Welcome to our Easter newsletter, the second to last newsletter before the E3 games expo in Los Angeles. Read on for some exciting new news and an interesting new addition to the game!

Introducing the Shadow and Dragonblood races!
When Fortitude was first populated by the humans none but they and the monsters walked the lands and it was only the humans could be said to have mastery of it. This was the case for many hundreds of years and so it would have continued had it not been for the emergence of two new peoples, the Shadow and the Dragonblood. Quite how they came to be no one is exactly sure, all that is known is that around 500 years ago people started to notice changes amongst some humans and within two generations whole new races were created.

The Shadow
It is generally accepted that the Shadow were the first to emerge of the two new races. How and why is the subject of much debate, except amongst the Shadow themselves who are tight lipped on the matter. Physically, they are smaller than humans or the Dragonblood, not as strong as the fierce Dragonblood and not as magically inclined as humans. The ash color of their skin and wild tattoos mark them out as different, a difference not everyone can accept. They are widely mistrusted in many empires as their natural inclination sees them excel at acts of subterfuge and deception.

Players who choose the Shadow race will be able to enjoy a world of illusion, concealment and dirty tricks. Shadow players can also forget about having to find the best armour. The Shadow believe armour is to heavy and noisy and prefer the protective magical tattoos with which they adorn their bodies.

The Dragonblood
The Dragonblood are a fierce race who claim to be the descendents of a great warrior who defeated enemies of the 5th Empire and were rewarded with the infusion of blood from their dragon. Whether this story is true or not, what is important is that you don't debate this matter in front of the Dragonblood! They stand out as they are generally larger than humans and undoubtedly stronger. Their skin is green, which they attribute to their supposed parentage and they have tended to be enemies of the Shadow for reasons few are party to.

Players who chose the Dragonblood will find they excel in melee combat and those that try to stand up to them will not last long.

Why have we added races?
In thinking about our world we decided the game would be more interesting and exciting the more options players had. We felt that while we liked our human characters and character options there just wasn't going to be enough to distinguish players from each other. Also, we wanted to strongly distinguish the types of characters people would play by the look of their character. For these reasons we decided to add our two new races. More races also give us more storytelling options and more chances for players to roleplay. We look forward to bringing you the myths and beliefs of our two new races.

Gadsolme writes to us on the Shadow and the Dragonblood "Among the many oral histories that permeate the peoples and lands of Fortitude there are some that carry with them a grain of truth. It is well known that the Dragonblood and the Shadow are not natural human races; that they appeared some five hundred or so years ago around the time of the great Empire Crusades..."  more

Game theme survey
As Codemasters looks to the future we're always interested in what other games we might develop. For this reason we have created an MMORPG game survey which we would love you to fill out. Let us know what kind of MMORPG you would like to see made!

Dev Chat
Stratics will host House of Commons Dev Chats on Monday the 28th at 8pm GMT (9pm UK time) and 8pm PST on irc.stratics.com #de-devchat. This will be a great chance to ask any questions about the new races or bring up any other queries you might have.

Hot news
- Talrias.net has a great interview with members of the Dragon Empires community where they talk a little about their involvement, likes and dislikes.
- Red Lions clan has released a flash movie telling the first part in their clan history. Follow the link to read about it.
- Rob Adams is interviewed on lore at Talrias.net
- Calistas writes a pre-E3 dev diary .
- RPG Vault Q&A 22 on game lore has been posted.

Fan site of the week
Dragon Empires Spain - webcindario.com/dragonempires/
Brando has been hard at work and created a 3D fansite for Dragon Empires. It is a lot of fun to explore his 3D village and you can click on items to be taken to new web pages and information. Brando tells me the village is called Trilos and is the home to people seeking to explore Fortitude. If you're looking for a little Dragon Empires inspired roleplay or want to try something different go check it out and have a walk around!

Forum post of the week
Game Survey -http://community.codemasters.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=17310 on the rules of good player vs player combat. It's worth a read for the thoughts about other games and how to improve on them. We'll be checking it out for sure!