanthropes.
Some courtiers will now get names from their own culture, even if their liege is of a different culture.
Patrician characters may not create society top titles.
Better maintenance of temporary titles.
Terrain combat modifiers added for glacier, subterranean, and marsh.
The 'afflicted lycan' trait is no longer directly heritable, thus matching its localisation.
City mayors are now noticeably more likely to be roguish.

Cultures
Dynasty names added for Nimbrese and Tallfellow cultures

History
History expanded and improved in Taan, Khazari, Delmyr, Thar, and the Whale's Flukes
Extensive fixes and improvements to the Tanthul dynasty
Missing holders added in North Fornaluit and Luirund

Artefacts
The Regalia of Impiltur can now be broken down and used to recreate the Crown of Narfell, and vice versa

Localisation
The halfling creature trait gets the differentiated localisation treatment.
Kara-turan wizards and Zakharan elemental warlocks will now be localised as wu jen and sha'irs respectively.
Demon lords' individual descriptions now note that they are religious enemies to everyone.

Titles
Court of the Three wizard conclave title upgraded to king-tier.

Bugfixes
Adoption event now uses the correct scopes
Society top title creation conditions fixed (meaning that, among other things, the Shadow Thieves must once again avenge themselves against Waterdeep before they can create their own top title)
Grounded trait will not be added more than once to aged and unsteady dragons
Pregnancy event loc key typo fixed
The theoretical ability to marry has been restored to innately sterile characters; to prevent them once again leaking prestige constantly, AI characters of this type can now spawn a suitable partner.
Pregenerated families in random worlds should be more sensibly configured.
Better strait crossing in random world generation.
Various minor posts cannot be bestowed on characters who are currently rebelling against their liege.
Missing loc for imaginary fear event restored.
Missing vanilla sprites restored.
Small localisation fixes.
Artefacts should now check for the current titles of their prospective owners.
Missing localisation for the Underchasm modifier added.

Enjoy!

It's been a long time, friends! But at last, we have a new release. A new numbered release, no less! After 8 months of development, we are pleased to present version 0.7.1, which introduces a major plot event affecting the whole world, along with rules, decisions, and bookmarks to support it. Beyond that, we've also been adding a lot of other content. It should go without saying that this release will break saves, as everything from the map to traits to bookmarks has been changed. This release will be on Steam within 24 hours, and the No Portraits mod will be updated within 36 hours. The features debuting here are not in their absolutely finished state - they will continue to grow and develop as part of our experimental release cycle and future numbered releases. But they are substantially complete, and more than ready for all of you to see and participate.

Without further ado - the changelist:

Major feature:
The Spellplague

Events
Main Spellplague event to alter provinces and characters
Random events for rulers in plaguelands
Event chain for the exile of Halruaa
Event chain for the creation of the Elfharrow
More detail and diversity in wild magic surges

Decisions
Followers of the Azure Flame can attempt to spread the plaguelands further
Other faiths can attempt to cleanse plaguelands

Traits
Spellscarred

Bookmarks
New bookmark 'The Wailing Years'
New bookmark 'The Aftermath'

History
History updated to reflect Spellplague changes in the Chultan Peninsula, Laerakond, the Old Empires, Halruaa, Lapaliiya, Shaar, and elsewhere

Rules
Spellplague effects: Controls how much protection players' lands receive
Plaguelands spreading: Controls when the plaguelands extent of their own accord
Spellplague origin: Controls whether the Spellplague begins in the Mhair Jungle, or at a random location
Halruaan plaguelands: Controls whether Halruaa is guaranteed to become a plagueland
Elfharrow: Controls whether the Elfharrow forms
The Underchasm: Controls where the Underchasm forms
Ritual of the Border: Controls the Azure religion's decision to spread plaguelands

Other features:
Map changes
Far north rework:
Dead Orc Pass added
New provinces in Reghed Glacier
Severed Hand and the Rift separated from the other Spine of the World provinces
Hosttower of the Arcane separated from Luskan (slightly defying the canon geography, but making title management much better)
Bloodstone Lands rework:
Cinnabar province split to create duchy of Ostraland
Mount Okk and Titan Peaks provinces added on Vaasa/The Ride border
Ironspur province added in Damara
New underdark provinces of Ikemmu, Llurth Dreier, Undraeth, Sschindylryn, Traaskl Thorog and Deep Imaskar
Finger Pass province added to the Small Teeth
Thornhold separated from Mere of Dead Men
Saekolath added north of Durpar
De jure rework, merging single-duchy kingdoms in Taan
Shining Sea de jure empire dissolved
Tulmon province added to the shores of the Lake of Steam
Extensive rework of regions worldwide
History for all new provinces
Detailed history of the Companions of the Hall
Religion changes in Chessenta and surrounding area
History and religion rework in the Utter East
Partial Uthgardt history rework - more to follow
Raurin becomes Muhjari
Rework in wartime Tethyr - 'the Five' no longer exists
History overhaul in Mulmaster
Minor changes in Moonshae and Waterdeep
Some provinces have Spellplague-like attributes separately from the Spellplague itself

Bookmarks
New bookmark 'The Imperial Challenger'
Bhaalspawn Crisis reworked
New bookmark 'Rage of Dragons'

Events
Health, pregnancy, lovers, married life, mourning, Muslim honorary title, and ancestor worship events brought into line with CleanSlate
Enhanced cultural diversity for many cultures
Slaad reproduction
Flight injury
Reincarnation reactivated
Vampire hunters appear less often

Decisions
Option to purchase a spelljammer (Akadians view this as pious, Grumbarans as impious)
Restore Anok-Imaskar
Cyricist power to create direguards
Cyricist decision to spread madness
Akadian adaptability
Primordial genie-summoning
Kossuthans can burn away infection
Followers of Mielikki can create treants
Followers of Grumbar can invoke the stability of the earth to protect the realm
Destroyed religious head titles can be recreated
Immortals can retire, but can no longer die by suicide
Helm and Hoar festivals disabled

Government
New semi-nomadic government for certain cultures

Plots
Followers of Mask may plot to steal artefacts

Gameplay
Fiends now convert provinces to half-fiendish cultures
Dragons can choose minion cultures
Celestials will not get wrong-culture revolt risk from adherents of good religions
Characters with exactly one draconic or fiendish parent cannot inherit the culture of that parent
Combat is much more difficult in flooded provinces, glaciers, and subterranean regions, unless your culture is at home in them
Immortals and multi-class characters gain XP more slowly
Various titles and cultures military strength rebalanced
Psionic power chances amended
Certain races are less penalised for eating people
Execution methods rationalised and tidied
Adventurer trait is more persistent
Unproductive AI marriages cancelled faster

Cultures
New culture groups: Plant, Outsider, Slaad
New cultures: Ssurran, H'Cathan, Myoshiman, Heldann, Eshowe, Abishai, Gray Dragon, Deep Dragon, Amphiptere, Shambler, Susurrus, Blight, Khayal, Qorrashi, Obyrith, Rilmani, Empyrean, Earth Primordial, Fire Primordial, Xixecal, Ghaunadan, Starspawn, Hamadryad, Slaad, Batrachi, Gormeel, Earthfast Dwarf, Earthroot Dwarf, Urdunnir, Tallfellow
Goliaths now have diverse giant type origins, following their portrayal in the 2024 PHB
Culture type triggers updated
Parent culture relations improved

Titles
New titles for all new provinces
Twilit Land split into Sword Mountains and Leilon duchies
De jure rework of the Underdark - new empires of the Deep Wastes and Earthroot, and kingdoms and duchies below them
Certain titles are designated arcane, druidic, or theivist. Arcane and druidic are locked to appropriate succession forms.
Promenade of the Dark Maiden head of faith title for Eilistraee
Company of the Ebon Spur - Cyricist holy order
Order of the Pure Flame - Kossuthan holy order
Darksong Knights Eilistraeean holy order
Daggers of Truth mercenary band
Cult of Tiamat is now head of faith
Sovereign of Justice head of faith for Bahamut
Talons of Justice Bahamutan holy order
Minor Reghed tribes
Titular duchy of Port Llast
Pirate Hunters mercenary naval company
Mulmaster Beholder Corps mercenary company
Court of the Three, Covenant and Windlass wizard conclaves
Great Oak druid circle
Haunghdannar is no longer historical, and is formable
Amended formation conditions for some titles
Several titles change tier
Monastic holy orders are served by sohei instead of warpriests
Religionstashan.png
New Tashan religion separated from Lapal
Interloper gods reworked
Chung Tao is stable and has astrology
Animist is animistic (go figure)
Shou-Ling gains beatification

Traits
Outsider and slaad creature traits
Grounded trait provides unique injury type for flyers
More Chosen traits for various gods (these may eventually be consolidated)
Greater Celestial to mirror existing Greater Fiend
Cursed trait

Casus Belli
Kelemvorite CB to purge undead
The Matriarchal/Patriarchal deposition CBs will now set a more viable succession law if the extreme ones are invalid for the affected titles

Artifacts
The Cyrinishad, testament of the mad god Cyric, now exists and has an associated event
Retinues
Swords of Cyric
Akadian elementals now available to the whole Primordial faith
Ssurran Defilers
Ghaunadauran oozes
Ibrandlin for Ibrandul worshippers
Elephants for Affa

Bloodlines
Inheritance logic for newly-created bloodlines is now keyed to culture and religion rather than the founder's gender; no effect on historical bloodlines
Restorer of Anok-Imaskar
Feldrin Bloodfeathers
Al-Hamid of Semph

Happy holidays everyone! We're back with another update: here is experimental release 106. This time, we're bringing you a whole new religion, lots of brand new graphics, a lot of big history improvements, and much, much more. Please note that this release will break existing saves, so finish your run before installing. Here's the full change log:

Religion
- New Turm religion, replacing the Calishite faith in and around Turmish, and in the history of Chondath and Tathtar

History
- Complete history overhaul in Moonshae - new characters, new dynasties, new title setup, including closer canon compliance both during the rise of Tristan Kendrick and during the arrival of the LeShay.
- Major rework of the Reghed Glacier and Icewind Dale, including lots of new historical figures and new playable rulers
- Overhaul of 15th century Neverwinter and the Sword Coast, including new holders
- New mercenary companies and holy orders
- Minor rework in the Silver Marches
- New historical holders of Sureggol
- More canonical holder history in Melvaunt
- More family members for several characters from early TSR novels
- Several new formable titles

Graphics
- New Mulhorandi interface
- New portraits for erinyes, glabrezu, balors, mariliths
- Infernal CoA frames and patterns
- Improved portraits for incubi and succbui
- Graphical support for Turm faith
- New static portraits

Map
- A few holy sites moved and added

Decisions
- Decision to found Rhymanthiin, the Hidden City of Hope
- Decision to create the Mage Hunters, the Entropic holy order

Events
- Vampires will occasionally be harassed by vampire hunters

Flavour
- More nicknames, and improved triggers for existing ones
- A new death type, retrospectively applied to some existing historical characters

Optimisation
- Health events brought into line with CleanSlate
- Holy War conditions rationalised
- Great conflict events restructured

Gameplay
- Creation of new vampires and lycanthropes is now limited to a sensible range
- More summoned units now disband on peace
- Courtiers of incarnate patrons will now be very likely to worship those patrons if they can
- Species that are strictly female-only will now not have males
- Cupbearers must be at least 12 years old
- Species that lack certain body parts will not lose them in battle

Bugfixes
- Great conflict invaders should retain the correct religions
- Lots of loc tidied up

That's it for 2024 - we'll see you in the new year. Until then, enjoy, and let us know how you get on!

Hi there! It's been a while, as several of the devs have been taking time to deal with issues away from the mod. Development has not stopped, though - we're making progress on several fronts. We've recently hit several small milestones, and we're pleased to present Experimental Version 105:

- Character and title history
- Complete rework of 15th century Sembia
- New early history for Wizard's Reach
- New early history for Chondath
- New early history for Turmish and Hlondeth
- Small history changes in Zakhara, the Chultan peninsula, Semphar, Shou Lung, Shao Shan, Cormyr, the Moonsea, and Damara
- More history detail for mercenary companies

Optimisation
- All birth events reviewed and updated for CleanSlate

Titles
- New formable titles of Galadorna, Maurmurra, and Chu Yuan

Graphics
- New aasimar portrait details
- New eye graphics for celestials

Nicknames
- Many new nicknames
- Adjusted chances for some existing nicknames

Events
- A courtier may initiate a romance with their liege

Gameplay
- Western Shou Provinces regain Open Elective succession
- Courtier romance events will no longer assume human ranges of fertility
- 'Recently conquered' modifier will not apply for certain liberation CBs
- Events relating to concubinage will check character orientation correctly
- Siege events relating to raiding will check permissions correctly
- Better distance checks for great conflicts
- Better creature type assignment for cambions

Localisation
- Commonwealth and Celestial government types now have their own title localisation, including some culturally-specific ones
- Child of Destiny custom titles will have much more variety

Bugfixes
- Crash from maintenance event corrected
- Character encoding fixed

...and an Easter Egg!

As ever, have a great time exploring Toril, and let us know about your adventures, ideas, suggestions, and any other feedback.

Hi everyone - we are back and pleased to announce the latest experimental version! This is mostly a functional update rather than a big content one - featuring:

General
- Existing CleanSlate material brought up to date with latest updates

Character history
- Longer title histories in Semphar and Zakhara
- Alustriel has a new spouse
- When Drizzt's parentage is revealed, he's still treated as legitimised
- High Reader Janussi's gender corrected
- The Storm Maiden now enjoys the favour of Umberlee
- The Beast Lord takes Dekanter much earlier
- Halfling Huntinghorn dynasty tree connected correctly

Gameplay
- Conditions for Open Elective Succession tightened up
- Many events relating to bastardy cleaned up
- More adjustments to events for polyamory - a work in progress
- Nomadic tribal government conditions relaxed slightly
- No more dummy religious revolts
- Female characters will retain their sex appeal later in life
- Asexual characters can be lustful again (although they're unlikely to act on it)
- Members of Kara-Turan faiths can join the Empty Hand society regardless of culture
- To form the Nogari priestly cults, you may now be Reformed, but you must worship the appropriate deity
- Restoration spells now correctly heal a full range of diseases
- Certain artefacts can no longer be stolen

Localisation
- More casus belli names now include the target title
- No more overlaps in Elvish names for regions of Cormyr
- Old Zakharan cultures get the same religious localisations as the regular Zakharan ones
- More clarifying epithets when choosing obscure deities in Zakhara
- Missing tooltip replaced for sending a physician to Shou Lung
- Raid failure messages will only appear once
- Dynasty-titled Shou realms corrected

Graphics
- Static portrait files compressed
- New GFX for the ambition to reject negative traits

Bug fixes
- Reduced risk of children inheriting undead graphics sets from their parents
- Impregnation effects include checks for genetic compatibility
- Maligor's civil war in Thay should now work properly and feature spawned troops
- Stoneblade bloodline now has active conditions
- Players can no longer make the Jaziri faith doubly sacrificial
- The correct duchies are now cited in the potential for the Land of the Lions
- Fighters can now lose the Frail trait under the right conditions
- Troop summoning should now have the correct timeouts
- Limbless creatures can't lose limbs
- Independence faction conditions fixed
- Lots of small code tweaks

Enjoy!

PS: We haven't been able to reproduce the reported issues with sacrifices, but we'll keep an eye on it.

Hi folks - it's time for a new release. It's been a bit longer than we intended, because our search for bugfixes in the wake of the last release led us to make quite a lot of back-end changes. But now it's time, so without further ado, here's experimental 103! (You didn't miss 102 - we found a bug in it just before publishing it.) Today's update includes:

History
- History rework in the Northdark and Glimmerwood
- Several new or massively expanded drow houses, most of them with at least one playable member
- New moon elf and arctic dwarf realms
- Sundry other changes
- History rework in Raurin and Semphar
- Lots of new historical characters, a few of whom hang on into playable start dates
- Missing vassals added to 15th century Semphar
- Later Muhjari Caliphs are actually Muhjari
- Deeper title history in parts of the Shining South
- New historical bloodline
- New affairs and rivalries
- United Kingdom of Moonshae removed
- More monstrous humanoids in the early history of the Moonsea

Decisions
- Decision to refound the kingdom of Muluk
- Decision to refound Athalantar

Map
- De jure rework of the Moonshae Isles

Lore
- Forest Gnome dynasty names
- Character biographies

Gameplay
- Improved mass sacrifice support
- Magic apprentices will eventually graduate and drop the title; they stick around a bit longer if they're loyal
- Duergar and derro can take the ambition to level up as psions, as they should
- Some minor titles (like apprentice) grant regular XP
- Further adjustments to legitimation for polyamorous couples, with more options being considered depending on how these ones go
- Opinion penalties for mixed-species characters reduced and adjusted
- Better aging procedures
- Tightened requirements for title adjacency in several casus belli
- Court priests are easier to appoint
- Some decisions will be available to human players more often
- Adjustments to pregnancy for long-lived characters
- Fewer characters' dark secrets will be given away by things like their combat stats
- It's now easier to convert to your liege's religion
- Nomads are less likely to pillage
- It's now much easier to create the Land of the Lions
- Guardian of the Deep can be chosen from a much wider candidate pool
- The Harp of Healing is no longer indestructible
- Revoke title plot should now be able to be chosen at appropriate times

Graphics
- New static portraits
- Elves can now get grey hair with age
- Less Christian-looking heraldry in Moonshae

Optimisation
- Species compatibility trigger is now modular
- More casus belli brought into line with CleanSlate
- Wonders brought into line with CleanSlate
- Wonder upgrades brought into line with CleanSlate
- More wonder and wonder upgrade flags added for future feature compatibility
- New and hopefully better approach to fixing the overspill bug with the ages of immortal characters
- Some diseases brought into line with CleanSlate
- Temporary artifacts get cleaned up more promptly
- Lots of small CleanSlate fixes

Bugfixes
- AI will not send adventurers against host leaders who are already in prison
- Dryad and centaur seduction now makes sense in context
- Lots of historical wars fixed
- Patron deity traits cleaned up to not have unwanted legacy modifiers
- Gendered pronoun fixes and related issues in several events
- Broken event window frames replaced
- Corrected several tooltips
- Same-gender marriage should now be available at appropriate times
- Several broken historical wars fixed
- Venetian customs will no longer trouble the patricians of Toril
- Cormyrian royal bloodline restored

Enjoy, and as always we look forward to your feedback!