DarkWind is an ever-changing text-based multi-player game that is free to play. The World of DarkWind has been under development since 1992 and is developed entirely by volunteer staff.

Come join the friendly player base at DarkWind now. Just click connect to the left or telnet to darkwind.org port 3000. We'll see you soon!

Getting Started

When you complete character creation, you will find yourself in the adventurer's guild. The Center of Town (COT) is north, east (or n, e) from there. COT is the 4-way intersection on the map of Darkwind, and all the directions in this guide start from there.

To begin adventuring you will need equipment. Erga's Newbie Shop (4 west, 1 south) will give you free equipment. At level 2 you will have access to the donation room (5n,e). Here you can get equipment donated by higher level players. Please return it when you are done with it so that the next Newbie will have access to it. Remember to wear and wield all. You can do this with one command by typing equip.

Now that you have equipment you will want to gain experience and gold so that you can gain levels. The Adventurers' Guild (w,s) will give you an idea of how much gold and experience is required for your next level. Keep in mind that levels are only the ability to further increase your stats. So in most cases it is generally best to spend experience on stats until you get the message that says you must increase your level before gaining more stats (See help stats). There are occasions where you might decide to skip stats in order to get to the next level more quickly. Keep in mind when you do this that you have not gained the power of the next level.

When you kill something you will want to get the gold and the loot from the corpse. You can get all from corpse. Or you can burn the corpse with a corpse burner (See Chapter 6) and get all. You can sell the loot in the shop (5w,2s,w). When you leave the game you will want to sell or donate all of your equipment. Coins that you have on hand will save with your character but equipment will not. Guilds have storage rooms to store equipment during the current uptime. Equipment cannot be saved through reboots. You can put your extra coins in the bank (5w,3s,e) for safe keeping and so that you have something to start with if you should die.

Death Happens

It is part of the game. Luckily it isn't permanent. If you should happen to die, you can go to the church (5w,n) and pray. When you die you will lose one from each stat, all of the experience you have on hand and one level. Note that this penalty does not exist if you are level 5 or lower. Until then, praying at the church will restore all of your stats and your level. Some guilds have the ability to raise people from the dead. This saves them some of the stat loss, but not the level or the experience on hand. You can get someone to avenge your death. This is a way to get some experience back (help deathavengement). Don't do this if you are level 5 or below, because Dierdre works every time.

It was nearly 1800 years ago that the dark wind appeared and ravaged our cities, countries, towns and villages. From where this evil came and what the cause was, I regret to say is not known to us, for most of the immortals were still children at the time. Some say it was an evil birthed of the foul arts of Alarian, the great Necromancer, and that he was its first victim, but that is just a legend from the mists of time. Whatever the cause, the effects were obvious. Not even the longest of wars could have killed as swiftly and effortlessly as that unliving wind of malice.

The dark wind has come and gone several times during my life, during the life of the city, and during the rebuilding. Not even Mitra, Gaea and Set could fully stop the destruction. But the first occurrence of the wind was the worst by far. We shall start our history at that time, for history of the time before the coming is lost, just as the lives and cities were lost. The clades of Darkwind were thrown into confusion, and the blancmanges, who had been decimated by the wind, were pushed to the brink of extinction by the resulting wars.

The clade wars were bloody affairs. The ogres, orcs and trolls banded together, and with their combined raw strength launched raids and besieged the elves, gnomes and dwarves as they attempted to rebuild. The humans fell victim to massive infighting. The faerie and the halflings managed to escape most of the bloodshed, however they found themselves unable to do much rebuilding of their shattered culture.

The death and barrenness caused by the dark wind caught the eye of three gods: Gaea, the earth mother; Mitra, the goddess of goodness; and Set, the god of chaos. Gaea set about to restore the land, the plants, and the animals. Mitra and Set, however, made themselves known to the inhabitants of Darkwind. Gaea worked so very hard at rebuilding life. Mitra and Set, however, attempted to lead the people to a better life. Co- existence between the factions, the clades, and families was not to be at this time. The religious wars that followed were unfortunate, and only served to dilute the population even more.

No one but the gods know what happened to change things. 24 years after the cleansing by the dark wind, representatives from the different clades met at the bay where Darkwind City now stands. Many say that Gaea herself came to the representatives and entranced them, giving them power from her own body, as well as power from both Set and Mitra. Thus she bestowed upon them immortality; the ability to command flesh, stone, air, water, and spirit, and the determination to create a better life.

With the immortals in place, she forbade Set and Mitra from taking a direct hand in the world, allowing them to only work through the priests and the immortals. The age of immortals had begun. The first act was the creation of a city on the very ground where they were given their power. And the city was called Darkwind, and it was open to one and all.

The clades of Darkwind thrived, and explored the surrounding countryside and the oceans. The immortals created many things, guided by Mitra, Set and Gaea.

World

Work in progress: these pages describe the Blackmar setting we are building toward, and current game content differs in places.

Blackmar is the known world of Darkwind: a continent of old roads, rebuilt cities, dangerous wilderness, and domains that feel like their own countries. Most of Blackmar uses medieval fantasy technology. Swords, ships, temples, caravan roads, guildhalls, old keeps, and dangerous ruins form the common shape of daily life.

That common shape breaks in a few places. Ashad runs on AshPunk craft, where ash, pressure, brass, glass, and alchemy create machines that look impossible beside a knight's forge. Tekal, the green moon, is stranger still: a technological domain of cybernetics, virtuality, and machine cities.

Use areas <domain> in game for current level guidance. These pages focus on what the places are, what they feel like, and what kinds of stories live there.

Start Here

Domains

Moons

Blackmar has three moons. Each one is a separate domain with its own landscape, dangers, and powers.

Blackmar

Work in progress: this page describes the Blackmar setting we are building toward, and current game content differs in places.

Blackmar is the known world of Darkwind. The name covers the great continent, the seas and island frontiers around it, the deep roads beneath it, and the three moons that hang above it as separate domains.

The Dark Wind defines the beginning of remembered history. It destroyed cities, scattered clades, broke old nations, and left enough ruin behind that rebuilding became the central story of the age. Darkwind City rose from that rebuilding. Other domains kept their own scars, their own gods, their own styles of magic, and their own answers to survival.

Most of Blackmar feels medieval: roads, ships, guilds, temples, castles, caravans, farms, forges, monster-haunted borders, and old ruins. Two places break the pattern openly. Ashad turns ash, brass, pressure, and alchemy into AshPunk machines. Tekal turns the sky itself into a reminder that Blackmar's moons are not just lights overhead.

Domains

The Moons

Travel

Blackmar is a world of hubs and thresholds. Roads connect the central cities. Ports and wharves open the island routes. Caves, mines, grave roads, and old temple paths lead downward. The moons answer gates and celestial timing.

For player use, the areas command shows current level guidance. The world docs describe where a place belongs in the setting and what kind of story a player is stepping into.

Darkwind

Work in progress: this page describes the Darkwind setting we are building toward, and current game content differs in places.

Darkwind is the rebuilt heart of Blackmar. The first immortal city rose here after the Dark Wind, on the bay where the surviving clades gathered and began again. Its streets are open to almost everyone, which makes the city less pure kingdom and more living crossroads: merchants, guilds, pilgrims, rogues, adventurers, priests, and old grudges all pass through the same gates.

The city is the safest place many players learn to name, but it is not a soft place. The sewers, old roads, nearby forests, and ruined holdings keep the past close. Darkwind is where civilization starts making promises, and where the world immediately tests them.

Darkwind City is the social and practical center of the domain, with banks, boards, shops, guild access, public roads, and a constant flow of travelers. Center of Town is the common navigation anchor. The Church of Mitra marks holy influence within the city, while the Lunar Gate answers Dailos, Markas, and Tekal when the moons are right.

DarkWood Forest spreads west of the walls, thick with roads, clearings, and stranger paths. The northern roads lead toward mountains and colder frontiers. The southern shore holds abbeys, keeps, pirate paths, and old settlements.

Areas

Darkwind is built for discovery in layers. New players find streets, farms, sewers, and familiar roads first. Returning players learn the same roads hide portals, keys, old factions, and routes to places that felt impossible at level one.

The city stays busy and practical. It has taverns, boards, shops, banks, guild access, donation rooms, roads, gates, ferries, and public landmarks. The fantasy comes from walking out of an ordinary street and finding the impossible two rooms later.

Ashad

Work in progress: this page describes the Ashad setting we are building toward, and current game content differs in places.

Ashad is the desert that learned to burn productively. Its cities do not merely survive the heat; they harvest it, refine it, and build with it. Where Souvrael is mythic desert, Ashad is industrial desert: furnace towers, brass pipes, soot-black walls, pressure gauges, glass lenses, ash mills, and caravan engines coughing across the dunes.

Ashad's technology is called AshPunk. It uses ash, pressure, alchemy, scavenged bone-white fuel, desert oils, and heat engines to create wonders that look like machines and behave like spells. A knight from Darkwind sees a forge. An Ashadi engineer sees a prayer with valves.

Furnace cities anchor the domain with stacks, pressure towers, foundries, water vaults, ash mills, and glasswork. Soot roads carry caravans between refinery houses, engineer-priests, furnace families, machinewright orders, and blackened waystations.

Glasswork is everywhere: lenses, warded windows, distillation towers, mirrors, heat traps, and signal lamps. Ashad's beauty is smoky, dangerous, improvised, expensive, and practical.

Areas

Ashad rewards preparation. Heat, scarcity, machines, and human ambition all matter. A player feels the desert pressing in from every direction while civilization hisses, clanks, and refuses to die.

Souvrael

Work in progress: this page describes the Souvrael setting we are building toward, and current game content differs in places.

Souvrael is the great desert domain of Blackmar. Its walls rise from the Segovia Desert, its beaches touch the Gearnat Sea, and its roads vanish into dunes, oases, pyramids, snake temples, and older empires buried under sand.

Where Ashad is mechanical, Souvrael is mythic. It is a land of sultans, caravans, veils, scimitars, date palms, gold mines, ancient curses, and temple doors that open only when the desert accepts the question.

The city of Souvrael is a walled desert hub of markets, banks, temples, opium dens, docks, and trade. The Segovia Desert surrounds it with vast dunes, stone trails, salt wind, heat shimmer, and routes that only patient travelers learn to trust.

The Gearnat Sea is Souvrael's harbor route into the wider world. Water sellers, camel yards, bazaars, desert guides, and noble houses turn the domain into a place where survival and commerce are never far apart.

Areas

Souvrael is about heat, belief, wealth, and hidden doors. It is bright at the surface and old underneath. Players cross it by reading roads, respecting water, and learning that every oasis has a shadow.

Hyperborea

Work in progress: this page describes the Hyperborea setting we are building toward, and current game content differs in places.

Hyperborea is the northern domain of fjords, mountain passes, snow forests, old walls, and mythic war. Grimsfjord stands against the cold as a practical village of gates, outfitters, wharves, ponies, fires, and hard roads. Beyond it, the land climbs into icy valleys where clouds swallow the ridges.

Hyperborea carries the weight of northern legend: vikings, dwarven halls, giants, gnomish conflicts, frozen rivers, wolf-haunted roads, and Asgardian realms that touch the mortal map.

Grimsfjord is the main town, mountain gate, wharf, and practical northern hub. The River Alsvid cuts through canyon rock and ice, while the western valleys rise into snow paths, glacier lakes, cloud ridges, cliffs, and alpine forests.

Longhouses, raids, honor feasts, cold-weather craft, and sea routes define much of its mortal culture. Divine realms, trials, world-tree imagery, Valhalla, and mythic enemies pull that culture toward legend.

Areas

Hyperborea is physical. The world is steep, cold, and loud with wind. Travel feels like earning ground: a trail, a ledge, a pass, a bridge, a gate, a fire.

Hyperborean stories put small settlements against impossible weather and impossible enemies. The warmth of a room matters because the next step outside matters.

Kerei

Work in progress: this page describes the Kerei setting we are building toward, and current game content differs in places.

Kerei is a chain of connected jungle islands. It mixes fortress roads, river travel, coastal docks, hidden temples, faerie borders, ninja clans, Amazon villages, and old island cities. The land feels lush, but not gentle. Paths disappear under leaves, river crossings hide politics, and the next shrine may belong to a faction that does not name itself twice.

Kerei's central settlements are Odako and Chimotage. Odako is the fortress hub. Chimotage is an island city with its own roads, docks, forests, and mountain paths.

Odako is the fortress domain, with river roads, an arena, markets, guarded halls, and watched routes. Chimotage is quieter and stranger: docks, Ichi-Ban Way, forests, mountains, old alleys, and island politics.

Ninja clans, Amazon villages, hidden temples, catacombs, remote shrines, and faerie borders turn the islands into a web of guarded paths and half-spoken allegiances.

Areas

Kerei is movement through concealment. It favors players who read social space as much as terrain: which gate is watched, which river crossing is safe, which village is only friendly from the road, and which temple has been waiting for them.

Lerquird

Work in progress: this page describes the Lerquird setting we are building toward, and current game content differs in places.

Lerquird is a swamp continent of black water, peat roads, fungal towers, and luminous wetlands. The sky often feels low there. Mist hangs over canals, insects sing in the reeds, and giant mushrooms rise like forests where ordinary trees drown.

The people of Lerquird build upward, sideways, and carefully. Homes cling to stilts, bridges, root platforms, floating shrines, and hollow fungus trunks. The swamp is not empty space between villages. It is the oldest power in the domain.

Giant mushroom forests replace normal woodland. Blue-green marsh light, spore glow, and strange water reflections make distance uncertain. Stilt towns, reed boats, wet markets, bridge law, and canal villages keep civilization above the waterline.

Mire magic works through damp earth, spores, rot, preservation, poison, and slow transformation. Sacred causeways make pilgrims read omens in water, fog, and fungus bloom.

Areas

Lerquird is slow danger. The swamp does not rush, and that makes it worse. Routes shift, poison matters, light lies, and an enemy can be nearby for a long time before the first strike.

Druids and Gaean Acolytes find living rot and stubborn recovery here without stepping into Garou moon-wilderness. Lerquird is wet, fungal, communal, and ancient.

Virodia

Work in progress: this page describes the Virodia setting we are building toward, and current game content differs in places.

Virodia is tropical, but not jungle. It is a bright coastland of reef harbors, warm rain, fruit terraces, tiled villas, sea roads, island temples, pearl markets, and storms that arrive with theatrical force.

The domain is lush because it is cultivated, watered, sailed, sung over, and fought for. Its danger lives in reefs, trade rivalries, ritual storms, corsairs, old sea shrines, and gardens that remember blood in the soil.

Coral ports, pearl trade, shipwrights, sea walls, and watch towers define the coast. Inland, fruit terraces, tiled courts, fountain plazas, and bright-painted houses make the domain feel cultivated rather than wild.

Weather magic, lighthouse omens, festival bargains, merchant princes, naval houses, temple patrons, private fleets, ship routes, reef gates, smugglers' cuts, and sacred channels keep the sea at the center of Virodian life.

Areas

Virodia is color, weather, salt, and social consequence. It is tropical without becoming another jungle: more harbor intrigue, stormlight, reefs, gardens, and sea law than vine-choked wilderness.

Dramasa

Work in progress: this page describes the Dramasa setting we are building toward, and current game content differs in places.

Dramasa is a barren ice-covered land. It is not the lived-in northern myth of Hyperborea. Dramasa is harsher, emptier, and more alien: white plains, frozen roads, black rock, silent ruins, and auroras that make the snow look haunted.

Travel in Dramasa feels exposed. Shelter is rare, warmth is political, and the oldest structures are half buried under ice that has no interest in giving them back.

White barrens stretch across the domain, wide enough for weather to become the main enemy. Frost ruins, cracked towers, buried roads, aurora omens, survival houses, heat vaults, and oath-bound host customs shape every journey.

Ice pilgrimages cross the barrens as tests of endurance, memory, and sacrifice. In Dramasa, reaching the next shelter is already a kind of answer.

Areas

Dramasa is quiet pressure. Hyperborea asks players to endure a living north. Dramasa asks them what remains when the world has already gone still.

Iglantu

Work in progress: this page describes the Iglantu setting we are building toward, and current game content differs in places.

Iglantu is a hellish continent of elemental fire. It is not simply hot. Heat is the weather, the road, the border, the weapon, and the law. Rivers of lava cut the land into black islands. Basalt cities cling to shelves above molten channels. Smoke makes daylight red.

Iglantu is Blackmar's fire realm as a continent rather than an abstraction. It has ports, roads, citadels, mines, temples, rulers, prisoners, and travelers. It is a place people live in because power there is too valuable to abandon.

Lava rivers divide territory and shape travel. Black stone settlements rise on shelves, vents, and fireproof foundations. Ember law binds rulers, warbands, temple courts, and tribute pacts around heat as both resource and threat.

Living flame, heat spirits, ash storms, furnace magic, obsidian weapons, heat wards, vent armor, and cooled-lava architecture are ordinary facts of survival here.

Areas

Iglantu is pressure, risk, and spectacle. The domain turns fire into a civilization. A player crossing it feels every road asking the same question: how much heat can ambition survive?

The Bodachian Fallows

Work in progress: this page describes the Bodachian Fallows setting we are building toward, and current game content differs in places.

The Bodachian Fallows are a shadowed land of horror. Fields lie under permanent dusk. Roads bend through haunted forests. Old houses keep lights in windows no one admits to lighting. Graves are too shallow, bells ring without hands, and fog carries voices that know names they were never told.

The Fallows make fear local. They are not a distant underworld or a fire realm. They are villages, orchards, churches, farms, manors, and lanes that look familiar until something moves wrong.

Haunted forests, ghost roads, fallow villages, black manors, abandoned chapels, grave fields, and locked family houses give the domain its shape. Spirits, death marks, grave ash, forbidden formulae, and Bodachian study keep the dead involved in daily life.

Fear in the Fallows often begins in familiar rooms: a village inn, a family orchard, a chapel lane, a nursery, a cellar, a portrait hall, a road home after sunset.

Areas

The Bodachian Fallows are about dread, investigation, and consequences. Players are pressed to ask what happened before they arrived, who benefits from silence, and which dead thing is still waiting to be paid.

The Fallows also give Mage a natural path into forbidden Bodach and Arcanarton study without making Necromancer a public guild.

Islands

Work in progress: this page describes the island frontiers we are building toward, and current game content differs in places.

The islands around Blackmar gather the world's strangest edges. Some are coastal kingdoms. Some float in the sky. Some feel like pocket-realms caught around a volcano, a cloud, a ruined tower, or a door that never belonged on a map.

The island frontiers keep the world from feeling like one continuous continent. They are reached by ship, sky, storm, portal, and rumor.

Ferries, wharves, passenger ships, private vessels, cyclones, cloud paths, floating keeps, and aerial sanctuaries all belong to island travel. Local laws and isolated communities make each island feel like its own answer to distance.

The island frontier also gathers pocket-realms: small worlds around volcanoes, halls, gates, clouds, and impossible thresholds.

Areas

The islands are where the map starts making side deals. They are perfect for self-contained stories, experimental zones, strange travel, and places that feel real without needing to explain why they sit beside the mainland.

Underworld

Work in progress: this page describes the Underworld setting we are building toward, and current game content differs in places.

The Underworld is the deep realm beneath Blackmar: mines, tunnels, old cities, lava breaches, dwarf halls, broken towns, worm roads, and darker places where surface law has no reach. It is not one culture. It is a stacked geography of pressure, hunger, secrecy, and forgotten architecture.

Darkwind has paths downward, and many domains have their own rumors of what lies below. The Underworld is where those rumors begin sharing walls.

Deep roads, mine paths, worm tunnels, old trade routes, buried cities, garrisons, ruins, hostile capitals, fire breaches, dwarven works, and surface echoes all share the same lower dark.

The Underworld is full of dark reflections: surface towns repeated as ruins, surface gods echoed in mines, surface wars continuing where sunlight never reaches.

Areas

The Underworld is descent as a genre. Every step down makes food, light, return routes, and trust feel more important. It is where players go when they want the map to close over them.

The Three Moons

Work in progress: this page describes the lunar domains we are building toward, and current game content differs in places.

Blackmar has three moons: Dailos, Markas, and Tekal. They are visible in the sky, woven into calendars and omens, and reachable as separate domains. To most people they are celestial powers. To adventurers they are also places with roads, cities, monsters, shrines, and rules.

Each moon has a color, a temperament, and a divine or cosmic association.

Lunar Travel

The lunar gate near Darkwind's center uses three moonstones: magenta for Dailos, red for Markas, and green for Tekal. The moons matter as bodies in the sky and as destinations underfoot.

Lunar stories connect especially well to Acolytes, Druids, Garou, Mages, omens, portents, and pilgrimages. A character does not need to belong to a lunar tradition to feel the moons acting on the world.

Dailos feels sickly, savage, dangerous, tempting, and corruptive. Markas feels luminous, restorative, guarded, beautiful, and sacred. Tekal feels clean, strange, electric, precise, and almost impossible by Blackmar standards.

Dailos

Work in progress: this page describes the Dailos setting we are building toward, and current game content differs in places.

Dailos is the magenta moon of disease, chaos, plague, and savagery. It is the home of the God of Disease and the lunar domain that punishes casual curiosity. The land feels infected rather than merely dangerous: forests sicken, cities rot, foothills corrupt, and ruins curse the memory of whoever built them.

Dailos is not only decay. It is also endurance through decay, power taken from sickness, and faith twisted into survival.

The God of Disease is the divine presence behind plague, infection, fever, rot, and blighted worship. Magenta moonlight carries chaos, savagery, mutation, and a sense that the land itself has symptoms.

Plague cults, desperate healers, heretics, survivors, corrupted forests, sick swamps, altered beasts, and ruined cities all treat disease as more than an illness. On Dailos, disease is law, language, and revelation.

Areas

Dailos is a pressure test. It asks players to manage risk, corruption, disease, and temptation. Victory here feels less like being clean and more like leaving before the moon names a price.

Markas

Work in progress: this page describes the Markas setting we are building toward, and current game content differs in places.

Markas is the red moon of strength, stability, healing, and sanctuary. It is beautiful in the way a protected place is beautiful: ordered gardens, crystal water, enchanted forests, high mountains, and gates that feel closer to heaven than to stone.

Markas is not harmless. Sanctuary has guards, rites, tests, and enemies. Its healing power comes with expectations of courage, steadiness, and service.

Red moonlight is tied to strength, healing, protection, and endurance. Markas is governed by sanctuary law: hospitality, oaths, guarded healing, and consequences for anyone who violates sacred refuge.

Its gardens, lakes, mountains, forests, and gates restore the spirit, but every protected place is also a trial. Markas asks pilgrims to prove they can defend what heals them.

Areas

Markas offers relief without removing stakes. It is the moon of being protected, then being asked what protection costs. Healing here is active instead of passive.

Tekal

Work in progress: this page describes the Tekal setting we are building toward, and current game content differs in places.

Tekal is the green moon of knowledge, balance, Luna, and advanced technology. It is the technological wonder of Blackmar's sky: clean lines, machine cities, cybernetic labs, virtual spaces, and computation that most mainland scholars can only describe as magic with better manners.

Tekal is not AshPunk. Ashad is soot, pressure, heat, and brass. Tekal is glass, signal, circuitry, precision, artificial minds, and lunar balance expressed as design.

Green moonlight belongs to knowledge, balance, Luna, and calm precision. The Techno-City, cybernetics labs, virtual environments, robot factories, quantum study, prosthetics, artificial minds, and interface craft make Tekal feel impossible by mainland standards.

Its dangers are precise rather than wild: controlled systems, simulated spaces, machine governance, prediction failures, and questions about where a body ends when technology begins.

Areas

Tekal makes the world suddenly vertical, electric, and strange. Its technology is not dirty, medieval, or industrial. A player on Tekal feels like the rules are written in another language and the moon expects them to learn.

Statistics

A player's statistics (or "stats") are measures of advanced a player is in certain aspects of his development. There are currently six stats that you can raise on Darkwind.

Strength

Strength is a measure of how muscular a person is. High strength allows a character to lift heavier objects, and carry more weight while adventuring. All things being equal, strong characters will find their packs less encumbering than weaker ones. Strength is also very important in combat, influencing how much power a character is able to put into each swing. Naturally, a stronger character will be able to do more damage with each swing than a weaker one.

Constitution

Constitution is a measure of physical toughness and stamina. High constitution allows a player to perform strenuous tasks for a longer time. It increases the amount of hit points the player has, and therefore increases the amount of damage that can be taken before needing to rest or heal.

Dexterity

Dexterity encompasses a number of physical attributes including hand-eye coordination, agility, reflexes, balance, precision, and speed of movement. Dexterity affects a character's accuracy with missile weapons (darts, arrows, cats, etc.) and in the ability to swing weapons at moving targets. Dexterity is also important for dodging attacks. Dexterity is particularly important for roguish guilds which rely on quick reflexes and the manipulation of small objects.

Intelligence

Intelligence is similar to what is currently known as intelligence quotient, but also includes mnemonic ability, reasoning, and learning ability outside those measured by any written test. In melee combat, more intelligent characters are able to better use their equipment, and discern their enemies' weaknesses, leading to greater success at hitting their enemies, and also in deflecting incoming blows using their armor. Intelligence is essential for guilds that make heavy use of mental powers to manipulate the world directly, or indirectly through arcane spells.

Wisdom

Wisdom is both a measure of a character's common sense, and also of his general awareness of the world around him. Wisdom is important for all characters since awareness of one's immediate situation is essential for survival. The use of priestly powers is often heavily influenced by wisdom since the character must tap into his awareness of a divine source. Wisdom is especially important in the heat of combat, where the wrong choice can lead to a hasty demise. A wise character can often see a battle unfolding and where an enemy's next strike may land. Wisdom is also important in using armor more effectively to deflect the blows that do land.

Charisma

Charisma is a measure of force of personality. It measures how well a character is able to influence others by word or action. A charismatic character is more likely to be listened to, respected, and trusted by others. If you have a high charisma, the shopkeepers might give you some extra gold just because they like you. Charisma is useful for guilds that require some subtlety in their dealings, or who seek to guide people along a particular path.

Stat Raises

Upon entering DarkWind, players will have 1 in each of the 6 stats. Characters start with 10 stat raises and can allocate them as they see fit. Starting out, you may want to split those raises across different stats, making sure to include some CON, STR, and DEX. You may not raise a stat higher than three times your level (e.g., at level 1, you could have 5 different stats at a base of 3 and 1 stat at a base of 1, or 4 stats at 3, and 2 stats at 2). The base value for a stat can be raised to a maximum of 300.

Each level grants a player 5 additional stat raises. Every 10 levels (e.g., levels 10, 20, 30) players are granted 10 additional stat raises, for a total of 15.

Each of the level ranks mentioned in Leveling grants an additional 10, for a total of 25 stat raises at levels 50, 100, 150, 200, and 250. This is a total of 1555 stat raises for a maximum level player.

Bonuses and Negatives

Different Clades can provide bonuses and penalties to different stats. Additionally, abilities, equipment, and other sources can all affect the total of a stat.

Clades

DarkWind

Darkwinder

The humans that live around Darkwind City are collectively known as Darkwinders. Darkwinders are about average among the civilized clades in terms of physical and mental powers, but are well accepted by most other cultures due to the importance of the city in world affairs. Darkwinders are outgoing and adventurous, always seeking out new experiences. They are also expert traders and negotiators. Being adventurous in nature, Darkwinder souls are more inclined to take on other forms. Thus, they do not suffer from reincarnating into other clades.

Attributes:

• Slight increased experience gain
• Bonus to CHR

Thundari

The Thundari are an offshoot of modern human society that settled south of Darkwind City in a settlement known as Canith. Their rugged lifestyle tends towards the development of stronger, healthier bodies than most humans. Canith society values order, and pursuit of the common good. Thundari are generally friendly to strangers and always eager to learn about exotic people and places.

Attributes:

• Increased experience gain
• Natural tendency towards good alignment
• Bonus to CHR, CON, and STR

Celestariel

The Celestariel claim their lineage is tied ito ethereal beings from the moon Markas. This same lineage provides the source of the High Elves of DarkWind. Celestariels possess keen senses. They are generally somewhat fragile and lack the robustness of other clades, but leverage their keen senses and diplomati nature to maintain peace where possible.

Attributes:

• Slightly enhanced vision
• Natural tendency towards good alignment
• Bonus to CHR, DEX, INT, WIS
• Penalty to CON
• Resistance to Light damage

Skiftling

Skiftlings are a whimsical and sprightly clade known for their insatiable curiosity and boundless enthusiasm for adventure. They are nimble, agile, and have a unique charm that endears them to others, despite their penchant for mischief and light-hearted pranks. Their society is less structured, emphasizing freedom and personal exploration over rigid norms. Skiftlings are inherently good-natured, often seen as the life of any gathering with their stories of far-off lands and tales of daring escapades. Despite their size, they are surprisingly resilient and quick-witted, making them elusive and hard to catch.

Attributes:

• Greatly enhanced vision
• Smaller size
• +10% STR
• +25% DEX
• -30% WIS
• Innate resistance to psionics
• Weak against Evil damage

Shel-zaranite

The Shel-zaranites are an ancient offshoot of the Celestariels. They live deep underground. In their secluded city, they worship forgotten gods of evil and chaos. Shel-zaranite are quite agile and mentally superior to most clades, but are often sickly and lack constitution. As a clade native to the underground, they are well adapted to lightless conditions.

Attributes:

• Greatly enhanced vision
• Natural tendency towards evil alignment
• Bonus to DEX, INT, WIS
• Penalty to CON
• Vulnerability to Light damage

Uruk

Guilds

Work in progress: the guild roster is being built toward this design, and current game behavior differs in places.

Guilds are organizations, disciplines, faiths, orders, and traditions. They give characters a social home and a trained way to act in the world.

Guild Roster

Older Themes

How Guilds Work

• Guilds give characters a trained discipline and shared home
• Classes are separate remort-scale transformations
• Advancement uses traits, devotion, mastery, renown, paths, or other guild-native measures
• Some paths are hidden and discovered in play

Bard

Work in progress: Bard is being built toward this design, and current game behavior differs in places.

Bards turn attention into power. Songs, stories, rumors, morale, reputation, and old lore all become tools in the hands of a practiced performer.

Playstyle

Bards walk into a room and change what the room believes.

The normal Bard loop is simple:

• Learn songs, chants, tricks, and stories
• Perform in rooms where the audience matters
• Build Renown through useful support, public deeds, and lore work
• Use that Renown to open stronger performances and deeper legends

Renown

Renown is the Bard's public memory. It rises through active performances, combat rallying, panic or fear soothing, useful lore, composed material, and witnessed public deeds.

Renown opens new songs and tricks. It is not spent.

Repertoire

Repertoire grows through study, travel, discovered stories, composing, and guild training.

Audience

Audience changes performance strength, Renown gain, social pressure, morale recovery, enemy hesitation, and tricks such as distraction or misdirection.

Performances

Tricks

Other Useful Commands

Acolyte

Work in progress: Acolyte is being built toward this design, and current game behavior differs in places.

Acolytes serve a divine patron. They heal, curse, bless, bargain, cleanse, resurrect, read omens, walk pilgrimages, consecrate ground, and protect allies through faith.

Playstyle

Every Acolyte has a patron and a vocation.

The normal Acolyte loop is:

• Serve a patron through prayer, taboo, offering, and rite
• Build Devotion through service, pilgrimages, trials, and prayer use
• Use shared prayers in the patron's style
• Unlock patron rites and vocation training at Devotion thresholds
• Read omens, follow portents, and keep shrine work active

Patron choice remains until the character leaves the guild. Vocation shapes play without replacing the patron.

Patrons

Gaea stays shrine-and-stewardship, distinct from Druid groves and Garou forms. Luna stays moonlit devotion, distinct from Druid's larger lunar spellcraft.

Vocations

Oath Acolytes are divine soldiers, not pure weapon specialists.

Devotion

Devotion measures service to the patron and mastery of Acolyte rites. It opens thresholds. It is not spent.

Devotion rises through shrine prayer, tithes, offerings, pilgrimages, patron quests, healing, cleansing, resurrection, consecration, marked enemies, taboo keeping, prayer use in combat, and patron or vocation trials.

Devotion Ranks

Patron Rites

Vocation Training

Divine Systems

Sigils

Shared Prayers

All patrons use the same common prayer list. Patron choice changes messaging, damage type, side effects, taboos, and secondary bonuses.

Resurrection

Resurrection returns the fallen, helps recover the corpse, stabilizes the target after death, and gives a chance to restore lost level progress.

Other Useful Commands

Fighter

Work in progress: Fighter is being built toward this design, and current game behavior differs in places.

Fighters are trained combatants. They own weapons, armor, shields, positioning, endurance, discipline, and the practical art of keeping a battle from falling apart.

Playstyle

Fighter owns the hard middle: stand, strike, guard, recover, and keep other people alive.

The normal Fighter loop is:

• Consider the enemy
• Choose the weapon and shield that fit the fight
• Turn on the defensive techniques worth paying for
• Use bash, disarm, charge, cleave, or defend at the right moment
• Surge when endurance runs low
• Call an armsman or guild help when the line starts to break

Endurance

Endurance is the Fighter's tactical reserve. Defensive toggles and hard maneuvers spend it when they matter. Combat bars can show endurance and active techniques.

Defensive Techniques

Weapons And Armor

Fighter uses almost every weapon family. The guild rewards matching weapon to maneuver.

Weapon inspection reads balance, quality, and use. Armor inspection reads coverage, protection, warmth, and fit. Balance improves a suitable weapon.

Maneuvers

Armsmen

Advancement

Fighters advance through drills, endurance practice, weapon use, ally defense, inspection, armsman service, and hard fights.

Other Useful Commands

Garou

Work in progress: Garou is being built toward this design, and current game behavior differs in places.

Garou are Gaea's werewolf children: protectors, predators, spirits, and warning teeth. They carry rage and duty in the same body.

Playstyle

Garou embodies Gaea's animal judgment.

The normal Garou loop is direct:

• Read the room through scent, instinct, and balance
• Choose the right form for the work
• Build Rage through danger, pain, pursuit, and threat
• Spend Rage on decisive violence, protection, or spiritual answers
• Calm down before the Rage owns the body

Forms

Changing form is a commitment: wolf hunts, Crinos breaks, human speaks and uses tools.

Rage

Rage rises from pain, pursuit, corruption, pack defense, denial, moon pressure, howls, roars, and form shifts. It gives stronger attacks, faster pursuit, and refusal moments. Too much Rage narrows judgment.

Pack

Pack is social memory: warnings, remembered targets, territory, pursuit, carrying, defense, and shared answers to corruption.

Dedication

Every Garou leans toward a duty.

Moon And Balance

Moon state matters as instinct, omen, and pressure. Balance reads corruption, spiritual sickness, and broken natural order.

Abilities

Other Useful Commands

Druid

Work in progress: Druid is being built toward this design, and current game behavior differs in places.

Druids serve Gaea through grove, storm, root, beast, moon, water, stone, fire, rot, and renewal. They are not temple priests, and they are not werewolves.

Playstyle

Druids keep the living world as one system: mercy and hunger, blossom and blight, rain and drought, birth and reincarnation.

The normal Druid loop is:

• Read the terrain
• Gather components and profession materials
• Tend a sacred grove
• Use rites that match the land, path, and form
• Craft Druid-only Alchemy blueprints
• Master favorite rites through real use

Druids serve the wild covenant itself. Gaean Acolytes keep shrine law. Garou carry the wolf's curse. Rangers master camps, tracks, and fieldcraft.

Natural Attunement

Natural Attunement rises through rite use, grove service, harvesting, path practice, living pilgrimages, and acts that restore natural balance.

Rite mastery moves from Known to Practiced, Fluent, Rootbound, and Elder. Higher mastery improves cost, recovery, terrain hooks, grove hooks, form hooks, and component use.

Sacred Grove

Every Druid has a sacred grove planted in the wild. It grows through care, components, and plant or renewal magic used nearby.

Terrain And Components

Attunement reads the current terrain. Favorable terrain strengthens forms and changes certain rites.

Harvesting And Verdant Alchemy

Druids use the shared Professions system. Herbalism turns wild herbs into potions, poultices, grove offerings, rite catalysts, and blueprint ingredients.

Blueprints unlock through Alchemy, Attunement, path work, and grove stage.

Paths And Spheres

Spheres are the spell lenses: Animal for companions and forms, Plant for growth and thorns, Water for healing and drowning, Air for wind and storm, Earth for stone and endurance, Fire for heat and harsh renewal.

Wild Shape And Followers

Druid forms are spirit-forms of the wild, not Garou breed-forms.

Rites

Lunar Rites

Dailos brings disease and change. Markas brings sanctuary and healing. Tekal brings knowledge, balance, and strange gravity. Luna Acolytes serve moonlit rite; Druids read the moons as natural forces.

Restrictions

Druids favor leather, hide, wood, bone, stone, cloth, plant fiber, silver, and gold. Heavy plate and most forged metal armor break the covenant. Sickles, daggers, staves, spears, polearms, bows, thrown weapons, and simple blunts fit. Extreme holiness or corruption disrupts spellcasting.

Other Useful Commands

Mage

Work in progress: Mage is being built toward this design, and current game behavior differs in places.

Mages study the Dark Wind: the hidden force that binds matter, memory, weather, distance, heat, death, and spellwork into one system.

Playstyle

Mage is a spellbook guild: Arcane, spell mastery, barrage, runes, ash inks, and secret formulae.

The normal Mage loop is:

• Cast spells in real situations
• Improve Arcane through research and field use
• Master individual spells through repeated useful casting
• Set a mastered combat spell to barrage
• Collect ash from spell kills and corpse burning
• Turn ash into inks for spellbook research and rune work

Arcane

Arcane measures magical understanding. It opens thresholds and is not spent.

Arcane rises through:

• Level-appropriate Mage spellcasting
• Detecting, analyzing, finding, or solving magical problems
• Recovering fragments, grimoires, and research notes
• Closing magical anomalies
• Identifying strange effects for other players
• Teaching or assisting apprentices
• Mage quests and guild research tasks
• Spell kills that create ash events

Safe-room spam does not count.

Spell Mastery And Barrage

Every spell tracks its own mastery.

Manual casts are stronger and flexible. Barrage casts are efficient and automatic.

barrage prepares one mastered combat spell to fire automatically every few combat rounds.

Barrage rules:

• The spell has Fluent mastery or better
• The spell is combat-safe
• Barrage uses a lighter version of the spell
• Manual casts still cost SP and remain stronger
• Silence, concentration breaks, antimagic, and some disables stop barrage

Common barrage forms include Mana Shard, Missile, emberburst Fireball, freezing-shard Icestorm, and lesser Bolt.

Runes

Runes are named modifications discovered by earlier Magi. A rune changes how a spell behaves.

Runes open through Arcane, research, quests, discoveries, and rare inks. Practiced spells hold one rune. Inscribed spells hold two.

Ash And Ink

Spell kills can leave ash directly. Corpse burners still turn bodies into ash. Mages buy ink in the guild or provide ash to change cost, color, and formula access.

Spell deaths interact with ash:

• Mage spell damage can create an ash burst on death
• Ash bursts leave a collectible pile in the room
• Fire, frost, force, and rune-modified spells influence ash color
• Burning a corpse killed by Mage spellwork can create bonus ash
• Protected corpses keep their normal protections

Forbidden Studies

The old Necromancer path becomes a secret Mage subguild opened through Bodach and Arcanarton formulae, graveblack ink, and forbidden discoveries.

Forbidden study brings corpse rites, grave wards, bone shields, death shrouds, curses, blight, grave scouting, blood locating, bound dead servants, and rare raise-dead work.

Spellbook

The spellbook tracks known spells, mastery, rune sockets, barrage, inks, research, familiar bond, and remembered locations.

Spell List

Older aliases remain useful: mbarrage, meye, munlock, and tport.

Mage Sigils

Other Useful Commands

Monk

Work in progress: Monk is being built toward this design, and current game behavior differs in places.

Monks train the body until discipline becomes a weapon. Breath, chi, staff work, empty-hand forms, notches, challenges, and combos define the guild.

Playstyle

Monk is breath, rhythm, posture, and the body used with complete intent.

The normal Monk loop is:

• Choose a style for the fight
• Build or steady Chi
• Use staff, fist, sweep, kick, and pressure-point attacks
• Chain moves into combos
• Meditate, train, and earn notches from formal challenges

Chi

Chi powers burst, defense, recovery, transfer, and special techniques. It rises through meditation, clean combos, training, pressure survival, and style triggers. It falls when spent on advanced techniques.

Styles

Styles change which attacks flow cleanly and which recovery options feel natural.

Combos

Combos are planned routes. Example routes:

• Sweep into staff strike
• Pressure point into open punch
• Grapple into tiger punch
• Chi focus into chi blast
• Crane defense into counter pressure

Notches And Challenges

Notches record training victories, formal tests, and memorable fights. Challenges open higher training, stronger combos, and better Chi control.

Abilities

Other Useful Commands

Ninja

Work in progress: Ninja is being built toward this design, and current game behavior differs in places.

Ninja is disciplined stealth and controlled violence. A Ninja wins by choosing when the fight starts, what the target loses first, and when to vanish.

Playstyle

Ninja is patience, silence, precision, and sudden violence.

The normal Ninja loop is:

• Observe the room, exits, and target
• Build Focus
• Mark or track the target
• Open with a disable, blind, shuriken, or pressure-point strike
• Control the fight briefly
• Fade before the fight turns honest

Focus

Focus steadies technique, improves the first strike, and fuels escape. It rises through concealment, tracking, marking, meditation, and clean setup. It falls when spent on attack, escape, failed setup, or long open fighting.

Marks

Marks make a target easier to read, disable, track, or finish. They come from tracking, hidden observation, shuriken setup, focused study, and pressure-point contact.

Stealth

Stealth is a rhythm: hidden approach, sudden violence, disappearance.

Pressure Points

Pressure-point work attacks body function instead of raw health.

Abilities

Other Useful Commands

Ranger

Work in progress: Ranger is being built toward this design, and current game behavior differs in places.

Rangers are practical wilderness specialists. They know terrain, tracks, weather, tools, camps, animal helpers, and the quiet work that happens before the first arrow lands.

Playstyle

Ranger studies the land, reads the trail, and survives.

The normal Ranger loop is:

• Read the terrain
• Track or choose quarry
• Prepare a camp, trail mark, trap, or ambush
• Open from range or from cover
• Keep the fight on ground the Ranger understands

Terrain

Familiar ground gives better tracking, cleaner foraging, stronger ambushes, and safer camps.

Terrain familiarity rises by traveling, foraging, tracking, camping, and fighting on that type of ground.

Quarry

Quarry study improves tracking, ambush openings, called shots, companion behavior, trap placement, and material recovery.

Camps

Camps are temporary field positions for recovery, gear sorting, track reading, and planning. Familiar terrain and field materials make them stronger.

Companion

Ranger companions scout, track, distract, retrieve, guard, and help finish wounded quarry. Training and field use improve them.

Abilities

Other Useful Commands

Swashbuckler

Work in progress: Swashbuckler is being built toward this design, and current game behavior differs in places.

Swashbucklers fight with nerve, footwork, charm, blades, and perfect timing. They are rogues who step into the light on purpose.

Playstyle

Swashbuckler wins by turning danger into a duel, a dare, and a story.

The normal Swashbuckler loop is:

• Carry a blade that fits the fight
• Start one or more techniques
• Build tempo through parries, dodges, flourishes, and openings
• Spend Finesse on stronger blade pressure
• Use charm, challenge, parley, or skulk when the room turns strange
• Name the weapon that survives long enough to deserve it

Finesse

Finesse is the Swashbuckler's working focus. Technique weight, blade type, armor weight, tempo, charm, reputation, and stacked techniques all affect how much strain the Swashbuckler can sustain.

Techniques

Blade techniques are active combat modes. They stay on until stopped, exhausted, or replaced.

Tricks

Tricks start fights on the Swashbuckler's terms, end ugly fights, or make an opponent look foolish.

Named Weapons

Named blades remember duels, escapes, wounds, insults, impossible victories, favorite techniques, public challenges, and recoveries after humiliation.

Advancement

Swashbucklers advance through Finesse, technique mastery, duels, daring escapes, successful challenges, public victories, and blade work.

Other Useful Commands

Thief

Work in progress: Thief is being built toward this design, and current game behavior differs in places.

Thieves turn information, access, timing, and opportunity into power. They case rooms, scout exits, steal coins, lift objects, plant evidence, trap paths, follow marks, hide in plain sight, poison blades, and strike when the target is already compromised.

Playstyle

Thief is leverage: what the target owns, where the target goes, who the target trusts, and what the target forgot to guard.

The normal Thief loop is:

• Case the target or room
• Scout exits and escape routes
• Steal, palm, pick, plant, trap, or shadow
• Let Heat rise only as far as the job is worth
• Enter combat with poison, marks, position, and dirty tricks
• Leave with the money, item, secret, or body

Jobs

Jobs are the Thief's real work.

Heat

Heat is the cost of being sloppy. Witnessed theft, repeated targets, botched jobs, public violence, and obvious escapes raise Heat. Clean escapes, time, contacts, and quieter work lower it.

Marks

Marks are prepared advantages from casing, shadowing, scouting, planting, trapping, or studying habits.

Dirty Fighting

Thief combat is unfair by design. The guild uses openings, bleeds, stuns, movement denial, poison, and prepared strikes.

Advancement

Thieves advance through jobs, clean escapes, marks, contacts, traps, risky theft, and prepared violence.

Other Useful Commands

Berserker

Work in progress: Berserker is being built toward this design, and current game behavior differs in places.

Berserkers turn pain, pressure, fear, and bad odds into weaponized fury. They do not fight by perfect discipline. They win by feeding violence until it becomes a machine: build Fury, break into Frenzy, and try not to give in to Madness.

Playstyle

Berserker has a simple base loop and a dangerous mastery loop.

The simple loop is direct:

• Fight and kill to build Fury
• Fury crests into Frenzy
• Frenzy tears through the enemy
• Vent, crash, recover, and start again

The mastery loop rides the Frenzy instead of ending it. Kills and heavy hits keep Fury moving. Staying in Frenzy builds Madness. Madness makes Frenzy more effective, unlocks harder effects, and raises the cost of losing control. The best sustained Berserker play keeps Madness near neutral through smart spending: high enough to empower Frenzy, low enough to avoid ruin.

Fury

Fury is the fuel. It rises from combat pressure and falls when the Berserker vents, crashes, waits too long, or loses the chain of violence.

It can be tracked on the monitor bar if enabled (bstatus fury on) and ranges from 0 to 100.

Some ways to build Fury:

• Taking damage
• Landing heavy hits
• Killing enemies
• Being outnumbered
• Suffering a status condition
• Skills
• Bard incitement

When Fury crests, Berserker Frenzy opens.

Frenzy

Frenzy is the Berserker's signature state and is available once Fury reaches its maximum. Initially, this presents as a barrage of attacks that happen automatically. This drains Fury, and prevents new Fury from being generated for a short duration.

As a Berserker advances, they can learn different ways to hone their Frenzy.

The first change is that Berserkers learn to hold onto their Frenzy and only release it when they choose to; this is known as a Directed Frenzy.

While using Directed Frenzy mode, if the Berserker maintains maximum Fury for an extended duration without expending it, they'll gain Madness.

Madness

Madness is a measure of a Berserker that has given in to their rage. With Fury at its maximum, any additional Fury is tracked towards Madness, with each additional 100 Fury gained granting one level of Madness (up to 5).

It can be tracked on the monitor bar if enabled (bstatus madness on).

Madness normally falls when:

• The Berserker uses vent
• Frenzy ends naturally
• The Berserker leaves combat and remains calm for a duration
• Certain guild skills spend Madness
• Certain priestly, bardic, or alchemical effects soothe rage

Madness rises when:

• Fury would be gained while already at maximum Fury
• The Berserker scores a killing blow during Directed Frenzy
• The Berserker takes a large single hit while at maximum Fury
• The Berserker is stunned, paralyzed, feared, poisoned, or otherwise impaired
• The Berserker remains at maximum Fury without venting

The effects of each level are cumulative unless otherwise noted.

Madness Level 0

• vent: At the cost of SP, the Berserker can dump all Fury and Madness
• No passive Madness benefits or checks

Madness Level 1

• The Berserker gains minor passive damage resistance against weapon damage
• Berserker guild skills no longer consume Fury
• The Berserker occasionally suffers a Concentration block
• Dropping out of Madness will result in a temporary stat penalty

Madness Level 2

• Can no longer flee from battle
• Weapon damage resistance improves
• Critical hit damage bonus
• vent cost increases; also reserves some SP upon usage

Madness Level 3

• Berserker occasionally resists stun and paralysis effects
• Weapon damage resistance improves
• Chance to lash out and counterattack
• vent has decent failure chance

Madness Level 4

• Critical hit damage bonus
• Chance to increase the number of swings per attack
• High chance to lash out and attack random targets

Madness Level 5

Upon reaching Madness level 5, the Berserker loses control.

At this stage:

• Weapon damage resistance improves
• Higher chance to resist stun/paralysis effects
• The Berserker suffers damage when not in combat
• Suffers the Exposed status
• Has a chance to apply the Exposed status while attacking

Scars

When Berserkers meet certain conditions, they receive a permanent mark on their body. They record what the Berserker survived and change what the Berserker becomes.

Advancement Options

The following are some options available to Berserkers

Abilities

• Enrage: Spend a little HP to work yourself into violence, gaining Fury. If in combat, make a minor attack
• Rend: A savage weapon strike that has a chance to cause a bleeding wound
• Batter: A quick hit. Increases in damage/cost and lowers cooldown when used in succession
• Rupture: Attempt to violently rupture existing wounds on a target. Deal more damage depending on the number of status effects on the target
• Shrug: Attempt to escape an entanglement or stun. At higher Madness, the chance improves
• Stomp: Attempt to disrupt a target by slamming the ground underneath them
• Roar: Attempt to negate positive effects on a target
• Primal strike: Release a Madness powered strike on a target
• Flare: Spend some HP to revitalize a scar, gaining a benefit based on which scar activates
• Repress: Burn through Madness for a quick heal, but a random debuff

Other Useful Commands

Traits

Traits represent a character's proficiency in a subjet. As players interact with the world they may learn new Traits. The level of proficiency is represented from a range of 0 to 1000. Generally, using a skill or compeleting a task that requires a certain trait has a chance to increase that trait. Most traits can be trained up to 750 with this method. The remaining training is typically accomplished via quests or specific achievements. A trait can only be trained up to 5 times the character's level.

There are rumors of secret traits that are hidden throughout DarkWind.

Some examples of traits:

• Arcane: The ability to recall information about magic and focus your will power into spells. Key to the Mage guild.
• Professions are specific traits related to collecting and crafting

To see your proficiency in each trait you know, you can use the traits command.

Professions

There are a subset of traits that are available to all players immediately and are core to the professions system.

DarkWind currently has eight professions. Seven are split into two main groups - gathering and manufacturing. The gathering professions are herbalism, mining, and skinning. The manufacturing professions are alchemy, leatherworking, smithing, and tailoring. The gathering professions gather resources from the game environment. The manufacturing professions use the resources from the gathering professions, along with reagents dropped from npc kills to manufacture goods. You can buy profession tools from the profession building in town.

Note: not all reagent drops from npcs will show in your reagents list.

• Herbalism allows you to 'gather herbs' across the world. Their main purpose will be for use in alchemy potions.
• Mining allows you to 'mine ore' in various terrains around the world. The ores you mine would be used mostly for smithing, with some used in the other manufacturing professions.
• Skinning allows you to 'skin corpse' and retrieve their hides. The hides would be used mostly for leatherworking.
• Alchemy is used to create potions. The potions could have various uses, from stat enhancement to healing.
• Leatherworking allows you to create leather goods. Most of those goods would be in the form of leather armour, but other goods such as bags would be included.
• Smithing allows you to create armour from the various metals.
• Tailoring allows you to create clothing and padded armour. Cloth bags, bandages, and poultices would also be included.
• Fishing is a stand-alone profession that allows you to take a break and relax, fishing up meals you can use later in your adventures.

To see your skills in each profession, you can use the professions command. These are also displayed under traits. To see your reagents, you can use the reagents command.

Note: Most transformed forms do not need the profession tools.

Passive Abilities granted by equipment and/or living

Referred to as Sigils

Sigils

Ideas from Kyoto: Riposte: Chance to counter an incoming attack Petrify: Chance to turn into a stone statue on low HP and regenerate health while petrified Spellsteal: Chance to drain some SP on attack Glutton: Effect of eating food increased by 6/8/10/12% Flight: Grants the ability to fly

| Sigil Name | Description | | Dragonheart | Increase damage done to dragon enemies | | Lifesaver | Chance to survive otherwise fatal attack | | Fortified | Increase defense when facing multiple opponents | | Bloodthirty | Chance to heal after landing a killing blow | | Mystic | Chance to avoid incoming magical attacks |

Hyper inspired?

| Sigil Name | Description | | Frostborn | Cold resist and increased damage when fighting in the cold | | Berserker | Increase crit chance based on missing health | | Valkyrie's Fury | Chance to summon an ethereal ally when battling powerful enemies | | Thundersoul | Chance to increase speed when hit with lightning damage | | Giant Slayer | Increase damage done to larger opponents |

Kerei

| Sigil Name | Description | | Jade Strike | Attacks have a chance to poison enemies | | Mystic Meditation | Extra hp/sp regen and can access hidden meditation spots | | Forest Spirit | Chance to summon a friendly forest spirit that occasionally heals | | Hayameru | Accelerate, increasing number of scriptable commands together without resting |

AI ones after this; need to select/change to fit

Certainly! Here are 10 Lerquird-themed Sigils:

Spore Burst - Provides a chance for the player to release a cloud of toxic spores upon being struck, poisoning enemies and lowering their accuracy.
Mushroom Shield - Provides a temporary shield of sturdy mushrooms that can absorb incoming damage and provide regeneration over time.
Fungal Growth - Provides a chance for the player to rapidly regenerate health when standing on a mushroom patch.
Swamp Stalker - Increases the player's stealth and movement speed while in swampy terrain, allowing for stealthy approaches and ambushes.
Siren's Call - Provides a chance for the player to charm nearby enemies, causing them to fight for the player for a short time.
Tendril Grapple - Allows the player to grapple onto vines and tendrils, pulling themselves towards higher ground or using them to swing over dangerous terrain.
Plague Bearer - Provides the player with a chance to infect enemies with a highly contagious disease that spreads over time.
Rotting Touch - Provides a chance for the player to inflict a powerful disease upon enemies that deals damage over time and lowers their defenses.
Mycological Mastery - Increases the player's understanding of fungal life and allows them to harvest rare mushrooms and spores for use in potions and alchemy.
Giant's Blessing - Provides the player with temporary growth in size, strength, and resilience, allowing them to smash through obstacles and overwhelm enemies.

Certainly! Here are 10 Iglantu-themed Sigils:

Fiery Focus - Increases the player's damage when attacking with fire-based spells or weapons.
Burning Aura - Provides a constant aura of heat around the player, damaging enemies in close proximity and igniting flammable objects.
Magma Walker - Allows the player to walk on lava and safely traverse through pools of molten rock.
Hellfire Immunity - Grants immunity to fire and lava damage.
Infernal Rejuvenation - Provides the player with health regeneration when standing in flames or near sources of heat.
Molten Armor - Provides the player with temporary armor made of molten rock that can absorb incoming damage and deal fire damage to enemies.
Pyromaniac - Provides a chance for the player to ignite enemies when attacking with fire-based spells or weapons.
Elemental Mastery - Increases the player's understanding and control over elemental fire, allowing for more efficient use of fire spells and abilities.
Volcanic Eruption - Allows the player to call down a meteor-like explosion of fire and molten rock, dealing massive damage to enemies in a wide radius.
Blaze of Glory - Provides the player with a burst of fiery power, increasing damage output and causing all attacks to ignite enemies for a short time.

Leveling

DarkWind introduces some features based on your player level. These thresholds and some of their benefits are described below.

New

Players are considered new until their 6th level, though most guilds will allow membership at level 5.

Champion

To earn the title of Champion, you must attain level 50. Players that have reached this status will have [CHMP] in place of their level on the who list.

Several advantages are given to those who attain hero status. Along with the prestige of being a recognised Champion is the ability to change their title at will with the ltitle command.

Additionally, your account will be granted a multicharacter slot upon your first character reaching Champion.

Hero

The rank of Hero requires level 100.

Upon reaching level 100, the cooldown for using Cinis to teleport is reduced to 25 minutes. Players that have reached this status will have [HERO] in place of their level on the who list.

Legend

The Legend title requires level 150. You will have [LGND] in place of your level on the who list.

The benefit to reaching LEGEND is the ability to turn combatbrief damage on.

Epic

The rank of Epic requires level 200. Players will have [EPIC] in place of their level on the who list.

Players of this rank can remotely buy items on the market without physically being in a market room.

Mythic

The rank of Mythic requires level 250. Players will have [MYTH] in place of their level on the who list.

As the highest player-attainable level, Mythic is a requirement for some late game content, like particular quests or dungeons.

Additionally, Mythic players can seek out a Shrine of Creation. These shrines are key to how the Remort system works.

Newbification

On Darkwind, we give players the option to newbify their characters should they choose to do so. This entails 'killing' them down to level 1, reducing all stats down to starting values, and resetting a couple other things the character has learned throughout their life. It's merely a quick way for you to start somewhat over, but not quite from scratch.

You will need to find someone to help you accomplish this dasterdly deed though. If you ask around you can probably find such a person willing to help you 'see the light' a little early.

NOTE: Attempting to newbify yourself by repeatedly killing yourself off is against the spirit of the game and is punishable by the Gods of Darkwind.

Real Life Talk: If you are feeling suicidal, please reach out to someone. Depression lies.

If you are in the USA, Call 1-800-273-8255 If you are in the UK, Call 116 123 If you are in Australia, Call 13 11 14 If you are in the Netherlands/nu hulp nodig? Call 0900-0113

Or send a tell, shout, gossip, etc to anyone online.

Classes

Work in progress: the class roster is being built toward this design, and current game behavior differs in places.

Classes are remort-scale transformations. A guild teaches what a character does. A class changes what a character is.

See Remort for the larger progression system.

Class Roster

Candidate Class

How Classes Work

• Classes alter a character's body, mind, craft, or existence
• Classes sit above guild membership rather than replacing it automatically
• Class power brings class-shaped costs
• Remort choices create new play patterns, not just larger numbers
• Candidate classes stay out of the confirmed roster until the play pattern is stable

Artificer

Work in progress: Artificer is being built toward this design, and current game behavior differs in places.

Artificers solve problems by making, modifying, deploying, and maintaining objects. Their power lives in preparation, clever materials, field devices, and equipment that remembers its maker.

At A Glance

• Class type: remort transformation
• Main traits: Craft, Precision, Arcane
• Progression: schematics, prototypes, mastery, workshops
• Core tools: devices, salvage, upgrades, repairs, field kits
• Play style: preparation, object interaction, tactical inventions

Playstyle

Artificer is not a guild order. It is a way of seeing the world as pieces, materials, stresses, tolerances, and possible improvements.

Progression

Artificer progression uses schematic mastery and workshop milestones.

Core Devices

Beta Notes

Helpful feedback from beta testers:

• Preparation feels powerful without slowing every session
• Devices matter outside combat
• Salvage rewards exploration
• Equipment changes remain understandable
• Artificer feels like a class, not another guild shop

Dragon

Work in progress: Dragon is being built toward this design, and current game behavior differs in places.

Dragon is a mythic body path. The character does not merely learn dragon powers; the character becomes a dragon and accepts the consequences.

At A Glance

• Class type: remort transformation
• Main traits: Vigor, Presence, Element
• Progression: age, lineage, lair, hoard, form mastery
• Core tools: dragon form, breath, claws, scales, flight, fear
• Play style: mythic strength with equipment and social tradeoffs

Playstyle

Dragon changes the character's physical relationship with the world. Ordinary equipment, doors, shops, rooms, and social expectations all feel different in a dragon body.

Progression

Dragon progression uses age and lair milestones.

Dragon Powers

Tradeoffs

Dragon power has visible costs:

• Dragon form changes equipment use
• Large bodies struggle with ordinary spaces
• Social systems react to mythic presence
• Hoard and lair obligations create story hooks
• Breath and fear draw attention

Beta Notes

Helpful feedback from beta testers:

• Dragon form feels transformative
• Tradeoffs feel fair and flavorful
• Lair and hoard matter
• Lineage changes playstyle
• Dragon feels like a class, not a guild with scales

Morpher

Work in progress: Morpher is being built toward this design, and current game behavior differs in places.

Morphers make the body into the tool. Skin, bone, hands, blood, movement, and pain all become mutable material.

At A Glance

• Class type: remort transformation
• Main traits: Vigor, Adaptation, Instinct
• Progression: morph states, graft mastery, biological thresholds
• Core tools: body weapons, mutable defenses, regeneration, grafts
• Play style: physical adaptation with equipment tradeoffs

Playstyle

Morpher is not animal shapeshifting and not Dragon myth. It is deliberate body alteration: useful, strange, costly, and personal.

Progression

Morpher progression uses adaptation thresholds and graft mastery.

Morph Tools

Tradeoffs

Morpher changes equipment expectations:

• Body weapons compete with held weapons
• Some morphs need free hands
• Torso and limb armor interfere with major changes
• Regeneration and adaptation create visible tells
• Instability punishes constant over-morphing

Beta Notes

Helpful feedback from beta testers:

• Body changes feel useful and strange
• Equipment tradeoffs are clear
• Grafts create meaningful choices
• Regeneration has real limits
• Morpher feels like a class, not a shapeshift guild

Psionicist

Work in progress: Psionicist is being built toward this design, and current game behavior differs in places.

Psionicists turn disciplined mind into force. They read pressure, reshape perception, push bodies, touch thoughts, and bend the timing of a fight.

At A Glance

• Class type: remort transformation
• Main traits: Will, Memory, Perception
• Progression: disciplines, mental strain, awakened senses
• Core tools: telepathy, force, perception, displacement, mental control
• Play style: self-powered psychic pressure and information advantage

Playstyle

Psionicist is not spellbook magic or divine power. It is internal force trained until thought affects the room.

Progression

Psionicist progression uses discipline thresholds and strain mastery.

Disciplines

Core Powers

Beta Notes

Helpful feedback from beta testers:

• Psychic power feels internal, not arcane
• Perception gives useful information
• Strain limits burst without feeling punitive
• Disciplines create different builds
• Psionicist feels like a class-scale transformation

Vampire

Work in progress: Vampire is being evaluated as a class, and current game behavior differs in places.

Vampire is a transformation of appetite, body, social presence, and weakness.

At A Glance

• Class type: candidate remort transformation
• Main traits: Presence, Hunger, Shadow
• Progression: blood mastery, night rites, predatory restraint
• Core tools: blood, charm, fear, movement, resilience, feeding
• Play style: predation with visible costs

Playstyle

Vampire is not a guild with training rooms. It is a curse, an appetite, and a social mask.

Progression

Vampire progression uses blood mastery and restraint.

Core Powers

Costs

Vampire power has strong constraints:

• Hunger pressures long sessions
• Sunlight and sanctified spaces matter
• Feeding creates social and moral exposure
• Public predation raises danger
• Some guild rites and holy effects punish undeath

Beta Notes

Helpful feedback from beta testers:

• Hunger creates drama without constant annoyance
• Feeding choices matter
• Night play feels different
• Costs are clear before danger spikes
• Vampire earns class status before joining the confirmed roster

Mechanics

The following are an overview of some mechanics in the world of DarkWind.

• DarkWind is text-based, meaning that environments, characters, and actions are described in text. Players interact with the game and each other through typed commands.
• The combat system is "turn-based", with turns lasting about one second.
• Players can undertake quests or missions, which often involve exploring dungeons, solving puzzles, or completing specific tasks.
• DarkWind is a social game. Players are encouraged to role-play, though there are no strict requirements to do so.
• Players can form groups called clans, trade items, and collaborate or compete with each other.

Reboot

The game world typically persists over time, with a game "reboot" happening roughly every 2 weeks. This allows for server maintenance, new global code updates, resets of once-per-boot areas, etc. When the MUD reboots, all equipment stored in guilds, shops, boats, ... will disappear, as will ponies and similar helpers. Boats will not disappear, nor will money on your character or in the bank.

The uptime command shows how long DarkWind has been up since the last reboot and an estimate of the next scheduled reboot. Unfortunately, sometimes unscheduled reboots are necessary for a variety of reasons.

Other Mechanics

• Remort
• Status Effects
• Shielding
• Equipment

Remort System

Upon reaching Mythic status, players can seek out a Shrine of Creation. These shrines allow a character to gain a game changing boon, but resets their level.

Some key mechanics of the Remort system:

• Character is reset to level 1
• XP on hand is lost
• Character retains any gold, ownership (such as boats), and trait progress
• This process can be repeated upon reaching Mythic again
• Each Remort will increase the experience cost for leveling by 50% to 100%
• Shrines will generally grant meta stats that persist through Remort and/or access to Classes

Most shrines are hidden away and require searching to find. The Esper shrine can be found in DarkWind city and resembles the diadem that members of the Psionic Order wear.

Status Effects

The following are common status effects you might encounter while playing. These might be inflicted by monsters or through your own spells and skills.

Blindness

Reduced chance to land or dodge hits.

Distracted

Reduced chance to land or dodge hits. Reduced ability to absorb damage. Prevents most spellcasting.

Paralyzed

Cannot attack. Reduced chance to dodge hits. Prevented from most physical interactions due to loss of body control.

Silenced

Cannot cast spells or use abilities that require vocalization. Reduced communication capabilities.

Impaired Movement

Prevented from leaving the room.

Entangled

Rooted in place, preventing movement of arms and/or legs. When combined, similar to paralyzed.

Deafened

Reduced awareness of surroundings, impairing reaction speed and causing a chance to misinterpret or miss spoken commands and cues.

Poisoned

Suffering periodic damage over time due to toxic exposure.

Burning

Suffering continuous fire damage and reduced healing effectiveness due to severe burns.

Bleeding

Losing health over time due to uncontrolled hemorrhaging. Bursts of damage when moving.

Confused

Randomized actions, resulting in forgetting to attack or other various mishaps.

Terrified

Reduced combat effectiveness, with a chance to flee or freeze in place during each turn.

Chilled

Reduced speed and reaction time due to severe cold.

Sundered

Reduced physical defense due to damaged armor or protective magic.

Diseased

Decreased overall effectiveness due to illness. Reduced healing received.

Exposed

Increased susceptibility to critical hits due to lowered defenses.

Enfeebled

Decreased chance to land critical hits.

Hexed

Reduced magic effectiveness and resistance, with a chance for spells to fail or backfire due to a curse. Generally seen as a percentage of max HP/SP "reserved".

Shielding

Shields are a form of damage mitigation. They act like simple forms of temporary health. A generic shield will block all forms of damage, but there are specific types of shields that will only block that type of incoming damage. Current shields are viewable through hp or ..

Example of a generic shield

[ SHIELD> Generic(200)         ]

• If you took 50 points of fire damage, the shield would absorb that and be reduced to 150
• If you then took 100 points of water damage, the shield would absorb that and be reduced to 50
• If you then took 100 points of lightning damage, the shield would absorb 50 (total of 200 absorbed), then you would receive 50 points of damage

Example of a specific shield

[ SHIELD> Fire(500)            ]

• If you took 50 points of fire damage, the shield would absorb that and be reduced to 450
• If you then took 100 points of water damage, the damage would bypass the shield. You would take all 100 points of damage.
• If you then took 100 points of lightning damage, the damage would bypass the shield. You would take all 100 points of damage.
• At the end of this, you would have 450 shield against fire damage remaining, and 200 HP damage taken.

Example of multiple specific shields

[ SHIELD> Fire(500)            Water(500)           Earth(500)         ]

• If you took 50 points of fire damage, the fire shield would absorb that and be reduced to 450
• If you then took 100 points of water damage, the water shield would absorb that and be reduced to 400
• If you then took 100 points of lightning damage, the damage would bypass the shield. You would take all 100 points of damage.
• At the end of this, you would have 450 fire shield, 400 water shield, 500 earth shield, and 100 HP damage taken

Equipment

Weapons

Damage Types

Weapons have a damage type or combination of damage types that they apply. These are:

• blunt: damage dealt with forceful impacts, ideal for crushing armor and bone
• cleave: powerful, sweeping strikes
• pierce: precise, pointed attacks, including bows
• slash: quick cuts relying on sharp edges movements
• magical: damage from arcane, elemental, or mystical energies

Extra Weapon Properties

In addition to the type of damage a weapon can do, armaments are also distinguished in their size (small, medium, large, and huge) and other properties. These can include:

• Polearm: Weapons with long handles and designed for reach or leverage
• Missile: Projectiles or weapons designed for long-range attacks; typically bows, slingshots, or similar launching devices
• Martial: Denotes weapons that require specialized training to use effectively, often associated with skilled combatants and warriors
• Finesse: Weapons that rely more on precision and agility rather than brute force, allowing the user to leverage some of their dexterity for attacks
• Focus: Used to channel magical energies and essential for spellcasters to enhance their spells

Common Weapons

Here are some common weapons and descriptions of their properties:

Rules

The following are not allowed on DarkWind. Failure to observe these rules will result in punishment. Lack of knowledge of these rules is not an excuse for not following them.

There are rules that apply to players and wizards. Everyone will know what is illegal for all to do. Players are expected not to ask wizards to break wizard rules, and wizards are expected not to break rules that bind players.

Players

Players must obey requests from wizards. If a player feels that a request is out of line, the player should notify a higher level wizard AFTER complying with the request.

Players may not abuse (or use once it's been determined as a bug) any bug. Failing to report a known bug is illegal. If something is "too good to be true", it probably is. Always report it. If found to be intended, then great!

Personal attacks, racial and ethnic slurs, sexual harassment, and other forms of attack will not be tolerated. Threatening other players or wizards with violence will not be tolerated. If someone is ignoring you, do not try to get around it; they're ignoring you for a reason, respect that. The Golden Rule applies here.

No bulletin board (including the PK board and private clan boards) may be used to flame, ridicule or otherwise denigrate other players or wizards. Using them to accuse others of cheating/bug-abuse, or threatening, is also prohited.

PK issues may only be discussed on the PK board, clan boards, and guild boards (where appropriate to the guild).

Any DarkWind forums are considered an extension of the bulletin boards on the MUD.

Having multiple (second, third, etc.) non-registered main characters will not be tolerated. DarkWind does allow for the registration of secondary characters. This is provided as a perk for leveling. See multichars for more info.

Botting is not allowed. This is defined as reating client or server-side scripts that will perform an unlimited number of actions without requiring a live person to be sitting at the keyboard. Use of robots will result in removal of the character. See triggers for information regarding their usage and further clarification. The DarkWind-provided script command is excluded from this rule. However, using a client to string together multiple script commands is still illegal as is using a trigger to activate the script. Do not use anything that keeps your character from idling, e.g., triggers, events, scripts. Automating killing without a live person at the keyboard is also illegal.

"Kill stealing" is not allowed. If someone is actively killing a mob, the mob is 'theirs' as is the equipment/money in the room. If the player leaves the room, it's fair game, though common courtesy would suggest you leave the mob alone. This does also apply to transformed players who are fighting in a room. The items and gold on the ground they are in are not open, just because they can't pick them up. If the player is IDLE, then the items/mobs are fair game.

Wizards

Wizards may not provide access to their character to any other person.

Wizards may not erase or otherwise edit other wizards' files. The same applies to system files. Access to these files is generally protected, but it's conceivable that some things may be overlooked. If the wizard discovers that they have greater access than they should, it should be reported to an IMP+.

Wizards may not copy another wizard's work without prior consent.

Wizards may not interfere with players in any way. This includes: healing players; providing additional stats, XP, money, levels, alignment, etc. through patching; giving players objects. This is not a comprehensive list by any means. In general: if the character isn't your test character, don't mess with them. The occasional boon or similar global blessing given by an IMP+ is not considered interference.

Wizards may not abuse wizard powers.

Wizards may not disobey higher-up wizards.

Multichars

The only acceptable form of multicharacters are ones created by the game.

• You may only have ONE of your characters logged in at a time.
• In addition to your main character, you may register additional characters.
• You gain a multichar slot once your main character reaches champion level.
• Login to your multi through your main account; this means you will only need to remember one username/password combination.
• You can purchase additional multichar slots.
• The multirep command gives an overview of your multichars.
• You can copy your main character's alias list with the multicopy command.
• All of your multis can access funds from your bank account wih the transfer function built in at the bank.
• Your mulits can access items from your storage room at the bank with the store, retrieve, list functions.

Triggers

A trigger is defined as using a client or some other program to scan the incoming text from a terminal session and issue a particular command when the text matches a particular user-defined string.

The use of triggers (both directed and automated) is legal provided that at no time is your character left unattended and that they do not activate upon merely walking into a room.

• Example: Boddy, Dinky, Koffy are in a party. Boddy is the leader and says heal me. Dinky could then have a trigger set up to heal boddy.
• Example: The use of an assist trigger in a party setting is allowed, provided your character is attended at all times.
• Example: The use of a burn corpse trigger is allowed, provided it activates ONLY upon your kill. This includes all forms of corpse skills. Eating them, burning them, turning them into scorching piles of ash, etc. If you didn't kill it, don't trigger it.
• Example: The use of a kill <mob> trigger is allowed, provided it does not attack a mob as soon as you walk into a room, or as soon as a mob spawns. If it does, that is considered botting.

Any trigger (automated or directed) which allows your character to move is illegal. Movement by use of the in-game scripting ability is allowed, however, this does NOT exclude using a script to kill. Please do NOT script kill an entire area. This is considered botting.

This does NOT mean you can trigger the usage of the in-game scripting. Do not trigger (or otherwise) automate movement.

Any trigger (automated or directed) which keeps your character logged into the game, and active, without attendance is prohibited. Do not trigger (or otherwise) automate killing.

Any trigger that is an open variable which allows another player to control your character without you being at your computer is prohibited.

Just don't do it. Sit at the keyboard, have a good time. If you get up, turn everything off. This will make DarkWind enjoyable for everyone.

Legacy Design Notes

These notes describe the guild implementation that exists in the current mudlib. They are intentionally separate from the future-facing design pages in doc/design/gameplay/ so old behavior can be referenced without turning it into new design direction by accident.

Primary source anchors:

• codebase/secure/include/guildd.h - canonical guild names, flags, dual-guild rules, join levels, and max guild levels.
• codebase/secure/daemons/guildd.c - equipment restrictions, entrance routing, combat modifiers, HP/SP formulas, and guild soul repair paths.
• codebase/guilds/ - guild rooms, souls, daemons, objects, and local headers.
• codebase/cmds/guilds/ - command surfaces added by guild souls.
• codebase/doc/guild/ - in-game guild help, often the clearest player-facing description of the older systems.

Pages:

• Current Guild Map
• Standard and Aligned Guilds
• Later-Era and Mythic Guilds
• Archived and Transitional Guilds

Current Guild Map

The legacy guild system is string-driven and unevenly wired. A fully live guild usually has a name in GUILD_NAMES, a restriction row in guildd.c, a soul object that adds command paths, in-game help under /doc/guild, and a soul path in GUILD_D->query_guild_soul_path() so missing guild objects can be repaired.

The current implementation should be treated as evidence, not a clean spec. Some names are fully playable systems, some are old prototypes, and some are registry placeholders.

Live GuildD Soul Paths

These guilds have explicit repair paths in setup_guild_soul_paths() and are the most reliable picture of what the game currently expects to keep alive.

Registry Shape

GUILD_NAMES currently includes the standard guilds plus mythic or later-era guilds:

• Standard/old alignment guilds: Bard, Berserker, Cleric_Mitra, Fighter, Garou, Lunar, Mage, Ninja, Paladin, Priest, Psionicist, Swashbuckler, Thief.
• Mythic/later-era guilds: Ubergarou, BattleMage, BloodMage, Deathknight, Dragon, Druid, Glyph, Monk, Morpher, Necro, Ranger, Samurai, Vampire.

The alignment model is still visible in dual-guild rules:

• Neutral: Bard, Berserker, Fighter, Psionicist, Swashbuckler.
• Gaea: Druid, Garou, Lunar, Ninja.
• Mitra: Cleric_Mitra, Mage, Paladin.
• Set: Priest, Thief.

Several later guilds opt out of dualing entirely. Dragon, Monk, Morpher, Necro, and Vampire all have empty dual-allow lists.

Implementation Patterns

Guild souls are wearable or inventory objects. They call CMD_D->add_path() for guild command directories, connect the player to channels, provide login/logout messages, and often hold persistent guild state.

Guild identity is stored by string name on the player. That makes name drift important: Ubergarou and UberGarou both appear, Cleric_Mitra uses a code root named mitra, and the current Set guild is Priest while older Set code still exists under /guilds/set.

GUILD_D is the shared enforcement point for equipment restrictions, guild entrances, combat modifiers, HP/SP formulas, and the soul repair map. A guild can have a large code tree and still be effectively disconnected if it is not present in the soul path or entrance maps.

The old in-game help files are often more complete than the implementation headers. Treat them as player-facing intent, then verify against souls, commands, and GUILD_D before relying on a detail.

Known Inconsistencies

• CHARLATAN currently aliases BARD in guildd.h, but a separate Charlatan tree, command set, help tree, and entrance still exist.
• Samurai appears in GUILD_NAMES, but it is missing from the GUILD_FIELDS mapping used elsewhere and has no GuildD soul repair path.
• Morpher has substantial code and commands, but no GuildD soul repair path or default entrance route.
• Druid help lists powers beyond the max level declared in guildd.h.
• Deathknight has entrance references for Souvrael and Kerei, but no matching top-level guild tree in this checkout.
• Vampire, BloodMage, UberGarou, and Berserker have registry traces but no complete current guild tree wired like the live guilds.

Standard and Aligned Guilds

These are the older aligned or standard guilds that still form the backbone of the current guild system. They generally use a guild soul, guild command path, in-game help tree, and GUILD_D equipment row.

Bard

Status: live GuildD soul path.

The Bard is a performance and support guild built around a lute soul. Its command surface mixes social performance, battlefield encouragement, lore, tricks, and a few direct utility powers. The soul adds /cmds/guilds/bard, connects the player to Bard channels, and exposes higher-rank lines such as bgm.

Legacy role: flexible support, performer, storyteller, and occasional trickster. Commands include performance and support tools such as perform, compose, hymn, chant, rally, soothe, muse, lore, and legend, alongside trick commands such as vent, playdead, distract, juggle, steal, and brew.

Equipment is light-to-medium. Bard rows forbid plate, scale, and shields while leaving weapon use comparatively broad.

Source anchors: /guilds/bard/obj/bardsoul.c, /cmds/guilds/bard, /doc/guild/bard.

Cleric_Mitra

Status: live GuildD soul path.

Cleric_Mitra is the Mitra-aligned priestly guild. The soul is a holy symbol, and the command path lives under /cmds/guilds/mitra. The in-game help presents Clerics as healers, defenders, resurrectors, curse and disease removers, and holy casters who support allies from near or far.

Legacy role: defensive divine caster with healing, protection, resurrection, holy offense, and travel or rescue tools. Help topics include bless, cure and remove lines, renew, resurrect, raise, sunray, flamestrike, hold, turn, truesight, locate, portal, word, hammer, angel, and wyvern.

Equipment favors blunt weapons and allows heavier armor than most casters. The GuildD row restricts slash, cleave, and pierce weapon families.

Source anchors: /guilds/mitra/mitra_soul.c, /cmds/guilds/mitra, /doc/guild/clericmitra.

Fighter

Status: live GuildD soul path.

Fighter is the direct martial baseline. The soul is a tabard, and the guild is centered on weapons, armor, combat maneuvers, and battlefield durability.

Legacy role: heavy weapon and armor specialist. Commands include martial actions such as bash, cleave, disarm, thrust, frush, fcharge, fkick, fpunch, fdefend, fbalance, frenzy, frage, and fbehead, plus guild utilities like fwho, fchat, fskills, fstats, and fassist.

Equipment is the least restrictive of the old guilds. Fighters can use the heavy weapons and armor that many other guilds cannot.

Source anchors: /guilds/fighter/fighter_soul.c, /cmds/guilds/fighter, /doc/guild/fighter.

Garou

Status: live GuildD soul path.

Garou is the werewolf/Gaea guild. The code root is /guilds/were, while the command path is /cmds/guilds/garou. The guild revolves around forms, packs, moon logic, spirit, Gaea balance, and dedication paths.

Legacy role: shapeshifting predator and protector of balance. Forms include man, wolf, and crinos, with form-specific commands such as chase, eat, bury, carry, spit, and blend. Shared commands include transform, balance, sense, scent, remember, forget, howl, and dig.

Garou have dedication branches such as warrior, shaman, and guardian. The soul adds extra paths for those branches when the player is dedicated.

Equipment restrictions are thematic: silver, many magical items, metal-heavy gear, and inappropriate armor are blocked.

Source anchors: /guilds/were/guild_ob.c, /cmds/guilds/garou, /doc/guild/garou.

Lunar

Status: live GuildD soul path.

Lunar is a Gaea-adjacent moon mage guild. The soul is a glowing moonstone amulet. Its help describes powers from Dailos, Markas, and Tekal, with backfire risk and a strong dependency on moon-themed magic.

Legacy role: fragile caster with moon, gravity, storm, water, teleportation, and lycanthropic themes. Commands include mbeam, mheal, mlight, morbs, mreflect, mslam, mswarm, moongate, mtele, cataclysm, firestorm, tsunami, solarwind, lunacy, and lycanthrope.

Progression runs through the normal 1-15 range, with code for higher levels gated by high character level and special moon champion states.

Equipment follows caster restrictions similar to Mage: cloth/leather, light weapons, and limited shields rather than heavy armor.

Source anchors: /guilds/lunar/objects/lunar_soul.c, /cmds/guilds/lunar, /doc/guild/lunar.

Mage

Status: live GuildD soul path.

Mage is the classic Mitra-aligned arcane guild. The soul is a spell book, with spell commands and Mage channels added at login. In-game help frames Mages as good-aligned destructive and utility casters.

Legacy role: fire, ice, teleportation, detection, protection, and high-end offense. The help spell list includes blaze, detect, analyze, missile, find, illuminate, fireball, icestorm, insane, tport, mbarrage, meye, armor, bolt, levitate, munlock, phase, gate, inferno, powerup, wrath, and touch.

Equipment is strongly restricted. Mages avoid sharp/heavy weapons, plate, most metal armor, and shields.

Source anchors: /guilds/mage/magesoul.c, /cmds/guilds/mage, /doc/guild/mage.

Ninja

Status: live GuildD soul path.

Ninja is a Gaea-side stealth and assassination guild. The soul is ninja wraps. Its help emphasizes secrecy, information, assassination, barehand combat, crippling strikes, meditative focus, and chained techniques.

Legacy role: stealth striker with practice-based ability investment. Ninjas gain practice points, train individual skills, and can master selected abilities at high guild levels. Commands include blind, cripple, dimmak, fade, hayameru, heartstop, nflash, nfocus, nmed, ntrack, onmitsu, pummel, shuriken, tsubo, and tsuki.

Equipment supports light martial play. Heavy weapons, shields, and metal-heavy armor are restricted.

Source anchors: /guilds/ninja/guild_soul.c, /cmds/guilds/ninja, /doc/guild/ninja.

Paladin

Status: live GuildD soul path.

Paladin is the Mitra warrior guild. The soul is a golden Paladin shield, and the guild shares religious space with Clerics while taking a more active combat role.

Legacy role: holy martial defender with devotion powers, warhorse support, and Mitra-themed offense. Devotions include courage, consecrate, retribution, shield light, shield rush, smite, holy presence, divine favor, Mitra's gift, repel undead, sanctify weapon, seals, and holy javelin.

The guild tracks devotion points by guild level. Advancement is capped at 15 and checks charisma. The soul also punishes alcohol use.

Equipment is fighter-like, though much of the identity centers on the guild shield, holy weapon use, and mounted or shield techniques.

Source anchors: /guilds/paladin/obj/paladin_soul.c, /cmds/guilds/paladin, /doc/guild/paladin.

Priest

Status: live GuildD soul path.

Priest is the current Set-aligned guild. It replaces the older Cleric_Set implementation found under /guilds/set. The soul is ceremonial robes and connects to Priest channels.

Legacy role: Set/Chaos divine caster who trades vitality, faith, and domination for power. Abilities include Chaos Bolt, Mend, Transference, Communion, Guiding Strike, Healing Word, Dark Favor, Dreadspike, Summon Familiar, Objurgate, Fragility, Scythe, Anathema, Shadow Step, Petrifying Gaze, Dark Conviction, Resurrection, Leech, Augery, Vitalism, Dark Pact, and Respite.

The soul tithes a portion of positive money gains to Set and can pull overly good alignment downward. Advancement reaches guild level 20 and cannot exceed player level.

Equipment allows more armor than Mage but stops short of full heavy fighter gear. Help specifically calls out scale and banded armor, not full plate.

Source anchors: /guilds/priest/guild_soul.c, /cmds/guilds/priest, /doc/guild/priest.

Psionicist

Status: live GuildD soul path.

Psionicist is the mental power guild. The soul is a jeweled diadem. Its help describes a self-powered caster whose abilities come from disciplined mind rather than divine or arcane sources.

Legacy role: flexible psychic caster with telepathy, detection, protection, damage, teleportation, density manipulation, and mental control. Powers include awe, hypnotize, precognition, project, plash, rejuvenate, clairaudience, clairvoyance, enhance, blind, barrier, reserve, tstrike, dpain, pblast, dreamr, bwave, inflict, obscure, displace, rfield, telobj, banish, timeshift, teleport, pyro, and ultrablast.

Equipment is caster-light but more martial than Mage in some corners. Heavy sharp weapons, helms, plate, chain, scale, banded armor, and shields are blocked.

Source anchors: /guilds/psion/objects/p_soul.c, /cmds/guilds/psion, /doc/guild/psionicist.

Swashbuckler

Status: live GuildD soul path.

Swashbuckler is the light blade and flair guild. The soul is a chipped golden doubloon. The guild has branches in several realms and a command surface built around blade techniques, social bravado, and agility.

Legacy role: dashing rogue, duelist, pirate, and courtly blade. Techniques by guild level include Parry, Slash, Dodge, Offensive Spin, Calledshot, Disarm, Riposte, Critical Strikes, Weaponbreak, Phantom Strikes, Impale, Flurry, Flourish, Thousand Blades, and Dance of Death.

Commands include challenge, charm, doubloon, nameweapon, parley, sbflank, sevaluate, skulk, ssap, stagger, starttech, sthrust, and wound.

Equipment is light and blade-oriented. Huge weapons, heavy polearms, plate, and shields are restricted.

Source anchors: /guilds/swashbuckler/guild_soul.c, /cmds/guilds/swashbuckler, /doc/guild/swashbuckler.

Thief

Status: live GuildD soul path.

Thief is the Set-side stealth, stealing, spying, and underworld guild. The soul is thief_so, and the in-game docs frame the guild around sleight of hand, scouting, traps, shadowing, and covert violence. It is also the only guild listed in PK_GUILDS.

Legacy role: sneaky utility and assassination. Powers include roll, qstrike, steal, money, scout, shadowstep, tripwire, palm, squint, silent, contacts, trick, case, crit, conceal, plant, spunch, cstrike, pick, trap, shadow, hide, peek, circle, fasttalk, breakin, disem, tstrike, and stab.

The guild also has rank powers for roles such as GM, QM, ASN, and MKY.

Equipment is light and covert: small weapons, small shields, leather or padded armor, and jewelry are supported; heavy armor and large weapons are restricted.

Source anchors: /guilds/thief/thief_so.c, /cmds/guilds/thief, /doc/guild/thief.

Later-Era and Mythic Guilds

These guilds are implemented with larger custom systems than many of the older standard guilds. Most are registered as mythic or later-era guilds in guildd.h; several are live through GuildD soul repair paths, while Morpher is implemented but not present in the repair map.

Dragon

Status: live GuildD soul path.

Dragon is a mythic guild centered on becoming and living as a dragon. The soul is a ring, but most identity is stored in form state: racial form, dragon form, current dragon lineage, age, declared status, dragon long description, and lair state.

Legacy role: transformational mythic guild with earth/sky mastery, flight, breath, claws, stomps, fear, lairs, and age-based power. Commands include dtransform, breathe, dfly, land, airdrop, dclaws, dscales, ddfear, dfear, dstomp, dspikes, swipe, buffet, crush, bombard, inferno, lair, and dwill.

Dragon form blocks many ordinary item economy actions such as buying, selling, getting, giving, wearing, wielding, drinking, and similar commands. The guild object also reports that Dragons cannot leave the guild.

The advancement room says ordinary level/stat advancement still happens there, but guild power comes through age rather than normal guild-level training.

Source anchors: /guilds/dragon/obj/dragon_so.c, /cmds/guilds/dragon, /doc/guild/dragon.

Druid

Status: live GuildD soul path.

Druid is a Gaea warrior-priest and nature magic guild. The soul is a silver sickle. The guild combines spellcasting, wild shape, grove ownership, component foraging, blood/nature magic, elemental effects, and animal control.

Legacy role: nature caster and shapeshifter. Help lists powers such as Calm Animal, Enlarge Animal, Spirit Aura, Thorns, Produce Flame, Warp Wood, Water of Life, Gust, Stoneskin, Growth, Wild Speed, Wild Strength, Wild Shape Wolf, Flame Blade, Frost Blade, Entangle, Wild Shape Bear, Wild Shape Hawk, Wild Shape Serpent, Wind Walk, Sunray, Call Lightning, Earthquake, Renewal, Inferno, Drown, Conjure Elemental, and Reincarnate.

Sacred Groves are a major subsystem. Druids can plant and commune with groves, store components in root systems, invite guests into the commune, and turn mature groves into no-kill sanctums. Leaving the guild removes grove registration.

Equipment blocks metal-heavy weapons and armor while allowing natural materials, wood, bone, stone, blunt tools, and some shields.

Legacy note: the help spell list extends beyond the max guild level declared in guildd.h, so high-end Druid spell docs should be verified before reuse.

Source anchors: /guilds/druid/objects/druid_soul.c, /cmds/guilds/druid, /doc/guild/druid.

Monk

Status: live GuildD soul path.

Monk is an unarmored staff and chi guild. The soul is a plain wooden staff, and the guild puts much of its identity into staff training, chi, fighting styles, challenge systems, combo routing, and a training post.

Legacy role: disciplined martial artist. Core concepts include chi, inner defense, notches, challenges, the Wooden Man Post, and five fighting styles: crane, snake, monkey, tiger, and dragon. Commands include chiblast, chiburst, chifocus, chitransfer, ckick, crise, cyclone, grapple, lsweep, mcombo, meditate, mskills, mswitch, opunch, pcoil, ppoint, pword, resuscitate, roar, sstrike, tdeath, and tpunch.

Equipment is extremely restrictive. Monks are effectively staff/unarmored: only medium pole/blunt weapon use is allowed, and armor is blocked.

Source anchors: /guilds/monk/monk_soul.c, /cmds/guilds/monk, /doc/guild/monks.

Morpher

Status: implemented, registered, but missing GuildD soul repair and default entrance routing.

Morpher is a body-transformation guild built around a color-shifting gem, guild fountains, personal caverns, grafted weapons, and temporary morph states. The code is substantial, but it is not in setup_guild_soul_paths() and does not have a default get_entrance_place() route in guildd.c.

Legacy role: adaptive physical shapeshifter. Commands include mhands, mskin, graft, endgraft, titan, regen, eabsorb, biolum, viscosity, envelop, explode, mrip, safe, squeeze, vengeance, and endmorph.

The in-game help describes 10 normal guild levels plus expensive effective levels beyond that, while guildd.h lists Morpher max guild level as 10. That should be treated as a real legacy mismatch.

Equipment restrictions support the body-morph fantasy. Large, huge, and missile weapons are restricted, as are plate and chain armor. Body morphs often require free hands and no torso or leg armor.

Source anchors: /guilds/morpher/morpher_soul.c, /cmds/guilds/morpher, /doc/guild/morpher.

Necro

Status: live GuildD soul path.

Necro is a death, rune, ritual, and follower guild. The soul is a skull pendant with rune state, currently including blight and death. It adds a command filter for ritual behavior and follower movement.

Legacy role: fragile dark caster whose damage and control flow through spells, rituals, and undead followers. Commands include nraise, nrdead, nliege, nmarch, nmtell, nritual, nsoulbond, naflict, nagony, nbshield, nburst, ncurse, ndeath, ndesecrate, ndetect, ndispel, ndoom, nentomb, neye, nfester, ngmist, nnecrosis, nplague, npox, npulse, nward, nwilt, and nwrack.

Followers are combat tools, with help describing skeletons and ghouls as central weapons. Rituals intentionally block many ordinary commands while active.

Advancement reaches guild level 25, cannot exceed player level, and checks a power formula based on player level, intelligence, wisdom, constitution, and charisma. Equipment uses Mage-like caster restrictions.

Source anchors: /guilds/necro/guild_soul.c, /cmds/guilds/necro, /doc/guild/necro.

Ranger

Status: live GuildD soul path.

Ranger is a Gaea wilderness guild with terrain specialization, enemy species, skill trees, survival crafting, archery, hunting, and animal companions. The soul is a leather quiver.

Legacy role: wilderness guardian and self-sufficient hunter. Advancement uses primary terrain, secondary terrain, and enemy species choices. Rangers gain skill slots and spend them on skill trees such as Survival, Cartography, Hunting, Husbandry, Attack, and Archery.

Commands cover fieldcraft, crafting, terrain, tracking, animal handling, nature magic, and combat: forage, make, camp, survey, trailblaze, trailmark, track, stalk, conceal, ambush, quarry, hunt, aim, quickshot, heartshot, furyfire, strike, gash, impale, naturestrike, attune, meditate, wrath, winterbite, essence, attract, calm, train, and rcommand.

Equipment blocks plate and scale while supporting leather, cloth, wilderness tools, ranged play, and some magical chain cases.

Source anchors: /guilds/ranger/ranger_soul.c, /cmds/guilds/ranger, /doc/guild/ranger.

Archived and Transitional Guilds

These systems have code, docs, registry traces, or command directories, but they are not wired like the live GuildD soul-path guilds. They are useful historical material and may contain mechanics worth mining, but they should not be treated as current playable guild specs without fresh verification.

Charlatan

Status: transitional, aliased to Bard in the registry.

Charlatan has a full old code tree, command directory, help docs, and a Darkwind entrance route. However, CHARLATAN currently aliases BARD in guildd.h, its GUILD_FIELDS entry is commented out, and it has no GuildD soul repair path.

Legacy role: wandering trickster, illusionist, alchemist, huckster, and social operator. The help describes no normal guild levels; instead Charlatans trained individual skills with skill points. Commands include cchat, cwho, cskill, cappraise, ccook, cpotion, cpoison, cdazzle, cblur, cbluff, cshadow, csense, cescape, csell, cbuy, calter, ctattoo, and cventriloquism.

Source anchors: /guilds/charlatan, /cmds/guilds/charlatan, /doc/guild/charlatan.

Rogue

Status: archived or experimental.

Rogue has a substantial code tree, command directory, and help docs, but it is not in the current GUILD_NAMES list. Its Darkwind/Kerei entrance routes are commented out in guildd.c.

Legacy role: cabal-based rogue system with Basher, Thief, and Assassin branches, practice points, and a broad skill surface. Powers overlap heavily with Thief, Ninja, Fighter, and Swashbuckler concepts: steal, case, hide, stab, trap, tripwire, blind, cripple, pummel, focus, meditate, breakin, disembowel, and more.

Source anchors: /guilds/rogue/obj/rogue_so.c, /cmds/guilds/rogue, /doc/guild/rogue.

Samurai

Status: partially registered but disconnected.

Samurai appears in GUILD_NAMES and has code, commands, help docs, rooms, and a soul. It is missing from the GUILD_FIELDS mapping and has no GuildD soul repair path. That makes it a legacy/transitional system rather than a fully wired live guild in this checkout.

Legacy role: honor-bound weapon guild with houses, a sash soul, house/honor state, signature sword mechanics, quick draw, charge, slash, slice, whirlwind, meditation, hardening, stare, and focus powers.

Source anchors: /guilds/samurai/samurai_soul.c, /cmds/guilds/samurai, /doc/guild/samurai.

BattleMage

Status: registered prototype.

BattleMage is present in the registry and has a soul plus a small code tree, but there is no GuildD soul repair path and no default entrance route. The only command directory currently visible is minimal, with _eattune.c as an example.

Legacy role: intended hybrid arcane combat guild. The soul tracks concepts such as battle attunement, healing dance, mind quickening, evocation timers, and specialization.

Source anchors: /guilds/battlemage/bm_soul.c, /guilds/battlemage, /cmds/guilds/battlemage.

Glyph

Status: registered prototype, disconnected.

Glyph is listed in the registry and has a soul plus include files for body slots and runes. It does not have a GuildD soul repair path, and the command directory referenced by its header is not present under /cmds/guilds/.

Legacy role: body-rune guild. The soul is an eye-like mark on the forehead and tracks active runes with durations. Header comments describe body slots and rune complexity as the limiting model.

Source anchors: /guilds/glyph/glyph_soul.c, /guilds/glyph/include.

Old Set / Cleric_Set

Status: superseded by Priest.

The older Set cleric implementation remains under /guilds/set. It uses names such as Cleric_Set, set_soul, Set rituals, old temple rooms, and old command definitions. The current registered Set-side divine guild is Priest under /guilds/priest.

Legacy role: dark cleric and ritual system. Keep it as historical context for Set themes, but verify against Priest before carrying mechanics forward.

Source anchors: /guilds/set, /guilds/set/obj/set_soul.c.

Newmage

Status: duplicate or transitional Mage tree.

/guilds/newmage mirrors much of the Mage structure but is not the active GuildD target. The live Mage soul path points at /guilds/mage/magesoul.

Use this tree only as historical comparison material.

Source anchors: /guilds/newmage, /guilds/mage.

Registry-Only or Mostly Missing Names

These names have registry entries, help docs, entrance traces, or restriction rows, but no complete current guild tree wired through GuildD in this checkout:

• Berserker - registry and restriction rows exist, but no top-level guild code tree or soul path was found.
• BloodMage - registry entry and restriction row exist, but no complete wired tree was found.
• Deathknight - registry entry and Souvrael/Kerei entrance references exist, but the referenced top-level tree is absent.
• UberGarou / Ubergarou - registry naming is inconsistent by case, and no complete wired tree was found.
• Vampire - registry and old help docs exist, and old Set code references vampire behavior, but there is no live GuildD soul path or complete current guild tree.