Our first Devstream of 926 is here, Envoys. Devstream 12 brings news of Preludes 13, including a look at the upcoming Virtue rework, character customization and the phantom whispering of a Vadagar bear.

Prefer to watch? Find the VOD here, or continue with your merry read.

Housekeeping

• Thawtide ends when Preludes 13 releases! If you’ve got some squawkers to smash, you’ve still got some time to do so.
• Envoy Hour returns, starting February 10th! Senior Community Manager [DE]Sarah returns to Alca with some of your favourite developers!
• You can wishlist Soulframe on Steam! Join us, won’t you?

Coming with Preludes 13

Virtue Rework

Virtues are being reworked in Preludes 13, gleaming with new brightness.

Preludes 13 sheds the previous Virtue point allocation system, and instead introduces an archetypal approach to better allow an Envoy to find fantastical footing in their favourite form.

• Virtues now automatically grow as the Envoy levels, adding to your general pool of Virtue points available.
• Envoys can earn access to new Virtue Prisms, which will divide your available Virtue points into a specific ratio.
• Melee weapons scale with Courage, Magick weapons scale with Spirit and ranged weapons scale with Grace. Similarly, Armour now scales with Virtues, with Courage accessing the toughest of steel, while Spirit won’t.
• Blessed Joineries now make attunements stronger, rather than switching attunements.
• Virtues now scale more prominently with different stats such as Health, Arcanic cooldowns, and stealth damage to better create the experience of making a bulwark-y Courage warrior, a mystical Spirit spell-caster or an elusive Grace daggerette.

Envoy Customization

New hair and new faces. Create the Envoy that your virtuous personality finds well. By speaking to Vermina, you can refine and change your appearance, including:

• New hairstyles, fully rigged for all body types.
• Expanded hair colour options with improved tinting and material support.
• Updated Envoy head models with refined proportions.
• Improved icons and UI support for head and hair selection.
• The option to change gender is ever-present with Verminia.
• Face makeup is being temporarily removed while we continue working on it.
• And, of course, Pact colouring is coming!

Be mindful, Envoys, this is only our first step towards creating a more customizable experience. Expect more flexible customization options and refinements as Alca grows!

New Weapons

Bear new arms, Envoys! Coming to Preludes 13, you’ll find new tools to confront the Ode’n blight:

• Dual Short Blades: The Clivers. These Short Blades will be equipped as a Sidearm.
• Wrist Magick Sidearm: The Basker’s Wrest.
• Magick Staff: Seathorn.

Player Camera and Physics Changes

January saw significant work put into Soulframe’s fluidity in gameplay, with the goal of enhancing an Envoy’s actions. If you wanted to see it in action, we showed it off here!

• Swapping targets mid-combat is now designed to be more responsive and instant.
• Reduced skating in combat, maintaining an ideal distance in a fight.
• Reducing camera tightness to maintain momentum, while allowing for more adaptive camera movement if multiple enemies are attacking.
• Fewer unblockable attacks are barraging the Envoy.
• Multiple block inputs should now prevent excessive target swapping.

World Tree Task Boards

With Preludes 13, Faction Tales are no longer left to chance. Bound to Midrath’s World Trees, hanging signage awaits your fulfilling hand. Rather than wait on nearby Tales for you to accept, you can find these emerging job boards to select the Tales you wish to accept.

When viewing these task boards, Envoys will:

• Accept Faction Tales directly affiliated with Alca, and not just your chosen Enclave.
• See the challenge tier of a Faction Tale at a mere glance.
• Track Midrath’s objectives.

This is our first step with this system, so expect further refinement later!

Vadagar Bear

Not all bears are bound to Wevetwood.

A Vadagar Bear, adapted to the open world of Midrath, stalks beneath moonlit skies. Preludes 13 will see the Vadagar Bear emerge as an Agari, so heed your Virtuwell.

The Organ: New Activity

Medis Gyon, a plague doctor of the stars, oversees poisonous work. His machines pump Ichor into iron arteries, spewing black clouds into Alcan air.

The Envoys must bring this machine low, bring relief to Alca’s breath. You’ll breach the tower, destroying its machinations before traversing further. We had a demonstration here, but you’ll see more with the release of Preludes 13!

Audio Updates

Ringing steel beckons the battlefield.

Preludes 13 brings a reworked approach to how weapon hits and damage are audibly communicated to the Envoy. Our goal is to make weapons (or objects) clashing sound more like they appear: a shield on a sword will sound different from a shield against the body. Take a listen here, Envoys.

Upcoming Concept

Thus, a new Pact and new Armour are to be seen. Find cloth and...Mendicant!

Oh, be-sludged sheep!. Such grime is unbefitting of a fluffy friend!

A bounty of foes soon await in Alca. Have you the strength?

And Verminia’s....mannequin?

New architecture, too. An Ode Citadel.

Upcoming in 2026

Our work continues! While we’ve got much prepared for Preludes 13, we’ve got a small peek at what’s upcoming:

A Nightfold Ancestor upgrading system.

A new Siege awaits your strengths.

And new areas to discover and explore...

Preludes Honour

With Preludes 13, all participating users will earn the Preludes Honour!

Preludes Honour will be earnable in the future in a way that pays homage to Preludes Envoy who’ve undergone account resets and major reworks!

A Final Poem

We left the stream with one final note. Take a read, Envoys...

The year nine hundred twenty-six,
Was known to elder Seers.
Peering in coolpools of mist,
They peered our future, clearer.


A hornèd beast, though hearing-hard,
Heard a word his herd heard not.
An omen toad's slow croaks were marred,
By fettid ills sick ponds begot.


A viling star of scarlet soared,
Heralding Ascendency!
A babe on shoulders old forewarned:
“Fear the Fey who speaks in threes.”


The Year nine hundred twenty-six,
Here prophesied in full.
But fates of old are woven thick
With threads our Envoys pull.


6 by 10, D to M

For now, this humble parchment appreciates your dutiful reading, Envoy. Until the ‘morrow!