Evershade Online: The Hollow Crown

Evershade Online: The Hollow Crown
Expansion key art
Developer(s)	Mythlane Studios
Publisher(s)	Monsteristic
Director(s)	Helena Ward
Producer(s)	Marcus Venn
Designer(s)	Priya Kade
Programmer(s)	Nolan Reyes
Artist(s)	Sora Lin
Writer(s)	Callum Ives
Composer(s)	Theo Marlow
Series	Evershade Online
Engine	HorizonForge
Platform(s)	Windows macOS
Release	WW: June 25, 2021
Genre(s)	Massively multiplayer online role-playing game
Mode(s)	Multiplayer

Evershade Online: The Hollow Crown is a 2021 expansion pack for the massively multiplayer online role-playing video game Evershade Online. Developed by Mythlane Studios and published by Monsteristic, it was released worldwide for Windows and macOS on June 25, 2021. It is the first major expansion for Evershade Online and continues the launch storyline surrounding the Evershade, the Hollow Crown, and the erased imperial history of Vaeloria.

The expansion raises the level cap from 50 to 60 and introduces Vel Ardan, a large new province centered on the returned capital region of the Hollow Crown empire. It adds the Necromancer discipline, two raids, five dungeons, new public Shade events, expanded player housing features, additional crafting tiers, alliance reputation campaigns, and the first version of the Crown Relic progression system. The expansion was designed to address several criticisms of the base game's endgame by adding clearer long-term goals, stronger raid progression, and more meaningful province-wide events.

Set after the events of the base game's launch storyline, The Hollow Crown follows the Lantern Order as it enters Vel Ardan, a province restored by the Evershade after being erased from recorded history. The story reveals that the Hollow Crown empire was not merely a lost tyranny or a forgotten golden age, but a civilization removed from memory after attempting to control Vaeloria's historical record. Players investigate returned cities, imperial battlefields, memory vaults, and the Crownless Gate while confronting the surviving generals of the empire and the mystery of the imprisoned emperor.

The Hollow Crown received generally favorable reviews from critics. Praise was directed toward Vel Ardan, the Necromancer discipline, raid design, music, environmental storytelling, and improvements to the endgame structure. Criticism focused on launch-day server queues, uneven faction reputation grinds, profession balance issues, and several overtuned dungeon encounters. The expansion was credited with improving the reputation of Evershade Online after its technically strained 2020 launch and helped stabilize the game's player base through 2021.

Gameplay

The Hollow Crown expands the systems of Evershade Online rather than replacing them. Players must own the base game to access the expansion content. The level cap is increased from 50 to 60, with the new progression taking place primarily in Vel Ardan. The province contains story chapters, public events, dungeons, crafting materials, reputation vendors, world bosses, and endgame activities tied to the returned empire.

The expansion adds the Necromancer discipline, a magic-focused combat path based on bone magic, spirit control, curse effects, and temporary summons. Necromancer can be built as a ranged damage discipline or a support-oriented discipline that weakens enemies and protects allies through spectral barriers. Mythlane Studios designed the discipline to fit the expansion's themes of memory, death, and historical erasure without making it a traditional villain class. Necromancers in the story are treated as scholars of what remains after memory dies.

Crown Relics are a new endgame progression system. Players collect relic fragments from dungeons, raids, world events, and reputation campaigns, then restore them through the Lantern Order. Restored relics provide account-wide cosmetic rewards, lore entries, minor utility bonuses, and access to additional Shade events. The system was added to give players long-term goals outside gear upgrades. Early versions were criticized for grind, leading Mythlane to reduce several fragment requirements in the first major patch.

The expansion adds five dungeons: Ashen Reliquary, Vault of the Unspoken, Black Laurel Keep, The Silent Menagerie, and The Emperor's Road. Each dungeon is available in Story, Veteran, and Mythic difficulties. Dungeon mechanics are more elaborate than in the base game, with stronger emphasis on memory-based hazards, shifting layouts, and enemies that change behavior when exposed to Shade light.

Two raids were included in the expansion's first content cycle. The Crownless Gate launched with the expansion and serves as the immediate continuation of the base game's final raid. The second raid, Throne of the Remembered, was released on September 17, 2021. Both raids support ten-player and twenty-player versions, with Normal and Ascendant difficulties. Ascendant difficulty includes additional boss phases, tighter coordination requirements, and unique cosmetic rewards.

Crafting receives a new tier of materials called Ardanic materials. These include memoryglass, pale iron, duskthread, crownroot, and echo amber. Professions gain new recipes for level 60 equipment, housing items, consumables, weapon illusions, and relic restoration components. Player housing is expanded with imperial furniture sets, memory lanterns, restored statues, and guild archive rooms.

Setting

The Hollow Crown is set primarily in Vel Ardan, a province restored by the Evershade after centuries of absence. Before its return, modern Vaelorian histories disagreed on whether Vel Ardan ever existed. Some Caldrin scholars described it as a myth used to justify royal law. Lethanar memory-keepers warned that its ruins should never return. Stoneborn records referred only to a sealed western road, while Qor Veyr prophecies described a crown without a head and a throne without a name.

Vel Ardan is geographically unstable because it has returned through the Evershade in fragments. Its landscapes include imperial roads that lead to places no longer present, battlefields where ghost armies repeat unfinished commands, cities with functioning markets but no living citizens, forests where statues remember conversations, and memory vaults that alter written records when opened. The province is visually defined by pale gold light, black stone, white ash, and architecture built around empty thrones, broken crowns, and public archives.

The expansion deepens the history of the Hollow Crown empire. The empire was once a dominant force in Vaeloria, but its legacy was removed from history by an event known as the Great Unremembering. Modern alliances inherited fragments of the empire's laws, roads, language, and magic without knowing their source. The expansion's central question is whether forgetting the Hollow Crown saved Vaeloria or merely delayed the return of something unfinished.

Story

Following the defeat at the Crownless Gate, the Lantern Order discovers that the Evershade has permanently restored Vel Ardan to the western edge of Vaeloria. The returned province contains living records of the Hollow Crown empire and surviving imperial commanders who believe no time has passed since the Great Unremembering. The player's character, already recognized as Shadebound, is sent into Vel Ardan to determine whether the empire is invading the present or simply returning to a world that erased it.

The early story chapters follow the player's arrival at Lanternfall, a forward settlement built by the Lantern Order and alliance envoys. The settlement becomes a tense meeting place for Caldrin officers, Lethanar memory-keepers, Stoneborn archivists, Auralis scholars, and Qor Veyr relic merchants. Each alliance wants access to Vel Ardan's records, but none agree on what should be preserved. The player helps stabilize the settlement, defend supply roads, and recover fragments from the Ashen Reliquary.

As the player explores Vel Ardan, they encounter the Remnant Court, the surviving command structure of the Hollow Crown. The Court is led by Regent Mael Arvoss, who insists that the empire did not fall but was unlawfully removed from reality. He claims that the modern alliances are living in stolen history. His generals attempt to reclaim cities, roads, and archives by forcing the Evershade to overwrite the present with imperial memory.

The Lantern Order eventually learns that the Hollow Crown emperor is imprisoned beyond the Crownless Gate. The Great Unremembering was not a natural disaster, but a desperate ritual performed by multiple ancient cultures to stop the emperor from binding all history to his will. The ritual erased the empire from memory, but it also damaged Vaeloria's historical record, causing later nations to inherit lies, gaps, and false origins.

The first raid, The Crownless Gate, prevents the Remnant Court from fully opening the emperor's prison. However, the victory reveals that the emperor's name still exists inside the memories of several living bloodlines. In the later raid Throne of the Remembered, players enter a restored imperial palace built from memories taken from every alliance. There, they confront Regent Mael Arvoss and sever the Court's control over Vel Ardan's restored archives.

The expansion ends with Vel Ardan remaining in the world. The Hollow Crown is defeated as an immediate military threat, but its records survive. The Lantern Order chooses not to erase the empire again, arguing that Vaeloria cannot heal by repeating the same act of forgetting. The decision causes political tension between the alliances, as each must now confront how much of its identity was built from a history it never knew it had lost.

Dungeons and raids

Dungeons

Dungeons introduced in The Hollow Crown

Dungeon	Location	Description
Ashen Reliquary	Lanternfall outskirts	A ruined archive where imperial records continue writing themselves in ash. Players fight memory-bound custodians and recover the first Crown Relic fragments.
Vault of the Unspoken	Lower Vel Ardan	A sealed memory vault containing names removed during the Great Unremembering. Boss encounters revolve around silenced spellcasting and shifting identity mechanics.
Black Laurel Keep	Northern Ardanic ridge	A military fortress commanded by Hollow Crown officers attempting to reclaim the province's roads. The dungeon focuses on siege engines and spectral infantry.
The Silent Menagerie	Imperial garden district	A preserved collection of extinct creatures restored by the Evershade. The dungeon mixes beast encounters with magical containment failures.
The Emperor's Road	Western causeway	A long imperial road that changes destination as players advance. The final boss is a road warden who attempts to redirect the party into forgotten history.

Raids

Raids introduced in The Hollow Crown

Raid	Release date	Description
The Crownless Gate	June 25, 2021	The launch raid sends players to the gate holding the Hollow Crown emperor outside recorded time. Players fight Remnant Court commanders, memory constructs, and the gate's ancient wardens before preventing the emperor's return.
Throne of the Remembered	September 17, 2021	The second raid takes place inside a restored imperial palace built from stolen memories. Players confront Regent Mael Arvoss and decide the fate of Vel Ardan's surviving archives.

Development

Development of The Hollow Crown began before the launch of Evershade Online. Mythlane Studios had planned the Hollow Crown empire as the base game's first major narrative continuation because the empire's return was already teased in the launch raid The Crownless Gate. However, the expansion's final shape changed significantly after player feedback from the base game's launch.

The base game was criticized for uneven endgame pacing and unclear long-term goals. Mythlane responded by making the expansion more structured. Vel Ardan was designed with a clearer progression path, more visible reputation rewards, and a stronger connection between world events, dungeons, raids, and relic collection. The Crown Relic system was created to give players reasons to continue playing after reaching level 60 without relying only on gear upgrades.

The Necromancer discipline had been prototyped during base-game development but was held back because the team felt it needed a stronger narrative context. The Hollow Crown storyline provided that context. Mythlane wanted Necromancer to feel tied to memory and remains rather than simple corpse-raising. Several early abilities that used permanent undead pets were removed because testers felt they pushed the discipline too close to a villain fantasy. The final discipline uses temporary summons, curses, spectral barriers, and ritual damage effects.

Vel Ardan's visual design was led by Sora Lin. The art team wanted the province to look ancient but not dead. Its cities are not ruins in the normal sense; they are returned places that remember being alive. This led to environments with intact buildings, empty streets, active fountains, and marketplaces where only echoes remain. The color palette was built around pale gold, black stone, white ash, and deep violet Shade effects.

The COVID-19 pandemic affected production throughout 2020 and early 2021. Most of the expansion was completed through remote work. Voice recording, raid testing, and localization were especially affected. Mythlane Studios used smaller internal raid groups for early encounter testing before expanding to remote external testers. Several side quests and one planned dungeon, Mirror Basilica, were cut to keep the expansion on schedule. Some assets from Mirror Basilica were later reused in Throne of the Remembered.

The expansion was announced on March 4, 2021, during a Monsteristic digital presentation. The reveal trailer showed Vel Ardan returning during an Evershade storm, with the Hollow Crown symbol appearing above the restored capital. A closed public test ran in May 2021, focusing on the Necromancer discipline, two dungeons, and the opening Vel Ardan questline. Feedback led to balance changes for Necromancer summons, reductions to early relic grind, and additional fast-travel points in Vel Ardan.

Release

The Hollow Crown was released worldwide on June 25, 2021. It was sold as a paid expansion and required ownership of the base game. The standard edition included expansion access, while the Imperial Edition included a mount, armor cosmetics, housing decorations, a digital soundtrack sampler, and early access to several Crown-themed weapon illusions. Players who pre-ordered received access to a short prologue quest titled "The Road Returns", which was later made available to all players.

The launch was smoother than the base game's 2020 release but still affected by high server demand. Several high-population worlds experienced login queues during the first weekend. The Ashen Reliquary dungeon was temporarily disabled on June 26 after a bug allowed players to skip directly to the final boss. Mythlane released a hotfix within 24 hours and compensated affected players with premium account time.

The first post-launch patch, version 2.0.1, reduced Crown Relic fragment requirements and adjusted several Necromancer abilities. Version 2.0.3, released in July 2021, improved performance in Lanternfall and fixed several story phasing bugs. The Throne of the Remembered raid was released on September 17, 2021, alongside new relic rewards, housing items, and alliance epilogue quests.

Reception

Reception

Aggregate scores

Aggregator	Score
GameRankings	83%
Metacritic	PC: 84/100

Review scores

Publication	Score
Destructoid	8.5/10
Electronic Gaming Monthly	8/10
Game Informer	8.25/10
GameSpot	8/10
IGN	8.5/10
PC Gamer (US)	84/100
Polygon	8/10

The Hollow Crown received generally favorable reviews from critics. Reviewers praised Vel Ardan as a strong expansion zone and considered it more focused than several base-game provinces. The province's visual identity, music, and environmental storytelling were frequently highlighted. Critics also praised the expansion for giving the Hollow Crown storyline clearer stakes and for making the Evershade feel more mysterious rather than simply hostile.

The Necromancer discipline was well received. Critics praised its theme and flexibility, especially its support path, which gave group compositions new options without replacing established healers. Some balance criticism appeared during the first month, as certain Necromancer damage builds performed too strongly in dungeons and PvP. Mythlane adjusted several abilities in early patches.

Raid reception was positive. The Crownless Gate was considered a strong launch raid, though some high-end players cleared Normal difficulty faster than expected. Throne of the Remembered received stronger praise for its atmosphere, boss mechanics, and story presentation. Ascendant difficulty was viewed as a meaningful challenge, particularly the final encounter with Regent Mael Arvoss.

Criticism focused on reputation grinding and relic progression. Some players felt Crown Relics required too many repeated public events at launch. Others criticized the Imperial Edition cosmetics for being more visually impressive than several in-game rewards. Performance issues in Lanternfall and Vel Ardan's capital district were also noted, especially on older machines.

Overall, reviewers considered The Hollow Crown a strong first expansion that addressed many of the base game's weaknesses while deepening its strongest feature: Vaeloria itself.

Sales and player response

Monsteristic announced that The Hollow Crown sold over 900,000 copies in its first month. The expansion caused a major increase in active subscriptions and premium memberships, with many players returning after leaving during the base game's early endgame lull. By the end of 2021, Monsteristic reported that Evershade Online had reached over 4.5 million registered accounts.

Player response was broadly positive. Vel Ardan became one of the game's most popular regions, and the Necromancer discipline quickly became one of the most-played disciplines in both PvE and PvP. Guild participation increased after the release of Throne of the Remembered, and the expansion's housing decorations became highly traded on regional markets.

Some community criticism centered on the relic grind and time-gated reputation campaigns. Mythlane reduced several requirements and added catch-up mechanics in later patches. The studio's faster response compared with the base game's launch improved its reputation among players.

Accolades

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Result
2021	MMO Community Awards	Best Expansion	Won
2021	Digital Game Awards	Best Ongoing Game Expansion	Nominated
2021	Art Direction Circle	Best Fantasy Environment	Won
2021	Interactive Sound Guild	Best Music for an Online Game	Nominated
2022	Live Game Awards	Best Post-Launch Turnaround	Nominated

Legacy

The Hollow Crown is widely regarded as the expansion that stabilized Evershade Online after its uneven launch period. It did not remove all of the base game's problems, but it gave players a clearer endgame, a stronger central storyline, and a more memorable high-level region. Vel Ardan became one of the defining locations of the game, frequently referenced in later expansions and seasonal content.

The expansion also established Mythlane Studios' preferred expansion structure: a major province, a new discipline or major progression system, multiple dungeons, staged raid releases, and a central narrative mystery tied to Vaeloria's lost history. Later expansions, especially Sea of Lanterns, followed this model while experimenting with different traversal and world-event systems.

Thematically, The Hollow Crown deepened the game's central idea that history in Vaeloria is unstable. The expansion complicated the base game's simple question of whether the Evershade was a threat. By choosing not to erase Vel Ardan again, the story positioned memory itself as morally difficult. Some histories are dangerous, but removing them can be worse.

Retrospectively, players often describe The Hollow Crown as the point where Evershade Online found its identity. The base game introduced Vaeloria, but the first expansion showed how the world could sustain long-form mystery, political tension, and high-end MMORPG progression.

External links

• Official website