Overview: This is a guide full of basic, common knowledge, type of information about the mud, it's people, and they way things are done. Hopefully after reading it you may gain enough understanding and knowledge that you won't have to suffer the title of 'Newbie'.
Definitions and Basic Knowledge:
- Newbie: Any player, regardless of level, who is ignorant of the ways, rules, or basic commands of the mud. Examples include someone who doesn't know how to pick something up, or how to eat food. (note: there are hero's who still have problems with this.)
- Hero: A player who has made it to the glorious level of 164/41, which means they have completed 4 full classes, and are now of the highest level possible. Hero's play a very important role in Exile, as they help lower level players, and provide leadership for the many clans and Tribes.
- Gods (or Implementors/Imps): A God or Imp (as we often call them) is someone who actually works on the mud in some way, most gods are lower gods, level 42, and are usually 'builders'. That is, they build new zones for the mud. The God levels go from 42 to 45, with each progression gives the ability for the god to do much more, and also gives them a much greater responsibility. At level 43 they are Greater Gods, and are still often just builders, but they have done well in the past, achieving them the next level. At level 44 they are Lower Implementors, meaning that they have either gone past the stage of building zones, and are performing maintenance, helping with code, or updating files on the mud, or they are building and doing any of the latter also. At level 45 there are only 4 Implementors, these are the gods which started the mud, which run the mud, and which make all the rules, regulations, and important decisions. The four implementors are Marinell, Volito, Gora, and Hextall. Get to know those names well, as they are the ones you have to complain.. err.. contact if you have major problems with your character, or if someone seems to have broken any rules of the mud.
- Class: Each player has a class, or job. You can only have one class at a time, but after spending enough time, you gain enough levels to multiclass, allowing you to become a different class, and gain the skills or spells of that class also. The eight classes are:
Warrior, Cleric, Mage, Thief
Ranger, Monk, Illusionist, Nightblade
The latter four are Hero classes, you get to choose one of them as your final class, after you have completed any 3 of the first four classes. An example would be: Lordbob starts as a Warrior, after a while he gains 41 levels, and goes cleric. Then he gains 41 more levels, and decides to go thief. He then gains to 41 again, and now he gets to choose a hero class.

To join a class, after you have reached level 5 as a citizen, you simply go find the guild that you want to join, go to it's guild master, and type 'join '.

Hero classes do coincide with a given class you will have to have before you 'hero'.
For Monk, you must be a cleric at some point.
For Illusionist, you must be a mage at some point.
For Ranger, you must be a warrior at some point.
And for Nightblade, you must be a thief at some point.
The great thing about this system is that over time you can build a very distinct character, with a broad range of skills and spells to help him adventure, help others, and PK.

In order to multiclass, after you have reached level 41, you simply go into the next guild that you want to join, and type 'join ' the same as you did when you got to level 5 as a citizen.

- PK: PK stands for Player Kill. In exile, we have zones which are player kill zones. What this means is if you go into a certain area, you can be killed by other players, and you can also kill them. There are 3 types of PK zones: LPK, NPK, and CPK. LPK is what most of the world is, you can not attack other players there at all. LPK is basically the 'safe' areas when talking about PK. NPK is Neutral Player Kill, what this means is that, you can kill other players, but you can not steal from them, or loot their corpses after they die. NPK is what most people will go into when they want to duke it out with another player for fun, or for honor, or if they enter the arena. CPK is Chaotic Player Kill, which means not only can you kill and be killed, but players can steal from eachother, and loot eachother's corpses. This is the most dangerous area, because as you get really good equipment, you don't really want to lose it.
- Arena: The arena is a large NPK area, located on Noble Circle in Caymus, which is where PK Quests, King of the Mountain Quests, and just the day to day bouts of many people are held. The area allows for a lot of space to run around, and has specific rooms in each of three corners for specifically aligned people, to go heal.
- Quests: A quest is a sort of tournament, brought to the players by the gods, allowing them to test their skills, their power, and their intelligence. There are four types of quests currently: PK quests, KOM quests, Race quests, and Battle Quests.

PK quest: A pk quest is an all out, no holds barred, assault on everyone involved, all at once, in the arena. Any number of players, within certain guidelines which are set up by the gods prior to the start of the quest (note: type queststat for information on a quest, and questscore to see who is winning/losing. Questjoin joins a quest, and questquit leaves a quest). In a PK quest, the person who kills the most people, with adjustments for level, wins. Example, Lordbob is level 30, he kills 20 people who are lower level than him (getting 1 point for each), and also kills a level 36 player (getting him 5 points!), so he would have 25 points for the pk quest.
The other thing about PK Quests is that you can keep joining over and over if you die. This allows for a lot of carnage to take place, as well as absolutely astronomical kill scores for really good PK'ers.

King of the Mountain: This is a little tougher than a PK Quest, because it is a single elimination PK quest. Once you die, you are out. The last person standing wins. Simple as that. (note: type info 12 for more information on KOM quests).

Race Quests: A race quest is where the joker (a mob in the game) is randomly teleported to a specific room in the mud, and everyone must race to the joker, and 'tag' him. To tag the joker you just type 'tag joker'. The joker can be anywhere on the main continent, and is often in very hard areas, but also might be standing right next to you. To win a race quest takes a lot of knowledge about where things are in the mud, as you have to know the names of specific rooms in the world. Whenever the joker moves, he tells everyone where he is by the name of the room, and that's all you have to go on.

Battle Quests: Battle quests are personal quests between two players, where they go into the arena and battle it out. The kicker is, everyone in the mud can watch the fight through the eyes of one of the combatants, using a 'quest link'. To questlink to a player, all you do is type questlink and then you can watch them fight it out during a battlequest. Cool huh?

- Gauntlet: The gauntlet is one of the many great things that the implementors of exile have brought to the players, allowing them to really test their mettle. The gauntlet is located three west and one north of the center of town square. To enter the gauntlet, all you do is open the curtain, and go north. You will then either be transported in, or have to wait (only one person can be in each section of the gauntlet at any given time). There are four sections to the gauntlet:

Clubs: Levels 1-13
Diamonds: Levels 14-26
Hearts: Levels 27-39
Spades: Levels 40-41

Each level of the gauntlet is harder than the previous one, and at each level of the gauntlet, there is a 'Mass of Swirling Energy', which you must defeat. The mass will have a card hidden on his body, which you can take after killing him, allowing you to unlock the next curtain, and go to the next mass. (WARNING: be sure you do not sacrifice the keys before you get to use them, they don't come back until the game reboots, and it all starts over again). Each mass also has a piece of eq which can benefit players of various classes, each piece of eq being appropriate to it's level in the gauntlet. At the beginning of each section of the gauntlet is a regeneration room, where you can rest with increased Hit Point and Mana gains each tick.
One last thing about the gauntlet, it is a good idea to be sure you understand how the gauntlet works before going in, as you may find that you can ruin the gauntlet for others (by accidentally sacrificing the keys), or that you weren't ready for it anyway.

- Relics, Gems, Orbs, and Depictions: There are a variety of items that are randomly placed, hidden, on mobs throughout exile. They are:
Ancient Relics of Unknown Origin
Depictions of Sin
Blue Orbs
Gems of True Seeing

Blue orbs and Gems of True seeing are both randomly placed at random times while the mud is running, so you can find them at basically any time. Blue orbs, when used, cast sanctuary on everything in a room. Gems of True seeing cast true seeing, allowing a person to 'see' something anywhere in the mud (they are for high level players, but you can sell them).

Relics and Depictions on the other hand, load one time, when the mud starts up, so there are only a very limited amount of them each reboot. Relics are identified at the curator (from recall: north, 6 east, south, 2 west) for a cost of 3 tokens, or you can sell already identified relics to the curator. The way this works is detailed below.
The commands at the curator are:
Appraise - to appraise an unidentified relic
Reject - to reject the price the curator tells you (if you want to try and go higher)
Accept - to accept the curator's offer (if you want to take the tokens he offers)
Sell - to sell an identified relic
Value - to value the relic (find out how many tokens you can sell an identified one for)

If you have no tokens (you get tokens from selling relics) and you try to identify a relic, the curator will just take it and give you whatever amount he wants to for it.
After you have at least 3 tokens though, when you appraise a relic, the curator will tell you a starting amount of how much he is willing to pay for the relic, but he won't tell you what it is yet. You can then accept the amount, or reject the amount. There is no real system to this for the most part, it's all just live and learn. If you reject, the curator will either make a better offer, or he will identify the relic and give it to you, and charge you 3 tokens.
If you accept, he will give you the amount of tokens he offered, and tell you what the relic was. (note: once the relic is sold or accepted, it's gone.)
There is a list of relics at the curator (look sign) which tells you all the different relics that yours might be. Also, if you ever get one identified, but you find out you can't use it, you should value it (type value ) and then either ask the mud (gossip channel) or someone specific whether you should keep it or not, or you can auction it (auction channel). If you do decide to sell it to another player (either through auctioning or just selling it to someone) be sure you don't sell it for less than the value given by the curator.

The Depictions on the other hand, there are exactly 7 of when the mud starts up. What depictions do, is when you turn them in (I'll tell you how below), for each one you turn in, you get a 'mark'. Each mark 'level' achieves a greater PERMANENT award for you.
The mark levels go like this:
Mark 1: 49 extra Moves
Mark 2: 49 extra Mana
Mark 3: -7 Armor Class
Mark 4: -7 Save vs. Spells
Mark 5: +7 Hitroll
Mark 6: +7 Damroll
Mark 7: 49 extra hit points
Obviously, there are serious advantages to getting high mark levels.
Now, to turn them in, you go to the Church of Caymus (from recall: north, five east, five north, three west, and south), and find the Patriarch. You HAVE TO HAVE ALL of your depictions in your inventory at this time. If you have 4 depictions, you need to have them all out and ready to go. Then all you need to do is type give depic patriarch. I know it seems funny that you only are typing what would normally give one item, but the mud code was set up specifically to work specially for the depictions with the patriarch. When you type give depic patriarch, he will actually take all of them at once, and then announce your mark level to the whole mud. The second part to all of this is that, you have to turn in more depics than your current mark level, for the next level or higher. Example: Lordbob has Mark level 3. He needs to turn in 4 depictions for mark level 4, but if he happened to get 7 depictions, he could turn them in for mark 7!
(help depic)

- Channels: There are many channels (type channel for a list) available to you. You can turn them on and off by typing channel . Some of them are very specific to their usage, and should not be taken advantage of. The gossip channel is for basically any public discussion, just remember to obey the rules while talking. The auction channel is for selling things. The music channel is if you want to.. well.. sing. The guild channel goes out to all people within your guild, and so on.
For help with channels, just type help channels.
- Practices: Spell casting classes get a limited number of 'practices' which they use to gain ability in given spells. The thing to remember is that the number of practices is limited, and you can run out. It takes from 9-11 practices to practice a spell to it's maximum. To get a list of skills or spells for any class just type slist , and to get a list of spells you can practice, go to your guildmaster and type practice. To practice a specific spell, type practice .
People and Places to Know:
Head Implementors:
Marinell
Volito
Gora
Hextall

As well as all of the other gods, are very important to know, as they are the people who run the mud, enforce its rules, and listen to your ideas. They are there to help, so don't be afraid to ask them questions, just be sure you've thought the question through first.

Hero's:
The list of hero's is far too large, and changes to often, to list here, but all of them have been on Exile for some time, and most of them are open to helping new players when they can. If they are busy, they will often help you find someone who can help you with whatever you may need. In general, the hero's are just as important as the gods to new players in this way, so don't be afraid to ask them questions either, just don't spam them. (except Todd, you can spam Todd all you want.)
Other Players:
There are literally thousands of people that play Exile, and often there are more than fifty on at a given time, so there are almost always people to group with, get information or help from, and even just socialize with. Exile is an extremely social mud, and just so long as you obey the rules, don't offend anyone, and have a positive attitude, you're time on Exile will be great.
One of the main bonuses of having many players on, is that you can 'form' with them, allowing you to join a group of people, and go out and gain experience, and find equipment, or even just go explore, together. This is extremely important to learn for new players, because later on, it is much easier to gain levels and to explore in a group.
Caymus Harbor:
Caymus is the main city of the mud, where all life springs from. Within Caymus lies all of the tools that a new player could need to help him. Some of the spots within Caymus that a new player needs to know are:

Center of Town Square: Also known as recall, because whenever you cast recall, recite a recall scroll, or quaff a potion which performs the recall spell, you are transported to the Center of Town Square. Recall is easily pinpointed, as it is dead center in the middle of Caymus Harbor, and has a large fountain.

Donation Room: Two rooms east of recall is the donation room, where at any given time, you can usually find hundreds of items, free to all, which have been donated by other players who don't need them. Don't let the idea of donation make you think it's all junk, there is often very good equipment in the donation room that the people who had found them, just don't need.
Caymus Hospital/Health Services: If you go one north, four east, and one north from recall, you enter the hospital. This is Caymus' regeneration area, where there is a friendly cleric who will randomly cast minor healing spells, as well as bless and armor, on you. This spot proves very important for all players when they want to regain hit points and mana, because it has a much faster regeneration speed than a normal room.
General Store and the Bakery: The general store is one west, two north, and one west of recall. The bakery is one west, 3 north, and one west. At the general store you can pick up some basic adventuring neccessities (like a waterskin, backpack, etc.) for very cheap. At the bakery you can pick up food supplies (meat, bread, rations), which you need to have eventually. You start the game with 3 rations and a waterskin, which you can fill at the town fountain. But eventually your rations will run out, so you will need to go to the bakery. If you ever lose your waterskin, you can buy another one at the general store.
Potion and Scroll Shops: If you one east, five south, five east, and two north, to the west will be the potion shop, and to the east will be the scroll shop. At each of these shops are a bunch of things you can use during your adventuring.

The list below has all of the items and what they do:
Potion Shop:
Swirling Shapes and Colors--Casts recall on the user
Murky Fluid--Casts remove poison
Splarkling Potion--Casts cure blindness
Thick silver liquid--Casts strength (+2 bonus)
Swirling Pink mist--Casts invisibility
Blue--Casts cure light wounds
Cloudy--Casts detect invisibility

Scroll Shop:
Remove Curse--Casts remove curse
Protection--Casts armor, bless, and protection from evil
Transport--Casts group recall (recall's a form)
Create Water--Casts create water on a water container
Curse--Casts curse on an enemy
Armor--Casts armor
Bless--Casts bless
Identify--Casts identify on an item
Guild Halls: The four lower guilds (Warrior, thief, mage, cleric) are all located in caymus harbor. The four Hero guildmasters are in various places in exile, and you will learn those as you get older. The directions to the four caymus guilds are:
(from recall)

Warrior: west, 5 north, 3 west, south the guildmaster is then one east.
Thief: south, 5 west, 2 south, east the guildmaster is then down.
Cleric: north, 5 east, 3 north, west the guildmaster is then one west.
Mage: east, 5 south, 3 east, north the guildmaster is then two up.

Pet Shop: The pet shop is located one south, 6 west, 4 north, and one east of recall. At the pet shop you can buy tigers, dogs, and rats. Buying pets means they join your form. Tigers are quite tough and cost 6000 coins, Dogs are fairly tough, and cost 2100 coins, Rats are.. well.. weak, and cost 1200 coins. Pets will fight with you, and will accept orders, if they can do them. You can order pets to sleep, wake up, rest, and other things. If you disband a formation, all of your pets will leave you, and if you die, they will also leave. If you go afk too long, or sit in one spot for too long, they may wander off. If you are going to leave, you can sell pets back to the pet shop for half of their cost. As a new player, if you can save up enough money, using a pet to help you level will speed things up dramatically.
Armor and Weapon Shops: If you go west, 5 north, 5 west, and one south, you will have the armor shop on your west, and the weapon shop on your east. Each of those shops has equipment which is relatively inexpensive, and very useful for new players.
But remember, there's also a lot of stuff in the donation room usually, so that's a good place to go too.
Graveyard: From recall, go west, 6 north, 2 east, 2 north, and then go through the gate. In the graveyard are a bunch of low level mobs, perfect for level 1-5 players. They are very easy, and if you are in a group, or have a pet, you can kill them very quickly and easily.
Tips and Pointers: First off, do your best not to anger those in high positions, it can make your stay not only painful, but possibly very short. A good example is cursing on public channels repeatedly (it is against the rules to curse on public channels), spamming public channels or tells, or just having an extremely bad attitude all the time.
Aside from that, unless you are just a pain in the butt, you should have a good time and not many problems.

The basic rules to live by are like this:

Always be courtious, if someone gives you something, be thankful, and try to repay them someday. If someone does you a favor, try to do them one.

Know when to be quiet. Without being able to see a person face to face, you can't know what they are really going through, so be careful with 'witty' comments when they might actually offend someone.

Don't be afraid to ask questions if you really do need to know. No matter how simple it is, if you don't know the answer, someone will surely help you out, and if they don't, you can always talk to one of the gods.

Learn the commands. Typing command will give you a list of all of the available commands. The commands have help files, so all you need to do is type help and you can find out what that command does. If you don't see something on the list that you think should be there, try finding it with help, you may have just missed it on the list.

USE THE HELP FILES, they are there for a reason. There are helpfiles for almost everything, and they are very helpful and usually very detailed about whatever it is you are looking up information about. Just type help

Be social, we survive on exile by making friends, so that we can explore areas, get bigger, and eventually join a clan or tribe, or even start one of our own. Friends make all the difference between a bad and a good time on any mud.

Learn the Mud Mail system. From recall, go east, 3 south, and east, there is the post office, from there you can receive messages (type receive), and send items to other players. If you go north, you can send messages (type mail ) to people. This is extremely helpful when you need information about anything that the people who are online at the time, can't seem to help you with.

Also, be sure to follow all of the rules (help rules), and if you ever have any ideas about how to improve exile, type idea . Example: I type: idea give everyone free relics. This would send a note to the gods that I submitted that idea. The bug command works the same way, if you find something that appears to be a bug (a problem with the actualy mud code), type bug .

Aside from that, if there is anything you need to know, just ask someone online, or you can ask me (blue) on the mud, or email me at adam@theozon.com.