October Newsletter from Iron Realms Entertainment

The dawn of October brings many new things to the lands of Iron Realms Entertainment. All of our games continue rapid development. This month includes a short update from our next MUD, Midkemia Online. The world is well underway with a fantastic background and manned by a great staff..

Aetolia
September saw a flurry of enjoyable weekend events for players including a quiz won by Karim S. Karamazov, a frog jumping contest won by Yreogh Yraenvan, and a Triptycha Tournament won by Tantalus. Hazzyq Cardinalis achieved level 99, attaining the form of the Azudim. Building continues with the release of the forbidding Spinereach aqueducts and the poisoned Kalydian Forest. Finally, for those of you just dying to know, work continues on the Reanimation system with a release planned for the month of October. Reanimation will allow the undead to repair their bodies, without the need of those pesky herbs, elixirs, and salves.

Imperian
Imperian has released one the biggest and most anticipated changes in some time: Concoctions has been distributed as a general skillset to all players! Additionally, Druids have been blessed with a new Naturalism skillset and the Hunters have a magickal version of Trailblazing. Discontent with the change, some Hunters left the guild, forming a new anti-magick class of Hunters known as the Outriders. Timas, Master of Games, held two large events. The first was a quiz won by Brydian, Saelen, and Arazen. The second was a game of Capture the Flag won by Khandava. Players are now looking forward to several new features, including Profession Ranks and Multiclassing.

Achaea
Wielders of the primeval powers of Runelore received a significant upgrade in September following an event in which the mythical origins of Runelore were unveiled, and five lost runes were rediscovered. Along with the five runes, the class of Runewardens regained the lost art of empowering the legendary Runeblades of lore, and Runewardens and Shamans both recovered the abilities of Runebinding and Truesketch. Additionally, a number of abilities were improved in the skills of Apostasy and Groves. A troop of triton warriors were found marching on a reconnaissance mission for an underwater city last known to be off the western coast of Sapience. With the assistance of Achaeans, the tritons discovered the remains of the great city of Phereklos. To their grief, Phereklos lay in ruins, destroyed long ago by forces unknown. Behind the scenes, we implemented a new high-performance system for the code that handles skills, which also removes the previous 20-skill limit per adventurer in preparation for adding a new skill related to ships and sailing. Numerous speed enhancements were made in Achaea's underlying codebase, resulting in a 5-7% performance improvement. We added a system for new players in which they receive helpful one-time alerts and advisements in certain situations, such as the first time that one's alignment changes. In response to requests from Achaeans, we made many improvements to the organisational code related to the structure of the Church of Achaea, and we also implemented a new rankings system for artisanal and bardic contest winners. In the month of October, we expect to devote substantial time towards the coding of the long-awaited ship system and sailing-related skill, which when completed will allow Achaeans to sail the high seas and discover the many new islands that await. We plan to bring you fun events as we near the traditional time of 'Mayasween' in Achaea, and we will continue the focus on combat and classleads matters.

Lusternia
Lusternia releases expansions to the Aethercraft Skill! There are 3 specialisations from which to choose. The Commander skills takes the seat on an aethercraft as a pilot, learning manoeuvres to aid in battles or to quickly escape from dangers. A Combateer operates the battle turrets, training to use these aethercraft weapons to afflict enemy ships with dimensional maladies or to drop mines in aetherspace. The Empath of an aethership is responsible for healing the ship and communicating through aetherspace as well as distributing power to the various stations.

In other Lusternian news, the Goddess Viravain apparently passed away as she dispersed her essence throughout the dark forest of Glomdoring, which was ailing. As the commune of Glomdoring mourns her passing, the forest itself heals as the Shadow Council endeavours to follow Viravain's last command to be strong and grow.

Midkemia Online
As most of you know, Midkemia Online, a text MUD based on the Riftwar series of New York Times best-selling fantasy author Raymond E. Feist, is currently in development. We’re currently looking for builders to help out with building the world of Midkemia. If you’re interested, please email leigh (-at-) midkemiaonline (-dot-) com with the subject line ‘Builders’. Midkemia Online will release sometime in 2007, though when exactly is not nailed down yet.

Our four currently released worlds (and one to be released) are proceeding splendidly, going from strength to strength with the help of our wonderful volunteers and the valued input of our players to help craft realities both compelling and thoroughly enjoyable.

Sincerely,

Matt Mihály
CEO, Iron Realms Entertainment