The Ballad of the Elements

The worlds

Thirty-one worlds, and five ways to be shaped.

The realm is not gated by locked doors. It's gated by what you can currently turn into. Every shape you're taught reopens somewhere you already walked past.

Every picture on this page is a screenshot from the game. 20 of the 31 worlds have one so far; the rest are waiting on their art pass.

8 worlds

The green country

Meadow, river road and old-growth forest, and a village built in the trees above all three.

  1. A bright river crossed by stepping stones, running between pines and willows in a green meadow.

    The Shimmerwood

    Where you start: a meadow of flowers and stepping-stone fords, with wild elementals hiding in the scenery.

  2. The druid on a dirt road descending through pine trees beside a grey cliff.

    The Riverwood

    A road that drops west through pines, between a cliff and white water.

  3. The druid looking up at a great tree hung with lanterns and platforms, between giant pink-capped mushrooms.

    The Highwoods

    Canopy country of the wood elves. The tournament is a tower, and you fight your way up it.

  4. The druid, seen from behind, among giant trunks; one trunk carries a column of glowing carved glyphs.

    The Understory

    The forest floor under the old-growth giants. One of them is carved from root to crown with glyphs.

  5. The druid on a ledge of lashed logs partway up a vine-wrapped tree, more platforms spiralling above.

    The Vinework

    A vine tower climbed ledge by ledge. There is a word carved at each landing, and it wakes as you pass.

  6. A wooden deck high among redwood trunks, with striped market stalls and a glowing emblem underfoot.

    Canopy Village

    A market town on decks in the redwoods, kept by the Forest Wardens.

  7. A green pitch marked with white lines, ringed by trunks hung with glowing glyph banners.

    The Bough Field

    A ball pitch grown into a bough above the village, with a goal at each end and a crowd.

  1. The Underforest

    Deep, ancient, slow. The trees here are old enough to have opinions about you.

6 worlds

The heights

A waterfall, a ridge road, and then the ground runs out and the worlds keep going.

  1. The foot of a tall waterfall in a dark gorge, a rainbow hanging in its spray.

    The Great Cascade

    A waterfall you climb rather than admire. There is a room behind the water for anyone who looks.

  2. A road winding along a snowy ridge toward a small tower, with white peaks all around.

    The High Peaks

    A crest road above the cloud line, wind on three sides and a long way down on the fourth.

  3. Floating rocks strung across open sky above the clouds, a spiral of wind rising between them.

    The Cloudway

    Stepping stones of floating rock, and spirals of wind that carry you between them.

  4. Grassy floating isles joined by bridges above a sea of cloud, a pagoda on the largest and waterfalls pouring off their edges.

    The Cloud City

    Floating isles and a pagoda above a sea of cloud. The Air Bears train here.

  5. A white rotunda with a gold dome and blue columns on a grassy isle in the sky.

    The Peak Sanctuary

    A terrace of domes and prayer banners in the sky, where the pandas keep the wind.

  6. A stone court walled by spinning wind, a ball in play between the druid and a panda in black robes.

    The Windcourt

    A stone court ringed by a standing tornado. The air master’s sport is played here.

5 worlds

The fire country

Black rock and open lava, and a city of hawks that looks down on both.

  1. A shore of black rock and a bare tree beside a river of bright lava, a volcano smoking in the distance.

    The Ashway

    A crossing of black rock and open lava, taken one drifting raft at a time.

  2. A dark volcano streaked with lava under a blue sky, runes glowing on the rocks at its foot.

    The Emberpeak Caldera

    A volcano climbed ledge by ledge, to a basalt nest at the crown.

  3. Hexagonal basalt columns in a red-lit cavern, a row of runes glowing gold on the rock face.

    The Magma Cliffs

    Five cliffs over the melt, each cut with a rune that never goes out. Warm air lifts you from one to the next.

  4. A paved market street in a dark stone city, hawk-folk in pale robes among red-awninged stalls.

    The Cinder Aerie

    The Volcano Hawks’ terraced city: a tunnel, a fire temple, and market streets above the lava.

  5. A crater floor ringed with tall red crystals, a circular sigil glowing crimson on the stone.

    The Scorch

    A crater of red crystal under the Aerie, with a sigil burning on its floor.

6 worlds

Under the mountain

A dwarf hold, the mines beneath it, and what lives beneath the mines.

  1. A stone gallery in the dwarf hold lit by hanging gem-lanterns in six colours, a statue and a red-roofed house below.

    The Dwarf City

    A hold carved into the mountain: a plaza, a forge, a brewery, an inn, and a great deal of cheese.

  2. Mine rails running into a cavern of jagged, glowing blue crystal.

    The Delve

    Mine rails through a cavern of blue crystal, lit by lanterns and by whatever the rock is doing.

  1. The Goblin City

    Stalls and arches one level above the mines. The goblins will sell you a map of anywhere.

  2. The Goblin Deeps

    A shaft that goes down further than is sensible. There is a toll.

  3. The Warrens

    A burrow that forks three ways at its mouth. The choice is the level.

  4. The Deep Caves

    Crystal tunnels where the cave elves keep their halls, behind a door only something very strong could open.

6 worlds

The drowned worlds

Six worlds with no air in them. You do not hold your breath; you become something that does not need to.

  1. The Drowned Way

    A flooded passage with no air in it. You will need to not need air.

  2. The Sunken Vault

    A drowned colonnade below the plunge pool, where the oldest things live undisturbed.

  3. The Rapid Currents

    Water that shoves. Something very quick dens in the run.

  4. Coral Hollow

    A reef town: an archive, a market, and a sunken colonnade out past the coral.

  5. The Kelp Forest

    Stalks as tall as towers under a roof of fronds, with three clearings and shoals moving through it.

  6. The Tide Court

    Open water with a current running through it. A test, not a town.

The five shapes

Every shape is a key.

Five animal shapes, each kept by a master somewhere in the realm, and learned in this order. The world was always this big; you just couldn't get there.

  1. 1

    Monkey

    Canopy Village, at the top of the Vinework

    Climbing. Rungs and ledges that were always there and always too far apart.

  2. 2

    Eagle

    A basalt nest at the crown of the Emberpeak

    Falling slowly. A door out on the Peaks sits below a drop nothing else survives.

  3. 3

    Bear

    The pagoda in the Cloud City

    Force. Doors that were never locked so much as heavy.

  4. 4

    Turtle

    Deep in the cave elves’ halls

    Water. Flooded passages stop being walls.

  5. 5

    Raccoon

    A den in the Rapid Currents

    The last one. You will know it when you have it.

A hidden reckoning

Nothing in this game shows you a morality meter, because there isn't one to show. There is only a running tally of what you've actually done, and it is quietly adjusting things behind your back.

Shopkeepers price you differently. Somewhere past a certain point you'll notice you are walking more slowly than you used to, and nobody will have mentioned it.

It matters more than it looks like it does. That's all we'll say here.

Concept plate of Mossbrow, a moss-hung tree-sloth, shown from the front and from the side.
Mossbrow. Moss grows on it because it has never once hurried.
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