The Ember Court

How the Court works

• It opens at level 20. The first time any hero of your realm reaches level 20, the Court notices you. You do not need to clear the campaign again.
• Each Pyre Tier past the first has a guardian. 12 gates, one for every tier from Pyre II to Pyre XIII, each held by one of the Crowned.
• Gather Crown Shards. They drop from Breach Wardens, chart bosses, Ember Chests and new Descent records, but only from content as deep as the gate you are after. A gate needs between 1 and 14 (78 in all, for every gate).
• Shards form a Court Sigil. When it is whole, open Vhoruun's Effigy and seek an Audience. The sigil never holds more than its gate needs: a shard that finds it whole cools into 3 Emberglass.
• Losing costs nothing. No gold and no sigil. Only a win spends the sigil and opens the tier.
• Earned tiers are kept. If you had a Pyre Tier before version 0.22, it is yours. You can win the Audiences below your tier for crowns and titles.
• At the top, the Court still sits. At Pyre XIII you can build a sigil for any gate and win it again for crowns, titles and loot.

The 12 gates

The last three columns say where shards for that gate can drop: chart bosses at or past that chart tier, and new Descent records at or past that depth.

Crown Shard odds

Pity. After 6 eligible drops in a row without a shard, the next one is certain. The Court card at the Effigy shows your count, and the odds sheet shows every number as it applies to you.

Shards never drop in the arena, The Fall, the Training Grounds, the Daily Descent, the Weekly Rite or an Audience itself.

The Audience

• Where. Seek it at Vhoruun's Effigy once your sigil is whole. The doors seal behind you and the Crowned is the only thing in the hall.
• How hard. The Crowned fights at its gate's monster level and never below Hard difficulty. The Circle of Ash and the White Fire start Breach-touched, with 2 to 3 extra boss affixes from the first blow.
• Recommended Power. The card shows a Recommended Power for each gate: what a hero who reached that gate at a steady pace usually has, from about 16.2k at the first gate to 1.29M for the White Effigy (a fighter's scale: classes whose Power reads lower, like wizards, see a lower mark). It is information, never a lock: you may seek an Audience at any Power.
• With a party. The leader's gate. A partner whose next gate is the same, with a whole sigil, opens it too. The holder must be alive in the hall when the Crowned falls.
• Hardcore. Hardcore: a death in an Audience is a death. Your realm keeps the sigil.
• Loot. A won Audience pays every player in the hall 6 Emberglass, an Emberforged item of legendary quality or better from the Crowned's home act and a 25% chance of a Deep unique. It also rolls Brand sigils and Crest XP like a Breach Warden.

The Crowned

Echoes of the five tyrants you already broke, re-crowned in the fire below. The Court Assembled is two bodies sharing one pool of health.

The Circle of Embers

The five tyrants you broke, crowned in the fire below. Win all of its gates for the title Courtier and the Ember Crown.

• Grukk Crowned

  First of the Ember Court · guards Pyre II · Crown Shards 1

  The goblin king, crowned in the fire you threw him in.

  Phases: Bloodrage, Last Stand, Crown of the Warcamp

  "Grukk remembers you. Grukk has a crown now." On defeat: "The crown rolls off. It was always too big for him."

• Morvaine Ascendant

  Choirmistress of the Court · guards Pyre III · Crown Shards 2

  The Undying Choir sings for her again, one octave lower.

  Phases: Grave Pact, Undying Legion, Ascension

  "You ended my song. Sit. Hear the new one." On defeat: "The choir falls silent, all at once."

• Gutrot Unbound

  Glutton of the Court · guards Pyre IV · Crown Shards 3

  The mire let him go. Nothing else will.

  Phases: Bilious Fury, Wallow's Wrath, Unbound Hunger

  "Old Gutrot is hungry, little hero. Old Gutrot is always hungry." On defeat: "The swamp takes him back, crown and all."

• Seraphel Risen

  Herald of the Court · guards Pyre V · Crown Shards 3

  The broken radiance, mended with embers.

  Phases: Broken Halo, Wrath Unbound, Risen

  "I fell once. The Court taught me to rise." On defeat: "Her light goes out like a candle in a cellar."

• Vhoruun Enthroned

  Lord of the Ember Court · guards Pyre VI · Crown Shards 4

  You broke the Tyrant. His court sat him back on the throne.

  Phases: Ember Surge, Tyrant's Wrath, Enthroned

  "A court outlives its king. Kneel, or be the reason it needs a new one." On defeat: "The throne is empty. For now."

The Circle of Ash

The same five, re-crowned deeper down: a fourth phase and Breach-touched from the first blow. Win all of its gates for the title Ash-Courtier and the Ash Crown.

• Grukk, the Ash-King

  Circle of Ash · guards Pyre VII · Crown Shards 5

  Burned down to the bone and crowned again in grey.

  Phases: Ash Drums, Last Stand, Crown of the Warcamp, The Ash-King's Due

  "Ash-King Grukk. Say it right." On defeat: "Ash, all the way down."

• Morvaine of the Last Pyre

  Circle of Ash · guards Pyre VIII · Crown Shards 6

  She sings at the last fire, the one that never goes out.

  Phases: Grave Pact, Undying Legion, The Last Pyre, Final Verse

  "Every song ends on the Last Pyre. Yours too." On defeat: "The last note burns away."

• Gutrot, the Drowned Crown

  Circle of Ash · guards Pyre IX · Crown Shards 8

  He sank with his crown on. He came up wearing the mire.

  Phases: Bilious Fury, Wallow's Wrath, The Drowning, Drowned Crown

  "Down here, everything drowns. Even you." On defeat: "He sinks. The bubbles stop."

• Seraphel Unwinged

  Circle of Ash · guards Pyre X · Crown Shards 9

  The Court took her wings and gave her cinders instead.

  Phases: Broken Halo, Cinder Wings, Wrath Unbound, Unwinged

  "No wings. No mercy. No need of either." On defeat: "Cinders drift down where her wings were."

• Vhoruun Ashen

  Circle of Ash · guards Pyre XI · Crown Shards 11

  The Tyrant again, grey as a dead hearth and twice as hot.

  Phases: Ember Surge, Ash Storm, Tyrant's Wrath, Cold Hearth

  "I have died for you twice. Die for me once." On defeat: "The hearth is cold. Something under it is not."

The White Fire

The Court Assembled, then the Effigy itself. Win all of its gates for the title Unthroned and the White Crown.

• The Court Assembled

  The White Fire · guards Pyre XII · Crown Shards 12

  The Ash-King and the Last Pyre, side by side, sharing one life.

  Phases: Last Stand, Crown of the Warcamp, The Ash-King's Due; with Morvaine of the Last Pyre: Undying Legion, The Last Pyre, Final Verse

  "The Court sits together tonight." On defeat: "The Court rises, and does not sit again."

• The White Effigy

  The White Fire · guards Pyre XIII · Crown Shards 14

  The statue in Hearthold, awake at last. It was the Court's door all along.

  Phases: The Stone Cracks, Every Crown, White Fire, The Court Kneels, Welcome Home

  "Welcome home." On defeat: "The Effigy cools, and for the first time, it is only stone."

Titles and the leaderboard

• Courtier: win every gate of The Circle of Embers.
• Ash-Courtier: win every gate of The Circle of Ash.
• Unthroned: win every gate of The White Fire.
• The Court leaderboard ranks the highest gate you have won, checked by the server against your Audience receipts. See the leaderboards.

From the campaign rule

• Before version 0.22, a Pyre Tier opened when you cleared the campaign again on your highest tier, and a deep Descent record could open a second tier with the same clear. That rule is gone.
• Every tier you had earned stays yours. Your next gate is the Crowned that guards the tier after your highest.
• Clearing the campaign again, or running the Descent, no longer opens tiers. Descent records pay Crown Shards instead.
• What a tier changes in the game (foes, loot, item levels) is the same as before: see Pyre Tiers.