Rumor says - Kalypso more or less admitted it in their forums - that TGC more or less did *nothing* on the developmernt … They did show pictures every now and then, but all of their energy (and probably money) was flowing into other directions … In one post someone at the Kalypso forums expressed that he or she was quite surprised (or even shocked) how little had been done on the game until they bought it …
The game takes place in the BLack Lands (which are right now shifting into "Shadow Lands" - that' the title of the current pen & paper background book) …
If you want *really* dark & griotty games set in Aventuria, then this game will be for you. It will be VERY dark, I suppose, because the Black Lands are just infested with Demon, Undead ones, Black Mages, false gods, violence and pressure everywhere … Life has become so dangerous there that people have begun going away from the so-called "Twelvegods" and have begun praying to new "false ods" which are in fact arch demons (which they don't know, because they simply call them for example "The Mother" and "The Father"), which is partly supported by the Heptarchs, the ones who reign there.
There even is a Borbard Church there (think of it like the Church of Le Chuck in Monkey Island 4 or so).
The Black Lands evolved after the … third ? Demon Battle that took place in Tobria, a perverted land since then. In this battle, half-god Borbarad, who had been an evil sorcerer in all of his past incarnations throughout the millennia (and one of this past incarnations with the same name, is mentioned by the long-living Elves in Drakensang 2), had been defeated and been kept from doing The Ultimate Evil, so to say.
The Splinters of his Demon Crown - where each splinter came from one arch demon - are nowadays held by one Heptarch. Of which a few are Undead ones, too.
Of these Heptarchs, I think 3 are now dead, and the Black Lands are nowadays mostly reigned by on powerful ex-general (or sort of) and master tactician from the Middlerealm, Helme Haffax. His rule is less strict and less brutal that the reigns of the other Heptarch (although his minions are sometimes still brutal and bloodthirsty), because some of his belief is still clinging to what he has learned about honour and such when he was "working for" and living in the Middlerealm.
The current state is that of an Ultimatum by him against the Empress of the Middlerealm, Rohaja, which will culminate in one big, huge battle in the next years to show who has the better armies …
Besides, there also is an point&click adventure game for Aventuria in the works.
("Satinav's Chains")
But don't expect to ever see such lighthearted games like the Drakensang games again. That will never be.
Or, as we say here in German language : That train is gone.