The Obsidian Trial

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The Obsidian Trial

Location:	Midmaer

The Obsidian Trial is a special PvP arena in Novia, historically reached near the eastern entrance to Nightshade Pass. Its free-for-all rounds use a waiting area, a shrinking hazardous boundary, battleground-style respawning, match rewards, and an arena trader. Catnip's 2026 updates confirm that the Trial remains an active system rather than an abandoned launch-era experiment.

The article retains eight official 2018 screenshots because they document the arena's environment and early implementation. Their captions identify their dates; they should not be read as current-interface evidence.

Current confirmed behavior

Feature	Current evidence
Protected waiting area	The waiting cave blocks player damage in both directions. A 2026 correction stopped arena-side Ring of Fire and damage auras from harming players waiting outside the match.
Battleground death	Dying during a match now respawns the player under battleground rules; a 2026 fix corrected the previous behavior.
Victory threshold	A small match now explains that the main reward requires at least five combatants. A qualifying Medallion reward is announced in chat.
Trader	The Obsidian Trials Trader remains active. Seven trades that had failed to charge their listed prices were corrected; the colonel rank was documented at 500 Obsidian Medallions.
Round powerups	One of three temporary powerups can appear at one of five positions during a round. The first player to reach it receives it, the pickup is announced, powerups do not stack, and they end with the round.
Teleport protection	Generic teleport scrolls and a misconfigured treasure-map sewer scroll no longer place a player directly into a live Trial match.

Round powerups

The 2026 powerup system is shared with the team Castle Arena:

Powerup	Effect described by Catnip
Wrath	Improves weapon and magic damage
Swiftness	Improves movement
Vigor	Improves Health and Focus regeneration

These effects last only for the round and cannot be stacked. Their exact values and duration within a round are not stated in the current change ledger.

Match framework

The Trial launched across Release 55 and Release 56 as a free-for-all arena and test bed for PvP scenario systems. The original documentation described a waiting lobby, blocked grouping, no ransom drops, a poisonous boundary that reduced the playable area, death removing a combatant from the active round, match currencies, a merchant, and a dedicated scoreboard.

Release 56 material said sessions began every ten minutes with one minute of preparation, kills awarded Obsidian Skull Coins, and winning a match with at least five players awarded Obsidian Medallions. It also described a scoreboard showing the timer, player count, and winner.

The current Medallion threshold, waiting area, respawn rules, trader, and round structure still resemble that framework. The old schedule, grouping rule, per-kill currency, scoreboard fields, and exact boundary behavior are not repeated as current facts until verified.

Caps and scaling

The live page formerly stated that every skill was capped at 100. Release 89 instead described a temporary Adventure Level and skill cap of 100. Later releases also introduced gear scaling in the Trial.

Catnip's 2026 work says every scene that caps levels or skills now displays the values it actually enforces. The current entry warning or loading notice is therefore the preferred source for today's Adventure Level, adventuring-skill, production-skill, and gear rules.

Rewards and trader

Obsidian Skull Coins and Obsidian Medallions were introduced as the Trial's currencies. The current 2026 evidence directly confirms Medallions, the five-combatant reward threshold, and an operating trader. It also confirms at least one expensive title or rank trade—the colonel rank at 500 Medallions.

The former page's full reward description is not treated as current inventory. Consult the trader for the live selection and prices. The exact anti-farming rules, Skull Coin payout, victory calculation, and meaning of “five combatants” remain part of the verification request.

Gallery

All gallery images are official development or launch-era captures from June and July 2018.

• 
  Fire-lit interior and practice targets, June 2018
• 
  High overview of the arena floor, June 2018
• 
  Arena terrain with an Avatar and green effect, June 2018
• 
  Broken terrain across the arena, June 2018
• 
  Central rocky field under overhead light, June 2018
• 
  Arena ledges and green hazard haze, June 2018
• 
  Fire-lit lobby or waiting-area architecture, July 2018
• 
  Arena terrain beside the green boundary, July 2018

Development history

The Trial began as a place to develop and test systems intended for larger PvP scenarios, including controlled grouping, specialized death behavior, shrinking play space, match conditions, currencies, merchants, and rewards. That origin explains why its rules have changed over time. Launch-era plans and values belong in this history, while the current section should follow the live client and current Catnip documentation.

See also

• Player vs Player Combat
• Obsidian Skull Coin
• Obsidian Medallion
• Death and Resurrection
• Nightshade Pass