Here you will find tips and information about your journey. Good Luck and welcome to Dereth!

Asheron's Call wouldn't stay exciting very long if death had no consequences. Ideally, the death penalty occasionally recharges your caution and capacity for suspense. However, if you don't adequately understand how death affects your character, you may find yourself punished even worse than the developers intended. Understanding how the death penalty system works and taking steps to minimize your losses can save you a lot of time and wasted effort, and keep your character's development on a steady upward curve despite the occasional mishap.

The Penalty
When you are slain, you'll resurrect at the last lifestone to which you attuned your character, having lost one or more valuable items, half your pyreals, if any, and a percentage of your "vitae," or life force. All your skills are decreased by the percentage of your vitae loss and so are the maximum values of your secondary attributes -- Health, Stamina, and Mana.

The ability to harm and be harmed by other players implies assassinations, ambushes, vendettas, and player battles large and small, but it also makes altruism and cooperation more meaningful, and allows for the possibility of player-organized law enforcement. You may have heard that the Player Killer world is a chaotic free-for-all where players get ambushed at every turn, but those who've had this initial experience likely blundered into a bad situation, or even created one by not observing etiquette. If you learn some basic survival tactics and observe the unwritten codes of conduct, you'll find that you can have the same experiences as on an NPK server, while leaving open the possibility of much deeper intrigues and friendships.

Train Your Character for Long-Term Success
When creating your character on the Player Killer world, keep in mind that you will wanta higher Quickness attribute and Run skill. You will also need to put points into your Defense skills, as most players that will attack you will have higher attack skills than the creatures you are fighting.

A Neophyte's Primer on the Arcane Arts, by Kimizu Jii-wen of Hebian-to

The world of Dereth is steeped in magic. Magicians are nearly as plentiful as warriors, and many an enchanted item waits to be found by adventurers. It is perhaps a more difficult choice to begin a career as a spellcaster than it is to begin as a warrior, but the potential rewards may also be greater. Consider that high-level spellcasters are powerful characters whose magical expertise is as important to gameplay as skill with the axe or bow, and as much in demand as the deadliest flaming sword.

Excerpted from the Eagle's Road, by Ummaz ibn Baqani

As vital as your weapon is, it is not your only important choice in combat. If you want to live past your first fight, you should think carefully about armor. It is, after all, what stands between you and your foes' blades, cudgels, and fangs.

It isn't as simple as bedecking yourself in a full suit of plate mail and wading into battle, though. Each kind of armor has its own strengths and weaknesses, and choosing the wrong kind can leave you exhausted or dead.

Excerpted from the Eagle's Road, by Ummaz ibn Baqani

The path of the warrior is, by nature, fraught with peril. Those who travel it will seldom live to see their old age. Many will perish while they are still young. Yet the rewards for the skilled fighter can be great: power, glory, wealth, and the respect of friend and foe alike. Still, the novice warrior should learn something about his blade before he draws it for the first time.

There's much to think about when it comes to selecting the right weapon. A spear is very different from an axe, for instance. Which one is better depends on your own abilities, your foe, and the weapon itself. Before you go to the blacksmith's -- before you even choose which kinds of weapons to train with -- learn what they can do.

Axes and Hammers are heavy and slow, but they do grievous damage when they cleave a foe's flesh or smash his skull. They are suited for warriors who are strong and have plenty of stamina.

Houses come in three sizes: Cottages, Villas, and Mansions. Each housing type shares certain qualities with one another. All houses:

• Have a number of hooks to display items and trophies.
• Have at least one, and as many as five storage chests, that can hold 26 loose items and one full backpack of items.
• Can be recalled to by the house owner via use of a special command. (See Housing Commands later in this document.)
• Require upkeep on a monthly basis (with the exception of Residential Quarters, which require upkeep every 3 months).
• Have level restrictions, and/or allegiance rank restrictions.
• Require at least one writ and one unique trophy item to make the initial purchase.

In the lands of Dereth, the landscape above is not the only place to encounter fierce creatures or collect rich treasures. Adventurers setting out to experience the whole of Dereth should remember this: The ends to many paths hold very special dangers -- and rewards -- all their own.

Walk the wilds of Dereth, and such fearsome creatures as Golems, Reed Sharks, and Ursuin may be found. Yet by exploring only the world's surface, one will rarely, if ever, encounter Dereth's most fearsome denizens. To face such beings as the Lugians, Sclavus, and even Olthoi, heroes must delve beneath the ground -- into the dungeons.

Walk the paths between human settlements, and strange portals will often glimmer. Portals which lead not to any civilized town, but rather to underground lairs and ruins and even exotic cities beneath the soil. Before daring to enter such dungeons, adventurers would be wise to stock up on torches, recruit a fellow explorer, and find out all they can before blindly heading in.

Adventurers looking to fill their coffers with the gold and magic Dereth has to offer will be quick to learn -- not every treasured relic may be won by simply battling creatures. At times, a more heroic effort is required.

While coins and certain magic items can be readily found, in the pouch of a young Banderling or within the hollowed recess of a Mud Golem, the most powerful objects have been secreted away. . . and often kept by equally powerful guardians. Consider the legendary Sword of Lost Light, or Oswald's Dirk. Truly, such objects cannot be found without embarking upon some quest.

Back in the world of Ispar, whence came the Aluvians, Gharu'ndim, and Sho, the great Empire of Roulea once spanned much of the land. Though Roulean influence has long since faded, the language now called "Old Roulean" has been taken up by traders of all nations. Here on Dereth, where the heritage groups have been thrown together in close proximity, Old Roulean has proven indispensable as a common tongue and measure of time. Here is the Old Roulean system of measuring the hours of the day:

• (6 a.m. sunrise) Dawnsong
• (7:30 a.m.) Dawnsong-and-Half
• (9 a.m.) Morntide
• (10:30 a.m.) Morntide-and-Half
• (12 noon) Midsong
• (1:30 p.m.) Midsong-and-Half
• (3 p.m.) Warmtide
• (4:30 p.m.) Warmtide-and-Half
• (6 p.m.) Evensong
• (7:30 p.m.) Evensong-and-Half
• (9 p.m. sunset) Gloaming
• (10:30 p.m.) Gloaming-and-Half
• (12 midnight) Darktide
• (1:30 a.m.) Darktide-and-Half
• (3 a.m.) Foredawn
• (4:30 a.m.) Foredawn-and-Half