Magic has arrived! This update introduces two new magic skill trees: Pyromancy and Fulmination, two magic-based character backgrounds, the attunement system, a reworked starting quest, and a host of other improvements and bug fixes.

Save files from v0.5.16 are semi-compatible. When loading an older save, you can either port your character to the latest version or continue your save. Note that continuing an older save may mean missing out on new content in areas you've already explored.

Pyromancy is our take on fire magic. It focuses on sustained fire damage and area control. It rewards aggressive casting and smart positioning, continually building up power as fights progress.

How to Play:

• New Background: Choose the "Pyromancer" character background.
  
• Discover In-Game: Find any Tyros-attuned item on any character to discover the skill. Then invest a skill point when you sleep.

Spells like Line of Fire and Ignite set the ground ablaze, creating zones of damage that can be used to layer on even more damage.

With Flame Aura you can absorb your own fire, converting it into a powerful aura.

When you've built up enough combustion stacks, unleash a FireBall for a devastating finisher.

Fulmination (thunder magic) focuses on burst damage, crowd control, and energy-hungry spellcasting. Unlike Pyromancy which builds up damage over time, with Fulmination you hit hard, stun fast, and burn through energy quickly.

How to Play:

• New Background: Choose the "Fulminar" character background.
  
• Discover In-Game: Find any Tyros-attuned item on any character to discover the skill. Then invest a skill point when you sleep.

Use abilities like Static Lance and Galvanic Bloom to dish out damage and build overload stacks.

Magnetic Pull allows you to reposition, or to pull a group of enemies towards a single point.

Chain Lightning can jump to any number of targets. Use as a finisher or to handle large groups.

Jump into game to try out all the new abilities!

As we're now seriously getting into magic, it's time to introduce our long-term plan for the magic system: Attunement. It not only anchors the in-world lore behind magic, but also directly ties into the mechanics of spells and magic equipment.

What is attunement?
In the world of Trithius, every spell draws its power from a magical Realm. Attunement represents your body's ability to channel and align with that Realm. In terms of mechanics, this means each spell now has an Attunement requirement, shown directly on the tooltip with specific icons:
To cast a spell, you must meet its Attunement requirement. Most low-level spells need just 1 Attunement. Higher-tier spells may require 2, or even 3. Both Pyromancy and Fulmination draw their power from the same realm, requiring Tyros Attunement.

How to Gain Attunement?
1) Attuned Gear
Many new items have been added that grant Attunement bonuses. These items are not typically offered in city shops. If you're eager to find attuned gear the most reliable source will be the desert crypts dungeons.

2) Magebooks
A new item type, Magebooks, provide an easy to find source of Attunement. Unlike lore book or skill books, Magebooks can be equipped in the offhand.

To accommodate Magebooks, all mage staffs are now 1h, and have had their stats rebalanced to be 1h. You can find these books are scribe stores, general shops, or in dungeon loot.

3) Reading and Insight
There's also the reading route. Look for books which grant "Enalia Insight" or "Tyros Insight", which will open up a path to gain insight via the Reading skill.

As we continue to develop new magic, our design is inspired by classic color-pie philosophies. We want the trade-offs between specializing in a single Attunement type or splashing into multiple magic schools to be a strategic choice for mages.

Accessing multiple magic trees simultaneously is possible, but requires Attunement from a variety of sources. This creates a challenge: Do you commit fully to one magical path, or do you design a combination of gear and other bonuses to support a hybrid build?

The main quest, "Ascension" is undergoing a significant rework. In this update, you'll find the first two stages of the revamped quest. Sagohai has moved from town to his new forest cabin, where your journey with him will begin.

This quest will eventually intertwine with the Stormbringer faction as we continue to expand the world.

NPCs will now react when you steal items in their line of sight, costing you reputation based on the price of the item. Lower priced items have less of a chance to be called out. Town crate/barrel/chest loottables have been updated to include some new items.

Gameplay & Systems

• Fires on the ground are now more dynamic, coming in three sizes (small, medium, and large) with different damage and burn chances. Combining fires on the same tile will upgrade them to the next stage of size and intensity.
  
• Creatures will now intelligently try to step out of fire during combat, provided a safe, adjacent tile is available that keeps their target in range.
  
• Town Prosperity - Governors will now list which shops are closed due to low prosperity and you can donate gold directly to a town to help it flourish.
  
• To prevent "stun-lock" situation's, knockback-induced stuns no longer re-apply if the target is already stunned.

Items & Loot

• To accommodate the new off-hand Magebooks, all Mage Staffs have been rebalanced and are now one-handed weapons.
  
• The final chest in the Desert Crypts is now guaranteed to drop an attuned item, ensuring players can engage with the new magic system.
  
• Gold and Silver chests now have a small chance to drop attuned items.
  
• The "Scroll of Discovery: Nature Magic" has been removed, as magic skills are now discovered by finding and equipping attuned items.
  
• The libraries of Trithius have grown! Nine new lore books have been added to the world for you to discover: Adventurer's Creed, Philosophy of Magic, The Mother's Role, A Treatise on Realm Walkers (Part I & II), Walker Worship, The Roots' Riddle, The Crimson Soldier, and Tread Carefully Friends.

Balance Changes

• Shops in towns with "Wealthy" or "Flourishing" prosperity levels now have larger gold reserves.
  
• The variety shop in Leafborn villages now holds more currency, making it easier to acquire Polished Stones.
  
• The chance Nyris seeds to spawn has been reduced. Furthermore, the Nyris Vine's growth now slows as more seeds become active and is capped at a maximum size. (Developer's Note: This should help with both balance and performance, but this is not the last word on the Nyris Maw!)
  
• Many monster stats have been updated to include Fire and Thunder resistances where appropriate. For example, plant creatures have negative fire resist, null creatures have negative thunder resist, etc.
  
• The Gremlin Brute's charge ability is now more accurate. Watch out!

Other

• A new "Use last window size" option has been added for those who play in windowed mode. When enabled, the game will remember and apply your window dimensions on launch.
  
• Looting piles of sticks now yields 2 wood instead of 1.
  
• Added two new face options to character creation appearance options.

Gameplay & Balance

• Fixed an issue where attacking with an off-hand item equipped (like a shield or lantern) would incorrectly unlock the Unarmed skill.
  
• Fixed the 'Terrifying Cleave' ability applying an incorrect dodge penalty (-3500 instead of -35).
  
• Fixed the 'Curse of Greed' status effect incorrectly increasing move speed instead of decreasing it.
  
• Fixed an issue where 'Martial Flourish' could cause an error if triggered at the very edge of the map.
  
• Fixed the 'Terrifying Cleave' ability costing 0 energy if the 'Dreadful Impact' upgrade was not purchased.
  
• Stairs will no longer produce a sound effect if the player is blocked from using them (e.g., due to nearby enemies).

UI & Tooltips

• Fixed an issue that caused shops to not charge or pay for an item if it was filtered out of view in the trade window.
  
• Fixed a visual bug where skill buttons in the "Discovered Skills" tooltip were rendered incorrectly.
  
• Fixed an issue causing tooltips to sometimes be missing characters (e.g., "staggered for turns" is now "staggered for 2 turns").
  
• Fixed the character appearance customization screen, which was not properly showing the last row of hair and beard options.
  
• Fixed the 'World Scaling' option in the Options menu not showing the "restart required" pop-up when clicking 'Apply'.
  
• Fixed an issue where mouse targeting could incorrectly highlight invalid tiles as grey.
  
• Fixed a bug that could add extra, spurious spaces in some combat log messages.

Quests, NPCs & World Generation

• Fixed the "Quest Failed" pop-up to report the actual amount of reputation lost and with the correct faction.
  
• Fixed a bug that could cause multiple NPCs in the same town to have the same name.
  
• Fixed an issue where female NPCs (such as guards) could sometimes be rendered with male sprites.
  
• Fixed the dialog with the guard captain being unavailable during the "Confidential Matter" quest in newly generated worlds. (Note: This fix does not apply to existing saves where the quest is active).
  
• Fixed a bug where quest stages could sometimes be listed in the wrong order in the quest log.
  
• Fixed an issue preventing some farms from being placed correctly in the overworld during world generation.
  
• Fixed the stairs down sometimes failing to spawn on the 2nd floor of the starting Ineo temple.
  
• Added more fallback options for any situation where a stairs fails to spawn, to ensure dungeons can always be completed.
  
• Fixed the character Torvin (from the Blooming Dread quest) from sometimes being generated with a female physique.

Technical Fixes

• Fixed visual inaccuracies in the hotbar rendering that could cause 1-pixel gaps to appear at certain UI scales.

Console Commands

• The 'apply' command now correctly applies status effects with a specific turn duration.
  
• Added the 'port' command to allow porting characters (skills, inventory, etc.) from other save files.
  
• Enhanced the 'spawn' command to allow spawning a creature at a targeted map position.