Illyriad News & Updates

The Fall 2020 Tournament has begun! It runs for the whole month of August.

The Summer 2020 Tournament has begun! It runs for the whole month of May.

The Spring 2020 Tournament has begun! It runs for the whole month of Febuary.

Win your Alliance Regional Control In Seasonal Tournaments. This introduces further potential for long-term, alliance-level, inter-regional, military- and production-based strategies.

Meteorites have begun falling across Elgea and the Broken lands, leaving harvestable objects that contain a number of treasures...

Congratulations to the victor of the Calamity tournament, Northern Ascension [ASCN]! Check out the Tournament Stats.

New Tournament Incoming! Calamity! October 26th - November 23rd! Learn more...

Four new powerful rune spells have been added to the "Runes" school of magic, giving commanders even stronger defensive options of their cities. Learn more...

Eight new prestige cities have been added to the available list.
Learn more...

We're delighted to announce that we're opening up a new User Interface (UI) for testing by the general community, learn about what's changed and how you can participate.

Be sure to checkout our announcement of a massive update that has been several years in the making, learn about the multi-stage release.

125 new pieces of equipment, completely changing the face of warfare across Illyriad! Read more about Elements of Artifice Part 1

Want to design the next city in Illyriad? Submit your idea today!

Illyriad is now available on Steam and has over 525 Steam achievements!

Vote for Illyriad on Steam Greenlight to help bring it to Steam!.

White Willow was nominated by the community for the Player Spotlight. Read his interview on our blog.

We here at Illyriad Games pride ourselves on allowing players to create their own content. Read more on our blog.

TheDiva was nominated by the community for the Player Spotlight. Read her interview on our blog.

Read the interview with Ubluntu about Player Run Tournaments.

Illyriad is now available in the Firefox Marketplace.

Kumomoto was nominated by the community for July's Player Spotlight. Read his interview on our blog.

Fiona, TheBillPN and JodaMyth won the player profile contest for the "best all round", "funniest" and "most helpful" profiles respectively.

When the last city of a player is destroyed its technology is no longer is duplicated in their respawned 0 population village.

New art for research, the long-called-for "surprised" emote and the second chapter of the story, called The Battle!; available also as a pdf.

Martilicious was nominated by the community for June's Player Spotlight. Read her interview on our blog.

We're proud to come in as one of "...the Big Bad Four..." on MMO Attack's recent list of the Top 10 Mobile MMOs, ranking just behind Zenonia 5, Clash of Clans and Albion Online.

Ravana was nominated by the community for March's Player Spotlight. Read her interview on our blog.

Sovereignty struggles are now back, and you can attempt to remove another player's ownership, and then establish your own claim if you wish.

Illyriad CEO James Niesewand on Channel 9's Level Up! He discusses ultra-massive MMO gaming and the tech behind it.

Come up with the ultimate Illyriad-themed treat for the Duke to eat and win prizes.

After a literal orc-ton of great haikus the winners and the cream of the crop are chosen and shared.

You are now informed if someone lands on your sovereignty, and notifications now include ownership and terrain type.

We have released 189 new faction units into the game. This nearly completes the release of faction units into the game!

From now on, you can only sit an account for a maximum of 90 days before your sitting rights will be automatically cancelled by the system.

Referral bonus prestige has been increased to 100 prestige, but is now awarded when referred player reaches 450 population.

If you are building new third-party tools, you might be glad to know that there is now an API Key XML feed in place for In-game mail.

There are 256 new medal parts, mostly bases. You'll also see bone edges, beer icons, arrow heads and candles!

For those of you who are building new third-party tools, you might be glad to know that there is now an API Key XML feed in place for account & town Notifications.

Going beyond 10 cities is now possible. However, the step between each new city does increasingly demand a greater jump in population.

Introduces a grand strategic map, where the map can be viewed from different rotational angles to better see the lay of the land, with data pulled from across the entire world - and all visible at once.

The Player Council discuss lore, history, rumours and dangerous tales.

Storehouse, Lumberjack, Clay Pit, Iron Mine, Quarry, Farmyard , Library, Barracks, Marketplace, Brewery & Tavern are all much faster to build at their starting levels.

Foreign office effectiveness tripled, vault capacity tripled & now storage. Storehouse more than doubled. Lumberjacks, Clay pits, Iron mines, Quarries, Farms & Library all boosted production at lower levels.

Low level research is faster, animal remains last longer and Exodus has tripled in speed! Centrum may no longer always be your trade hub of choice.

Most crafted items are getting a boost as are infantry and Dwarven infantry particularly. Terrain in modifier reveal shocker!

Now celebrating Illyriad's 5th anniversary with 22,364,898 hours played! That's 931,870.75 days or 2,553 years of game played!

Winners Announced! The King is bored. He wants a new story, but is so busy that he has no time for silly things like chapters.

King Korr was nominated by the community for February's Player Spotlight. Read his interview on our blog.

Read over at MMORPG why Illyriad is one of the most unique MMOs out there.

2014 was a stellar year for Illyriad and we have compiled a list of fantastic events that happened over the year.

Microsoft accounts, Google accounts, Facebook accounts we cover these logins, and what to do in case you forget your password.

After more than one hundred thousand votes were cast, Illyriad wins the public vote. We also won the Editor's Choice for Best Community 2014. Read more...

What do you love about the game? When you think of Illyriad, what do you want to draw, paint or sculpt? Create something new and win!

We have done some changes to improve the new player experience of Illyriad.

The indie dev podcast episode 17 is out, featuring GM Stormcrow and Thundercat!

We'd like to thank all of our players who nominated for us in IndieDB and SlideDB's indie and app of the year, you can now vote to decide the overall winners.

There is now an Alliance Leaderboard page for the new Alliance scores and can be listed by a number of different criteria.

We now have a private 1-to-1 chat system in Illyriad.

We know how disappointing exploits are to our players, but I hope you also understand that they're really disappointing to us devs as well.

Strategy Livestream: Siege! with GM Rikoo and ArteFore: What is sieging?

Chat now has contextual highlighting: Alliance Relationship Highlighting and nickname/chosen term highlighting.

There are now two types of hourly growth graphs available to you Player and Town Growth graphs.

The Legendary Battle where dittobite [N.O] single handedly destroyed a vast horde of over a million troops, has forever left its mark on the world map.

The council was tasked with tweaking and changing the lore and descriptions you see when you first make a new character and when you investigate the races on the website.

Some players may be currently experiencing difficulties connecting to Illyriad, this should hopefully be resolved .

Illyriad through the Windows 8 Store app, you'll be happy to know that we now support an account link.

A follow up on the last post, we very rarely share this level of detail.

If you've ever run into WoW gold on ebay (or similar) - that's RMT. RMTing is super illegal in Illyriad, as in every other MMO.

The next livestream will cover sieging, sieges and all-around siegery and will feature several players.

We have never previously shared details about exploits, but we feel this one is exceptional in the relative size and scope.

If you have a great idea for a guide or think you would make a great blog writer, let us know!.

The new auto-updating real-time combat feed also includes NPC fights so you can send out harvesters for the spoils without needing to be involved in combat.

We explain what COPPA is, and why it is the reason we do not (and cannot) permit people under the age of 13 to play Illyriad in the forum.

Jane DarkMagic was nominated by the community for October's Player Spotlight. Read her interview on our blog

You can now craft, and set up a trading empire in Prestige. Read about prestige scrolls and the new combat api in the forum.

You can now claim sovereignty change on Lakes, Lochs and Tarns. See the details in the forum.

Illyriad is now available as a Windows 8.1 app in the Windows App store.

The players have awoken the Heart of Corruption! See the details in the forum.

StJude was nominated by the community for September's Player Spotlight. Read his interview on our blog

You can change the look of your city as much as you want. See the details in the forum.

GM Cerberus takes us on a tour of how one small portion of the game is created.

Lots of fixes and additions in this patch. See the details in the forum.

Help us name that ocean! Submit your choice for name. The player who wins the contest will have their winning entry on the map!

Kodabear was nominated by the community for June's Player Spotlight. Read his interview on our blog

We have have improved the in-game market graphs, in-game search and Windows 8 app.

We have just loosened the rules on historic name reuse.

The Circle of Five have made a major break through after dispatching research party to Stormstone Island - Teneril's Relocation spell may be used on non capital cities.

Join the Illyriad team as they chat about the Broken Lands, the new expansion!

The Broken Lands are open for business. The bad news? The Broken Lands are no joke. You'll need to bring your best game to make it there.

The data feeds have been updated to include the Broken Lands. If you know what to do with them they are ready for your mashups!

258 new components have been added to the medal designer, for alliances to design and award new medals. Get designing!

The Tournament VIII - Stats are available. Read more and discuss in the forum

Players who have been selected for the player spotlight will see that they now have a custom made medal in their medal cabinet.

You troops and caravans will now ride ships when crossing water, which should aid your travel to the broken lands.

Mohit was nominationed by the community for May's Player Spotlight. Read his interview on our blog

Bring you all up-to-speed on changes to our planned release of the Broken Lands expansion to Illyriad.

Read the interview with GM Cerberus the superbly creative individual behind Illyriad Games' artwork

New players coming from Lord of Ultima, we ask them just what drew them and how their playstyles might translate to Illyriad

Updates and patches: "New Player changes". Read more and discuss in the forum

Rill was nominationed by the community for April's Player Spotlight. Read her interview on our blog

The King's Ruby Jubilee & TOurnament of Dragons has begun! Read more and discuss in the forum

Bugfixes & patchnotes. Read more and discuss in the forum

95 new research tree graphics have been released. Read more and discuss in the forum

In this, the very first Illyriad Strategy stream we talk about newbie tips!

Updates and patches: "Exodus bugfixes". Read more and discuss in the forum

First cartographic outlines of the Southern Continent. Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "Data Feeds". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "NPC blockades". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "Daylight Savings". Read more and discuss in the forum

Illyriad is proud to be a shortlisted in the Appsters 2013 for the Best Indie Developer 2013 Category.

Updates and patches: "Phantom Siege Patch". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "Bugfixes". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "Factions". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "Siege and Missing resource plots". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "Negative Building levels". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "Cancelling Sov / Phantom Sov". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "Deep Ocean Coastline Sov Claims". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "Counter-claiming Sov". Read more and discuss in the forum

Kevin Hassall explains the challenges and process behind how Illyriad's multiplayer tournaments are designed.

Illyriad has been nominated as Online Innovation Finalist in the Develop Industry Excellence Awards 2013.

View, drag and zoom into all 8 Million individually detailed terrains in Illyriad's 3d WebGL World Map, all in your browser with no plugins.

Updates and patches: "Tournament Square Clarity". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "Secure connections/IGM". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "Harvesting Location Links". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "Updates". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "Tournament VII". Read more and discuss in the forum

Illyriad's 7th tournament, The Champions Return is now live in game. Join with your Alliance to compete and collect champions to win prizes of prestige and medals. Full rules are at the forums.

Updates and patches: "Military Unit Production Time". Read more and discuss in the forum

Illyriad's new trailer is available for your viewing pleasure on Illyriad's Channel on YouTube.

Illyriad is proud to be a Notable Runner-Up in the Mozilla Game On competition, highlighting the best games built using open web technologies.

Illyriad CEO James Niesewand's interview about Illyriad and cloud gaming for Microsoft's Ubelly gaming website. Check it out to learn how we've built an empire on the cloud.

Updates and patches: "Illy 3 Year Anniversary Gift!". Read more and discuss in the forum

Massively.com's Beau Hindman sat down with Illyriad CEO James Niesewand and Executive Producer Kevin Hassall to take a look at the Broken Lands expansion and do a player Q&A. Full video here.

Updates and patches: "Account Abandonment". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "Broken Lands Expansion!". Read more and discuss in the forum

Illyriad's first expansion has been announced with the addition of a new continent, PVP-protected zones and interactive factions. Learn more about the Broken Lands and read the FAQ for more information.

Updates and patches: "Password Reset/Account Status". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "Tournament Prizes, Avatar Background". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "Sovereignty Stew". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "Siege and Exodus". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "Tweaks and clarity". Read more and discuss in the forum

Customizable avatars are now available in Illyriad. Visit your profile in game and choose "edit avatar" to give yourself a makeover today! More details available in the patch notes on the forums.

Updates and patches: "Customizable Avatars". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "Tournament". Read more and discuss in the forum

During October, experience the 6th Illyriad tournament. Join with your alliance to harvest the souls of the dead and win prizes like prestige, medals, troops and weapons. Details and rules are in the Illyriad forums.

Updates and patches: "Cotter Changes". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "Equipping and Scavenging". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "Advanced Resource Queues". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "Google Wallet". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "Tournament Monuments". Read more and discuss in the forum

Illyriad GMs Luna and Cerberus are taking part in the Extra Life charity gaming marathon to benefit Children's Miracle Network hospitals on October 20. Learn more at our dev blog or sponsor our team here!

Updates and patches: "Crafted Production". Read more and discuss in the forum

Illyriad's CEO, James Niesewand sat down with Massively.com's Beau Hindman to discuss the latest game update and take some community questions. Watch the full video available on YouTube.

Updates and patches: "Medal Design Pack". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "Workshop Specialisation". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "Tidy ups". Read more and discuss in the forum

Illyriad's CEO, James Niesewand, is has been scheduled to speak at GDC Online 2012. He will be participating in the day-long Game Dev Start-Up Summit, Tuesday October 9.

Updates and patches: "Market Graphs". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "Discoveries and Stats". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "The New Age: Faction Hubs open for business". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "Mild Release: Patch sizes, Animal parts". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "The New Age: Crafting". Read more and discuss in the forum

The latest game update with advanced harvesting, crafting and trade has come to Illyriad. You can check our forums for full patch notes detailing the changes as they are coming into game.

RTS Guru took some time to preview the upcoming crafting, gathering and trade changes coming to Illyriad. You can read the full interview with more details at RTSGuru.com.

GMs Luna, Stormcrow and Thundercat sat down today to discuss and take questions about the forthcoming updates to harvesting, crafting and trade. You can watch the full video at our dev blog.

Updates and patches: "Suspended Accounts, Performance Warning". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "Double XP Weekend". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "Enforced Account Removal". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "Medals, Mail, Market". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "Click to Talk". Read more and discuss in the forum

Illyriad now has video tutorials available in game. Look for the circle "T" icon on the top right corner of pages in game or watch all of the videos on our YouTube channel.

Updates and patches: "Tutorial Videos". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "UI Post patch 3". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "UI Post patch 2". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "UI Post patch". Read more and discuss in the forum

The latest Illyriad game update is now live including a refreshed UIv3, the Alliance Prestige Pool, Alliance Medal designer and more. Full patch notes are available in our forum.

GMs Luna and Cerberus show off the new Illyriad UIv3, Alliance Medal designer system and take community questions in our latest developer chat video. Full video is available here.

Updates and patches: "Coastal Sovereignty live". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "NPC food, Network Issues". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "Neg Resources, Buildings". Read more and discuss in the forum

Post an epic poem, haiku or song lyrics about Illyriad on our forums between now and May 18 to enter to win Scribes of Allembine and free Prestige in our poetry contest. Details and entry here.

Updates and patches: "Behaviours and bug fixes". Read more and discuss in the forum

Massively takes a look at combat in Illyriad as well as the latest organic wildlife update in the latest livestream for Massively TV. Check out the full video available on YouTube.

Updates and patches: "Performance". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "Changing Town". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "Major Release Patches". Read more and discuss in the forum

The latest update featuring organic wildlife, coastal food, diplomatic reinforcements and much more has now gone live. Full patch notes and notice about upcoming changes are at the forums.

RTS Guru takes an exclusive first look at the latest Illyriad update coming this weekend. Check out their 2-part preview here, Part 1: Organic World and Part 2: Exclusive Q&A.

Illyriad is proud to introduce our Player Spotlight program, a way for us to recognize and honor active and helpful members of our community. Learn more at the Illyriad Player Spotlight page.

Illyriad is proud to now have a community page at MMORPG.com. Visit to discuss the game in the forums, add features, leave ratings, reviews and more at one of the largest MMO websites online.

Updates and patches: "Town Chooser Dropdown". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "Alliance List, Scrollbar". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "Chat Filter, New UIv3". Read more and discuss in the forum

Visit our developer blog to enter into the Illyriad Elemental Giveaway for a chance to win 5 of each type of Elemental and 50 Free Prestige! Contest ends March 29, 2012.

Updates and patches: "Tournament Stats". Read more and discuss in the forum

The Illyriad Second Anniversary Tournament has now come to a close and winners have been announced. Thanks to all who participated and made this the best tournament to date!

Updates and patches: "Tournament Close". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "Gaming the Combat". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "Forum, Demolish, Facebook". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "Expired Effect Warnings". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "Accounts, Names". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "Timers, Firefox, Facebook". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "Military Summary". Read more and discuss in the forum

Alliances across Illyriad can now compete to hold territory and win prizes in our Second Anniversary Tournament, sponsored by Enjin and Typefrag.

In celebration of the second anniversary of Illyriad's launch into Alpha, the team held a dev chat to take community questions. Also, all active accounts have received 25 free prestige.

Updates and patches: "Diplomatic Sov, Caravans". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "Dev Chat Livestream". Read more and discuss in the forum

The Illyriad website has a new look and more updated, detailed information about the game. Take a look around and let us know what you think on our forums!

Updates and patches: "Login, Registration, Website". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "Bug Fix Love <3". Read more and discuss in the forum

Illyriad is proud to be listed as one of the 5 free strategy games of GameSpy's 101 free PC games for 2012.

Updates to Illyriad server infrastructure, security and several bug fixes have been applied. Detailed patch notes are available at our forums.

Updates and patches: "Scheduled Downtime". Read more and discuss in the forum

The Undead Horde tournament has come to a close and winners have been announced. Congratulations to our winners and thanks to everyone who helped vanquish the undead horde!

Get to know Illyriad CEO, James Niesewand, in this Over00 blog interview with fellow indie MMO developer Dave Toulouse. They discuss the origins of Illyriad and lessons learned along the way.

Beau Hindman from Massively.com sat down with James Niesewand, CEO of Illyriad Games, for an interview on Massively TV's livestream.

After a magic experiment turned disastrous and awoke the undead of Illyria, the Circle of Five have issued a call for help to all commanders. Learn how you can compete and win prizes in the Undead Horde tournament.

At the end of the first round of player voting in the IndieDB, Indie of the Year competition, Illyriad has emerged as the top ranked MMO. Thanks for all of your support!

Updates and patches: "Apopalypse Now". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "Vote for Illyriad". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "Diplomacy Tree Graphics". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "Server Move". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "Diplomatic Visibility". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "Chancery of Estates & Patchnotes". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "Patchnotes". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "New Buildings and much more". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "New Tech gfx, Improved Sharing". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "New Art, Google Checkout, Relocate". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "DevBlog, OpenId and various fixes". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "Map Changes, other fixes". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "Mobile Prestige". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "Tournament III - Compeleted". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "Patchnotes". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "Faction Hubs, Prestige Options". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "Memory leak patch". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "Chrome App, Prestige & Patch Day". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "New gfx, Sov & more". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "Patchnotes". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "Blockade Fix, Patchnotes". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "Old UI Retirement". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "UIv2 Final Patchnotes". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "Commander Changes". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "UIv2 Warmfixes Continued". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "Marketplace graphs, Buddy program increase". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "Free Daily Prestige or Resources!". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "Content Update - Quests". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "UIv2 Update & Warmfixes". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "Commander Vitality". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "UIv2 Warmfixes 6, update". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "UIv2 Hotfixes 5". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "UIv2 Hotfixes 4". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "UIv2 Hotfixes 3". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "Chat Block". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "UIv2 Hotfixes". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "UIv2 Scheduled downtime (1 hr)". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "Coast and Island Regions". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "Caravan speed and research". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "Early Trade Changes". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "Diplomatic Unit Changes". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "Construction Time Changes". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "Nature NPC Expansion". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "UIv2 Optional Testing". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "Tournament Results". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "Trade v2 enhanced marketplace". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "Moving Your City". Read more and discuss in the forum

Updates and patches: "Illyriad now on Facebook". Read more and discuss in the forum