Starting Out

 

At the Academy

If you listened to the guide's introduction to Elysium, giving you a glimpse of the usual outlook of those of your race, and instructing you of the basic commands, you will find yourself at the academy of your city. If you chose to forsake your guide's advise, you can still call for the guide and follow their instructions (type 'guide').

Once at the academy of your city, you will be told to ring the bell in the main hallway. The academy will give you a series of basic tasks to carry out, which will familiarise you with the command system, and your city. Each task you complete will result in a reward of some kind, including some basic starter equipment and supplies.

If you ever forget what task has been assigned to you, simply go back to the main hallway and ring the bell again.

 

Welfare State

Every city within Elysium has found that it is in their interest to gift their young citizens with ten free meals and drinks upon coming of age. Therefore, while carrying out your academy quests, you should not worry about finding food and drink. Once you reach a certain level of hunger or thirst, provided you are within your city, you will be handed an item of food or drink without you having to do anything yourself.

 

Graduating from the Academy

The academy includes some optional side missions which go into more depth on some of the mechanics of Elysium, such as interacting with shops and learning skills. Make sure you complete these before you graduate, if you're interested.

Upon completing all the tasks at the academy, and being told that they have no more for you, you should start thinking about supporting yourself within the complex and often dangerous world that is Elysium. Listed below are the steps that it is recommended you follow, in order:

Step 1: Finding a Source of Food, Drink and Light

The government of your city will have issued shops to various players within Elysium, so that the city may make money through taxes on anything sold there, and the player who owns the shop will make a nice profit on any items they sell. Explore your city, remembering that you can view a map of it by typing 'help <cityname>map' (e.g. 'help karinthiamap' if you're Karinthian), and try to find a shop. Shops are recognizable by seeing a fat merchant. Upon finding a merchant, type 'goods', and you will be given a list of items on sale in the shop which will look something like the following:

Merchant says, "Today, Skychan's shop can offer you a fine selection:"

-= 3 apples =-

-= 6 bananas =-

-= 9 barrels =-

-= 3 suits of iron platemail =-

Knowing that there are apples, bananas, barrels and platemail for sale is not much use if we do not know how much they cost to buy. The price of the items above are not shown, since the apples may all have different prices. To see how much it would cost us to purchase a banana, type 'goods banana'.

-= banana: inventory number: 101231 price: 20 =-

-= banana: inventory number: 101235 price: 20 =-

-= banana: inventory number: 101236 price: 20 =-

Now that we know the bananas are 20 gold coins each, let's buy one. You can either type 'buy banana' or 'buy 101231'. 101231 is the inventory number of the first banana in the list. Simply typing 'buy banana' will grab any banana on sale, regardless of its price.

That's our food sorted out, now we need to find some water. The barrel you see on sale may well contain water, but it doesn't tell you this simply be typing 'goods' or 'goods barrel'. To examine an individual item, type 'goods <inventory number of item for sale'. Remember that you can get the inventory number of something on sale using 'goods <item name>', like we did with 'goods banana' earlier. Typing 'goods <barrel inventory number>' may give you the following:

This is a large wooden barrel, made of slightly curved planks, held together by thin iron strips. It is full of water.

Clearly this is what we want, a source of water.

To eat any food you are carrying type 'eat <name of food>'. Drinking is equally as easy, simply type 'drink from <container name>'.

Although merchants are a good way to get supplies, you may find they're selling items like clothing, armour or tools rather than food and drink - Or they may be selling empty containers for you to fill with your own drinks. In that case you can search for a market stall - food stalls or drink stalls let you have a meal or a drink there and then - It will solve your hunger or thirst, but you won't be able to take the supplies away to consume later - while fruit stalls, vegetable stalls, fishmongers stalls and butchers stalls allow you to order specific types of food which you can take away. Finally, if you've found one of those empty containers, or you've emptied the bottle you were gifted from the academy, you could head to the gates of the city and find the Tradesman NPC, who will sell water, filling containers for you. This is managed by the city, so not all tradesmen will be selling water, but you could walk to another nearby city using the 'directions' command if your cities tradesman isn't selling it.

Finally, we need a source of light. When it reaches night time, the lands outside your city will be plunged into darkness. Should you need to leave your city, or should you be outside of your city when the sun sets, you will find it very hard to navigate, unless you have a light source to light your way.

There are at least three basic items which will provide you with light:

  • A torch - once you get a torch, you may light it by typing 'light torch' or 'light <torch id number>' (should you have more than one torch). Torches will burn away, providing light, until they finally burn out. You can not douse a torch. Once burnt out, you will drop the torch when you next log out, since you will have no further use of it.
  • A lantern - lanterns are more expensive than torches, and require pots of oil to keep them alight. To pour oil into a lantern type 'fuel lantern', and then to light it type 'light lantern'. Lanterns are useful in that you may douse them when you no longer need them. Type 'douse lantern' to do this. Lanterns will continue to burn until they run out of oil, at which point you will need to refuel them.
  • The herb 'lumus' - lumus is a naturally fluorescent herb when applied to skin. To apply the herb to yourself, type 'apply lumus'. The applied herb will continue to glow until it is absorbed.

There are a few other options, such as candles or learning magical methods to create lights that follow you around, but the three methods above are probably the easiest.

To estimate the time within Elysium, type 'time'. The sun sets at the 18th hour, and rises once more at the 6th. Most people in Elysium determine the time by the movement of the celestial bodies, so if you're indoors or undercover somewhere you would only get a rough estimate of the time, but if you go outside you should get an accurate reading of it.

Step 2: Gaining Income

After a short time, the money which kept you going from the rewards for the academy quests will run out, and you will need to find a way to make money. There are various ways in which you can do this, some of which might be:

Carrying Out Tasks for the Court Advisor

Your city will have a court advisor, who will tell you how to go about carrying out tasks for him, should you 'greet' him.

Helping NPCs in Need

Trying searching your city for NPCs and then 'greet' them. They may wish you to do something for them. The courier agent outside the academy is one example of an NPC who will pay you for tasks that even a new player can do.

Completing Quests Spread About the Land

About the land are complex tasks which when completed will give you a sizeable amount of gold. The solution to these quests change each time they are completed, so you'll need to have your wits about you. Other places you can earn coins may require you to fight your way past dangerous enemies to claim the money. Try asking citizens of your city about nearby quests to make money. Remember, should you find anything interesting, 'examine <object name>' it!

Trading Commodities

Each city has a tradesman who deals in commodities. Upon finding the tradesmen, 'examine tradesman'. He will explain the service he offers. If you are going to be trading commodities, then you should be aware that you either need to know your way between the cities, so that you can deal with different tradesmen, or need to have a source of commodities to sell to the tradesmen that you know. If you can find a tradesman buying carcasses, this is a good option, as you can get those by hunting creatures in the wild and using the 'carve' command to convert their corpses into commodities. Other commodities which can be gathered by anyone with the right tools include fruit and wood.

Working For Another Player, or Your Government

Although it is not certain that anyone will have work for you, it does not hurt to ask players who you meet if they have anything you can do for them. Ideally, you should ask the governing members of your city. Remember, to see who governs your city type 'positions <your city name>'.

 

Step 3: Joining a Guild

Now that you have a way to make money, and using that money to buy food, water and light, you should think about getting a profession. By joining a guild, you can obtain abilities which may be relied upon by other mortals within Elysium, this is especially true if you join one of the 'creative' guildes, such as the Artisans or Alchemists (to name a few). In this way, you may make more money, if say you were an Artisan forger, who was able to forge weapons which can then be sold to those owning a shop, or even within your own shop.

To see a list of all the guilds currently active within Elysium, type 'guildlist'. This will show you the name of each guild, and in most cases, the guildhead. If the guildhead is not shown for a guild you are interested in, its likely the guild deals in the shadier side of business, and if you want to join them, you'll probably have to be invited to do so.

Some guilds share additional details about their guild. Those guilds can be listed by typing 'help guildlist'. This will give you a list of places where you can read more up on the guilds.

If you find a guild you are interested in, there are a few different ways to join them, but the easiest option is to find a guild tutor for that guild and type 'join guild'. You can find the tutors of a particular guild with the command 'directions guild <guildname>'. Although most guilds do allow joining through the tutors, if not you should try talking to the guildhead, either through tells if they are online, or through 'mail' if they are not. Of course, if you use the Elysium mail system, you will not get a reply until the person is next online. The guildlist command mentioned earlier will also list any other players who can help you join.

It is important that you do not rush your choice of guild, however it is not a permanent decision, as you can choose to leave and join a different guild at a later date, though this may set back your progress.

 

Step 4: Gaining Fame

Your final step in getting you familiar with the world is gaining fame. You can view your current fame level by typing 'status'. Amongst the lines describing your current standing will be a line looking like one of the following:

You are a total nobody, or

You are a complete unknown, or

You are known to few

This describes how famous you currently are. Do not lose heart, you are new, and as such unknown to most of Elysium.

You rise in fame by experience in battle, and through solving quests. Obviously someone who constantly battling, or traversing the world completing tasks, will have alot of endurance. Therefore, your maximum health will be proportional to your fame. Do not be surprised if a legendary player has twice as much health as you!

To see the ten most famous people online, type 'fwho'. If there are ten people or less online, all players will be shown.

To easiest way to gain fame as a newcomer is to battle some of the weaker creatures roaming around outside the cities. So try exploring and mapping the lands adjacent to your city. Upon finding an animal in the wilderness, you will need to assess whether you feel that you would be able to slay him in battle. Obviously, if you're faced with a hare, you chances of winning are almost certain. However, do not get overambitious. Death has a heavy impact on your progression, so don't try fighting any creatures which are larger than you!

You should also be aware that it will be easy to gain fame at first, for it does not take much to get a few people noticing you. But as you rise higher in fame, you will find it progressively difficult to get more famous. The path to becoming a living legend is not an easy one.

To initiate combat with a NPC, you can either use the abillities within General, or if you have already joined a guild, you may have abilities which were taught to you within the skills you learnt. For this tutorial I'm going to assume you haven't yet joined a guild, and so will use the abilities in General.

Type 'skills general', and you will be shown the abilities which lie within the skill General. The two you may use for combat will be 'hit' and 'swing'. The ability 'hit <NPC/player>' allows you to lash out with your fists at a creature, while 'swing <NPC/player>' allows you to swing a weapon which you have wielded at a creature. To wield a weapon you are carrying (type 'inv' to see what you are carrying), type 'wield <weapon name> in right hand'.

Let's pretend that you are battling against a spine lizard. To hit the spine lizard with your fists, you would type 'hit spine lizard'. Of course, you may swing a wielded weapon at the lizard aswell, by typing 'swing spine lizard'.

Whenever you hit or swing, you will lose your balance, and will need to wait until you have gained it again before being able to strike out again. To kill a creature, keep hitting or swinging a weapon at it whenever you can. Eventually it will give in to all the punishment, and die. At that point, you will rise in fame, although it may not be immediately obvious according to 'status'. You will probably need to keep gaining more battle experience before you notice any changes.

 

You are now ready to progress into the complex and detailed world of Elysium! You may now wish to ask about gaining a ministerial position within your city, joining an Order, setting up a shop, or purchasing a ship, or joining the army, or joining the navy...

 

 

 

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