24/7 US East coast server on two dedicated server blades, backups every 30 mins.
-Grief free play / GM staff
History:
Urath started with two C coders Relistan and myself in the late 80's as a heavily modified CircleMUD. After six years we ended up with a community of about 200 people.
NeverWinter Nights was released and it was decided to take advantage of the module editor to create a custom living and breathing world. Three ages (three years ending in a major event) took place.
The fourth age concluded with the destruction of Urath to what is now Razor's Edge...
The fifth age was being developed on the Torque Engine for a modern look and feel 3D engine, but after two years of working on the project our lead developer suffered a tragic accident and the project was never finished. LIF: yo gives our community new hope, and an API to make it home.
The saga continues....
Connection on 100Mb MPLS network.
Dev team consists of two programmers familure with Torque3D engine and a graphic designer.
**Some of the early features planned are:
-Boss creature encounters.
-More random animal types.
-Personal vendors, and Kingdom exchange vendors, but player driven economy.
-Ships and ship building and travel by Water.
-Combat and armor skill tree being reworked.
-Rain Lightning storms and other weather systems (Wind)
-2 player slots (per steam account)
-Destroyable objects and decay.
-Tree purges, Tunnel cleanup. Trash collector for inactive accounts.
-Multiple instances
*Uptime 4 months no wipe / no lag
-Dedicated TS server
More to come based on dev progress of the LIF YO engine.
To apply visit our web site at
www.razors-edge.orgemail: support [@] razors-edge [ . ] org for issues.
Looking to expand the Development team in preperation of the API
The following positions are open:
1. Programmer with experiance in Torque3d (working with Lead coder George)
2. 2D texture design (working with Lulu)
3. 3D model design (working with me)
4. Writers
Background:
3rd Age - An adventurer's oral history
by Cornelius Millwright V, Paladin, Historian, Craftsman, Planeswalker, etc. of Ur
I will start off with some geography of the places during the end of the third age. The cataclysm did change may things. Peoples moved, got destroyed, landmarks the same.
Laoks
Blidgenstone was in existence at this time. Once, during at least my grandfather's time it was a Drow city in the Underdark. How it ended up coming to the surface and the Drow fleeing the city as a result, Ur only knows. What we do know is that a river a fire was next to it and flowed to the south to The Rock and Nigel's Tower. Most people of Evil disposition lived there. There were mines, just like in Old Tar, nearby for those who crafted items. Of course, the biggest draw for adventurers was Nigel's tower. After that was going beyond The Rock to challenge Tabby (um...that's what we called Tabitha...and still do). There were no crypts underneath the city for whatever reason.
Farther east was the town of Larknor. It was famous for its tomb. It had mummies and other undead. At the time none roamed the fields around it. There was also a tunnel that burrowed under the mountains and headed to Red River just to the west of the plains by Tar.
Other historians take the viewpoint that Laoks was surrounded by sea and always was. There is no evidence to this. I still maintain that Laoks was on the same continent as Nonac and was separated by mountains.
Nonac
Tar Garelleth, the city, was the major city of humanity at the time of the 3rd age. It had a port, mines to the north and west, shops for buying armor, weapons and other things. It also had a monarchy with King Edmund being the last king of Tar. This was a place that many of the good people came to have as their home. Still, many others of humanity were welcomed here as well. Tar was therefore the center of the adventurer's trade.
North of the city there were several places the adventurer could hunt at. One was on the Plains themselves. Orcs wandered around here.
To the south and east was Red River. Later on in the 3rd age is where we spotted the first Drifters and they are there to this day. Also during this time there was a large grove in the Red river area. At times we had minstrels and other people play at that grove. It was to become the Elven Cultural center. Those plans never bore fruit. There was also an entrance to a tomb that was called Spindella that only the most hearty adventurers dared go in.
To the north and west of the plains there was another tomb in the forest. It was not much consequence. I only remember it because I was on the verge of death when I felt the presence of the one called Angel, the enemy of the Millwright clan.
To the North of the Plains was Razor's edge. There was a orc horde who constantly battled the king's men here. The adventurers were always welcome to beat on the horde. There were some grizzles here at times as well. There was also a cave where the Drow could be fought. Whether these were the forerunner's of the Drow that took over Tar later, is unknown to me. They were not divided up into houses at the time.
To the direct north of Razor's Edge was the Yzer forest. Many forest creatures both good and Ill made their homes here.
Beyond the forest was Ft. Echion and then Echion mines. There were many undead at the fort as there are today...but less challenging let me assure you. We did not get into the castle itself is the reason why. The mines held kobolds and orcs and trolls and so forth. The mines and tunnels eventually led to a valley of evil gypsies at the time.
To the direct north of Razor's Edge was the Snowy Pass. There were orcs and kobolds all used to the cold and some winter wolves as well.
Off to one side there was a path to Gh'eris'place. Here I apprenticed under Lemli and learned much about crafting.
Farther up the pass was an area claimed by a white Dragon. (I did forget its name...maybe if Perry's works were unearthed someday we could get it...I am not sure if its the same white that is in Almea now.) So frost giants and Winter wolves held sway here.
Just beyond the pass was the foothills of Dire Mountain. More giants fought over a tower ruin here, probably a base during the Dire War. Some of the foothills lover into a valley just before the mountain. Hordes of undead at one time filled this floodplain. Many adventurers would take whole parties here to combat the horde.
A tunnel to the north of this plain emptied into a network of tunnels patrolled by earth elementals. One of these tunnels brought someone to Dire Lake. At the time the Lizardfolk held sway here but for some reason let a port be built by it since the area was by the northern sea. In Dire Lake itself, Tigsen once had an academy of Wizards. By my time it was submerged under water and there were no entrances. That would change later. This is the area where my grandfather nearly defeated a Black Dragon that lived here during his time, but not mine.
Another passage goes to the Nonac Desert. There were Lions and other creatures and the Crusaders we know of today. They also had a city to the north and west that for some reason is inaccessible today. To the south of this area was a mysterious place with glowing crystals. To this day, I have no idea what its purpose is. To the west of that was a thriving city of Jotwin, which is now a ruin, but the water is still good. There were shops and an inn and a Wizard's tower. The Wizard's tower had a portal to the planes in it. I, myself, never asked which plane...a mistake I regret to this day. It may have been a castle in either the Hells or the Abyss for all I know.
Irata
Irata had no city where its docks are. Just gently rolling fields...with Orcs. There was a place in these fields...looked like a crypt but went down into the Eve of Darkness, then to the Snake Pit. There were foul Drow and undead in that place. To the west was a Deep Jungle with all sorts of giant bugs. For some reason there was a small store out in the middle of the jungle, too. That place being there was always somewhat of a mystery.
To the North of the fields was the village of Maro. Maro was home to many people of neutral nature. It too had some crypts off to the side. I am not sure if there were any mines. There may have been. After all, there were places to do crafting here. At the time, there were no trails leading out of Maro.
This ends the geography part of my story.
Aftermath of Echion and Nigel at the end of the 3rd age
I was born long after the Echion - Nigel conflict. In fact my father barely knew much about it himself. All I knew at that time was that both had fallen in their own ways. I also knew that Ft. Echion had swarms of undead as well as did the Echion Mines. The only real part I had in this legacy was The Sword of Echion.
We were supposed to keep this sword away from one of Sen's minions. It had a tendency to posses the wielder and make them go on a killing spree. The sword then came to me. When Gh'eris Rex had heard of this, he tried very hard to convince me to give him the sword. I told him only to keep it safe from the demon. He gave it to an agent of this demon instead and the demon claimed it. I heard nothing more about it. This became a bone of contention between me an Gh'eris for years to come.
Other things from the conflict is that we discovered that Echion was actually entombed under the city of Tar and his spirit is still around and undead. At this day and age that is also true. We did find Nigel's tower in Laoks. Of course not Nigel himself. We found him entombed on Blood Isle, guarded by some undead. He himself escaped undeath. That place was successfully sealed off in this age. Possibly by Taalar himself, when he was a mere outsider.
My recollection of the end of the age
I was also a witness to the events that lead to the end of the 3rd age. Keep in mind many of these things are sketchy at best. Perry Cypress, wrote down many of these things. If my memories do not serve well...she wrote down things as they happened.
One day an old man came to our town. He told the story of a conflict between Tigsen and someone named Sal'kyfer. This Sal'kyfer wanted control over Death. Tigsen did not want this woman to have that control. Now there is a complicated thing here...I do not know if it was actually Tigsen that talked to us that day or his friend, the Gold Dragon Gnok-Gnok. Those are the things that I have trouble remembering. All I remember is that this Sal'kyfer, the Slayer, and so forth were different names for Tokana. I also remember the Twins, Dargol and Dargill, the children of death. Things did not come into focus for me until Tokana had her minion secured.
Namreg, or as we called her "Nutmeg" since we all thought she was nuts, liked killing and making people suffer. At times when the battle call was sounded, after she accepted the call, she would throw an area effect spell around her, knocking out all of the more inexperienced adventurers around her. She even told me that her goal was to server the one who would control death. She offered her services to Tonaka. She then established a dictatorship in Blidgenstone and attacked Tar on a regular basis.
We were instructed to find something in Tigsen's academy where he taught magic. I forget offhand what it was. I was in a daze at the time because Namreg had just killed my first love (For more information I suggest you look at the biographical and autobiographical information I have in the temple library). All I know is that we were given Dargill berries to eat and we went into Dire lake. I was in the rear guard that day...looking for Namreg to attack us. The Vampire general was the first to attack and he came from the front. We all came running and engaged him. Then Namreg attacked our undefended rear. I did not see much until after we had Tigsen himself thanking us somehow. My rage at Nutmeg was too strong. It seems that Perry did write a book about this incident and its in the Library at Varuem. I would suggest reading it for more background.
Namreg attacks continued on. I, myself, had made an oath to send Nutmeg to the abyss myself. That was such a foolish oath. The memory sickness attacked the whole of Urath. WE forgot how to fight, cast spells and so forth. So did Namreg. She got killed by the people she was ruling in Blidgenstone. I had failed. They wrote a book about it and its in their library. I saw my best friend after that, Levatine Kegsplitter, find one of the shards of Var and struggle against its control. I could not help him. Shortly, I had to do my penance. The end of the age then came.
For that mess, I suggest something I had transcribed from a dwarven friend of mine. Its called "Once More Unto the Breach my Friends" and is in the temple library.
The end of the Beginning: