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Achaea, Dreams of Divine Lands

Achaea is our flagship game and has been repeatedly reviewed as the world's best MUD, and for good reason. With 20 years of development under its skin, it is a massive world. If you can imagine it, you can probably do it in Achaea.

Rise to lead a player-run city or become a High Priest to one of the Gods. Gain the power to transform into a Greater Dragon! Sail the high seas as a pirate! Protect the forests as a reclusive Druid. Become a master of our legendary PvP combat. Crafting? We've got it. Best of all, our community is active and friendly.

Aetolia, the Midnight Age

Vampires roam the lands in Aetolia, a land besieged by terror and dark forces. Dare you fight against them, or will you embrace the darkness of the night? The choice is yours in this epic dark fantasy MMO by Iron Realms.

In the world of Aetolia, every decision has a consequence. Will you pursue the path of knowledge, unlocking the mysteries of the realm as one of the Cabalists? Or perhaps you seek to dispel the darkness that plagues the Midnight Age as a knight of the righteous Templars. Whatever your choice, both allies and enemies abound.

Imperian, Sundered Heavens

The broken moons of Aetherius dominate the fates of all who adventure in the realm of Imperian, a world shattered and torn by factions vying for influence and ideology across the war-torn continent.

Battle alongside adventurers of all stripes as a member of the Magick, Anti-Magick, or Demonic factions. Whether one of the famed Wardancers of the walled desert city of Antioch, or a diabolic Malignist of the Demonic city of Stavenn, your path will be one fraught with danger and peril, but endless excitement!

Lusternia, the Age of Ascension

Lusternia stretches across the cosmic planes, where factions vie for ascendance in a realm corrupted by an ancient evil. Where will you stand?

Will you master the cosmos and rise to the ranks of the demigods? What secrets and mysteries will you discover on your travels through the planes? Lusternia offers a unique gaming experience with a deep, interesting world, new types of gameplay, and excellent roleplaying

Starmourn

Starmourn is the world's premiere sci-fi MUD. The game is set in an original universe with dozens of player and NPC races. Starmourn has a player-driven economy which is beyond our other game worlds in complexity. Starmourn also hosts a unique hacking system which allows you entry into secret places and hidden recesses.

What sci-fi game is complete without space? Starmourn comes complete with highly-customizable starships which navigate the universe with momentum-based movement. Explore thousands of planets, moons, and systems and you look to claim dominion for your faction.

What are MUDs?

 

They're the original massively multiplayer real-time online games. Before there was World of Warcraft, there were MUDs.

They aren't single-player text adventures like Zork or choose-your-own-adventure games. They're very much real-time and multiplayer.

Ultimately, you can think of MUDs vs. graphical games as books vs. movies in some respects. Just as many people feel books are more immersive than a movie, many people feel MUDs are more immersive than graphical games.

Are you one of those people? Only one way to find out. Check out any of our games from the menu at the top of the page!

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Why Play Iron Realms MUDs?

After all, there are plenty of graphical games in the world, and even other MUDs. Let's run down a few of the top reasons you need to try one the Iron Realms games today.

  1. Our MUDs are bigger, deeper, and better.
  2. Our unique game systems.
  3. Story-based events and dynamic worlds.
  4. Tight, friendly communities and admins.
  5. We have the world's best cross-platform MUD client.
  6. Don't take our word for it.

Because our MUDs are Bigger, Deeper, and Better

The future is unknowableFirst and foremost, because you can do more in one of our MUDs than in almost any game out there. Seriously. The reason is simple: It’s much easier to create both content and game systems in a MUD. You don’t need to coordinate with artists, animators, and user interface developers in order to release a new game system. A single developer can, in the course of a single weekend, create a cool new system for the game that is released that week.

Now consider that our MUDs have been around for between 12 and 20 years, and under constant development that entire time. We don’t release a new expansion year or when we have time alongside our other jobs – we release new things every week. It’s not an exaggeration to say that there are so many features in our MUDs that our devs forget some of them exist, and that the worlds are so big most players will never see most of them.

And unlike 99% of MUDs, we have paid, professional staff on each of our games, ensuring they only get bigger and better, constantly.

There's nobody on Earth that puts the kind of resources into developing MUDs that we do. Nobody.

ship

Our Unique Game Systems

  • Player-run city governments

    City of evilAll of our MUDs feature multiple cities that are run by player governments of various types. If you’ve played WoW, imagine that Thunder Bluff, Stormwind City, and Ogrimmar are player run and can raid each other or go to war with each other (the conflict systems differ by game).

    There are multiple positions in each city government, managing various aspects of that city. One person might control the treasury for instance, and another the war department, and another the department in charge of diplomacy with other cities, and so on. Player governments can set laws for their citizens, and have tools to enforce those laws, though unpopular leaders are soon sent packing, or possibly just strung up and killed with fire.

  • Gods roleplayed by admin

    Our fantasy MUDs all have different systems that feature God characters roleplayed by admin. These are personified forces, like Zeus or Thor in Greek and Norse mythology. Starmourn will, however, have a different system, being a sci-fi game.

    They interact directly with the game and the players, and are a significant part of many players' lives. You can become a formal follower of one of the Gods, gain various powers (depends on the game) from rising in the ranks of that God’s order, and enjoy the often incredibly-deep stories that lie behind the history of the various Gods.

    Gods also serve as Divine Patrons of player-run cities, serving as anywhere between unholy terrors who demand instant obedience to those who inspire and nurture.

     

  • Epic PvP combat with Thousands of Abilities

    Warlord

    If you've never played a MUD before, you might wonder how this is possible, but our PvP is deeper and more complex than virtually any MMO's combat is. It's a huge rush, and each game has 12-20 or more classes, with each class having many dozens of abilities (sometimes 90 or more). You'll never run out of new tactics to try with that much variety.

    And we're not talking about arena-only combat. We have open-world PvP, though also have rules against griefing. If you're not a combatant and aren't working to hurt someone else, you won't be a target.

Some unique features by game:

Vastar - postable (logo, resized)

Achaea, Dreams of Divine Lands

Here you'll find things like a full seafaring/sailing system (Be a pirate! Arrr!), the ability to transform into a fearsome Greater Dragon, and classes like the wormhole-using, poison-using Serpentlords and the shadow-wielding, time-manipulating Depthswalkers. Open mines, hire staff, and become a mining magnate!

Aetolia, the Midnight Age

gargoyle_small

In Aetolia, you can carve a personal Haven from the very fabric of reality, become a vampiric sorcerer, a golem-using Teradrim earthmage, or a Shapeshifter, capable of morphing between bear, wolf, boar, and crocodile forms, and play with a wide range of crafting abilities that let you make everything from fireworks to musical instruments!

wardancer

Imperian, the Sundered Heavens

In Imperian, harness and ride an icewyrm as a spear-using Outrider, fight along side twisted demonic treants as a flail-wielding Defiler, join the female-only Amazons, participate in literally six PvP systems in the game pitting three factions against each other, or experience a huge variety of custom-crafted boss encounters!

Lusternia, Age of Ascension

orclach-3_0

Travel other planes of existence in flying aetherships in Lusternia and battle NPCs using not just brawn but your will - it's possible to level up in Lusternia without killing anything if you choose. Be a Spiritsinger bard and summon forth ancestral spirits, or stalk the land as a stealth-oriented Ninjakari monk.

Celestine Ascendancy missile cruiser - small

Starmourn

Starmourn is the world's premiere sci-fi MUD. Set in an original universe with dozens of races, unique game features include highly-customizable starships with momentum-based movement, a hacking system unlike anything in any other MUD, player-driven economy and much much more!

Story-based Events and Dynamic Worlds

MUDs are magical.Our MUDs are single worlds, not a collection of nearly-identical servers. This means that the devs can actually respond to what’s happening in the game and react to it. In an MMO with lots of servers, devs aren’t able to tailor what they do to any individual server, and so can’t react to what players are doing at all really.

Our games have regular events, ranging from small interactions with a few NPCs to months-long sagas involving invading armies and the death of Gods, all of them involving players. These aren't just passive stories told to you - they evolve, thanks to hard-working admin, based partly on what the players decide to do.

If you'd like to read about one of the biggest events from the perspective of a player and have some time, this is excellent:
"The Saga of Bal'met".

Everything the author writes about happened in the game.

Tight, Friendly Communities and Admins

Playing a MUDWe've all played online games with horrible, toxic communities, and often, the bigger they are, the worse they are. One of the benefits of MUDs, which have small populations (a few dozen to a few hundred people online at once), are that the communities are typically much friendlier.

That's certainly true with the Iron Realms MUDs. The communities aren't perfect, but they're pretty darn good and it makes us proud to watch them welcome in new players with open arms.

And because the games are relatively small, it's easy to get in touch with the admins. They sometimes even have 'town hall'-style meetings anyone can come to, and ask questions of the devs.

There's a great YouTube video that documents IronCon 2013, taking place at mansion with pools in Las Vegas. You can really get a sense of how close our communities are from it.

We Have the World's Best Cross-Platform MUD Client.

Nexus, our cross-platform client, is by far the best truly cross-platform (meaning Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, Android) MUD client in the world. Features include:

  • Configurable windows and tabs. Move them around, add extras, get rid of the ones you don't want.
  • Programmable, clickable hotkeys.
  • Settings, macros, and scripts saved on our servers, so all are available anywhere on any device you use Nexus from.
  • Simplified Scripting - script without knowing anything about code!
  • Of course, full javascript-based scripting as well for more advanced users.
  • Thorough documentation at http://nexus.ironrealms.com.
Nexus - the Iron Realms MUD client.
Nexus - the Iron MUD Realms client. Awesome.
An old-school MUD client.
An old-school MUD client. Not so awesome.

Don't Take Our Word For It

"I don't believe there's another game in existence with this much depth."

John Romero

Legendary game designer of Doom and Quake

"Few virtual worlds with immensely complicated combat systems avoid being completely dominated by them - Achaea is the best-known exception."

Richard Bartle

The inventor of MUDs.

"Nowhere else have I found the same mix of community and competition, the same balance between ease of play and depth of mechanics, the same line between admin involvement and player control."

Alex Heyden

Player

"IRE's hallmark is consistent excellence in story, gameplay, and overall immersion."

Arthur Kaul

Player

"The playerbase is dedicated and realistic, offering a a near perfect blend of roleplaying and innovative combat."

Chris Golden

Player

"The most adrenalized and cerebral experience on the internet. Your hands will shake as you go into battle."

Alexander Steinberg

Player

The Worlds of Iron Realms Entertainment

Achaea

Our first and still most popular MUD, in Achaea you can become leader of one of our player-run cities, spend years mastering our legendary PvP combat, become a follower of one of our many Gods, and more.

Aetolia

Vampires roam the world in Aetoliaa land besieged by terror and dark forces. Dare you fight against them, or will you embrace the darkness of the night? The choice is yours in this dark fantasy MUD by Iron Realms.

Imperian

The broken moons of Aetherius dominate the fates of all who adventure in the realm of Imperian, a world shattered and torn by factions vying for influence and ideology across the war-torn continent.

Lusternia

Lusternia is set in a multi-planar realm where factions struggle to survive in a land corrupted by an ancient evil. Breaking new ground in dynamic roleplay, quests and skill systems, Lusternia is a unique gameworld.

Starmourn

Starmourn is a sci-fi MUD. Set in an original universe with dozens of races, unique game features include highly-customizable starships with momentum-based movement, a hacking system, player-driven economy and much much more!