This update brings to core elements, a whole new God, focused around a supposedly 'holy' being whose concept of perfection is opposed to human freedom, emotion or biology. Initially Ophanim may present himself as a saviour, against the threat of the shadow, but soon humanity will come to learn that their saviour hates every part of them which makes them human, and only seeks perfect slaves.

Ophanim's gameplay revolves around opposition of shadow to light, and you must create both, to drive the humans to accept your faith, so you may 'save' them. As you do, you can form perfected cities, which have stronger armies (to spread the faith via military invasions) and resistance to shadow and disease. Humans watching their countrymen become 'perfect' will become terrified, and you must prevent word of your actions getting out, by suppressing dissent, as you turn the world into a terrifying Lovecraftian totalitarian theocracy.

Secondly, this version has the first two third party mods, a collection of mid-challenge events by An Actual Englishman and Mall, and a set of vampiric minions and associated events by 8thDaughterOfFrost. Hopefully the first of many, Steam Workshop integration should allow Shadows to gain a host of exciting new content, greatly increasing replayability, and letting you play or create the fantasy apocalypse of your dreams.

Modding documentation nears completion of its first draft (although new functions are added constantly, so it requires updating its large lists of conditions and actions available), and two example mods are available on the github ( Link ).

Both of these milestones were reached thanks to the community's help, with feedback, suggestion and meticulous bug-reports, on the discord and Steam forums. As always, I am ever greatful, and hope that together we can make this game into something memorable.

A fair few UI improvements have also been added (new flags on the map for better at-a-glance map reading, and new keybindings for faster agent switching) to improve the game on a functional level, also often in response to user suggestions and feedback.

Detailed Patch notes:

Gameplay:
-Ophanim Added
-Reduced victory gain from Deep Ones
-Deep Ones can now spread to the Abyssal cities without requiring a direct sea link
-Chosen One now tries to build alliances if they detect the alliance isn't building fast enough
-Dark rulers will rebel if their ruler tries to join the Alliance
-Game difficulty no longer affects challenge complexity, and therefore doesn't affect time taken outside of lower stat gain
-Reduced probability of heroes reconciling 10% -> 4%
-Rulers can now abdicate if they fear civil war. Depends on personality and relation to heir
-Increased Deep One growth speed
-Increased Deep One menace gain from non-infiltrated neighbours
-Changed Deep One shadow gain threshold from 50% to 100% and reduced shadow gain speed
-Vinerva's Heart of the Forest cost scales with times used, instead of with seals broken
-Primal Font waters can now be drunk even if not fully depleted
-Plague doctor can now cure plague (reducing his menace in the process)
-Reduced devastation caused by human armies, in both capturing and raiding locations
-Forts defensive bonus doubled
-Increased ruler motivation to send armies against agents at distance

Other:
-Flags added to the capital city of all social groups when at maximum zoom
-Map tint added
-Added icon for Deep Ones
-Space key can now be used to end turns
-Added map view buttons in bottom right
-Added hotkeys Q and E to cycle between agents
-ESC now returns to the map if in main menu
-Allowed rebinding of map view keys
-Agents no longer have preferences, as these had no current gameplay effects
-Added 'discord' tag to reduce unrest and brutal crackdown

Bugfixes:
-Dead characters will no longer be featured in events
-Plague can't get stuck at 300% any more
-Fixed bug where societies would not execute rebel dukes, reducing effectiveness of agent-caused civil wars at causing long-term resentment between families
-Fixed bug where dead person can console the grieving relative
-Dark Empire and Ophanim Controlled empires no longer block high-menace agents
-Prevented Deep Ones for being described as human when killed by a hero
-Bandits no longer raid deep ones