How to Play

Accounts & moderation

Every character on your roster shares the same login email (magic link). If operators suspend or ban that account, you’ll see an explanation when you try to log in or finish a magic link—you can’t play until staff set the account back to Active in Admin → Players. In-game, type help account for a short summary. Super-admin emails (ADMIN_EMAIL) cannot be blocked from the panel.

Quick Start

1. Create a character – Choose a starting area (town/region) if more than one exists—each needs a spawn room in the database. Then name, profession (Warrior, Wizard, Ranger, Empath, Cleric), and race. Stats are set automatically to the recommended build for your profession. Names are 3–15 characters, trimmed and saved in title case, must be unique (case-insensitive), and must pass a moderation filter (profanity, slurs, and similar—like a typical online game).
2. Characters page – Use Characters in the top nav to see your roster (up to 8). Play opens the game with that character. × on a card starts permanent delete: type the character’s name (spacing/case normalized to match), then Delete forever (or click × again to cancel).
3. Click Play – You start at that region’s spawn (in Thornhaven, Fountain Square—not the same room as Town Center). Type look to see the room; who to see who else is online. Web: the Status sidebar shows your character name on its own line; the next line has Male / Female (left) and race (right); the line after that has profession with emoji when applicable (left) and stance as a short abbrev (std, knl, lng, …) with hover tooltip for the full pose, then level and reputation below. Staff or super-admin players may show a red Admin or StaffMember label before their character name (name still uses profession color) in the room list, say, who, the map, and that Status line when it applies. health or h shows HP, mana, and injuries without the full info sheet—h is health, not help. help and help <topic> open a formatted Help card in the log; a plain dir shows one Locations card with every place in one list—click dir <name> on a row to run it (compass and path links send go or climb when the exit is labeled that way, then return focus to the command input). resource / resources opens this guide’s Resources page in the browser; inventory / inv / i opens the info sheet on the Inventory tab; stats / attributes opens Attributes (base/total per stat). help idle: the disconnect timer counts meaningful commands and say, not the browser’s automatic room refresh. Sidebar Status and Condition titles collapse with ▼ when you want more log space.
4. Time & weather – time or weather (same output) shows the realm’s phase (Sunrise, Daytime, Sunset, Night) and weather in your main area (sub-areas share that area’s sky). help time has phase hours and portrait notes. The Condition portrait backdrop follows time and weather; staff may choose a backdrop in Preferences until the next phase or weather change in your area.
5. Pack & hands (web) – You begin with a leather backpack equipped on the back slot when that slot is empty (even if your profession has no starter rows in Admin). In Condition, click the underlined name of what you are holding to open a command popup (same style as NPC Commands): stow into equipped containers, Wear / Equip only for items that have a real equipment slot (not pelts, herbs, or other inventory-only items), stow shield on back, or sheathe a weapon. Worn finery (anywhere) is not duplicated under Hands—see info Gear. put … in my back stows into your worn pack; get … from back still means a slung shield, not the backpack. On info Attributes, the second number is green when your total is above base, red when below, and matches the base line when equal. Use look at or inspect a pelt to see its condition; inspect a bundle to see the count of each condition inside. look at / inspect supports multi-word potion and item names (e.g. look at mana draught) when that matches something you carry. Use get my <pelt> from my leather backpack (or get my <pelt>) to pull a hide into hand before selling at the tannery. Bundling: hold two pelts of the same item (one per hand)—they can be different conditions—and type bundle to tie them together; unbundle peels one from a held bundle. Tied bundles in your pack are separate from loose pelts; get my <pelt> prefers loose stacks, get bundle of <pelt> takes the whole tied bundle. Premium auto-bundle: premium accounts automatically merge matching pelts and herbs into bundles when items enter your pack (help skin).
6. Player trades – Web: click another player’s name in the room for Give Gold, Exchange (pick hand + ask price in coin), and social actions. Commands: exchange <player> <item> for <amount> (same as give <player> <item> for <amount>) or exchange <player> for <amount> (offers what you hold in your right hand, else left). Other player types accept. You must be level 10+ to give coin or a Relm bank draft to another player; exchange can pay with a draft in hand only when the draft’s face value exactly matches the price (help exchange). See help exchange and help equipment.
7. Get a quest – Go to the Bank (dir bank for directions). Optionally ask Aldric about quest to hear the job. ask Aldric for quest to accept. Kill rats in the cellar (go cellar from the bank). When done, ask Aldric for complete quest for your reward (coin and reputation amounts highlight in yellow in the log).
8. Fight & loot – attack rat (a successful hit sets that rat as your combat target—same as target rat; the Status sidebar Target line updates). skin rat for hides (one attempt per corpse—success or fail); loot rat for coin and drops—skinning does not auto-loot. Sell pelts at The Tannery (dir tannery): get my wolf pelt then sell wolf pelt, or sell all for every skin in your pack (help skin). When several same-named beasts are in the room, use target / target clear, first…tenth (or 1st…10th) before the name, or a digits-only instance id on attack, cast, look at, loot, and skin—see help attack and help info. Web: click a creature’s name for examine (description + rough health); the popup can send Attack / Target with the right id. Bleeding: deep cuts and lacerations drain HP every minute until healed—see Combat & Stats and help regen. Web: each bleed tick also prints a red 🩸 You lost -N HP line in the main log. Poison (venom): some creatures (e.g. snakes in the Snake Pit) apply a DoT poison—health / buff show tick damage and dissipation; poison ticks use a green log line (help attack, help regen). HP and mana otherwise regenerate passively over time.
9. Level up – Earn coin on hand and reputation, then ask mayor for status at the Mayor’s Office (reach Town Center, then compass nw into her office). Until you level, the game stops banking rep past what the mayor needs for that ding—extra gains are trimmed and you may get a nudge to visit her; lifetime reputation on the info Resources tab still tracks what you actually received (see Leveling). Fees scale with level (defaults: scaling rep + hunt-based coin; help leveling). Profession masters: ask <master> for train for an orb (same coin+rep; ~2 min).
10. Pet the cat – A fluffy orange cat roams the town; pet cat when it's in your room to make it purr.
11. Locked strongboxes – Get them from Vex the Lockpick (ask Vex for boxes). Give him a chest, accept his offer (15% fee) to open it.

Guide Sections

• Basics – Characters page (roster, name rules on create, Play, × to delete with normalized name confirm; forced rename if staff require a new name; footer Privacy / Terms / Cookies; wide: header dropdowns for Characters, Getting Started (mega-menu of guide pages), Preferences; ~900px and below: Menu (☰) for the same links—pick one and the menu closes), Play layout (compact header; site title left, nav right on wide screens; desktop: game fits header–footer in one viewport with scrollable sidebars; site footer hidden on Play for narrow or short viewports so the log and map get more height), Preferences (wide card-based modal: sun/moon + named palette per light/dark family, toggles, color grids, Play sidebar column/wrap/grid + reset; drag play panels only by ⋮⋮; layout saved in localStorage; collapsible Status / Condition ▼), Status identity: character name (line 1); Male/Female (left) + race (right) (line 2); profession with emoji (left) + stance abbrev + tooltip (right) (line 3), then level/rep and bars, movement (compass + go/climb for labeled custom exits + named exits + empath/cleric shortcuts; Thornhaven dir to North Lane / armor after North St. compass fix; dragging fallen players), targeting other players in your room by name (case-insensitive), escort, timed accepts, death & area-aware gravediggers (cancel gravedigger), look (click other players’ names for idle display + actions—meaningful input vs auto refresh; super-admin sees Online time; click creature names to examine; look at <creature> in text matches web examine + disambiguation; web: corpse lines orange frame + creature-colored name; NPC command tooltips widen with long ask … lines), web: red Admin / StaffMember prefix for staff names where shown, tier-tinted 🪙 for g/s/c, health/h, buff (sidebar buff rows tick every second—time + bar), info (tabs include Inventory and Attributes as base/total), resource/resources (opens Resources guide), help/help <topic> (including help account, help preferences, help target, help map for Status identity + minimap; help time for world phase, area weather, portrait backdrop), plain dir list (and compass/path links that return focus to the input; help dir notes Status is for who-you-are while navigating), and staff admin replies (styled Help / Staff cards in the log), map, inventory (info Inventory tab; inventory containers = Containers card), idle timeout, connection limits
• Quests & Creatures – Quests (Quest Poster in Town Center, filtered per character; web ! pulses when your board has listings; click opens a sign-style list popup), attacking (including aggressive beasts), target / instance id when several beasts share a name, creature examine on web, skinning, loot, Premium Features (auto-stow skins, auto-bundle)
• Instance dungeons – Lobby, guard NPC, solo or group entry, clear timer, tolls and difficulties, queue, leader-only movement when grouped; web **Instance** sidebar card (countdown, **killed/total** creature tallies); minimap lobby/entry highlights (help instance, help map)
• Items & Equipment – Equip/unequip (wear/remove = same), stow/draw shield & weapon, swap hands, put/get, containers; pretty names + tier tinting on web; magical tier/affix display (look at my …); reference tables for max armor per profession and weapons limited to specific professions
• Leveling – Mayor vs profession-master orb; coin + reputation fees; rep earn cap at mayor threshold + lifetime total (help leveling)
• Resources – Coin, bank, reputation, weight, encumbrance (ties to info on the web client)
• Skills & Spells – All spells and skills by profession
• Combat & Stats – Attack system, stats, bleeding, creature poison/venom, damage calculation
• Shops & NPCs – Herbs, potions, weapons, armor, The Tannery (Mara), cross-realm ledger (Tess), where to buy, NPC locations
• World map – Thornhaven (Town) grid with **room ids** in each cell, reference table, color legend—same layout as the in-game map; **one room per cell** per sub-area when minimap coords are set (DB + admin); Play minimap hides numeric ids on cells; **brighter** tiles and **gray** borders/connection lines in-game; Play **Status** sidebar (name, sex|race, profession|stance) is separate from the map but described on this page intro

Type help in-game for the full command list. Type help <topic> for topic-specific help (e.g. help equipment or help get for wear/stow, sheath, backpack, and smart get/take, help engrave for personal weapon engravings (per physical item, follows the weapon across give/sell); help movement for drag, go vs climb, and wrong-verb hints, help health for sidebar Status identity (name, sex|race, profession|stance) + HP flow, help map for minimap cells (one per sub-area when coords set), Status identity row, NPC command tooltip sizing, room-item read tooltips/popups, and admin rules, help market for the ledger / Tess, help leveling for Mayor / master costs, rep cap when earning, and lifetime rep, help instance for group dungeons and the lobby guard, help attack / help target for combat disambiguation, help info for the web sheet tabs (Resources, Inventory, Attributes base/total, resource opening /guide/resources), help preferences for the website Preferences modal (sun/moon + palette themes, Save vs Cancel/backdrop/Esc) and Play sidebar ⋮⋮ drag + Status layout notes, help time for world phase, area weather, and portrait backdrop, help skin (tannery sell, bundling, inspect, premium auto-bundle; aliases help bundle / help unbundle), help characters for the web roster, name rules, and × delete flow, help account for suspended/banned login, premium accounts (alias help premium), and footer legal pages, help rename if staff put you under force rename, help escort, help dir (path links, quest poster popup note, dir output, why the grid should not stack two rooms in one cell, and how Status fits navigation), help bind, help locksmith, help regen (bleed tick + web 🩸 HP loss line), help decay, help idle). Web client: help / help <topic> and a plain dir (area location list) appear as a sectioned Help card in the log. A single h means health, not help.