Today, five new shrines first appeared around the land, shooting from the heavens like bolts of light, while the very ground trembled beneath the feet of those that walked upon it. After some exploration, these shrines were identified as the new shrines to knowledge, cunning, dreams, battle and leadership, marking the five great traits of the Ascended and providing a route to the ranks of the divine for one amongst mortalkind.

In the days ahead, great contests will be held in which those players that embody all that a shrine stands for will show their worth, and be named as the avatar of that trait, granting them their chance to stand forth for Ascension.

Today marked the hosting of the first Capture the Flag tournament in Akanbar, a hectic event with people from all over Akanbar competing side by side in their bids to hold the flags.

In the first round, the blue team of Blux, Zion, Miri and Draith faced off against the red team of Kiernan, Fleur, Twin and Calix. After an intense, but brief match, Zion succeeded in stealing away with the red flag, winning the tournament for the blue team. Shortly afterwards a second round was held, with the blue team now consisting of Blux, Miri and Twin and the red team of Kiernan, Fleur and Sharallin. Following a much longer contest, in which several attempts were made to seize the blue flag, Kiernan finally managed to wrest it away, carrying it safely back to the red base in the depths of the Sian Dorah, an act which led to the victory of his team.

Expect many more such tournaments in the future.

Today, a new facility has been added for all players of Akanbar, the ability to write a brief description of your character’s history. As part of bringing this new feature into play, a competition is also being held by Aten, God of the Sun, who will be rewarding the players who right the best character histories in each realm, as well as the best overall history in Akanbar. We would invite everyone to take part in this competition.