Achaea, Dreams of Divine Lands

Achaea MUD
Developer(s)	Iron Realms Entertainment
Publisher(s)	Iron Realms Entertainment
Engine	Rapture Runtime Environment
Platform(s)	OS Independent
Release	1997
Genre(s)	MMORPG, MUD
Mode(s)	Multiplayer

Achaea, Dreams of Divine Lands is a multi-user dungeon (MUD) created by Iron Realms Entertainment (formerly known as Achaea LLC) in 1997. It is free to play, with the option of purchasing 'credits' to advance a character faster. One feature of Achaea that sets it apart from most MUDs is the amount of control and influence players have over the world, including leading one of the 6 cities, various houses and religious orders. It is strongly player vs. player oriented with encouraged role-playing and restricted player killing.

Since its creation 8 years ago, Achaea has received many awards and accolades as one of the world's finest and most structured MUD's with a fulltime developer team, constant updates and bugfixes.

Theme

Within Achaea, concern revolves mainly around the actions of six city-states and their respective guilds and Houses. Citizenship in a city-state is optional; players can choose to roam free instead. Achaea's themes draw off of many sources, ranging from Greek mythology to the Principia Discordia. The world thrives off of dynamic conflict, with the most prominent one being that between Good and Evil (for example, the unending war of the Church vs. the Occultists).

From an outside perspective, Achaea is a Complex Combat MUD, with loose role-play - OOC is not allowed, but role-playing is not enforced.

Gameplay

All new characters are given the option to go through an introductory quest in the Flame of Yggdrasil, a magical point where dead players can be reincarnated. (All players who die in combat are reincarnated by some means, but The Flame is free and easy to get to) The quest gives new players levels up to level five, as well as a healing vial, clothing, and some learning in the Survival skillset (free of charge), along with basic knowledge of how to play.

Later, players are encouraged to join a Class, giving them a total of two new skill-sets and a third later. They are also encouraged to join a House, a player-run organization of people joined together under common ideals and goals. Houses usually provide a much more thorough introduction to Achaea than the official one does, requiring their new members to undergo trials to prove that they are worthy of membership.

In Achaea, players are given complete control over what they do with their Achaean life. Achaea is a MUD which is very open-ended; A player could choose to be a warrior, a political leader, or a thief; They could choose to help train novices, or they could simply choose to socialize.

Players increase their level by hunting, completing quests, or fighting other players.

One of the goals of Achaea is reaching level 99 and thus becoming a Greater Dragon. When this happens, players are given several bonuses such as increased attack and defense power, and the ability to indirectly warp to virtually anywhere in the world. However, this does not signal the end of the game, nor is it a goal that many achieve or even attempt.

Overall, emphasis is placed on interacting with other players. Nearly every organization, including Cities, Houses, and lesser clans, is run entirely by players, with minimal interaction from the Gods.

Cities

The following cities exist within Iron Realms Entertainment's Achaea (MUD).

City	Title	Alignment	Location
Hashan	The Crown of Ithmia	Neutral	Northeastern Sapience - Northern Ithmia Forest
Ashtan	The Bastion of North	Chaos	Northwestern Sapience
Shallam	The Jewel of East	Good	Southeastern Sapience
Cyrene	The Heart of Vashnars	Neutral to good	Southwestern Sapience - Vashnar Mountain Range
Mhaldor	The City of Evil	Evil	Western Sapience - Sartan's Island
Eleusis	Forest Village	Nature	Middle Sapience - Eastern Ithmia Forest

Classes

A total of fifteen classes exist in Achaea:

Apostate Skillsets: Necromancy, Evileye, Apostasy The apostates are the sons and daughters of the evil itself. With the use of the demonic entities and their evil glances, they can bring horror and destruction to Sapience.

Bard Skillsets: Harmonics, Voicecraft, Swashbuckling The bards are the wandering minstrels, trained in not only light hand-to-hand combat, but also in the art of music.

Druid Skillsets: Groves, Metamorphosis, Concoctions The druids have dedicated their lives to the forests. With trees as their home and family, those wardens are often uncrushable in the forests.

Infernal Skillsets: Chivalry, Necromancy, Forging The infernals are the black knights. Serving evil in world and deed, they uphold the true virtues of all the knights and are ready to die anytime for honour.

Jester Skillsets: Tarot, Puppetry, Pranks The jesters are the happy and humorous folk. While riding their balloon giraffes and cracking jokes every so often, they can be deadly opponents. They also can fashion puppets in their enemies' likeness and use magical Tarot cards in combat.

Magi Skillsets: Crystalism, Elementalism, Enchantment The mages are the students of the Realms. Trained in the art of elemental magic and the use of crystalic vibrations, accompanied by their socially useful skill of enchantments, they have spread their ways across Sapience.

Monk Skillsets: Tekura, Telepathy, Kaido The monks are the solemn fighters using nothing but the force of their fists and minds. Though unarmed, monks make one of the best warriors of the Realm.

Occultist Skillsets: Domination, Tarot, Occultism The occultists are the chaotic students, who originated from the City of Ashtan. Serving the chaos, occultists can perform a large variety of tasks, be that theft or pursuit of their enemies.

Paladin Skillsets: Chivalry, Devotion, Forging The paladins are the contenders of the good and righteous. Following the Holy Codex they have dedicated their lives to the eternal fight against the armies of evil.

Priest Skillsets: Spirituality, Devotion, Healing The priests are the brothers-in-arms of the paladins. Trained in healing and devotion they make up a great supporter in combat as well as a deadly enemy with the skill of spirituality.

Runewarden Skillsets: Chivalry, Runelore, Forging The runewardens are the knights trained in the ancient art of runelore. Skilled in heavy armed combat and the planting of runic totems, they will fight for honour and respect.

Sentinel Skillsets: Woodlore, Metamorphosis, Concoctions The sentinels are the forestal wardens. Living in the woods as well as in cities they can set up a number of traps and transform themselves into furious beasts.

Serpent Skillsets: Subterfuge, Venoms, Hypnosis The serpents choose the way of discretion. Being great archers, they can take out targets at a safe range, while hidden with the skill of subterfuge.

Shaman Skillsets: Curses, Vodun, Runelore The shamans are the users of the ancient and very powerful vodun magic. Possessing a large variety of curses, they can capture their foe and create dolls in their name, making the model incredibly weak in their future engagements.

Sylvan Skillsets: Groves, Elementalism, Concoctions The sylvan are the former mages that decided to dedicate their life to the woods. Still wielding over a slightly different skill of elementalism they are the result of a successful bonding between nature and the arcane.

Houses

The following houses exist within Iron Realms Entertainment's Achaea (MUD).

House	City	House	City
The Sentaari	Shallam	Carnivalis Institute of Jestering	Village of Delos
The Sentinels of Nature	Eleusis	The Arcane Kindred	Cyrene
The Sect of the Black Lotus	Hashan	Merchants of the Crown	Hashan
The Ancient Circle of Druids	no city	Spirit Walkers	Hashan
The Guardians of Light	Shallam	Ty Beirdd	Cyrene
The Cult of the Serpent Lords	Hashan	The Ebon Fist	Mhaldor
The Occultists	Ashtan	The Sylvanic Fellowship	Eleusis
The Empyreal Assembly	Shallam	The Blood Congregation	Mhaldor
The Shadowsnakes	Ashtan	The Naga	Mhaldor
The Crystalline Circle	Shallam	The Maldaathi	Mhaldor
Warlocks of the Rising Phoenix	Ashtan	The Mojushai	Cyrene
The Dawnstriders	Shallam	The Wardens of the Cerulean Spire	Cyrene
The Ashura	Ashtan

Criticisms

There is some controversy surrounding Achaea because of its claim of being free-to-play. As previously mentioned Achaea does not require payment in order for somebody to play. Members of the MUD community such as Richard Woolcock (creator of the GodWars codebase) and the staff of The Carrion Fields, however believe that the MUD is tailored for those who buy credits. While, as said earlier, it is possible for someone to buy credits from other players with in-game money, a large investment of time is required in order to match someone that spends real money on the game. The opposers of these views however state that the credits only give minor advantages, unless purchased in large amounts. They point to a number of examples of players who have acquired enormous amounts of credits through in-game means without ever spending money on the game. Credits also only give players an advantage in very specific areas in the game, such as combat, in contrast to the myriad other paths a player may choose in his or her life.

IRE utilises various marketing techniques in order to draw players. The belief in some circles is that the MUD is marketed towards players that would become addicted to the gameplay, and hence readily pay for a competitive edge. There has been a number of complaints about this on Top Mud Sites and MudConnector. such as How ethical is IRE ?, Iron Realms Entertainment credits critique and The meaning of free

External links

• Official IRE sites:
  • Achaea Home Page
  • Official Achaean Forums
  • Achaean Help System
  • Official Achaea Wiki
• Fansites:
  • Achaea at CJB.NET - Information on Achaea, including scripts (Currently not available)
  • Asara Eslofe's Page - Maps of Achaea
  • Antares' Page - Information on Achaea
  • Achaea Wiki
• Official sites of the Houses:
  • Merchants of the Crown
  • Wardens of the Cerulean Spire
• Other related links:
  • Mechanics of Achaean Combat, written by the founder/CEO