Happy Holidays!
- Players with memberships who log on today will receive a special item (if they have not already received it in previous years). Say 'quests' for details.

The Arcane Realm of Creation for 2023 has ended. All players who were in that realm have been moved to the Common Realm of Creation.
- The top 51 most skillful players have been given a special reward. All participants received a gold nugget.
- The top players for 2023 can be seen here.
- The Arcane Realm of Creation is a fresh realm that resets every year, only allows new players, and is not connected to any other realm.
- The Arcane Realm of Creation is now reset and open for 2024. New characters may enter the realm by striking the painting in the inn. No one may enter if they have any skills, gold, items, vault, are in a guild, or have completed any quests. Players may enter the realm now, but may not leave the castle until January 1, 2024.
- At the end of 2024 (Dec 23, 8:00PM PST), the top 40 most skillful players will receive a reward. The reward will be based on the magic school of the top most skillful player. Based on the number of players participating in 2024, the number of rewards may be greater than 40.
- Players who enter the Arcane Realm of Creation and with a one year membership or longer may request a free name change by sending email to support@aberoth.com. Free name changes will only be available until the castle opens on Jan 1, 2024. Players will only be given one free name change, so please decide carefully before requesting your free name change.

The Arcane Realm of Creation for 2023 has ended. All players who were in that realm have been moved to the Common Realm of Creation.
- The top 51 most skillful players have been given a special reward. All participants received a gold nugget.
- The top players for 2023 can be seen here.
- The Arcane Realm of Creation is a fresh realm that resets every year, only allows new players, and is not connected to any other realm.
- The Arcane Realm of Creation is now reset and open for 2024. New characters may enter the realm by striking the painting in the inn. No one may enter if they have any skills, gold, items, vault, are in a guild, or have completed any quests. Players may enter the realm now, but may not leave the castle until January 1, 2024.
- At the end of 2024 (Dec 23, 8:00PM PST), the top 40 most skillful players will receive a reward. The reward will be based on the magic school of the top most skillful player. Based on the number of players participating in 2024, the number of rewards may be greater than 40.
- Players who enter the Arcane Realm of Creation and with a one year membership or longer may request a free name change by sending email to support@aberoth.com. Free name changes will only be available until the castle opens on Jan 1, 2024. Players will only be given one free name change, so please decide carefully before requesting your free name change.

The command 'guildlootlimitg X Y' has been added to set the limit on how much gold guild members can take per Aberoth day.

- Much like the other guildlootlimit commands, X is the rank and Y is the number of gold pieces they are allowed to take from the guild. 'unlimited' is allowed for Y.

- The defaults for all ranks for all guilds have been set to 0.

The guildlootlimit command has been changed so that each guild rank can have a different loot limit.

- The command is now 'guildlootlimit X Y' where X is the guild rank number and Y is the number of items a guild member of that rank may take from the guild per Aberoth day. The setting of 'unlimited' for Y disables the limit for that rank (not recommended).

- The command 'guildlootlimit 3 20' would set the guild loot limit of rank 3 to 20 items.

- The command 'guildlootlimit 4 0' would disable all guild item pickup for rank 4.

- It is also possible to specify separate consumable and non-consumable pickup limits for each rank with the commands 'guildlootlimitc X Y' for consumables and 'guildlootlimitnc X Y' for non-consumables. As with the guildlootlimit command, X is the rank and Y is the number of items.

- An item is considered a consumable to a player if it is a key, a potion equal to or less than the player's drink skill, or a scroll equal to or less than the player's magic skill. No skill bonuses are considered other than the school of magic bonus. All other items are considered non-consumable to that player.

- The command 'guildpickuprank' has been removed. All guilds have been automatically configured so that ranks greater than the old guildpickuprank setting have their loot limits set to 0, and all other ranks have their loot limits set to the previous guild loot limit. The effect of this is that if a guild leader makes no changes, the guild will work exactly as before.

- Any guild member may use the command 'guildlootlimit' to display the current guild loot limits.

The guildlootlimit command has been changed so that each guild rank can have a different loot limit.

- The command is now 'guildlootlimit X Y' where X is the guild rank number and Y is the number of items a guild member of that rank may take from the guild per Aberoth day. The setting of 'none' for Y disables the limit for that rank (not recommended).

- The command 'guildlootlimit 3 20' would set the guild loot limit of rank 3 to 20 items.

- The command 'guildlootlimit 4 0' would disable all guild item pickup for rank 4.

- It is also possible to specify separate consumable and non-consumable pickup limits for each rank with the commands 'guildlootlimitc X Y' for consumables and 'guildlootlimitnc X Y' for non-consumables. As with the guildlootlimit command, X is the rank and Y is the number of items.

- An item is considered a consumable to a player if it is a key, a potion equal to or less than the player's drink skill, or a scroll equal to or less than the player's magic skill. No skill bonuses are considered other than the school of magic bonus. All other items are considered non-consumable to that player.

- The command 'guildpickuprank' has been removed. All guilds have been automatically configured so that ranks greater than the old guildpickuprank setting have their loot limits set to 0, and all other ranks have their loot limits set to the previous guild loot limit. The effect of this is that if a guild leader makes no changes, the guild will work exactly as before.

- Any guild member may use the command 'guildlootlimit' to display the current guild loot limits.

Tavelor no longer reveals the names of everyone currently playing the game. When you say "who", "elsewhere", or "seen", he now only reports how many champions are in the current realm, other realms, or logged off in the past game week. He will privately tell you the names of any of your allies or guild members who are in the current realm, other realms, or recently played.

- Gomald also no longer reveals names, but will give the number of players in their vaults instead. As with Tavelor, he will privately tell you the names of your allies and guildmates who are in their vaults.

- Detect creature no longer returns the location of a target who is in a different realm.

- Unnamed players may no longer enter the grassy field.

Happy Holidays!

- Players with memberships who log on today will receive a special item (if they have not already received it in previous years). Say 'quests' for details.

The Arcane Realm of Creation for 2022 has ended. All players who were in that realm have been moved to the Common Realm of Creation.

- The top 48 most skillful players have been given a special reward. All participants received a gold nugget.

- The top players for 2022 can be seen here.

- The Arcane Realm of Creation is a fresh realm that resets every year, only allows new players, and is not connected to any other realm.

- The Arcane Realm of Creation is now reset and open for 2023. New characters may enter the realm by striking the painting in the inn. No one may enter if they have any skills, gold, items, vault, are in a guild, or have completed any quests. Players may enter the realm now, but may not leave the castle until January 1, 2023.

- At the end of 2023 (Dec 23, 8:00PM PST), the top 40 most skillful players will receive a reward. The reward will be based on the magic school of the top most skillful player. Based on the number of players participating in 2023, the number of rewards may be greater than 40.

The full Arcane Realm of Creation is now open for 2022.

- The top 40 most skillful players at the end of the year will receive a special award.

- The number of awards planned may be raised during the year (but not lowered), depending on the participation in the realm.

- New characters may enter the realm by striking the painting in the inn. No one may enter if they have any skills, gold, items, vault, are in a guild, or have completed any quests.

Players with memberships who log on today will receive a special item (if they have not already received it in previous years). Say 'quests' for details.

The Arcane Realm of Creation for 2021 has ended. All players who were in that realm have been moved to the Common Realm of Creation.

- The top 43 most skillful players have been given a special reward. All participants received a gold nugget.

- The top players for 2021 can be seen here.

- The Arcane Realm of Creation is a fresh realm that resets every year, only allows new players, and is not connected to any other realm.

- The Arcane Realm of Creation is now reset and open for 2022. New characters may enter the realm by striking the painting in the inn. No one may enter if they have any skills, gold, items, vault, are in a guild, or have completed any quests. Players may enter the realm now, but may not leave the castle until January 1, 2022.

- At the end of 2022 (Dec 23, 11:59PM), the top 40 most skillful players will receive a reward. The reward will be based on the magic school of the top most skillful player. Based on the number of players participating in 2022, the number of rewards may be greater than 40.

The full Arcane Realm of Creation is now open for 2021.

- Since there are more players than last year, the top 35 most skillful players at the end of the year will receive an award.

- The number of awards planned may be raised during the year (but not lowered), depending on the participation in the realm.

- New characters may enter the realm by striking the painting in the inn. No one may enter if they have any skills, gold, items, vault, or are in a guild.

Players with memberships who log on today will receive a special item (if they have not already received it in previous years). Say 'quests' for details.

The Arcane Realm of Creation for 2020 has now ended. All players who were in that realm have been moved to the Common Realm of Creation.

- The top 31 most skillful players have been given a special reward. All participants received a gold nugget.

- The top players for 2020 can be seen here.

- The Arcane Realm of Creation is a fresh realm that resets every year, only allows new players, and is not connected to any other realm.

- The Arcane Realm of Creation is now reset and open for 2021. New characters may enter the realm by striking the painting in the inn. No one may enter if they have any skills, gold, items, vault, or are in a guild. Players may enter the realm now, but may not leave the castle until January 1, 2021.

- At the end of 2021 (Dec 23, 11:59PM), the top 25 most skillful players will receive a reward. The reward will be based on the magic school of the top most skillful player. If there are significantly more players in 2021 than 2020, the number of rewards may be greater than 25.

Players may now only commend or condemn other players that they have seen in game in the past 3 real life hours.
- This change makes it so you actually have to have dealings with another player before commending or condemning them.

Happy Holidays!

- Players with memberships who log on today will receive a special item (if they have not already received it in previous years). Say 'quests' for details.

- The Arcane Realm of Creation for 2019 has ended. All players who were in that realm have been moved to the Common Realm of Creation.

- The top 30 most skillful players have been given a special reward. All participants received a gold nugget.

- The top players for 2019 can be seen here.

- The Arcane Realm of Creation is a fresh realm that resets every year, only allows new players, and is not connected to any other realm.

- The Arcane Realm of Creation is now reset and open for 2020. New characters may enter the realm by striking the painting in the inn. No one may enter if they have any skills, gold, items, vault, or are in a guild. Players may enter the realm now, but may not leave the castle until January 1, 2020.

- At the end of 2020 (Dec 23, 11:59 PM), the top 25 most skillful players will receive a reward. The reward will be based on the magic school of the top most skillful player. If there are significantly more players in 2020 than 2019, the number of rewards may be greater than 25.

Just a reminder that this year's Arcane Realm of Creation will end on Dec 23, 11:59 PM Pacific US time.

- When the realm ends, all players in that realm will be moved to the Common Realm of Creation.

- The top 25 most skillful players (as seen on this page) will be awarded a special item determined by the highest magic school of the most skillful champion.

- All players in that realm will receive a gold nugget for participation.

- Next year's Arcane Realm of Creation will open up immediately, but players will not be able to exit town until Jan 1, 2020.

Some players have been asking about the award this year for the top 25 most skillful players in the Arcane Realm of Creation.

- The award will be a specialized item based on the school of magic of the most skillful player when the realm ends.

- If the most skillful player's school of magic is Conjuration (yellow), then the award will be the Conjuring Hat again.

- If the most skillful player's school of magic is something else, the award will be a new item customized to that school of magic.

- The school of magic will be determined by the most skillful player's highest magic school, not current magic school, so changing schools at the last minute will have no effect on the award.

- All players remaining in the Arcane Realm of Creation at the end of the year (including the top 25) will also get a gold nugget for participation.

- Future years of the Arcane Realm of Creation will use this same method to determine the award.

When a guild leader loses leadership due to their Aberoth membership expiring, the game now automatically picks a new leader (prior to this change the guild would become leaderless, and anyone in the guild could claim leadership). The guild member with the highest guild rank who also has an Aberoth membership becomes the new leader. If there is a tie, then the player who joined the guild the longest time ago becomes the leader (if a player left and then rejoined the guild, the most recent join date is used to determine how long ago the player joined the guild).

- If a guild member does not have enough rank to pick up items in the guild vault, that player can no longer pick up guild engraved items in the lost and found.

Added the Arcane Realm of Knowledge. The Arcane Realm of Knowledge is a new realm that is accessed through the bookshelf in the inn. The rules are the same as the common realms, but experience in your focused skill is doubled when divination (white) scrolls are glowing. This doubling stacks with the well rested and recovering bonuses.

- The valor 1000 day membership reward is now available for purchase in the Aberoth store.

- All player conditions (polymorph, drunkenness, mental fatigue from casting scrolls, charm cooldowns, etc) now wear off while logged off. When you log back in, the time you spent logged off will count against the condition duration as if you were playing the game for the same amount of time.

The rules for the Arcane Realm of Power have changed. The new rules are as follows:

- There is no experience loss on death.

- All player kills inside the realm are considered justified. There is no wanted time or infamy.

- No engraved items are allowed anywhere in the realm. Engraved items that were already in that realm that were in vaults are no longer stuck in that realm. Engraved items that were not in vaults (for example, in the tavern) remain where they are, but have been moved to the home realm of the owner.

- Players who die will respawn in their home realm, and may not re-enter the Arcane Realm of Power for ten real life minutes.

To prevent account sharing in the Arcane Realm of Creation, players must now wait 24 hours between logging on to a character from distant physical locations.

- This restriction is necessary because shared accounts have an unfair advantage over accounts played only by one person.

When potently feared, you are now only restricted from picking up items you already fumbled and dropped. You may pick up any other item.

- Fumbled and dropped items may now be picked up by anyone else immediately.

Added the 1000 day membership reward.

- This reward will probably be available for purchase in the Aberoth store later, but it may be a few weeks to let members with 1000 days have a chance to play with it first.

- Sholop now requires 6 pelts to craft a small sack, large sack, or backpack (up from 3 pelts).

- The werewolf pelt drop rate has been increased so that the average number of werewolf kills required to get enough pelts for a backpack is about the same as before.

- Sholop no longer crafts the 3 slot alchemist bag (to prevent players from accidentally crafting it).

The brand new 2019 Arcane Realm of Creation is now live. If you ever wanted to try Aberoth where everyone is low level, now is your chance.

The realm is only open to new players with memberships. You enter by striking the painting in the inn, and must not have any gold, items, or skills.

It is also possible to leave the realm during the year if you decide it is not for you. However, once a player leaves, they may never return.

On December 23, 2019, all players remaining will receive a reward (the top 25 most skillful get a special reward). Then all players will be moved to the normal realms, and the Arcane Realm of Creation will be reset for the next year.

Good Luck!

The Arcane Realm of Creation for 2018 has ended. All players who were in that realm have been moved to the Common Realm of Creation. The top 25 most skillful players have been given a reward quest. The other five high score boards for the realm have also been archived, and will be made available for viewing early next year.

- The Arcane Realm of Creation is now reset and open for 2019. New characters may enter the realm by striking the painting in the inn. No one may enter if they have any skills, gold, items, vault, or are in a guild. Players may enter the realm now, but may not leave the castle until January 1, 2019.

- At the end of 2019 (Dec 23, 11:59PM), the top 25 most skillful players will receive a reward, all players will be moved out, and the realm will reset again. If there are signifigcantly more players in 2019 than 2018, the number of rewards may be greater than 25. The reward will probably be the same one that was given in 2018, so if you did not get it in 2018, you will have another chance to try for it in 2019.

Visit Aberoth for the yearly special event happening now until Dec 25, 11:59PM US Pacific time.

Members should make sure to check their quests sometime during the event to receive a special item! (The special item is only given once per character, and is not available if the character already got it in a previous year)

Once a skill has reached level 40, or you have attained Grand Master proficiency in a spell, progress toward the next level will display with accuracy of one hundredth of one percent.

- It is now possible to exit the vertical hallway in the castle, even if it is filled with players and animals. To exit, get as close as you can to the exit and keep pressing the direction of the exit, and you should be able to make it out in a few seconds.

- When gambling at Darklow's, players may now repeat their last bet by saying 'bet'. Players may now only place one bet at a time.

The 'vaultinventory' command now counts pets.

- If you say 'vaultinventory pets', you will see counts of each kind of pet, as well as the vault pet capacity.

When the arcane realm of creation ends, the top 25 most skillful players will receive a new item.

- In case of high score ties for most skillful, the game now uses total experience as a tiebreaker. Prior to this fix, there was no tiebreaker.

- The arcane realm of creation will now end on December 29, 2018 at 12:59 PM PST. A brand new arcane realm of creation will open on December 30 (right after the reset) to allow new players to enter. However, players may not leave the castle until Jan 1, 2019.

- Potent acid cloud no longer causes wanted time if used in a duel.

- The ancient spellbook now holds 9 scrolls, up from 8.

- While blind, a player can no longer see someone who is protected by an amulet of preservation, or darkened by chaos.

- For private guilds, the guild motto is no longer visible on the high score board.

- Updated the terms of service to give a better indication about the severity of the various terms of service.

- A player's life skill now determines the number of other players a member may commend or condemn (up to a maximum of 25). For example, a member with a life skill of 10 may commend 10 players and condemn 10 players. This change is intended to reduce gaming of the reputation system using low level alts.

- When ignoring another player, you will now still see their conditions (confusion, blindness, etc). If someone is harassing you, calling you names, or offending you, please remember you can always take control of the situation and "ignore" that player.

- Champions level 10 and over must now indicate that they understand the Aberoth terms of service. The terms of service have not changed, and are the same as those on the web login page. Since Steam players do not log in through that page, they may be unaware that there is a rule against account trading. I recently had a few reports of Steam players being scammed by others selling accounts, so I wanted to make sure everyone who plays the game is aware of the rules (which prohibit account selling, sharing, or trading), so they do not get scammed.

- Any player may review the terms of service any time in game by saying 'tos'.

- If a guild is disbanded, any player who was ever the leader of the guild may now restart the guild by paying 20,000 gold to Tavelor. Prior to this update, only the founder of a guild could restart it. This feature will work for current guild leaders, and all guild leaders going forward, but will not work for guild leaders who abdicated leadership before this update, since the game did not keep track of past guild leaders before now. Founders may still restart their disbanded guilds as before.

- Fixed a bug with the guild loot limit.

- Fixed a bug where a player could incorrectly get infamy.

- Disallowed trading next to the north wall of the inn (to prevent denial of service to the realms). In addition, the realm is now displayed for engraved items dropped in the inn.

- Ropes now hold pelts.

- A player's main bag can no longer be dropped if too full.

- Fixed a problem where NPCs sometimes do not understand the first time you talk to them.

- Fixed a problem where players would keep moving after zoning, even though movement keys were released.

- Players are now told which engraved items they lost when they die.

Happy New Year!

The new Arcane Realm of Creation is now live and fully accessible. High score boards for that realm are also now available.

- A new special realm, the Arcane Realm of Creation (yellow triangle), has been added to the game. This realm can be accessed by striking the new painting inside the inn.

- The Arcane Realm of Creation is a brand new realm that only allows brand new players (no skills). No items or gold may be transferred in or out. This realm will run for one full year, and will be reset every new year on January 1.

- The realm may be entered now, but players may not leave town until January 1, 2018.

- Once inside the realm, a player's membership will be reset to the full amount purchased, and will not use up any days until the realm officially begins on Jan 1, 2018. For example, if you purchase a one year membership now and enter the realm, the membership will not expire until Jan 1, 2019. A six month membership would expire on June 30, 2018.

- Time toward membership rewards will not start accruing until Jan 1, so everyone who is in the realm when it starts will get their rewards at the same time.

- To enter, a player must not have any skills or vault, be carrying any items, own any gold, or be in a guild.

- The realm will have its own high score board, which will be coming shortly. Right before the realm is reset (on Dec 31, 2018), the high score boards will be saved and be accessible for all time.

- Players inside the new realm will not have access to any other realms (until the realm ends on Dec 31, 2018), including all of the common realms, the arcane realm of life, and the arcane of power. There is no orb room, and there is a separate inn and Gurun cave.

- Introspection in this realm will show rankings only relative to other players in the same realm.

- When the realm resets after a year, all existing players in the realm will be sent to the common realm of creation (yellow), and may continue to play in the normal Aberoth world.

- Players may not leave the realm until the year is over, even if their membership expires. The only exception to this rule is if a player enters, and then has their membership refunded, they will be removed.

- A real person may not log on to multiple characters at the same time in this new realm.

- Players in normal Aberoth may not commend or condemn those in the realm of creation, and players in the realm of creation may only commend or condemn others in the same realm.

- If there is an old, abandoned name that is taken but you would like to use for a new character for this new realm, please let me know (email support@aberoth.com), and I will check the name for you. If it is available to be freed up, just enter the realm with the character you want to use, and I will change your name for free (until the realm officially starts on January 1). Any name changed this way will not appear on the name changes page, so it will be as if you started a new character with that name. To see if an old name might be available,check the Most Skillfull page for the name. If their total skill is lower than 10, I might be able to free up the name.

Players are no longer kicked out of the arcane realm of life when they log in after their reputation becomes too low. Instead, they will no longer be allowed to leave town (in the arcane realm of life) until their reputation improves. As before, if they leave the realm, they will not be able to re-enter until their reputation improves.

- Guild members can no longer recall items from a minotaur whose real name is engraved on the items.

- To help prevent total looting of guilds, each guild member (except the leader) may now only take 20 items from the guild vault per Aberoth day. The guild leader may change this limit with the command 'guildlootlimit X', where X is the maximum number of items that may be removed per player per Aberoth day (for no limit, use the command "guildlootlimit none"). In addition, any new guild member that was not invited by the guild leader must wait one Aberoth day before taking anything from the guild vault. Anyone can see the current loot limit with the command 'guildlootlimit'.

- In guild vaults, players may no longer pick up items from rooms that have a door unless they have permission to open that door.

Raised perfect cast percent on all levels greater than Grand Master by 5%. This undoes the lowering made a few days ago.

- If a scroll is cast perfectly because of an item or a realm effect, knowledge of the spell will no longer increase for that cast. However, if your previous knowledge of the spell causes a perfect cast, or the scroll is consumed, you will increase knowledge of the spell. The knowledge check is always done before the item or realm checks, to maximize the chance of learning the spell.

- This change makes the cost of increasing proficiency of spells fair across all players, regardless of their current equipment, or whether or not their school of magic matches an arcane realm, or whether or not they have access to an arcane realm. This also brings the cost of advancing a spell back to what it was designed to be in the beginning, before many magic enhancing items and realm effects were added. This change ensures the cost to level spells remains the same in the future even if new spell enhancement items or effects are added.

- With this change, the expected number of scrolls that will be consumed to advance to each level from the prior level is (up to Warlock): 1,2,5,9,12,17,24,33,40,45,50,60. (Note that these numbers are not the total number of casts needed per level, but the expected number of scrolls needed, based on the number of casts and the perfect cast rate for the proficiency). The expected cost in scrolls needed to gain each level increases, but not excessively per level.

- The lore behind this change is that when an item or realm effect causes a perfect cast, the item or realm is taking over the casting process, so the player does not gain knowledge of the spell.

- The perfect cast percent on all spell levels greater than Grand Master has been lowered by 5%. These changes are due to the fact that since the initial spell system was implemented, many perfect cast items and mechanisms have been added to the game, making it much easier to keep scrolls than in was in the past.

- Tier 3 and 4 scroll drop rates have been increased.

- Fixed parchment not resisting certain magic attacks.

- Fixed weapons going into a wall, and then sleeping to jump out.

- Defeating someone in a duel with acid cloud or poison cloud no longer makes you wanted.

- Summoned skeletons no longer kill your opponent when in a duel.

- Players can no longer permanently levitate.

- Fixed magic xp mental fatigue exploit.

- Lich no longer gets stuck in the corner.

- Lich now has a delay after leaving his coffin before he can pick anything up.

- Fixed the ability to jump over an entrance and fall through the world.

- Dueling is no longer allowed inside the inn.

- Poison may no longer be used in duels.

- Some bug report quests have been given out to players who reported bugs that were fixed. Say 'quests' to see if you got it. If you reported a bug but did not get the quest, it could be that someone else reported the bug before you did, or that the bug was not fixed yet. Some small bugs may not be fixed for a while, or at all. If and when they are fixed, I will give out the reward quest. However, you can always report new bugs you discover to support@aberoth.com.

Revamped Darklow's quests.
- Added two new rare items.

- Added the guild command 'guildpickuprank X' where X is a guild rank. This command sets the rank required to pick up anything inside a guild vault. Any guild member below this rank can only pickup items engraved to themselves and items they dropped (until they exit the guild vault). Saying 'guildpickuprank' without a rank will display the rank required to pick up items. The default rank is 8, which is no restrictions. Note: If you are inside the guild vault and you change the pick up rank, it will affect everyone in your guild immediately, including those inside the guild vault. If you are not inside your guild vault, it will not affect those already inside, but will apply to everyone who enters or re-enters the guild vault.

- Players can no longer hide, camp, or sleep while moving.

Added the 950 day membership reward.

Updated the trading system to fix an exploit. The new trading system works the same as before, but now after both players accept a trade, all items involved in the trade are automatically picked up by the players. Before accepting a trade, a player must have inventory space for all items they will receive, and all of the items must be in pick up range. If a trade completes and you cannot pick up all items automatically (this can happen if you accept a trade and then move or fill your inventory before the other player accepts), a hint will be displayed listing the items you did not pick up. Any items not automatically picked up will still be protected as in the old trading system. If you are trading in your own vault, there is no range or inventory space check for items you are receiving, since those items will end up on your own vault's floor.

- The Aberoth Twitter account is now active! I plan on tweeting at least once per week. You can follow it here.

It is now possible to import and export characters to and from your Steam account. Character imports and exports are available in the Aberoth Store for $9.99.

Aberoth now has music! There are four original music tracks that can be heard throughout Aberoth. Use > or < to adjust music volume (or say "music up" or "music down").

Note that music does not play all the time, but instead it plays every once in a while in certain areas.

Special thanks to Aberoth player Benjionics for creating the music!

- Guild leaders may now set guild vault doors to automatically close by standing next to the door and issuing the command "autoclose".

- Added the "secure" command to prevent misclicks on vault structures. When the "secure" command is issued in a vault, any structure that the player is standing on will be secured. Once a structure is secured, any attempt to pick up any item from the structure gives an extra warning (which can be overridden by clicking multiple times on the same item). You may unsecure structures with the "unsecure" command. Gold may not be secured. In guild vaults, only the guild leader and players one rank below the leader may secure and unsecure structures. Note that securing structures offers no real extra protection for the secured items, and only prevents structures from being destroyed by misclicks. Be aware that very large structures that have depth may actually be multiple structures, so you will need to use the command several times to protect all of the structures.

- A mysterious wizard visited Tavelor's tavern, and cast a powerful spell on his message board. The message board is now magical, and all messages posted to it are available in all realms. Guild message boards are still separate and do not share messages with Tavelor's message board.

- Guild members one rank below the leader may now post guild messages on message boards. However, only the guild leader may post announcements on the guild message board.

- Pets now always stay in the realm of their owner. When pet wolves follow an owner out of a vault, they will appear in the same realm as the owner.

- Ropes may now carry bat wings.

- Players with vault trust may now always pick up their own guild engraved stuff in the vault who trusted them.

- Fixed a bug where hotkeys worked even when the player was unable to move.

In guild vaults, players can no longer pick up items through walls in different rooms.
- Fixed a problem with Steam characters logging in through a web browser. If you had problems before, please try again now.

Characters created through Steam may now log in using a web browser. To do so, go to www.aberoth.com, click "Log In", then click "Steam Login". In order to use this feature, Steam characters must first enable web browser logins in game with the command "weblogin".

- Players may now record a private note for anyone they commend or condemn. For example, you could say 'commend Name He gave me a free shield.' or 'condemn Name She scammed me'. To see the notes you have made, use the command 'commendnotes' or 'condemnnotes'. These commands will list all players in order of when they were commended or condemned (oldest to newest) along with any note you made. Only you can see your notes. You may change a note by issuing the commend or condemn command again.

- Decayable items in vaults will no longer completely rot away unless picked up.

- You can now see who is the leader of another guild in game by their emblem.

- You may no longer pick up guild engraved items from a guildmate's personal vault, unless your rank is higher than theirs.

- The scroll of concealment now only works on allies.

Certain membership rewards (automatic gold pickup, shop discount, vault inventory, and introspection) may now be purchased directly in the Aberoth Store. Both members and non-members may purchase rewards.

- Introspection now displays your guild power, size, wealth, and age relative to all other active guilds.

- Players may now carry one rope or strap without using up an inventory slot.

- Belts can now hold empty containers.

- Fixed a bug where the healing hat, gloves, and quartz rabbit would sometimes not regenerate hit points.

- Fixed a bug where players could not teleport themselves if protected from magic.

- Lowered all bone shield sharp resistances by 5% (except the plain bone shield).

- Made some small adjustments to the lich.

- Added a new (high level) area and 9 new items.
- A blocked or evaded ember now shows up as an orange (+) or (-) instead of (0).
- Lowered ornate mirror reflection percentage to 30.
- Fixed a bug where a burning ember would sometimes hang in the air permanently.
- Summoned wolves no longer fall asleep in the wolf caves.

- Mental fatigue for casting scrolls is now reduced for scrolls six or more levels beneath your magic skill.
- The "detect person" scroll has been changed to "detect creature", and can now detect any creature, not just players and bosses.
- Lowered ornate mirror reflection to 40% (from 50%).
- Blur scroll now resets its duration if it is already in effect.
- Allow agility boots and iron boots to be carried by ropes.
- If the server becomes disconnected from the internet (but did not crash), immediately and safely log out all players to prevent deaths.
- Do not leave arm remnants when player unpolies from retaliation.
- In the rare case that items that fall through the world, they now teleport back into the world.
- When using the scroll of protection, the blue glow now remains after zoning.
- For the safety of other patrons, Tavelor no longer allows diseased people in the inn.
- If vaults contain too many animals, they now get sick and die due to the squalid conditions. Bigger vaults can support more animals.
- Vaults now load faster.
- Fixed a problem where someone could intentionally cause lag on the server.

Visit Aberoth for a special day today.

If you are a member, make sure to check your quests!

- When customizing your character in the store, you may now set your clothes, hair, and skin to the colors that they were on a previous customization. On the customization screen, press 'p' to cycle through previous customization colors.

- The days of membership needed for various membership rewards have been changed a bit. The brass keyring is now the 75 day reward (was 100 day), advanced autogold is now 100 (was 75), the long leather strap is now 250 (was 300), the pony tail / short hair is now 300 (was 250). The coin pouch is now 750 (was 450), the ability to post announcements is now 500 (was 750), and the large pouch is now 450 (was 500).

- The medal of gratitude (400 day reward) has been replaced with something similar but better.

- With the new order of rewards, special abilities are now given on days 100, 200, 300, etc, and items are given on days 25, 50, 75, 150, 250, 350, etc. This pattern will continue for new rewards, so that they alternate between items and abilities.

- When purchasing vault or guild vault upgrades in the Aberoth store, players are now given a short description of what the upgrade will do.

- Precious gems are now bought and sold for the same price in shops (there is no longer any profit for a shopkeeper buying or selling precious gems).

- Gurun now buys and sells tier 4 scrolls.

- Gurun's maximum buy price has been raised to 10,000 gold (up from 7500 gold). His maximum sell price is now 20,000 gold (up from 15,000 gold).

- Added a new creature and a new item.

- Added item decay. Only the following items decay: rat brain, rat tail, gray wolf heart, white wolf heart, and the new item. If any of these items are currently in your vault, the decay process will not start until the first time you pick the item up, so old structures and old items will never decay if left alone. However, once picked up, or if new items of these types are added to your vault, they will eventually decay, even if they are part of a structure or are left alone afterwards.

- Decay times (in real life time) are 8 days for rat brains, 12 days for wolf hearts, and 4 weeks for rat tails.

- All decayable items in the game (and future decayable items) will give a status of the decay state of the item when picked up. If an item does not give a decay status, the item will never decay.

- When polymorphing, the skill focus for the new creature will now be whatever your player was focusing on before the polymorph. If the new creature does not have that skill, your focus will be whatever skill is most similar.

- Slightly upped silver dagger stats, and upped required skill to 30 (up from 25). Upped spiked shield skill to 10 (up from 5). Lowered bone shield skill to 20 (from 25). Terror shield remains at 35, but other bone shields are now evenly spaced between 20 and 35.

- Poison cloud is now slightly more powerful and acid cloud is now significantly more powerful.

- After making a name change, items that are engraved with your old name now only have a 10% drop chance when you die (the same as items engraved with your new name). However, item recall and noticing your items on other players still does not work for items engraved with your old name, so it is a good idea to re-engrave items with your new name. If you have any items deeply engraved with your old name, Tavelor will now deeply re-engrave them with your new name for 1000 gold.

- When the rotting of hearts, brains, and tails comes in a future update, the items will only rot in vaults when they are picked up. That way existing structures will be saved. I will make an additional special rule for existing white wolf hearts so they will not start to rot until they are picked up for the first time.

Fixed a problem with introspection not reporting correct information.

- Introspection now reports how powerful of a spellcaster you are compared to other players in your school of magic.

- As Aberoth has grown over the years, many great names have been taken, but are no longer used. It is now possible to change your name to one that is taken by someone else, but has fallen into disuse. If there is a name you want to use that is taken, go to the Aberoth store and attempt to change your name to the taken name. If the game reports that the new name is "lightly used and might be abandoned", and you want to purchase that name change, please send email to support@aberoth.com and I will check to see if I can free it up. Also note that the name change price will change from $9.99 to $14.99 on September 1st.

- There will be an update (probably in about a month) that makes gray wolf hearts, white wolf hearts, rat brains, and rat tails rot and disappear after a while. All hearts, brains, and tails older than the rot period will be destroyed in that update, so please prepare now.

Aberoth has been moved to a new server. If you can't connect, make sure to let Steam update the Aberoth client. I expect performance to be about the same as before, but the new server should fix the problem where everything would unexpectedly slow down from time to time.

- A message board has been added to the guild vaults. The message board is added at the 7th guild vault size (6 upgrades after the initial guild vault). If a guild has a message board, any guild member may message any other guild member, and the guild leader may post announcements or guild messages.

- Experience loss on death is now set to exactly 10% of your current level for your focused skill, and 2% for non-focused skills. This penalty is slightly lower than before, but previously the penalty was a percentage of your total experience. This caused xp loss to be greater as you approached the next level (since your total xp was higher).

- It is now possible to escape the Inn even if people are blocking the exit. Just keep trying to move in the direction of the exit, and you will eventually squeeze by.

- Tavelor has installed a message board in his Tavern. Anyone may read messages, but only members may write messages. To write a message to another player, move next to the message board and say "message Name Some message."

- To read your messages, click on the message board. If you have more than one message, each click will read another message. Oldest messages are read first. Say "dd" to discard the message you just read.

- Guild leaders may make announcements to their entire guild by saying "guildmessage Some message."

- If a message is written containing the exact words "in X hours", where X is a number, then the message will be modified by the reader so that the time is accurate. For example, if you write the message "Meet me in 10 hours.", and someone reads the message 8 hours later, the message will read "Meet me [in 2 hours]." All times on the message board use game time, not real life time.

- If someone is on your ignore list, you will not see messages from them.

- Added a new 750 day membership reward.

- The old 750 day membership reward (advanced auto gold) is now a 75 day reward.

- Players can no longer move stuck items in someone else's vault.

- Added 4 new emoticons.

- Allow players to move items in their vault that are stuck in other realms.

- You can now see if a weapon is poisoned when you pick it up.

- Sharp weapons are now twice as likely to inflict poison than blunt weapons.

- The "Aberoth Champions" high score pages now have a "More" link to show ranks greater than 10000.

- Added a hint when trying to enter an upgrading vault when the upgrade was started from a different realm.

- Fixed bug where sometimes polymorph was reverted when zoning.

Gurun has moved closer to town, which will allow lower level players to take advantage of his services.

- Lysis no longer automatically creates potions of life from nothing. She must now craft them (new crafting item added).

- The potion of charging has been lowered 2 levels, and the potions of polymorph and restoration have been each raised one level.

- Lowered retail prices of many potions.

Added an automatic run command "rr". Automatic run stays in effect until "rr" is said again, or the player changes zones.

- Changed automatic fight command to "ff" from "aa".

- Players can now easily stop in a diagonal orientation. Previously, it was quite difficult, and players would mostly end up facing directly north/south or east/west, even if they were moving diagonally before stopping.

- Players who founded guilds that are now disbanded may restart them for 20000 gold by saying 'guild' to Tavelor. Founders of disbanded guilds may also now unengrave items engraved to their old disbanded guild at Tavelor's. Guilds with no one left in them are now immediately disbanded.

- Item recall now works in vaults, but there is a warning before using the scroll in your own vault. The warning is to prevent potential chaos from an accidental click. In all vaults, all items engraved to the user are recalled. For personal vaults, guild items are only recalled if the player is in their own vault, or the vault of someone who is not in their guild. In guild vaults, only the guild leader may recall guild engraved items. Guildmate's items are never recalled in any vault. These special rules only apply to items on the ground of vaults (items carried by other players work as if you were not in a vault. Clear as mud, but hopefully it will seem that the recall scroll "does the right thing".

- Players may now recall specific engraved items by saying the name of the item first, then using a scroll of item recall. For example, if you say 'dagger' and then use the scroll, then only your daggers will be recalled to you.

- Reflection is now displayed as a resistance. The percentage displayed is the chance to reflect.

- Fixed a problem for some Steam players who had trouble customizing their character using customization credits.

- Increased the delay between satyr butts by about 30%. DPB remains unchanged.

- Added the 'hotkey' command. Say 'hotkey', and you will be asked for a key and an item in your inventory to use. Hotkeys may be defined for any item that can be used, including containers. Once defined, the hotkey will use that item type from anywhere in your inventory. To undefine a hotkey, say hotkey, type the key you want to undefine, and then press enter. You can undefine all of your hotkeys with the 'hotkey clear' command. You can temporarily enable or disable all hotkeys with the 'hotkeys' or 'hh' command.

- F1 through F12 may be used as hotkeys, and they work even when your player is talking.

- Added the 'keymap' command. If you say 'keymap', you can redefine the keys used for up, down, left, right, and fight.

- Added the 'aa' command to enter automatic attack mode. Automatic attack mode will end if you say 'aa' again, if you change zones, or if you swing too many times without hitting an enemy.

- Aberoth members may now have 60 permanent allies. The limit for non members remains unchanged at 40.

- Players who die in the arcane realm of life will now restart there, even if their reputation would not normally allow it. This gives them a chance to retrieve any lost engraved items. After the next long logout (currently defined as 15 minutes), the player will restart in their home realm if their reputation is not adequate for the arcane realm of life.

- Fixed the farsight scroll.

- Snakes can now climb Ratingar's stairs.

- Bats now spawn from the cave in the meadow (instead of in the meadow itself).

- Added hint text for beginners on how to switch weapons.

Features added to Aberoth since original release last year:

- Thirty achievements.
- New quests, items, and membership rewards.
- Secure and safe trading system.
- Reduction of item loss on death.
- Increased hit point regeneration.
- Widescreen and fullscreen modes.
- Reputation system.
- Arcane Realm of Life (which only allows players with a fair or better - reputation).
- Guild vault upgrades, including secure doors and rooms.
- Build mode for building structures.
- Orb room to allow changing realms.
- Loads of bug fixes and additional polish.

Aberoth is still being actively developed, so check back often for updates!

Achievements are now available!

There are 30 achievements. Achievements are tracked at the character level in game. However, to get the Steam achievement, only one of your characters needs the achievement. You will have to log on with your character to activate your achievements.

Some achievements will not activate immediately when accomplished, since they would overwrite other important information on the screen (for example, learning your 4th skill). Any achievement that does not activate immediately will activate the next time you change zones.

To see your achievements in game, say 'achievements'. Achievements are listed in order of most difficult to least difficult.

- The arcane realm of protection has been removed. With the recent lowering of the drop rates for engraved items, in addition to the equipment check command, I feel that it is no longer needed. While I liked the fact that the realm allowed a safe place for players to avoid losing items to PvP, I had always been uneasy with the realm, since it made acquiring equipment and items less challenging outside of PvP, and was unfair to players who earned items in the normal realms at great risk to themselves.

- A new realm, the arcane realm of life, has been created. This realm is accessed through a painting of a desert island in the inn. All game rules inside the new realm are identical to the rest of Aberoth. However, the arcane realm of life may only be accessed by players who have a fair, good, excellent, or unknown reputation. The purpose of this realm is to provide an area that is somewhat safer to players from excessive pkers, while at the same time providing the same challenge as the original Aberoth.

- Access to the arcane realm of life is decided by the Aberoth community through the reputation system with the "commend" and "condemn" commands. A player's reputation is calculated solely on the views of other players, not through any other game mechanic. The commend and condemn commands are private, and no one else can see who you have commended or condemned.

- Players whose reputation falls below "fair" while in the arcane realm of life will be sent back to their home realm the next time they die, or after their next long logout.

- Items, gold, and players that were in the arcane realm of protection have been moved to the arcane realm of power.

- You can now say "reputation" to Tavelor to hear your own reputation.

- If you recently bought a membership and would like it refunded because of the removal of the arcane realm of protection, please send an email to support@aberoth.com.

- Added the ability to check your equipment for engraving. If you step on Tavelor's small engraving table, your character will do an equipment check to verify that all of your items are engraved to you. A check will be made on all of your worn equipment, your main bag, and any containers in your main bag. You may also check your equipment manually with the "checkequipment" command.

- Made widescreen mode optional.

- Added full screen mode.

- If you have a multiple monitor setup, full screen mode will work on any monitor. Simply drag the (non full screen) Aberoth window to the monitor you wish to use, then check the "Full screen" check box.

- Widescreen and full screen modes use more CPU/GPU than normal mode, and widescreen mode uses more network bandwith. Players experiencing performance issues should experiment with unchecking the "Widescreen" and/or "Full screen" check boxes.

- Added item size option to adjust the size of item icons.

- Players may now quit to the main menu at any time by pressing ESC, then Q. Note that your character will not be logged out immediately, so if you want to be safe, be sure to make camp first.

- Players may now respawn without going back to the logon dialog by pressing "R" after they have died or logged off.

- Added the "camp" command, which does the same thing as "makecamp"

- Aberoth now runs in 16x9 widescreen mode.

- Increased base regeneration rate of players from 11 hp/min to 15 hp/min, and increased the bind wounds skill effect. Bind wounds now adds exactly 1 hp/min for levels 1-5 and adds exactly 2 hp/min for levels 6 and above.

- Lowered engraved drop rate to 10% (5% for deeply engraved).

- Removed additional 10% XP penalty in realm of protection.

- Shields are now picked up by your off hand by default.

- Modified some hint messages to better help new users.

Added three new items (850 day membership reward and two rare drops).
- Added a trading system. To trade with someone, say 'trade Name'. They can then agree to commence trading by saying 'trade YourName'. Once you are trading, every item you drop becomes part of the trade (engraved items and dropped gold are not included in the trade). You can add gold to the trade by saying 'addgold 100' while in a trade. Once both players say 'accept' in a trade, the trade is complete, gold transfers, and players may take the items they traded for. Picking up any part of the trade while in a trade cancels the trade.
- You can now specify a name in the 'doorrank' command to give exclusive access to a single person for a guild vault door.
- Fixed a bug where person detect would not display the location if you became more knowledgable in the spell.
- Occasionally people ask about restarting disbanded guilds. From now on, if a guild has been disbanded, the founder of the guild may restart it for 25000 gold. There is currently no way to do this in game, so if you want to restart a disbanded guild, send email to support@aberoth.com.
- Made teleportation more robust (sometimes mobs could not teleport).
- Slightly tweaked enemy attack behavior.

- Added several new guild vault upgrades. The first new upgrade includes a door. The leader of the guild may set the security of the door by standing next to it and saying 'doorrank X' where X is a rank number (for example, 'doorrank 3'). Once set, only guild members of that rank or higher may open or close the door. The leader may use the command 'doorrank 0' to allow anyone to use the door. Anyone can check the security of a door by standing next to it and saying 'doorrank'.

- Fixed a bug where non-members who had changed realms by hitting a glowing orb were sent back to their home realm after a long logout. Players now stay in their new realm and do not revert back to their home realm unless they touch the candle (or hit the painting of the house).

- Fixed a bug that when entering a vault for the first time, the player keeps running.

- Lowered werewolf pelt drop percentage somewhat (due to there being so many realms now).

- Added back in the 10% additional xp penalty when dying the in the realm of protection.

- Added the arcane realm of protection, which is accessed through the painting of the woman at the inn. In the arcane realm of protection, engraved items never drop on death. However, If you die in that realm, you may not re-enter until dawn on the next Aberoth day.

- Merged non-Steam and Steam Aberoth. Everyone in Aberoth now plays in one unified world. New non-Steam players still start in the common realm of knowledge (white), and new Steam players still start in one of the other common realms.

- Removed the arcane realm of knowledge. Anyone who was in the arcane realm of knowledge is now in the arcane realm of protection.

- The arcane realm of energy is now called the arcane realm of power, and is still accessed through the fireplace. The arcane realm of power currently has no special game rules.

- The potion of restoration no longer restores full hp, but is about as effective as 2 extra life potions.

A reputation system has been added. Members can either commend or condemn other players using the commands 'commend Name' or 'condemn Name'. Reputation does not affect game play in any way, but if you say a player name to Tavelor, he will tell you the player's reputation, based on the number of commendations and condemnations that player has. A player must be commended or condemned at least three times before Tavelor will report a reputation. Each member may commend and condemn a maximum of 25 players at one time. If a player has a name that usually triggers something else from Tavelor (for example, 'hello'), you may say 'champion hello' to get their reputation from Tavelor.

- Added 800 day membership reward.

- Fixed white wolf quest. In some cases, the messages were misleading, and the pack wolves did not behave correctly.

- When selling items to other players using the trading system, and the name of the item is ambiguous (for example, defense rings), display additional information about the item.

- Fixed rage potion yelling.

- Fixed display of fireplace bind wounds.

- Made vault upgrade message more clear when an upgrade was initiated in another realm.

- Slightly lowered perfect cast percent for Grand Sorcerer.

If players lose more than a full level of experience, they can now have that xp restored (up to one level below their maximum xp) by becoming 100% well rested at the inn. This allows players to recover from excessive deleveling.
- The minotaur can now be properly fatigued.
- Vampire bats have been slowed a bit to allow players to run away from them.
- Normal satyrs now cause light sleep by playing their pipes. Elders still cause deep sleep.
- Human players now have intrinsic 40% deep sleep resistance. Before, players did resist deep sleep at 40%, but it was a special case done outside of the normal resistance framework. Now it works like any other resistance.
- Fixed the bind wounds resting bonus sometimes incorrectly showing up as 7.

Added seven new quests.
- Fixed the message to new players about seeing Inala.
- Leveling up bind wounds now immediately shows the new healing rate.
- Fixed slight inaccuracies in the number of players in each realm.

• When creating a new character on Steam, the number of players in each realm is now displayed. This allows players to choose a more or less populated realm based on their personal preference.
  
• Fixed the 'drop item' hint showing up at incorrect times.
  
• Display a message when clicking on the white orb in the Steam realm orb room.
  
• When naming a character, do not clear the name field if the user presses enter right away.
  
• Added a hint for new players to talk to Inala if they have not yet received the bat quest.
  
• Allow 3 Steam non-members at a time (up from 2).
  
• Updated Windows Steam client to use Java 8.
  
• Lowered unengrave time at Darklows.
  
• Allow wanted players in tavern.
  

• Added a new small zone. This zone may be used by players to change realms. Members can change realms more easily than non-members, but there is also a way for non-members to switch realms.
  
• Tripled Darklow's unengraving time.
  
• Engraved items can no longer be taken to a different realm, except by the owner. Now, if you lose an engraved item, it will stay in the realm you lost it in (unless it is unengraved).
  
• Shopkeepers now do not allow wanted or infamous people into their shops. Lysis and Wodon no longer allow unfriendlies into their homes.
  
• Added an additional impairment once a player has doubled their infamy kill allotment.
  
• The built in trading system no longer supports trades of engraved items.
  
• If killed when unfriendly (and not infamous), you now respawn friendly. This will help new players who try unfriendly and get stuck on it.
  
• Doubled the amount of time scrolls stay dark. This only applies to the length of time the school of magic stays dark. The dark time between casts did not change.
  
• Made rogues and thieves spawn slightly faster.
  
• Fixed problem where Grand Shaman could teleport into his own treasure room.
  
• Fixed a problem when authenticating with Steam.
  
• Fixed a problem that would crash the server every once in a while.
  

Several people were having trouble starting the game. I have released a patch that should fix that issue.

If you were having trouble launching the game, please try again, and it should work!

Thank you everyone who tried out Aberoth! It is really great to see so many new people playing.

Based on feedback from release day, I have released a patch that allows players to choose a realm when starting a new character. This should help people that want to play with their friends on a specific realm. If you already created a character and want to switch realms, please send email to support at aberoth.com and I will switch your character.

I also added a message warning players that no name characters are not saved. Make sure to name your players by saying 'champion', so that they are saved.

Have fun!