Ashen Empires

Did You Know?

• Accounts can hold up to four characters per server.
• Players choose among three races: human, night elf (Astari), or orc.
• The game has seventy-one skills, including Mining, Iron Forging, Baking, Planting, Harvesting, and Large Blades.

Origins

The game originated as Dransik, an upgraded version of an earlier game also called Dransik (now known as Dransik Classic). That original Dransik was built in honor of Ultima V by Jason Ely, one of the U8 developers, and Doug Gesler, and its graphics resemble the tileset used in that game but in SVGA. Dransik Classic remains available through the Pixel Mine launcher. The modern Dransik launched as a free open beta in September 2002 via its original publisher, Asylumsoft Inc. After beta, it adopted a pay-to-play model on March 10, 2003. On December 16, 2003, Asylumsoft sold the game's assets to TKO Software, and the title was changed to Ashen Empires. In 2004, TKO Software sold the multiplayer rights back to Iron Will Games. A monthly subscription fee was then required, a business model also used by World of Warcraft and EverQuest. Iron Will Games later introduced a free limited experience: until early 2008, non-subscribers received only 10% of experience, had restricted tradeskills, and could not use the party system, trade table, pick up or drop items, or loot certain mobs. In early 2008, restrictions were relaxed so that non-subscribers received 50% of experience, could party with other non-subscribers, and could table trade freely with non-subscribers, though they could only receive items from subscribers, not give them. Subscriptions ended in 2009, making the game free to play with a pay system for in-game bonuses. A questlog was added in June 2020. In September 2022, Ashen Empires and Dransik were released on Steam.