The Arcane Path
There is a hum under the ash, if you listen. The old ones called it mana. Every survivor carries some of it - what you do with it depends on who you chose to be.
The world
The world was always magical. Most people simply never saw it, because the Order made sure they did not: for a thousand years it worked in the shadows, keeping humanity safe from what magic can do. The traders are its quiet hands. The Lost Knight who speaks on this server is one of its knights.
Magister Corvane, once of the Order, wanted more. He founded the Scourge and tried to draw power straight from Agartha - the hidden world beneath this one, where mana rises from the Wellspring. The working broke. That night, the Sundering, is why the dead walk: the Hollowed are what the backlash left behind. The ferals are the Quickened; the radiated drank deepest of the breach. The Scourge never meant to end the world. Now it pretends it did.
The four roles are the Order's four disciplines: the Shield (Paladin, the storm), the Crown (Royal, the tide), the Fist (Thug, the stone) and the Mask (Jester, the fire). The Scourge answers with its Black Fortress, and with the Heralds that walk through the cracked Seal below.
Magic and the four roles
Your role decides what comes easyPaladin
The Order's Shield. A Paladin's oath was always half prayer, half thunder: holy fire for the Hollowed at the gate, and the storm for whatever comes after. Corvane was a Shield once - pride broke him before the spell did. Paladins stand where others run, and the sky follows them in.
- Elements: lightning, fire at 35% off
- Staff: Storm Staff (lightning) - handed over by the Lost Knight in Agartha, in Paladin Trials 5: The Oath of the Storm
- Tome: Terra Rampart (/cast rampart, 45 mana): a 9-wide stone arc for 40 s, every hostile within 8 m held in stone, and your own skin turns to stone.
- Siege: hold the gate.
- Echo: plated - shrugs off body hits, so aim for the head.
Royal
The Order's Crown. For a thousand years the Crowns paid for the Order and kept its secret; now they lead it in the open. A Royal does not chase the horde - they decide where it drowns. Water first to soak the field, lightning second to let the sky fall on it: the combo everyone wants is theirs by birthright.
- Elements: lightning, water at 35% off
- Staff: Tide Staff (water) - handed over by the Lost Knight in Agartha, in Royal Trials 5: The Tide Answers
- Tome: Sovereign Tempest (/cast tempest, 55 mana): everything in a 10 m circle drenched, then struck - and the bolt arcs between the wet.
- Siege: hold court - stay near an ally.
- Echo: crackles with lightning and shocks what it hits.
Thug
The Order's Fist. The polite ones talk to the Scourge; the Fist breaks its doors. Thugs do not cast from a distance - they turn the ground in front of them to stone, then break it with fire. Walls, statues, shatter: loud, close and very hard to stop.
- Elements: fire, earth at 35% off
- Staff: Stone Staff (earth) - handed over by the Lost Knight in Agartha, in Thug Trials 5: The Mountain Knows Your Name
- Tome: Flame Sprint (/cast sprint, 40 mana): 8 s of +50% speed, you cannot burn, and whatever you run past catches fire.
- Siege: break the horde - kills inside the walls.
- Echo: burns, and sets you alight when it lands a hit.
Jester
The Order's Mask. Spies and fools who walk inside the Scourge's own camps, laughing, and report back. Every element answers to a Jester and none of them behave. The Jester lights the stage first - fire - and keeps the other three for when nobody is expecting them.
- Elements: fire, lightning, earth, water at 35% off
- Staff: Fire Staff (fire) - handed over by the Lost Knight in Agartha, in Jester Trials 5: The Curtain Catches Fire
- Tome: Chaos Bolt (/cast chaos, 15-45 mana): two random elements at 1.5x so a combo always fires. Sometimes it is free. Sometimes you get soaked.
- Siege: cast inside the walls.
- Echo: fast - very fast.
1The four elements
/cast fire, lightning, earth or water lands 8 m ahead of you, on the ground, and only hurts the dead. Costs: fire 25, lightning 30, earth 20, water 15 mana.
They react - and the reactions are the game.
- Water, then lightning: the bolt hits drenched targets for 1.5x and arcs to every wet one nearby.
- Earth, then fire: the stone shatters - double damage.
- Water, then earth: mud - a heavy slow instead of stone.
- Fire, then water: the flames go out (half damage) - useful when it is your friend on fire.
Earth also raises a short stone rampart in front of you for 20 s. It will not rise inside someone else's land claim, a trader or a protected lobby.
2Mana - where it comes from
Everyone starts with 100 mana. It comes back three ways:
- On its own - 1 a second.
- From the dead - every zombie you kill gives 2 back. Fighting keeps you casting.
- Mana Potions - 60 at once. They brew only at a Potion Stand, and the Potion Stands are in Agartha: boiled water, 3 yucca fibers, 2 coal, and wood for the fire.
Your mana sits on the HUD under the stealth bar. Logging out does not refill it - you come back where you left off, plus what you would have regained.
3Your fifth trial - a quest of your own
Finish your role's four trials and the trader offers Trials 5. Accept it and within a few seconds the Lost Knight - the Order knight who speaks on this server - finds you and walks you through five steps. Each step hands you a named quest item, and the quest tracker on your screen always names the next one. The fourth step is always the same: brew a Mana Potion at a Potion Stand in Agartha and drink it on the altar, and the Knight puts your staff in your hands.
How you always know what to do next:
/quest- your journal: every step, what to do now, and how far and which way it is.- Order notes - the purple candles. Walk up to one and it reads you a page of the Order's story, and, underneath, your own next step.
- Hint papers - when the trial begins the Knight puts the Order's notes in your pack (your role's page and a pilgrim's guide to Agartha), with another at the Forging and one before the boss. Hold one and use it, the same as reading a book: the page opens on your screen. Put it away to close it.
- Quest items - hover any of them: the description says where to go next.
- The Lost Knight - speaks at every step, and reminds you if you have been quiet for a while. The radio's whispers do too.
Paladin - The Oath of the Storm
- Ser Aldric the Oathbroken walks at night - kill him for the Oath Page.
- Charged, radiated and feral zombies carry Stormcopper - three shards.
- Wake the four Storm Pylons in Agartha with lightning inside 90 seconds (a friend's lightning counts).
- Drink a Mana Potion on the altar: the Storm Staff.
- The Oathbreaker comes through the Seal. Lightning breaks his ward - then hit him.
Royal - The Tide Answers
- Carry the Crown's letters to three different traders.
- Stand in the Wellspring with an empty jar - three Wellspring Tears.
- Three Drowned Courtiers rise. Soak each before the killing blow or it stands back up.
- Drink a Mana Potion on the altar: the Tide Staff.
- The Drowned Regent. Dry, it cannot be hurt - drench it, then strike.
Thug - The Mountain Knows Your Name
- Three Scourge Enforcers come for you at night - beat them for the ledger.
- Break the Living Stone vein in Agartha - five stones. It grows back.
- The Test of Fists: ten of the Hollowed, bare hands or knuckles only.
- Drink a Mana Potion on the altar: the Stone Staff.
- The Quarry King, inside a stone arena. Petrify it, then break it.
Jester - The Curtain Catches Fire
- Use a Scourge Mask and stand in the Scourge camp for a minute - no kills, no casts.
- Catch the Scourge Courier within 90 seconds. It comes back if it escapes.
- Answer the Lost Knight's riddle with /answer. Three wrong and the whole server hears.
- Drink a Mana Potion on the altar: the Fire Staff.
- The Ringmaster hides among decoys. Only the real one burns.
4Staves - the fast way to cast
Four staves: Storm (lightning, the Paladin's), Tide (water, the Royal's), Stone (earth, the Thug's) and Fire (the Jester's). Every swing is a spell - one every 0.6 s at 100% of the /cast price, and your role's discount stacks on top because each staff is one of its role's elements.
Quality matters: each quality level takes another 3% off the cost. And a staff has mod slots, which is where the orbs go.
5Orbs
An orb is a staff mod. Put one in and every spell that staff casts gets bigger:
- Lesser Orb - 1.5x damage, 1.25x radius. Workbench: 2 raw diamonds, 8 electrical parts, 5 glue.
- Greater Orb - 2.25x damage, 1.5x radius, and walls stand 1.5x as long. Workbench: a Lesser Orb, 6 diamonds, 20 electrical parts, 10 forged steel.
One orb per staff. Your cast message tells you which one is working.
6Arcana - the perk
Under Intellect, Combat. Five ranks (Intellect 1, 3, 5, 7 and 10). Every rank, on every spell - staff or /cast:
- +12% damage, +8% blast radius, +15% reach
- +20 maximum mana and +0.5 mana a second
- 4% off every cost
At rank 5: 200 mana refilling at 3.5 a second.
7The Arcane Trials - after your staff
Your Trials 5 opens a second line at every trader: the Arcane Trials, where the staff learns to hit harder.
- The Current - brew 3 Mana Potions at a Potion Stand in Agartha, then fell 15 ferals. Reward: a Lesser Orb and 5 potions.
- The Storm Within - 15 radiated, with the Lesser Orb on you so it can drink what they spill. Reward: a Greater Orb and 10 potions.
Role trials, then your staff, then two orbs: a player who walks the whole road has the full arcane kit.
8The tomes
Each role has one signature spell, written in its tome. Read it once and the spell is yours for good - it survives death and restarts. Only your own role can read your tome; anyone else gets it handed back.
Where tomes come from: rare in bookcases; a workbench makes one from 50 paper, 20 leather and 5 Mana Potions; and surviving the Siege pays one out.
9The Siege of the Black Fortress
The Black Fortress is the Scourge's: a black stone keep that rises wherever the veil to Agartha is thin, pouring the Hollowed out of it. When the radio crackles, it has risen somewhere in the field. /join takes you to its walls. Five waves, then its captain, the Warden. Kill the Warden and the Scourge loses its foothold.
Every role has its own objective - /siege mine shows yours. The Jester's is magic: cast 6 spells inside the walls. Meet your objective and survive: 500 Knight Caps and your role's tome.
Kill the Warden and its Warden's Sigil drops: use it and for ten minutes every element answers to you at your role's discount.
10Soul Echoes
Die, and a Soul Echo stands up where you fell, wearing your name and fighting like your role. Anyone can put it down; only you are paid for your own - caps, XP and a Soul Relic (more XP for half an hour). Leave it standing too long and it becomes a bounty for everyone.
The Order's library
Some things in this world are meant to be read. Hold one and use it the way you read any book, and the page opens on your screen; put it away (or wait a minute and a half) and it closes. Nothing is used up - read them as often as you like. Codex volumes turn up on bookshelves and in book piles; the tomes open their page when you learn the spell; the hint papers come from the Lost Knight during your fifth trial.
Books and tomes
Hint papers
The short version
Pick a role and finish its trials. Trials 5 takes you to Agartha, where the Lost Knight gives you your staff and the Herald gives up its heart. The Arcane Trials give the staff orbs. Put points in Arcana. Read your tome. Kill things to keep the mana flowing - and when the radio crackles, bring all of it to the fortress.