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Shazhou City is the messenger's home city in Blood Message and the setting of the first extended gameplay shown for the game. It is the Tang-era seat of Sha Prefecture, in the western reaches of the Hexi Corridor, in the area around modern Dunhuang. The playable opening revealed at Summer Game Fest 2026 takes place inside the city as the Shazhou Uprising breaks out around it.
Quick Facts
Role | Opening playable location; the messenger’s home city |
Region | Sha Prefecture, western Hexi Corridor |
Modern equivalent | Dunhuang area, Gansu Province |
Era | Late Tang Dynasty, 848 AD |
First shown | Summer Game Fest 2026 gameplay walkthrough |
Connected event | The Shazhou Uprising |
The City in the Walkthrough
The official Summer Game Fest 2026 gameplay walkthrough, an early-game build, opens with The Messenger inside Shazhou City while enemy forces are closing in. The studio described the level as a large-scale environment built on a historically inspired city, and it is the first time the game was shown running at length rather than in a cinematic. The situation in the demo is an escape: the messenger is being pursued and encircled, and his immediate goal is to reach The Son and flee with him while events unfold across the city.
The walkthrough used the city to show how the game's systems fit together. Combat, covered in Combat and Stealth, and optional stealth, including hiding in tall grass and slipping past patrols, both appear inside the same space, with the messenger free to fight through a checkpoint or move around it. The city is the starting point of the long journey east toward Chang'an that frames the campaign.
Shazhou as a Historical Place
The real Shazhou (Sha Prefecture) sat at the western end of the Hexi Corridor and corresponds to the oasis area around modern Dunhuang, near the Mogao Caves. It had been held by the Tibetan Empire for roughly six decades when, in 848 AD, Zhang Yichao organized the revolt that retook it for the Tang Empire. This history is the cultural backdrop the developers drew on; the in-game city is a dramatized version of that place, not a documentary reconstruction, and details of how it is laid out for play come from the game's own footage rather than from the historical record.
Unconfirmed Details
Much about Shazhou City as a playable space has not been detailed beyond the single walkthrough:
How large the explorable area is, and whether it is an open district or a linear sequence of streets and buildings.
Which named characters, if any, the messenger meets inside the city.
Whether the player returns to Shazhou City later in the campaign or leaves it for good after the opening.
How the escape resolves, and the exact sequence of events that pushes the messenger onto the road east.
Any side activities, collectibles, or optional routes within the city.