Eador: Masters of the Broken World Special Shards Detailed

There's a new article up on Snowbird Games' official website that discusses the "shortcomings" that exist in Eador: Genesis in regard to the shard system, and what the studio is going to do in Eador: Masters of the Broken World in order to flesh the system out and give it much more depth. Five of eleven "special" shards that will exist in the strategy/RPG:
Crystal world. Gold income is halved but gem income is doubled.

Obviously mages get a big advantage on this shard. You won't be able to lead a large army and losing units in battles is really going to hit your budget.

Guarded world. The players' lands are separated by mountain ranges. Narrow passes connecting the enemies are protected by strong guards.

This prevents any attempts at rushing with Warrior hero to conquer enemy's capital.

World of fear. All tales and legends on this shard tell of unspeakable horrors and torments haunting the mortals throughout their lives. None can say whether these tales are true, but the life of locals is ever tainted with fear.

Morale drop due to wounds and deaths of allies is increased, the units will panic more often in battle. Population mood is lowered, but unrest growth rate is also decreased.

World of knowledge. Higher population. Nearly all provinces are explored to 80-100% so there's no need for a player to continue exploring. There are many free settlements and princes' lands, almost no barbarians. Beginning with circle 2, guards of neutral provinces are stronger than usual. Many provinces already feature buildings (mills, mines etc).

World of faith. The people dwelling on this shard are fanatical worshippers of the Lord of Light. They consider all other Masters to be demons trying to lead them astray from the one true path.

Population mood in all human provinces is lowered by 2. Many abandoned temples and lands ruled by the inquisition. If the campaign player has selected the Lord of Light as an official faith on his shard (campaign event 197, (Your world is sufficiently large, and the human clergymen have long been talking about the One Religion.)), mood penalty is lessened by 1.