Thea: The Awakening, Zorya 1, Part 1

I have started another game of Thea: The Awakening. After being bored with the lack of things to do with a Small World Size in the last game, I thought I would try playing with a Normal World Size. Unfortunately, the game crashed when I tried to start a new game due to the shortage of memory on my old computer. It appeared that I was stuck with Small for the World Size if I wanted to play.

I decided to play with Zorya. Being confined to a Small World Size meant that the game would progress quickly with less travel time to quest locations. Also, resource gathering spots would appear closer to the village. Thus, I decided to attempt a short game and aimed just to complete both main quests. For this game, my version of Thea: The Awakening was 0.20.2010.0.

The bonuses of Zorya, version 0.20.2010.0.

Since Zorya looked like a warrior, I decided to go with a Village Focus of Warriors.

I was stuck with a Small World Size due to hardware restrictions. I lowered Enemy Aggressiveness to Normal to reduce attacks at night since I was playing with only Zorya's first bonus. I set Starting Villagers to 10 so I had more people at the start. This setting also made it easier for the village to attract people (and weird creatures). I kept Group Limits at 16 as I was uncertain if 12 was sufficient for the Giants Return main quest. I went with my usual settings for everything else, and I definitely turned Blood Bath off in the event someone took heavy damage in a Fight.

Blood Bath will seriously affect a character's chance of survival.

I took a look at my starting assets and resources. I had 4 Children, which meant four potential villagers in the future. There was too little Granite to be of use but Gold was good. I also noticed that there were new character art assets.

Resources available at the start.

After checking the area around the village, I noted a lack of good resources. On the plus side, there was Coal nearby.

Resources around the village.

I did not skip the Tutorial so I had something to do at the start. At one stage of the tutorial, Theodore the tutorial demon sent me to a Hohlick, referring to the latter with a masculine pronoun.

Theodore called the Hohlick a 'him'.

As it turned out, the Hohlick was female.

Can you spot the spelling mistake?

After that, Theodore referred to the Hohlick as a 'woman'. I guess he realized his mistake in gender-reference while my expedition was away.

Theodore gave no hint of his earlier mistake.

A Dwarf visited my village. That was a usual Event early in the game where I would be shown the location of a mine. There was a chance that the Dwarf would join the village. That time, he did.

A Dwarf Smith joined the village.

The Dwarf had a high Level and impressive Strength. He had good stats for a character this early in the game.

The Dwarf was level 10 with 30 Strength!

Later, I unlocked Elven wood with research and instantly received some in the village. I immediately used the wood and my Gold to craft something useful before a certain Gold-thieving Dragon came to visit.

Making use of the Gold before it was stolen.

An old goblin visited my village. In return for a place to rest, he blessed a couple of villagers. This early in the game, the attributes gained were not the useful type. However, having any points in Magic makes it more likely to gain more on level up, a rule which is useful early in the game when it takes less experience to level up.

An old goblin visited at night.

My main expedition came across Goblin peddlers, who had hardly anything to trade. Curious to know if the blessing the Goblins offered would be permanent, I traded some resources for the blessing.

The Goblin peddlers had hardly anything to trade.

At the cost of resources, including two Elven wood (which were precious this early in the game), I discovered that the blessing was temporary. Temporary blessing was not very useful early in the game since my expedition would be spending a lot of time gathering material instead of actively seeking challenges.

The blessing of the Goblin's shaman was temporary.

My main expedition managed to gather enough Elven wood for the village to construct a Smithy. Disappointingly, 50 Elven wood only provided Attract Elven of 1. Maybe I would get lucky despite that and attract an Elf.

Building a Smithy of Elven wood.

A dream from Zorya marked the beginning of her Divine Quest. From the text, I had the feeling that Zorya had multiple personality disorder.

What's with that lack of enthusiasm in the reply?

I checked the map and found that the first location for the Divine Quest had appeared near the south-east corner. Since this was on a Small World Size map, it was not very far.

I attempted Theodor's Tutorial dungeon. Normally, I would need an expedition capable of handling 3-Skull Challenges. However, I was fortunate to have some Magic from a permanent attribute and from temporary blessings. Taking the left path of the dungeon led me to a 2-Skull Hex Challenge. Completing the Challenge awarded me with some Mithrill and more Bless of Magic.

The left path in the Tutorial Dungeon led to a Hex challenge.

When I chose the left path again in the dungeon, I met with the Hex Challenge a second time. Easily completing this Challenge with my active blessings, the reward was some Obsidian and Bless of Magic again.

I had the Hex challenge a second time.

Back at the village, a child fell gravely ill. Unlike the time it happened in another game, my village did not have enough Magic. Thus, I ended up with a Giant Crow instead.

A Child fell ill.

The Giant Crow was not very strong. Its best feature was its Stealth of 8, which would be useful since my expedition lacked members with that attribute. Interestingly, the crow could also equip an Artifact.

The Giant Crow had Stealth.

I unlocked Scaled leather and discovered that Dragon leather had appeared close to the village. That had a good chance of happening since I was on a Small World Size. I just needed the Advancement Points to unlock the resource and the recipes that could use the resource. I also needed villagers with high Gathering attributes to collect the resource.

Dragon leather appeared close to the village.

A random Zorya-related Event occurred where there was a falling star. The Event gave Bless of Health to a few members of my expedition and revealed a giant spider nest.

A star fell to guide the expedition.

Defeating the giant spider nest gave some resources, Bless of Dexterity to the whole expedition and permanent Dexterity to one lucky member.

The game thus far had been slow. I was spending a lot of time harvesting resources since my expedition lacked the strength to venture far. I had been gathering good villagers. The 4 Children at the start were useful as they each grew into an adult (except the one who turned into a crow). The Dwarf Smith was very helpful. I had him crafting in the village so I could not make use of his high Strength in an expedition. However, I might change his assignment since I was running out of resources to craft.

Thea: The Awakening, Zorya 1, Part 2
Thea: The Awakening, Zorya 1, Part 3
Thea: The Awakening, Zorya 1, Part 4
Thea: The Awakening, Zorya 1, Final Part

Thea: The Awakening, Contents