The perils of the dreaded Circle Sea has made crossing from North to South on Wurm near impossible. While mariners are defeated in their attempts at this journey, and they realise that the flight to Freedom from the Northern Kingdoms was just pure chance, miners working in distant mountains on the lands of Wurm have unearthed the wondrous Portal Stones, previously only thought to have existed on Golden Valley. Now, these stones have been transported to the Wilds of the North and to Independence in the South, and gateways between the lands established.

But, travellers betware, for as has been discovered, this is not a gentle undertaking, and inscriptions found with the stones gave the following warning:

"The gods of these mighty edifices demand payment, and your Lords of Wurm must take ten silvers in tax from the coffers of you that wish to pass. And passage is not without its conditions thereafter, for this is not easy journey for trade, but a commitment! You must be aware that you can carry nothing but the most basic of tools given when you first arrived in Wurm, though you may carry coin and those precious items such as the Bag of Keeping that cannot be dropped from citizens' possessions. But we give some grace, for your possessions will be kept safe, and should you return they will be handed back to you.

"Those who are skilled in war craft, and have gained 50 or more in skill will lose five percent of it! And this loss can only be regained through hard grind, there are no favours here. Citizens will also be forced to wear the livery of the land they travel to, and will be adopted as a citizen of that place. For those of the Horde who travel south to the Freedom Isles, you will lose your faith and favour, and all those that travel North to South will lose one of their three conversions. Those travelling North from Freedom will not lose a conversion. Be wary and count your conversion carefully, for should you wish to return North and convert to Libila's Horde, she will not accept you if your lot of three is used up!"

Portals are dangerous at the best of times and the difficulties and restrictions we know about so far, may not be all that these ancient stones spring upon the traveller. However, this is good news too, for in the partition of Wurm, and the flight to the south, not all found themselves where their heart belonged. We wish them happy travelling.

Sometimes changes just sneak up on you on Wurm. And if this troll would concentrate a little less on me and a little more on what is in the background, he may see a hint of the future that is just round the corner.

Kinoss, one of our rather talented brush merchants has been taking time to look at the flora of Wurm Online, especially the big tall stuff.  And bit by bit, he has been working on our trees, watering them, pruning them, checking they have the right ph-balance, and generally getting them to grow taller, and more awe inspiring! He has only completed five at the moment. Pine, Cedar, Birch, Apple and Cherry, but I am assured the rest are in the greenhouse and are looking good.

So, on the front banner of our site and behind the troll (that is getting rather impatient now) you can see just a little taster of what is going to sneak into your vision of our world - we expect a lot of sore necks from far too much looking up in, well, awe!

This week has seen the arrival of another feature that furthers the goal I have to make Wurm one of the most mysterious online games available: Meditation!

Using a meditation rug you may now enter trance and relax, or maybe start meditating upon philosophical matters that has puzzled humankind for ages.

In certain areas of Wurm, you will find that the energies align and lift you up to higher levels. In these places you will be offered to embark upon philosophical journeys that will challenge your soul. If you decide to enter such a path you will rise in reverence, at least if you understand the questions and get the answers right.

It will take weeks before someone has reached the spiritual advancement that make a real difference, and do not expect to see someone fulfill the path within this first year if ever someone becomes wise enough. What happens on the higher levels will remain a mystery for a very long time.

All in all I hope this is an interesting feature which poses a nice challenge that is not too exhausting. You only need to find that special place and spare a few minutes to keep aligned with the path since skillgain is limited to a few times per day.

How guru are you?

I am very happy to announce that our sound engineer and web master Joss Sanglier have just had a new version of his album "Oohs, Ahhs and Nice Guitars" published on Spotify under the name 21st Century Blues. This version of the album includes three of the tracks he has written for Wurm Online - Johnny, Little Miss Jane and Travelling.

Joss says that "The lyrics are going to confuse the hell out of anyone who does not know what Wurm is! At the moment there is no overview of the Album, which I am trying to rectify - this will obviously give a reference to Wurm Online and may explain lyrics like 'it moved the place where spiders play' and 'All those little crocs snapping at my heals.'"

Apparently the rest of the album is made up of some of his more eclectic songs including the protest song 'Crying' and 'Water in the Rain' which when listened to by a friend of Joss produced the comment, "we like tortured love songs!"

According to Joss himself his own two favourites are 'Did You Dance With the Moon' which is about being a rebel when young, and 'Charming' which is about being happy even when things are bad and has a sort of sad ending. 'You Are Not Alone' is about the death of a pet rat!

The Album will also be available on iTunes in the near future and Joss will be releasing a Wurm specific album next year when he has written some more songs.

Spotify is Currently available in Sweden, Norway, Finland, the UK, France and Spain, and is an application that allows you to listen to streamed content for free.