Strategy fans have spoken – Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era's fae faction "wasn't meeting expectations" and has been renamed

After passionate fans called out one of Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era's factions, developer Unfrozen has renamed it ahead of the Early Access launch.

"The name Sylvan is very heavily associated with the world of Ashan and with this imagery of like Wood Elves and Treants, and our faction wasn't exactly meeting those expectations for people," Unfrozen's community manager Bart Podress-Lezsek told GamesRadar+ in an interview.

"So we took a lot of feedback stating that they would like to see either a more woodland-themed focus in the faction, or maybe some other change. So we looked into that, we checked what we could do, and we just decided on a name change."

The team of strategy experts landed on the name Grove instead, which better represents "what the faction is meant to be – a wild forest of various fae creatures and elemental beings."

The change also sets Grove apart from Heroes 5's own Sylvan faction, where pixies, wood elves, and unicorns can be found. "In Might and Magic 8 [the area is] called simply Murmurwoods, and it is actually a bunch of [groves] with like druidic circles and so on. So the name just fit, and it matches the expectations better, too," Podress-Leszek adds to reinforce the team's decision.

Unfrozen has been vocal about its championing of player voice and how integral it has been throughout its development journey so far, having patched the hugely successful Steam Next Fest demo off the back of player feedback at the end of 2025. The team itself consists of die-hard Heroes fans who are every bit as passionate as those who'll be sitting down to play Olden Era's Early Access launch in just a few short weeks, and I'll be proud to count myself among them come April 30.

Check out our Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era Big Preview hub for more hands-on takes and interviews with the devs