Voidstone

Early development. Expect bugs, a small world, and the occasional soft-lock. Save often. Use !wipe if stuck.

QUICKSTART

move - north south east west up down (or n s e w u d)

look - look around, look rat to examine

fight - kill rat to attack, flee to run

items - get, drop, inventory, equip

help - help lists commands, help kill explains one

Tab autocompletes. Up/Down recalls history. Abbreviate freely.

COMMANDS

Movement: north, south, east, west, up, down (n/s/e/w/u/d), look, listen, open, close, unlock, lock

Combat: kill (k), flee

Items: get, drop, put, from, inventory (i), equip (eq), remove, use

Character: score (sc), skills, raise, worth, rest, sleep, wake, stand, meditate

Communication: say, shout

System: help (?), quest, hint, prompt, colors, save, load, quit

Config: /config font, /config font size

COMBAT

Type kill <target> to attack. Combat is real-time and tick-based. Your attack speed depends on weapon and dexterity.

Type flee to escape. Costs stamina, may fail. Use look <enemy> to gauge their condition.

When you die, you lose some progress and respawn at a safe location. Death is a teacher.

TARGETING

Target by keyword: get sword matches "rusty sword". Partial matches work.

For multiples: 2.rat targets the second rat. Works for items, mobs, and doors.

STATS & SKILLS

Strength - Max HP, carry capacity, melee damage

Dexterity - Max stamina, attack speed, flee chance

Intelligence - Magic potency, mental resistance

Skills: Swordsmanship, Fencing, Macing, Archery, Wrestling, Tactics, Anatomy

PROGRESSION

Use it to gain it. Swing a sword = Swordsmanship gains. Stats gain passively from related skill use.

You cannot train past your cap. Caps start at 50 (human limit).

Fragments: Slain enemies release essence. Use meditate to absorb it. Use raise <skill|stat> to spend fragments and raise a cap by 10. Awakened maximum: 100.

POSITIONS

Standing - Slowest regen. Required for combat, movement, item use.

Resting - Moderate regen. Can look, check inventory, view score.

Sleeping - Fastest regen. Very limited actions.

Meditating - Absorbs fragments from slain enemies in the room.

WORLD

Pay attention to descriptions - they contain hints and hidden details.

Some passages have doors. Some doors are locked. You'll need keys or other means.

Not everything wants to kill you. Use say <message> to speak. Some NPCs respond to specific words.

Money: Pence (p), Shilling (s) = 12p, Crown (c) = 5s. Use worth to check.

Your progress saves automatically. The world resets, you don't.

LORE

Before life, there was only the barren world and the seed that fell upon it. The seed carried fragments of pure potential. When it struck the stone, it shattered. Millions of fragments scattered, and where they settled, life took root.

Every living thing carries a fragment. But fragments are not souls. Souls are identity, memory. They form around fragments like pearls around grit, but they are separate things.

During the shattering, three fragments of exceptional size coalesced into awareness. They were the Three Sisters: Althenne, Kalith, and Ren.

Kalith wanted a child. She tried to create life. The results were monstrous. When Althenne came to end it, Kalith lashed out. Ren stepped between them. She broke apart.

In her horror, Kalith pulled Ren's fragments into herself. But fragments are not souls. What she held was only power. The warmth was gone.

Kalith fled underground, trying to rebuild Ren from fragments. She gathered more. She harvested them from the living. Every kill added to the weight of what she had become.

At the war's end, Althenne imprisoned Kalith in crystalline stone. The Voidstone.

Ages passed. Miners found the riches surrounding it. They delved too deep. They found the prison and tried to move it. The first cracks appeared. From them, monsters spilled forth.

That was twenty years ago. The Stonewatcher recreated Awakening, forcing fragments into volunteers, granting them the power to absorb what they kill. Four in five die in the process. Those who survive owe eight years of service.

You survived.

WHAT'S A MUD?

Before World of Warcraft, before EverQuest, there were MUDs. Multi-User Dungeons. Entirely text-based online games from the late '80s and '90s. You'd connect to a server and read: "You are standing in a dimly lit tavern. A grizzled bartender eyes you suspiciously. Exits: North, East."

A MUDlike is a modern game that draws from that tradition. This is a single-player MUDlike - just you, the text, and your imagination.

This game spiritually descends from Envy22 MUDs and pays homage to Abandoned Reality, a MUD founded in 1996 by Erwin Andreasen (Drylock), who co-created the famous Bartle Test.

Traditional MUDs were endless by design. This game is different. It has a real story with a real ending. It's what a MUD might have become if someone had asked: what if this actually ended?

WIZ COMMANDS

Developer commands. Prefix with !

!inspect target - Show mob/item internal stats

!teleport area | room_id - Instant travel

!spawn proto_id - Spawn mob or item

!set frag | money | stat | skill | cap | vital - Modify player state

!lock / !unlock direction | door

!quest reset quest_id

!reload [prog_name] - Reload Lua progs

!wipe - Delete save, reload fresh

The game is hard. You will die. Learn why. Try again.