The Inquisitor/saved posts June 2026

The Inquisitor: A New Plane Awaits

Although commoners opt to live simple lives, wisely preferring the mundane rituals of daily Elanthian life over the perils posed by alien planes and dimensions, the more ambitious have been lured to the powers they conceal like a moth to a flame. From the Faendryl who tore the rift at Maelshyve to battle Despana's undead hoards to the valence-traveling Empyreans that Elanthia's most stalwart heroes fight to repel, one thing is clear...

... one explores other planes at their own peril.

But what if not every plane hid demonic horrors and the stuff of children's nightmares? What if another valence harbored a powerful society that held, if not altruistic, at least collaborative motives?

They've Been Among Us

Watching. Learning. Recording. And based on their observations, she believes Elanthians could become a useful partner.

Who is she? That is something you will need to learn with time should you accept her invitation. And prove yourself worthy.

Welcome to Nyessem

Announced in the Q2 Creating Adventures, The Inquisitor is scheduled to launch in the fourth quarter of 2026, but you won't have to wait that long. On June 19th, we will be offering a preview of this event scheduled to run for at least a week, where you can begin learning about the Inquisitor and get a taste for what Nyessem has to offer.

But don't think of this as just a simple sneak preview. Think of it as a prologue, for this is a planned, small introduction to a far grander story.

FAQ

We would like to kick off this thread by addressing some questions that we would have as players and/or that have been asked by members of the GemStone community when this event was first announced in the Q2 Creating Adventures.

What is an event?

An event is a special happening that takes place for a limited time in Elanthia. They can be invasions, festivals, merchant visits, multi-month epic storylines, or even just a GM-run NPC engaging in smalltalk with town citizenry for an hour. It's those special touches where players come together to have fun, create memories, and potentially even influence the game world.

The Inquisitor will be an episodic event that introduces a new plane, new games, new player roleplay systems, a new progression system, and new storyline threads that will extend into Elanthia beyond the event itself.

Is this really a preview, or is it a beta test?

It's really a preview. The conceptual planning for this event began a couple years ago, and before any development even began we whiteboarded the vision and goals for the event. One of our original plans was for the first run to be a smaller-scale prologue event that we would drop without much forewarning. This is largely for story and pacing reasons; this is the introduction to an episodic storyline, and as such it will intentionally leave many questions unanswered.

That having been said, this event has some ambitious systems, some of which won't be "visible" to you but can also be used outside of Inquisitor purposes. With everything being built from the ground up, despite our thorough testing, it's possible for bugs to try and slip through. Rest assured that the team will be monitoring carefully to stomp out any potential bugs as quickly as possible.

Is this a silver-based event?

No, this event will have its own form of currency.

Am I going to need to deal with FOMO?

Very little. While we can't guarantee there will never be exclusives available during a specific run or that certain wares may not be swapped out after time, we can say that the primary system this event is built around is intended to be evergreen and low-pressure.

Low pressure how?

Less demanding for you. We can't go into detail about the systems right now since they haven't been launched yet, but we can assure you that steady progression over the span of multiple runs is a design goal. The system isn't going to try and force you to obtain and/or maximize everything within a run or lose out. Except for rare exclusive cases, whatever is introduced in an event will still be waiting for you in future runs., Less demanding for GMs. Like Rings of Lumnis, most systems that are built for Inquisitor will be self-running, so a launch of Inquisitor will not require significant GM time or attention.,

Will the event be accessible for everyone?

If you have a subscription of any tier, your character will be able to own most of what the prologue offers rather easily depending on your preferences and choices (going wide or going deep). Maximum progression cannot be expected, but you'll have the opportunity to walk away with plenty and then decide which favorites you'd like to continue progressing in the future.

Will this event impact GemStone development or storylines?

Not in a negative manner, no. As touched on above, this event is being built from the ground up to require very little GM time to maintain. Those working on Inquisitor volunteered because they are excited about the vision and story, and the event has no impact on their, or any teams', projects. If anything, some of the technology we're using in this event can benefit future design outside the event; there are certain things underneath the hood that you won't see.

As far as storylines are concerned, this event will not detract from existing or new storylines, but it may well add to them.

The Inquisitor story branches have the potential to creep well beyond Nyessem, and we've been bouncing thoughts with Thandiwe / Worlds as to how this storyline will be integrated with Elanthia for over a year. For example, since 2025, some Elanthians have noticed some changes in the mana storms around Ornath. I wonder if that might be related…

If you're all about the games, goodies, and fun, then you'll find plenty of it! But if you are also interested in those quiet roleplay moments and/or storylines within broader Elanthia, our goal is to help enrich that roleplay and lore, not detract from it.

Can you share the post-prologue release schedule?

As announced in the Q2 Creating Adventures, we will be running Inquisitor again in Q4, and there will be some additional new content released at that time.

For 2027 and beyond, unfortunately, we cannot share a release schedule at this time, but we can say:

• The tentative plan is to potentially have one "larger" chapter each year where event additions are more numerous and/or ambitious. Other runs of Inquisitor during the year will likely be more subdued, potentially with smaller new content releases or even none at all so that you can just enjoy the games and continue progression on your existing items.
• Remember that if / when Inquisitor's smaller openings take place, there's no need to worry. No one is going to be placed on a hamster wheel as we've seen above; if you miss a run or would prefer to skip one, you'll be able to pick up where you left off during the next one. We don't want FOMO or event burnout; we want an event where everyone can kick back and engage at their own pace without feeling pressured.
• We're bringing new approaches to this event, and whether you value power progression, roleplay utility, or storylines, we hope to draw you into the world of Nyessem.