Istaria: Chronicles of the Gifted is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed by American studio Virtrium and originally released by Artifact Entertainment as Horizons: Empire of Istaria. Tulga Games LLC acquired the game and all related assets on January 25 2005 and sold them to EI Interactive in July 2006. On July 18 2007 Virtrium LLC (Vi) acquired the rights to the game. Set in a sword and sorcery world the game allows players to be adventurers crafters or both and features a struggle between the "living races" (including the players) and "the Withered Aegis" an army of the undead seeking to destroy all life.