Not all adventurers seek fortune, not all that defend the world have good deeds in mind.
Lately the number of sightings of horrors have grown tremendously. People wander off the beaten paths only to be found years later, horribly mutated and partly insane, if they are found at all. It is becoming evident something is stirring deep below Maj'Eyal.
That something is you.

Forbidden Cults is a big expansion for Tales of Maj'Eyal to let you explore the horrors that lurk beneath the surface, to delve in long lost knowledge and lore and as usual to die a lot!

Forbidden Cults makes two new classes available to play:

• Writhing One: Give in to the corrupting forces and turn yourself gradually into an horror, summon horrors to do your bidding, shed your skin and melt your face to assault your foes. With your arm already turned into a tentacle, what creature can stop you?
• Cultist of Entropy: Using its insanity and control of entropic forces to unravel the normal laws of physic this caster class can turn healing into attacks and call upon the forces of the void to reduce its foes to dust.

Both those classes use a new resource called Insanity that gradually makes you both more chaotic and powerful as it fills up.

Forbidden Cults makes two new races available to play:

• Drem: A corrupt subrace of dwarves, that somehow managed to keep a shred of sanity to not fully devolve into mindless horrors. They can enter a frenzy and even learn to summon horrors.
• Krog: Ogres transformed by the very thing that should kill them. Their powerful attacks can stun their foes and they are so strong they can dual wield any one handed weapons.

Forbidden Cults adds many new zones for you to explore and die in:

• Kroshkkur: An ancient Sher'tul Fortress laying half in ruins that serves as a focal point, and home, for all kinds of creatures seeking lost knowledge.
• The Maggot: A huge living corrupted worm about to destroy Kroshkkur! Teleport inside and save your sanctuary of horrors!
• The Godfeaster: Deep undergroud the ground shakes as ... -- redacted by corrupt forces --
• The Scourge Pits: On the south of the Iron Throne lays a fool pit of ... -- redacted by corrupt forces --
• Forbidden Tomes: Find special artifact books of ancient lore. But, read at your own peril, for the story they tell may very well suck you in... quite literally.
  Maybe you will even find The One That Writes...
• Occult Egress: A strange, extremely old, contraption of unknown origin. It seems to require some kind of code sequence to activate. Maybe you will find some during your adventures?
• The Entropic Void: So you think you are strong? Powerful? Invulnerable? In the end, entropy always wins, as you will learn...

What would an expansion about horrors be without a bunch of new horrors to torment you with? Please give a warm welcome to:

• Searing Horrors: You liked luminous horrors? You loved radiant horrors? You will absolutely adore their searing big brothers!
• Nethergates: It sleeps. Maybe it should stay that way.
• Netherworms: Vampiric worm masses that are bound to tickle your fancy! And tickle hard.
• Fearful Symmetry: Geometry has never been so lively!
• Entropic Shards: Take an entropic crystal, shatter it with tentacles. And die.
• : And more ...

"DarkGod, is that all?" Obviously not! You will also find your usual addition of:

• Lore: Delve into the dark forgotten secrets of the world, where sanity is a very tenuous idea.
• Artifacts: Discover new objects of power and use them to further your own goals.
• New wyrmic tree: Unlock the scourge drake for your wyrmics.
• Glass Golem: Unlock the glass golem option for your alchemists.
• Events: Discover new strange contraptions in familiar zones. What could go wrong?
• Achievements: Because there can never be enough!

Many in Maj'Eyal have heard of "demons", sadistic creatures who appear seemingly from nowhere, leaving a trail of suffering and destruction whereever they go. Their Fearscape floats far above the skies, watching and waiting, but not idly; their agents scout the land, their legions build up their forces, and their scholars develop new spells and strategies. As the barrier between our worlds begins to crack under their scrutiny, helpless Eyalites have begun to disappear, whisked up to serve as their slaves and playthings. They imbue these victims with magical powers to better survive the ensuing stresses - can you use your new-found abilities to escape the legions of Mal'Rok?

Features:

• Start with a new class, the Doombringer! These avatars of demonic destruction charge into battle with massive two-handed weapons, cutting swaths of firey devastation through hordes of opponents. Armed with flame magic and demonic strength, they delight in fighting against overwhelming odds, softening up the crowd with waves of fire, then feeding on the flames and suffering of their surroundings to stay alive while quickly reducing any group to a pile of ash and gore.
• Unlock a new class, the Demonologist, with an all-new item enhancement mechanic! Bearing a shield and the magic of the Spellblaze itself, these melee-fighting casters can grow demonic seeds from their fallen enemies. Imbue these seeds onto your items to gain a wide array of new talents and passive benefits, and summon the demons within them to fight on your side! Ever looked at a gigantic demon-cursed minotaur and wished it was on your side for once? Well, now you CAN summon one to pound your foes into paste while you cast devastating spells from afar, or call forth a squad of Fire Imps to pelt your enemies to death while they exhaust themselves on your impenetrable defenses! Demons have persistent health, making them a little more precious than disposable necromancer skeletons or summoner beasts, but can be revived from death nonetheless.
• Two new zones, with all-new art, foes, and bosses! You've seen the plains of the Fearscape before, now see the lairs and headquarters of the demons themselves!
• Over 10,000 words of written lore to find! The demons were once an enlightened, peaceful race, hailing from a distant planet known as Mal'Rok; learn what drove them to plot Eyal's eternal torture! Discover monuments to each of the demonic species and noteworthy individuals, showing the place of honor each has among them! Get a glimpse into the culture and daily lives of these sadistic invaders and their brainwashed thralls!
• Unlock a new race, Doomelves: Shalore who've taken to the demonic alterations especially well, corrupting their typical abilities into a darker form. Blink away to safety, transform into a shadowy dúathedlen to hide in the shadows or prey on your foes with blasts of darkness, use your new resilience to soak up status effects and critical hits, and assault your enemies' minds to leave them unsteady in combat!
• Between the aforementioned classes and Doomelves, a whopping 75 new talents!
• Unlock two new cosmetic options! You know you've always wanted demon-horns.
• Two new events, appearing anywhere in Eyal!
• 20 new artifacts, with unique and interesting effects. Collect the Obsidian Treasures to amass more and more power! Slip your hands into the Will of Ul'Gruth and watch your sweeping blows smash down walls! Wear a giant hideous hell-mouth as a fashionable belt!
• 7 new achievements! Conquer the worst Urh'Rok's forces can throw at you, and hang their metaphorical skulls from your profile page!

Adds the Grove Keeper, a Wilder subclass. The Grove Keeper is pirmarily a mindpower-caster with limited summoning ability, but has the option to mix slings, or one-handed weapons and unarmed attacks, into their skill set. They are also able to become proficient with mindstars and focus wholly on mind-casting. Includes advanced class categories favoring either weapon-hybrid or mind-casting play style, with the advanced hybrid tree working equally well for ranged or melee.

Full details in the forum.
Talent icons from https://game-icons.net
Class icon from https://opengameart.org/content/painterly-spell-icons-part-3

One year has passed since the one the Orcs call the "Scourge from the West" came and single-handedly crushed the Orc Prides of Grushnak, Vor, Gorbat, and Rak'Shor.  The Allied Kingdoms, now linked by farportal to their distant, long-lost Sunwall allies, have helped them conquer most of Var'Eyal.  The few remnants of the ravaged Prides are caged...  but one Pride remains.  Kruk Pride, isolated on an island, is the last orcish settlement that stands; they, too, face their impending doom.  The Sunwall has blockaded the only exit point from the island, and now, the technologically advanced civilization of Steam Giants have come down from the mountains to take their homeland with machines and weaponry unlike anything else on Eyal.  Kruk Pride has reverse-engineered their technology before; their only hope is to do it again and rise up against the Pride's foes.
 

Features:

• Explore a whole new campaign from level 1 to 50, one year after the events of the original Tales of Maj'Eyal campaign. Liberate the Orcs (or die trying) by rising up against the Sunwall, the Steam Giants of Atmos, and other dangers that may lie in wait...
• Play as one of three new races: the battle-hardened Orcs, the brutal Yetis, and the unstoppable Whitehooves. Discover their stories, their pains, their hopes... and their awesome racial powers!
• Risk your life in over 20 unique zones! Explore the ruins of a lost city, lay siege to the Sunwall forces at the Gates of Morning, and raid the Steam Giants' mining quarry - each has its own unique foes and hazards, leading each to feel and play different from the others.
• Play as one of the four new tinker classes: Gunslingers, Sawbutchers, Psyshots and Annihilators! Plus a class evolution: Technomancers! Crush and rend your foes with heavy metal, electrocute and immolate them with your gadgets, charge across the battlefield or nimbly strafe in style - each plays differently, and none provide any shortage of ways to slay your foes.
• Master steam technology to build powerful tinkers to augment your equipment. Need to close in a bit quicker? Turn your boots into rocket boots! Having a hard time deciding whether to shoot someone or stab them? Build a Hand Cannon into your gloves, or deploy a Weapon Automaton to do the stabbing for you! If you have a problem, steamtech has a solution, usually involving explosions; with over 80 different powerful contraptions to craft, enjoy unparalleled versatility and trying something different with every playthrough.
• Master the tactical uses of over 140 talents! Fire bouncing trick-shots and psychic-infused shots, use your steamsaws as shields or wheels, terrify your foes with long mechanical arms - there are no "boring" talents here, everything has its own special applications and properties!
• Use advanced technology in the world of Eyal! Burrow through sand, plant bombs to destroy tunnels, and discover that you aren't alone in using it...
• Infusions and runes are for puny humans; implant new medical injectors to pump an array of experimental chemicals into your body! Injectors can use any (infinitely reusable) salve in your inventory as long as they're off their cooldown, giving you versatility you've wished you could get with a couple of inscriptions.
• Loot over 70 new and powerful artifacts. Pump lead into foes with big guns, quick guns, and explosive guns! Shred them with saws that maim, saws that thirst for blood, and saws that aren't really saws! Violate common sense by strapping a rocket to your back and calling it a jetpack!
• Enjoy dying in horrible and exotic ways at the hands (or claws, jaws, guns...) of over 140 new creatures! Not mere piles of stats and chain-stuns, these foes will provide unique challenges - suffer the Sunwall's newest cosmic spells, the new breeds of ritches that infest and multiply, the Steam Giants' elaborate defense systems, and find new strategies to adapt to each!
• Earn a trunkload of achievements! Have your accomplishments recognized for liberating the Orcish people, displaying exceptional mercy or cruelty, or showing your prowess with impressive feats! Give a boss a fate worse than death, show Sunwall forces how frustrating it is to fight a Radiant Horror as a paladin, come out on top against impossible odds, display a suicidal lack of situational awareness, and wear a badge of pride or shame for each!
• Read roughly 27,000 words of new lore to immerse yourself in the world! Learn how things have changed since the Scourge's campaign, feel hatred and/or pity for your foes, uncover grand schemes and sinister plots, and notice the elaborate connections between Var'Eyal's numerous factions. Every zone has a story behind it, and every story ties into a bigger picture; enjoy a tale of horror and humor, of intrigue and glory, of despair and hope.
• Earn the right to use the classic (and Ashes of Urh'Rok) classes in Embers of Rage, and the new tinker classes in Maj'Eyal! Play a Brawler in the East to fulfill your life-long dream of suplexing an entire nation of giants, or play a Sawbutcher in Maj'Eyal to shred through Dreadfell in a whirlwind of sawblades and steam!

Sholtar have no racial talents of their own; instead, the four slots can be used to learn talents from defeated enemies (of a high enough rank). In this manner, the Sholtar can improve nearly any class by adding abilities from other calsses, or even talents that are normally exclusive to NPCs.
Sholtar are not quite as hardy as other humans, and receive -2 to strength, dexterity and constitution, and have a life rating of 8. On the other hand, they are exceptionally quick-witted, with a bonus of +6 to cunning, an extra generic point every 3 levels, and an experience 'penalty' of -20%.

---

The Sholtar were once a great nation, with many vasts cities in the southeastern regions of Maj'Eyal. In spite of the harsh, dry terrain they inhabitied, or perhaps because of it, they were a people of great ingenuity and adaptability.

The Cataclysm which tore the world apart centuries ago swept nearly all of the Sholtar lands into the murky depths, and all but erased their people from the face of Eyal.

While very few survived, those who did fought for survival with all of the wit and grit that was their birthright. An already adaptable people grew to become even more adaptable through neccessity, and it has become their greatest strength.

Sholtar are able to learn abilities by carefully studying others, and, regardless of their class, they can always improve by incorporating the talents of others into thier skill set.

This pack compiles several classes, with an emphasis on hybrid design. Not all classes are complete: the ones which I'm not satisfied with are marked as either INCOMPLETE or "in BETA".

The classes included in this pack are:
- The Transcendent Fist is an unarmed Psionic warrior, using a gem in his TK slot to hit with flexible energy types.
- The Storm Warden is a melee-and-ranged skirmisher with magical mobility and support spells.
- The Striker is a cunning and covert class, with a focus on delivering shock-and-awe thunderbolts from stealth.
- The Gravitic Infantry is a melee-focused Chronomancy user (formerly named the Heavy).
- The Creep is a stalker in the dark, cunning and covert in his hate.
- The Vector uses disease and debilitation to keep his foes at range while he snipes them to death.
- The Flenser is a Defiler whose knives debilitate and torture his victims.
- The Blood Mage is a Vim-based caster with a mild dip into staff-melee combat.
- ... and more!

(BETA) Shield Hero is an Adventurer who starts with heavy armor and a shield. Not very exciting unless you were annoyed about not being able to equip your Adventurer's shield right away.
(BETA) Prototype Hero is an Adventurer who starts with 1.3 mastery in every category. Not very useful for players, but it might be interesting for addon writers to spitball new category combinations.

(INCOMPLETE) The Flux Marauder is a Paradox thug, stealing time from his enemies.

x (Removed): The human-only Embers of Gerlyk are fire-using magical martial artists. Removed pending new content / 1.6 features.
x (Removed): The skeleton-only Fossils are geomantic martial artists. Removed pending new content / 1.6 features.