Dragons from Istaria: Chronicles of the Gifted
Developer: Virtrium LLC | Platform: PC | Release Date: December 5, 2003 | Payment Model: Free2Play | Status: Still active
What kind of race is this? If you think of playable dragons in MMORPGs, you probably point to the Dracthyr from WoW or the Au Ra from Final Fantasy XIV … humanoid characters that differ significantly from the archetypal dragons.
Exactly here, Istaria goes a different way. When you create a dragon character, you start as a flightless young dragon, exploring the world on its four short, scaly legs. After a quest, you then transform into a flight-capable adult dragon – no other race in Istaria can fly. Finally, you can even ascend to the powerful ancient dragon.
As a big dragon, a normal house certainly isn’t enough space for you. Therefore, you may acquire a cozy dragon cave and optionally expand it with an underground labyrinth of chambers and special machines. It couldn’t be cooler.
What do I need to know about the game? The MMORPG oldie Istaria: Chronicles of the Gifted was released in December 2003 under the name Horizons: Empire of Istaria and is still playable at istaria.com. If you don’t want to play as a dragon, you can also choose more classic races like elves, dwarves, or humans.
The humanoids choose from numerous adventure classes and crafts, where they can switch between classes as often as they like and without disadvantages. The system behind the professions is considered very complex, with thousands of recipes that a crafting master may learn over time. Here are 11 more MMORPGs that paved the way for WoW and are still playable.
