Greetings, brave explorer of Nanraas! We’ve been constantly doing our best to deliver you’re the top-notch exciting content and the best gaming experience. Moreover, we’ve put our heart and soul into this wonderful game. However, the development process is not an easy stuff, especially if you’re willing to bring something unique and of a high quality for every gamer to judge. Thus, we decided to start the “Exploring Nanraas” series of developers’ diaries to let you get acquainted with this wonderful fictional world, its flora, fauna, and sentient species as well as with its rich history and lore. Also, some local phenomena and gameplay mechanics will be properly introduced and explained. [img]https://i.imgur.com/zWbLDVm.jpg[/img] [h2]Introduction of Azaries[/h2] Azaries Amnera – the main character of the game – is the best candidate to get to know better first, don’t you think? This charming om’verai with elegant gold hair and deep glowing purple eyes will be your avatar in the world of Nanraas. Two major periods of her life are depicted in the game: early childhood and prime of her youth. This isn’t a spoiler, because even the game poster depicts both iterations of Azaries. [img]https://res.cloudinary.com/kutok/image/fetch/s--5yMyhRQ1--/c_limit%2Cf_auto%2Cfl_progressive%2Cq_auto%2Cw_1500/https://kutok.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/lvzghyu5ik1zc415vcm4.jpg[/img] Azaries is an average female child of the om’veri race. She lives in a small provincial town of High Circles. She is pretty educated for her age; however, she doesn’t have many friends due to her conservative upbringing and peculiar interests. Instead of hitting the floor at the parties and poisoning her body with gallons of alcohol, Azaries prefers reading ancient long-forgotten books in some cozy hideouts, like the one in the Aquelles forest. Those few friends Azaries has got were carefully chosen and will remain loyal to her no matter what. Moreover, silver om’verai appreciates honesty and despises lies. She is known in High Circles as one of the most good-natured and sincerest persons always ready to give a paw to anyone who is in need of her help. [img]https://i.imgur.com/kWJamR5.png[/img] One day Azaries’ world has been turned upside down and her life has changed forever. She found a strange looking crystal in the forest. Her expertise allowed her to state that it was an ancient artifact created decades ago – in the era of Reunification Wars. That epoch of darkness is known for the Great Ruin it had brought to the lands of Nanraas, as well as for the excessive use of countless extremely advanced and dangerous technologies which the race of om’veri banned shortly after the truce was established. The majority of the om’veri can’t active and wield the artifacts of the past, but the crystal has awakened in Azaries’ paws and unleashed its tremendous power upon her foes. The mysterious person who had been watching our heroin from the shows was pleasantly surprised and planned her next move… [img]https://res.cloudinary.com/kutok/image/fetch/s--9RLaiN48--/c_limit%2Cf_auto%2Cfl_progressive%2Cq_auto%2Cw_1500/https://kutok.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/jn3p8p1bagfpg7nfkdo6.jpg[/img] [h2]Creating Azaries[/h2] Believe me or not, but I’ve been an average furry artist. I didn’t have a clear goal of creating a game or a universe of my own. Thus, I’ve just been drawing dragon-like character for my own pleasure. The firs concept of Azaries was created back in 2013. Azaries from 2013 has amost nothing in common with the current cheerful main character of the game except for some basic features, such as the general color scheme, purple eyes, horns and spikes. Year 2016 brought some drastic changes of my drawing style, which impacted the looks of Azaries to the very core. (2). More detailed scales, blond hair, specific form of the scull and horns – all these features have changed the very image of this character forever. After graduating from the university, I’ve finally worked out the more or less consistent concept of the future game. In 2018, Azaries received the final update of her appearance. (3) Thus, five years of trial-and-error made Azaries a truly unique recognizable character ready to explore the brand-new world of Nanraas! Azaries’ appearance is indivisible connected with her character traits and the main story of the game. For example, her eyes are of an extremely rare purple color. This color is so rare among the om’veri that some even call it “The Curse of the Ancients”. However, Azaries has never paid attention to this curious fact, until… Well, you’ve got to find it out yourself soon enough! We’ll only give you a hint: this feature of her looks is not just cool design, but an important element of the lore and game mechanics. Azaries’ amazing blond hair and determined gaze complete the vivid picture of a true leader. Moreover, om’veri with the silver and white scales are believed to contain the great potential deep inside. However, it requires considerable zeal and effort to be unlocked. It's all up to you: you can make Azaries the great hero… or the great villain! [img]https://res.cloudinary.com/kutok/image/fetch/s--RRXTni9Q--/c_limit%2Cf_auto%2Cfl_progressive%2Cq_auto%2Cw_1500/https://kutok.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/hadh36hn5g4eklrxy45k.jpg[/img] In the beginning of her story, Azaries has a certain setup of character traits, which reflects the author’s vision of her personality – so-called “story canon”. However, the game features real RPG-elements, which extend beyond the simple leveling-and-upgrading system like in the majority of modern linear games that claim themselves to be called “RPGs”. The player choses Azaries’ actions and/or dialog branches in the crucial points of her adventure. Each option can potentially impact her personality, party mates, main story, substories and the world of Nanraas itself. For example, killing your foes and lying to NPCs and allies will enrage some of Azaries’ companions and certain character causing conflicts, extra battles and even death of some of her companions. Nevertheless, the other characters will definitely like such violence and pure chaos providing Azaries with useful items, combat assistance and even joining her during substories. Each playthrough is unique and filled with exciting discoveries and numerous ways to accomplish your goals. Each decision made will change Azaries karma towards one of the following archetypes: Kindness, Balance, or Aggression. Each of them provides certain bonuses and handicaps. For example, Azaries of a “Kind” archetype will receive reputation and persuasion bonuses, discounts t shops and access to peaceful ways of solving some conflicts, nonetheless, she won’t be able to exploit perks of the “Aggressive” archetype, such as intimidation, brute force, and sheer violence. “Balanced” archetype is hard to maintain, but it sometimes offers truly unique options during in-game events and quests. Thank you very much! See you in Nanraas!