of the jungle. Finally, the 'Fyros' are a tough and obstinate race of desert dwellers. They have mastered fire technology, which they like to build into their weapons and architecture. Interacting benevolently with all four homin cultures, but hostile towards each other, were two additional and far more advanced races: the magical Kami and the technological Karavan. The Kami are depicted as elusive, chaotic, playful, and highly protective of Atys, while the Karavan are more secretive and have never been shown outside their environmental suits or far from their machinery. The Matis, and to a lesser extent, the Tryker, cultures tend to ally with the Karavan, while the Zoraï and Fyros tend to side with the Kami. In the game year 2481, the homin races were decimated when the hostile, insect-like Kitins were accidentally released from their home deep within Atys's root system. Surviving refugees from all four homin cultures began working together in 2485 to rebuild a single, mixed society in relatively remote areas. Soon came the added threat of the "Goo," a spreading infestation that renders areas uninhabitable and drives wildlife mad with rage. At release, the game year was 2525. New characters come from one of the four homin races, and start out as refugees, they are scattered survivors of the kitin invasion who have somehow managed to make it to an area called the Ruins of Silan. This area, which is not connected to the rest of Atys, contains a variety of animals, as well as various traders and trainers, and representatives for the cultures in the game. There are several NPCs providing missions, including four whose missions act as tutorials in the four skill areas (fighting, magic, crafting, and foraging). When a character decides to, he or she may choose to travel (teleportation) to the main world (called the mainland), and must choose one of the four homin capitals to travel to. This decision can not be reversed, and although it is possible to travel between capitals, the journey is long and dangerous, even for experienced characters. History Development and release The independent French game development studio Nevrax began development of Ryzom, and the underlying game engine NeL (for Nevrax Library), around 2000. In October 2002 Nevrax made the NeL engine open source as free software using the GPL. The game launched in September 2004 with the name The Saga of Ryzom and received little