Today I'd like to share an update on the progress of SHRINES and its upcoming releases.

For INITIATION Episode 3 – Echoes of Change, both the German manuscript and the English translation are complete. The next steps are finishing the illustrations, followed by the final layout. The accompanying materials are being developed alongside the main book.
The primary focus of this episode is expanding the travel mechanics and introducing Social Scenes.

INITIATION Episode 4 – The Cold Greeting of the Bell is at the same stage as Episode 3. Here as well, only the illustrations and supporting materials remain to be completed. T
he goals of this episode are to introduce the first Boss encounter and the final decision that will bring INITIATION to its conclusion on September 10, 2026.

SHRINES: FIRST FRAGMENT, the Quickstart, is now nearly finalized in German. It will be approximately 150 pages long, making it substantially larger than all four INITIATION episodes combined.
It contains a fully open Region, Grey Ash, the Withered Hills, where two factions struggle over a valuable resource while a third suffers the consequences. Within the Region, the Marked can discover 11 Locations, including 2 larger Instances, confront 10 different Monsters, 3 of them Bosses, and ultimately decide which truth they will carry in response to the Region's central question: "What is the true value of a Shrine?".

For this journey, you will once again use the four pregenerated Marked introduced in INITIATION. This time, however, they are presented as fully realized characters, each able to choose between two predefined Paths, a decision that has a significant impact on their playstyle.
Character progression in FIRST FRAGMENT is limited to Becoming I and Mastery 5.

As you can see, the writing for the next SHRINES products is largely complete. Over the coming weeks, most of my time will be devoted to illustration and layout.

I'd also like to mention that the black-and-white era of SHRINES will come to an end with the final episode of INITIATION. All subsequent products will be produced in full color. This has always been intentional, as INITIATION is meant to serve as an introduction, not as part of the main product line.

All of the products mentioned above, as well as the upcoming SHRINES WORLDS: Drevalynn – The Old Pilgrimage, will be available in both German and English, completely free of charge.

Bind yourself. Bleed. Return.
May the next Shrine be near.