Asharven · A sandbox MMO of the last hearth

Sandbox MMO · PC

The fire fades. The ember remains.

A buy-to-play sandbox MMO. Gather, forge and fight from the last lit city of a fallen kingdom, and decide for yourself how far into the dark you go.

Coming to Steam Watch the teaser

Buy once
No power for sale
PC · Steam

The Last Hearth

The king tried to conquer death. Death stopped sleeping.

A hundred and twenty years ago, on the Night of Ash, King Halvard III of Asharven performed a ritual to bind death to his crown. The ritual broke. The capital burned in a single night, the Pale Crown shattered into seven pieces, and since then those who die far from the light do not fully rest.

The survivors fled south to Vessakor, a frontier town built around a fire that has never gone out. The light of the Mother Hearth keeps the dead asleep. Now the hearth is weakening, the stones in the graveyard are stirring, and strangers are arriving at the South Gate. The hearth knows them.

You are one of them: Emberbound. Your soul is tied to the hearth, and when you fall, the hearth calls it back.

The Ash Count wakes in the city graveyard — The Ash Count, former steward of the crown, sleeps in a tomb inside the city graveyard.

The three laws of the hearth

In the lightNo blood is spilled in the light of the hearth.
In the twilightThe hearth lets the fallen down. It does not let them go.
In the darkThe hearth brings back your soul. Not your gear.

The Lands

The farther from the light, the higher the stakes

The world spreads out in rings around the Mother Hearth. The best ore, the rarest hides and the richest dungeons wait where the light is thinnest. Nobody is pushed into PvP: gatherers and crafters can work safely in the light, and every step outward is your choice. Vessakor and the Safe Lands are what we are building now; the outer rings open as development goes on.

T1–T3Light

Safe Lands

No player combat

Vessakor, its fields, the Mosswood and the edge of the graveyard. The Hearth Law holds and the city guard enforces it.
T4–T5Twilight

Contested Border

Flagged PvP · knockdown

The light is thin and the law is weak. The hearth catches the fallen before they die.
T6–T7Dark

Lawless Wilds

Full loot

Old Asharven, where the light never reaches. Your soul returns to the hearth. Your body and your pack stay where you fell.
T8Deep dark

Blacklands

No law · full loot

Ash-covered country on the road to Crownhold, the burned capital. The darkness spreads south from here.

Gameplay

A life in Vessakor

Kara plate, a rare set from the Misty Cavern

Power is what you wear

Your skills and the gear on your back decide what you can do. Gear comes in eight tiers, T1 to T8, and there are no set bonuses to chase. Every armour look in the game is an item: found, crafted, or taken from someone who lost it.

Gather, forge, trade

Cut timber, mine ore, pick herbs and fibre outside the walls. Work it at the forge and the bench, keep it at the Crown Bank, and sell it to other players at the Trade House. Loot hauled back from the dark goes to the Black Market, where nobody asks where it came from.

Magic is taken from the dead

The court’s magic was buried with the dead on the Night of Ash. Spell scrolls drop only from the undead and the creatures of the wilds, and no shop sells them. Learn a spell, choose its ranks in your spell book, and carry it into the dark.

The Crypt Lord, deep in the Mausoleum Crypt

Crypts, caves and the dead that walk

Beneath the city graveyard lies the Mausoleum Crypt. Out past the border waits the Misty Cavern. Both are compact, dangerous dungeons whose bosses guard their loot. And in a noble tomb sleeps the Ash Count, who can be beaten but never quite killed.

The guard holds the line against skeletons outside the walls

Fight together

Archers, casters and blades each have their place in a fight, and every creature attack reads clearly on screen, from the red strikes of the undead to a skeleton mage’s frost. Beyond the light, other players are the most dangerous thing out there.

Races

Two peoples, one hearth

Human

Children of the Great Migration. Descendants of those who fled the Night of Ash, a people who had to learn every trade to survive.

Jack of All Trades Every skill counts as 20+: Even in a skill you have never trained, your chance of success is never zero.
Migrant’s Back 5% chance of +1: A little extra from every ore, stone, log, herb and fibre you gather.

Elf

Keepers of the Root Fire in the Mosswood. They bury their dead among the roots, and they gave humans the first ember of the Mother Hearth.

Root Sight Night vision, rank 1: The dark is never fully dark. A stronger Night Sight spell still takes over.
Root Lore 10% chance of +1: More generous with living things: wood, herbs and fibre. Nothing extra from ore or stone.

Race traits are small on purpose. Nothing about your race wins a fight, and gender is appearance only.

Our promise

The Hearth Charter

A living world needs income to keep growing. Here is exactly where ours comes from, written down before launch so everyone can hold us to it.

Buy once
Asharven is a buy-to-play game. You buy it, you play it.
Paid expansions
As the world grows, paid expansions add new lands, dungeons and story. They are what keeps Asharven going, and they sell no power either.
No power for sale
Nothing that makes a character stronger is ever sold: no gear, no skill boosts, no spells.
No loot boxes, no crypto
No paid randomness of any kind. No tokens, no NFTs, no blockchain. Ever.

The Asharven team

Media