MMORPG.com Aion Correspondent Sebastien Klier writes this look at the Abyss territory in NCsoft's upcomng MMORPG, Aion.

In Aion, after the events that led to the destruction of the Tower of Eternity, the world of Atreia was torn apart and is now divided into Asmodae and Elysea. Between those two parts lies the Abyss, a shattered wasteland containing the remains of the Tower of Eternity, now home to the Balaur, Aion's hostile NPC faction.

The Abyss is one of the game's core features and represents the main Realm-vs-Realm zone. It is accessible for players of at least level 25 and requires a quest chain to be completed before you can enter. The chain is started automatically as soon as you reach level 25 and will take you to your faction's capital city, where you have to take on a few lore-related puzzles and can then choose one out of three different tasks to complete, before you get to take a final test that requires you to prove your flying abilities. Once you gain access, you can enter the Abyss through one of the portals located at your faction's major quest hubs (for example above Verteron Citadel or Altgard Fortress) - the portals are only reachable via flight and will take you to the main fortress of either the Elyos or the Asmodians in the Lower Abyss.

Read A Glimpse Into The Abyss

Ships are bosses? That's something I didn't know. Anyway, this is helpful for newer players or people who don't know the game. From what I've heard there are many options in the Abyss, while you could siege you could also just go around be an annoyance and many end up comparing it to old-style WoW world PVP (for lack of a better term/phrase).

Personally didn't bother much with the last CBT (or the second last) so wouldn't know the experience people had within the Abyss on those CBTs, but from what  I've heard level 30 PVP(VE) wasn't all that great (within the Abyss, etc).

Sounds like another reason for me to go with spiritmaster when the game goes live.

With sieges taking place only on land. Sounds like my pets will come in handy. Not many people are playing spiritmaster because the pets don't fly, but I don't find that I fly all that often in the game anyway.

It's great to see a shot of one of the ships. Aion has done a great job of taking the best ideas from so many games and implementing them into one game. Looks like we have a little sci fi thrown in with our fantasy this time.

CBT6 is now over, now we have open beta coming up. I'm ready to play for real and looks like the game is as well. :)

Originally posted by Ugottawantit

Not many people are playing spiritmaster because the pets don't fly, but I don't find that I fly all that often in the game anyway.

As far as the Abyss is concerned I didn't explore it much.  I encountered a couple of ~lvl 30s camping the exit from the base, but there were very few people who went into the abyss base to begin with.  They were probably quite bored..... darn near got that sorcerer though. :D

As far as the spiritmaster class is concerned...

edit - not the right place for that vent, I suppose. I'll put it into a blog post.

Looks really fun. I've played WoW for a long time and after reading about the abyss it sounds similar to WoW's first expansion, "The Burning Crusade," with the torn up landscape and PvPvE and all. However it is a new experience and gameplay seems to be much different. I just made my account at the end of CBT 6 so i didnt get to play at all, but im really looking forward to the open beta in a few weeks =D

Dreadgion goes down (GM's)

www.youtube.com/watch