Players will be thrust into the dark, war-torn world of Cairn where a once proud empire has been brought to ruin and the human race driven to the edge of extinction. Cairn has become ground zero of an eternal war between two otherworldly powers, one seeking to use human bodies as a resource, the other intent upon destroying the human race before that can happen. This cataclysmic war has not only decimated human civilization but is warping the very fabric of reality and, in its wake, giving life to new horrors.

For humankind it is the dawn of a grim new age where iron has replaced gold as currency and the importance of salt as a weapon makes it far too valuable to waste on food. Small enclaves of human survivors exist scattered throughout the world, holed up in hidden refuges. These humans have quietly watched the warring invaders destroy one another and have become wise to the strengths and vulnerabilities of their otherworldly foes. A few survivors have begun to exhibit strange new abilities after surviving possession or exposure to the warp. These unnatural powers are feared by some but give many new hope of launching a resistance to fight the "outsiders" and reclaim what's left of their world.

The Illusion System is Grim Dawn's version of transmogrification, a highly requested feature coming to the game later this year with the expansion.

Now, what does an Illusionist do exactly? Why, for a modest fee, the Illusionist will transform your gear to look like any other item of the same category! A little coating of illusionist dust will do just the trick.

Using proprietary Illusionist mind-meld technology, any item you discover will automatically have its appearance stored. In fact, the first time you launch the expansion, every item you have in your inventory and stash will be automatically added to start your collection. That’s a lot of different looks!

To facilitate your soon to be growing collection, we have created a brand new UI that stores and previews all of your appearances, accessible at any Illusionist.

As soon as you launch the expansion, new visitors to Devil’s Crossing and Fort Ikon will become available to you immediately. You will also encounter other Illusionists in expansion areas.

Their services are not restricted by level, though item level requirements are still respected. What this means is that a level 1 character may not use the appearance of a level 75 Legendary. Common quality items (exception: medals) do not have level requirements, so you can start using those right away!

Illusionists do not work for free, but for a meager sum of Iron Bits, they will happily perform their services. The cost to apply an illusion scales with the character’s level. Restoring an item to its original appearance is always free.

Weapons are restricted to the same animation category. What this means is that you cannot make a one-handed sword look like a two-handed axe, nor can you make a gun look like a mace or a shield look like a tome.

There are no restrictions on armor. If you want your tanky heavily armored soldier to wear caster robes, go nuts!

Whenever an item has an Illusion applied, it becomes Untradeable (it can still be placed in the Transfer Stash, but it cannot be given to other players). Restoring an item to its original appearance removes this restriction.

All of your characters share the same collection. If one character finds a new appearance, all of your characters automatically gain access to it.

This exciting new feature opens up huge opportunities to customize your character’s look, and we can’t wait to see what the community comes up with.