Did you ever get relocated Thendash?
They added over 120 new creatures to spawn in biomes they logically would (of which only about 30 types of creature were revealed with hints that there are many rare spawns), and are being suitably dodgy about whether or not dragons appear as a rare spawn. (It's quite possible that Wooga spotted the first and second spawn of dragons to be remarked upon in the Illyriad forums, or he could have been joking?)
Also, if you want to help test the new UI and suggest features to add to it that you would have liked as a (former?) Illyriad player, now would be a good time.
EDIT: A rundown of the situation:
Currently extremely peaceful and in a welcome stage of building (at least for myself, as I had been constantly building armies for various defensive purposes on the mainland.)
Devs have acknowledged a maritime patch sometime in the future, so the Island was a good spot. We have one neighbor just off our Southern Coast from a very large alliance. He has settled on a one square island with one city with the intent to turn it into a trading post to relay our goods north to his alliance. I'm currently building cities around blacksmith sov squares in order to supply StA and ARR and export what should be a hefty surplus.
ARR is doing quite well and I have my second account in it as ambassador. ARR has an alliance merchant account now. liberty6 and kung fu operate it. liberty6 sits and it's kung fu's second account. I've donated a few million gold to that cause, so hopefully it will work out. Other than that I've been spreading some wealth around to smaller players who could use it.
Speaking of donating gold and resources, if anyone needs anything to continue enjoying Illyriad I can seriously spare it. I've been making tons of cash in the market, and since the market is monetized and caravans can carry any amount of gold I can ship you a huge shipment of gold for what you would like to use and you can place orders for what your stockpile can hold. Even a tiny un-upgraded caravan can carry as much gold as required to buy stuff from other players, and it's a very easy to use trade interface.
EDIT: Oooh, one last thing, these changes are on the herald:
Construction Time Changes
We've reduced the time it take to build lower level buildings (of all types). This change only affects the time taken, not the cost to build. More details
hereEDIT2: As for political situation on the mainland,
there are the usual small wars that allow my wares to be sold constantly. This is in addition to what attrition the new species will cause during the Global War on Animals. During the first Great Tournament I was doing insane business. I have it on good word the last flag for the major alliances turned into a real meatgrinder. The whole time I was building my cities. I was supplying the contenders and generally sacrificing sov squares I could have used to build armies for the tournament to earn commander experience in exchange for the opportunity to take advantage of the nearly assured peace during that time frame. I'm not sure if the rest of StA had similar schemes, since we had acknowledged at the start that we likely wouldn't be able to hope for total victory and the best thing to do would at best be to take a square for a day and fortify it.
EDIT3: I'm beginning to suspect we will be at peace for a long time, unless we are the instigators or participate in an outside war. We are brother alliances with the nearest, and the nearest alliance is to our north. {It happens to be H? (Harmless?) and happens to be the largest in Illyriad, and also seems to not be tyrannical, which is all that it takes to earn my support if you are larger than me at this point in Illyriad}
EDIT4: If you are a former Illyriad player and you read this far, thanks and good to talk to you again. If you don't mind your cities being captured by the new people once I help them get their barracks to 20 send me a message. I'll also ask around and see if anyone would like a second account that's already been started if that is a route you'd like to take. Feel free to change PW's first of course.
Also, MBP, would it be ok if Laendis or Folly took that route if you are sure you won't return?
One last reminder that the devs allow two accounts in this game. You might as well start them both at the same time if you sign up, if you enjoy the game it would be worth it, I promise. The rules are basically that you aren't supposed to trade between two accounts that you control, but this is very minor and is not really an issue if you follow it since there are a whole bunch of other people to trade with. Military support and being in the same alliance is fine.