Planned Release Date: 2026

About This Game

Athelan Battlegrounds is a free-to-play, turn-based tactics game with no meta progression and no pay-to-win. It's a game made for players who thrive in a skill-based competitive environment. A game that promises to be easy to learn but incredibly difficult to master! Build your team of champions and engage in unique matches against players or AI!

STORY

War was once absolute. Civilizations rose and fell. Entire worlds, brimming with unrealized potential, snuffed out all because another world was lucky enough to have evolved early. Survival wasn't due to ingenuity or persistence, but simply due to who built their war machines first. That was before the Veyrathi intervened.

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Before they became the architects of the Cosmic Law, they were scientists, explorers, dreamers. Similar to most other intelligent life across the stars. They were a species consumed by the pursuit of knowledge. In their insatiable hunger for progress, they pushed the boundaries of technology and magic to a point where they could significantly impact the fate of worlds. That realization came with a choice: They could claim all of it or... they could impose order on the chaos they had witnessed across the great weave of the universe. They chose the latter.

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No more would worlds be lost to senseless war, their destinies decided by which world got to its arms first. If a planet wished for dominance over another, it would have to battle for it.

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And so, the ambitious beings from planet Veyros created the Athelan Battlegrounds: An arena where worlds are lost and gained through trial by combat. Where the fate of whole civilizations is decided by a single match. Champions fight in place of armies and the result determines the future.

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If a civilization wishes to take over another, it must challenge it. The defending world has but two choices: yield a champion and fight for their survival or lose their planet entirely.

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One fight. That is all it takes.

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To those who do not obey Cosmic Law, a quarter of their population is eliminated randomly. Their interstellar technology is dismantled, reducing them to the state of a primitive pre-spaceflight civilization.

Those that are offered up as champions, whether through duty, threats, or misplaced loyalty, are never given the gift of freedom. They are bound to the battlegrounds, their names put on an eternal roster, waiting to be selected whenever a new war is waged.

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Though prisoners of the system, their existence is far from miserable. The warriors of the battlegrounds reside in massive space stations, positioned in various locations throughout the universe. Monolithic facilities built to shelter warriors of all kinds. In these stations, champions live a life of luxury, learning, and unlimited possibilities. They can travel, train and explore the farthest reaches of the universe. Some wallow in wealth and hedonism, embracing their fate as admired fighters. Others roam the stars in search of meaning, trying to disregard that their next call could come at any moment. But they can never be free.

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Deep within each champion lies an an implant, a complex marriage of magic and technology that ensures they are never beyond the grasp of the arena. No matter how far they travel, planets or timelines, when they are called to fight, the system tracks their signature and summons them. There is no hiding, no severing the bond.

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The moment their name is called, they are to present themselves at the battlefields. To fail a call is to fare worse than death. None has ever been able to evade the system's grasp.

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War is endless for those bound to the system. Who will you choose?

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FEATURES

• Two PvP game modes; 10v10 & 5v5, each with a ranked and unranked option

• Play against AI of various levels to hone your skills

• Create your own teams in the board editor

• Decorate your board however you like

• Save multiple board layouts so you can quickly switch between teams

• Edit your profile or even view replays of your matches for analysis

• Engage with the community in global chat channels

• Create or play entirely custom levels in the level editor. A fun and infinite way to learn how to play!

NOTE FROM THE DEV

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The goal of this game is to become a collaborative experience with the players so that together we can build a fun, fair and challenging competitive experience.

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Barring cosmetic upgrades, this game will always be free to play with no pay-to-win. I'm making a game where fair competition is sacred. All champions will be purchasable with soft currency that everyone can earn. All cosmetics will be purely visual and will have no impact on player power. Some things may be sold as quality-of-life, such as extra editor pages, but nothing to gain an edge during gameplay.

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TRANSPARENCY ABOUT THE ARTWORK

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While all artwork in the game is fully hand-drawn to bring the original design to life, some poses or design elements were based on AI references. If this is a dealbreaker for you, drop by the Discord and voice your concerns. I am fully prepared to make changes where necessary if it’s within my budget. Hopefully, in time, I can find an artist I gel with who is capable of creating concept art and final renderings that we both agree look amazing. This is something I would welcome.

Mature Content Description

The developers describe the content like this:

The game touches on mature topics such as intergalactic warfare, lifetime emprisonment, world conquering, etc