Six paths
Aether Vanguard, Storm Caster, Word-Weaver, Sage Knight, Rift Caller and the Emergent Path. You get better by using what you do. Storm Casters call down blizzards and meteors. Rift Callers seal enemies and bond wolves and hawks.
Open-world action RPG Coming soon
Rhineland Aether
New Thun
The other empire has been driven back. The argument over the magic is just getting started.
In development · Windows PC
About the game
A traveller in New Thun
A green stream crossed land and sea before the Great War could end. People sickened, then woke with magic. Plants and animals changed. Beasts and another human empire came through the rifts. Humanity drove that empire back. Magic, and a few hidden rifts, remained.
You are a named traveller on a compressed alpine frontier of Switzerland, Italy, Baden and France. A new game opens in New Thun in the warm season, four weeks before the first winter. Choose a path and a past, then walk. People give directions. If you ask again, they may mark your map. Nobody puts an arrow over your head.
The work is on the chapel notice board and in the conversations you overhear: missing goods, the watch, a stolen ward-book, harbour and forest errands, a strike in Mulhouse, sealed levels under two mines. How you finish them moves your karma, the world's balance, and your name with the watch, the smugglers, the union and the Rothchild Corporation. Each country keeps its own wanted list. Markets keep to the week, Saturday belongs to the black markets, and every season ends in a festival.
Underneath the work, a larger story has begun: a stranger's mark, a hidden history in the churches and schools of five regions, and a first act in New Thun. The rest of it is not built yet.
Features
What you’ll do
Rifle, blade, fists
Five aether rounds in the rifle, fire, ice or thunder. Swords in reach. Block, parry, and decide what a knockout becomes.
Five regions, one journey
New Thun, snowbound Aosta, the Black Forest above Freiburg, the mills and canal of Mulhouse, and the university town of Freiburg itself, still being built. Wagon, train and boat.
Work, not waypoints
Notice boards, rumours and a second question that can mark the map. Sense highlights what you would otherwise walk past.
A name in four countries
Hero or villain is how you act. Civilization or anarchy is what you think a society should be. Warrants do not cross the border.
Ride, fish, craft, read
Horses at the post stables, a workbench, a clockwork ward device, a miner's pick, and books that teach you something the first time you finish them.
A week with a shape
Markets on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, black markets on Saturday, bells on Sunday, and a festival in the last week of each season.
Homes and companions
Rent or buy a room with a chest and a trophy shelf. Five people, one in each region, will walk beside you and say what they think of your choices.
A story under the work
A stranger's mark, a hidden history, and a first act in New Thun. The rest of the story is still to come.
Questions
FAQ
Which Rhineland Aether is this?
The current 3D game, set in New Thun and the regions around it. It is not the tabletop, the 2D farming game, Stasis, or the monster-collecting game, and it is not the old Eisenstein war slice.
Is there a fixed year?
The world is an alternate early twentieth century, after the rifts and after the other empire was driven back. The game does not pin the story to one calendar year.
How much of Freiburg is built?
The station, the Münster and its market, the university and the campus. The rest of the city is still open ground.
How much of the story is there?
The first act, in New Thun. The later acts are not built yet.
Can I play it yet?
Not publicly. It is a large playable build, still short of a finished campaign. Leave your email for one message when it is ready.
New Thun is open. The campaign is not finished.
Questions about the frontier? The studio reads every message.