Revision 2

Overview

Ainle is the next major region in development for Vindictus: Defying Fate. It sits beyond the regions available during the June 2025 Alpha Test (the Northern Ruins and the Frozen Valley), and was confirmed in the team's January 2026 dev log as the focus of upcoming content updates.

Ainle is dominated by a dark, desolate atmosphere. In the present day of the game, it is a place of ruin and quiet menace. The contrast with its history is one of the region's narrative hooks.

Backstory

Before its fall, Ainle was a city larger than Colhen. It controlled relatively vast farmlands that grew wheat and vegetables, and its large, sweet pumpkins were especially famous, attracting merchants from across the region. Residents held an annual Pumpkin Day Festival every autumn.

That prosperous city was reduced to ruins overnight due to a mysterious incident. The specifics of what happened are part of the storyline players will uncover in-game. The aftermath left the city abandoned, its farmlands fallow, and the surrounding territory open for hostile factions to occupy.

Story Hooks

The Ainle storyline is set up to be explored alongside Ellis, the junior Royal Army cadet stationed in Colhen. Ellis takes on a more prominent role once the region opens, and the player works with him to piece together what happened to the city.

Additional backstory comes from Fenella, an NPC who was originally from Ainle. As the player progresses through the region, Fenella may share details about her past and the city as she remembered it before the disaster.

Hostile Factions

Two enemy factions are confirmed for Ainle:

Both are part of the broader Fomor enemy structure that drives the main conflict. As with the Gnolls in the Northern Ruins and the Kobolds in the Frozen Valley, the Goblins and Gremlins of Ainle operate with some degree of independence from the unified Fomor leadership.

Equipment notes from the January 2026 dev log: Goblins fielded in Ainle are armed with a range of weapons including giant axes that are easy to spot at a glance. Gremlins favor mechanical saws that reflect what the dev team described as exceptional engineering talents, making them as dangerous in melee as the Goblins despite their smaller frames. The reveal called out these baseline weapon profiles explicitly; named Elite and Boss variants are still being placed and tuned at the time of the dev log.

Development Status

As of the January 2026 dev log, the team is actively placing monsters throughout the hostile areas of Ainle, tuning their difficulty and attack patterns to provide an appropriate level of tension. More details on Elite enemies and faction bosses are scheduled to be shared via official channels as development continues.

Specific named bosses, enemy rosters, and exploration mechanics for Ainle have not been finalized in public communications. This article will be updated as confirmed details land.

Connection to the Main Story

Ainle's fall connects to the broader war between humans and the Fomors that drives the main narrative. The collapse of a city the size of Ainle is the kind of event that pushes the conflict into more dangerous territory, and uncovering what destroyed it is one of the threads the game's storyline is set up to follow.

The Kalbram Mercenaries headquartered in Colhen are likely to play a role in Ainle's storyline given their position as the regional defense force, though the precise nature of their involvement has not been publicly detailed.