Question Regarding Launch Areas of Play

Hi!

I've been tracking Songs of Avaria for a loooong while now and I am so happy to hear all the great things I have already. I know it's a 'ready when it's ready' process and I don't care to bug for dates and such. What I am curious about is what 'areas of play' are intended to be open for the hardlaunch, or perhaps beta, etcetera, for the purposes of character planning.

For example: while I love the idea of multiple characters, I tend to enjoy just playing one for personal immersion preferences. After presuming St. Loomis would likely be the secondary area of play for various contextual reasons, and falling in love with the themes and lore there, I got particularly attached to the idea of that being where I'd start my SoA experience. Though if Omrazir will be the focus for the forseeable future, I would certainly pursue a more suitable character for the time being.

So, was just curious if there are any clarifications to be made about the big-stuff intended to be available first. I know the game has a TON of races/places/factions and so on, and not all of them will be out of the oven soon (or will simply exist virtually for set dressing), so I wouldn't expect a list of like 'yes, this faction/race is first, second' and so on. Was more-so curious about the main focus points, if that makes sense. Thanks!

The starting point will be on the ship for now, and as the alpha storyline sets out from Omrazir and we want to keep the initial focus non-Eurocentric, an alpha-phase character would need to originate in the Sirdabi Caliphate and be from among one of the usual heritages for that area.I don't want to spoil too much regarding exactly what will open up exactly when in the alpha phase, because that also depends partially on player-character choices through the storyline.

However, by beta we plan to have these zones fully open: Omrazir and St Loomis -- as well as some small villages and half-open zones (Marpagna, for instance, is undergoing a plot that has the dockyard district sealed from the rest of the city) that are already built-out along the Adelantean coast. We don't have an exact timeline of when beta will be, but we do have a list of standards (like unit test code coverage, to prevent bugs) that we hope to reach for beta phase.

Thank you for this clarification!