Merentha is an AWESOME MUD. It has been around for 14 years and is still constantly been updated. If you want a HUGE MUD which has stood the test of time then it could be for you. Quests, deeds, guilds, pets, ships, steeds and dragons!...Merentha has it all, and much more... There are literally thousands of different mobs and dazzling array of intriguing equipment. The only way to truly appreciate how amazing Merentha is is to try it for yourself. While there is a very steep learning curve if you can battle your way up a few levels the rewards are fantastic.

The admins play favorites to the point it's almost laughable. If you're not in the established player clique, good luck, because the way the player base likes to bully new people, you're going to need it. It was great in its youth. The admins were helpful and polite (most of the time, but everyone has their bad days, right?), the players jumped at the chance to show the odd newbie around Cabeiri and the few other places that existed, and everyone was your friend. If you died, you'd have either your old equipment or a new set others helped gather for you within 5 or 10 minutes. Pk was rare, and if used, it was on some trouble-maker who was harming other players to begin with. Now, the slightest comment over a public line singles you out for outright abuse by established players, just because you said something. It doesn't even have to be something objectionable. Just saying anything seems to be just cause to either threaten pk or to pk you. When this sort of behavior is reported, the admins seem to get upset at you for reporting it. The player base of Guild Wars is better, and that's really saying something.

I played Merentha for three and a half years. During what would be considered it's peak popularity and more recently it's fall. I have since stopped playing, it's been nearly a year now since I last logged on. Merentha is a great MUD. Despite what people would call a 'poor player-base' I would say it is one of the free MUDs out there. Plenty of races, classes, abilities, places, and quests to explore and re-explore. Merentha is alot like high school, atleast socially. When you start out you're a gangly, awkward loser with little or no friends. If you step out of line you're bound to get reprocussions. As your character gets stronger you are seen as more mature and the less likely you will be screwed with. Of course you're going to run into pricks. But, who wants a completely sterile MUD with no excitement? Enemies are what drive you to become the best player you can be, anyways. That's the problem with other MUDs, there's no struggle. On Merentha when you reach the top, it's more than just a bunch of numbers, it's an accomplishment.

This Mud is great! Lots of races you can ressurect into which means no matter how long you have been playing you can always change the abilities of your character. Around 100 Deeds and Quests which vary from very easy to so difficult I doubt any one can complete. Although already huge several new areas have been added recently for both low and high level characters. 100's of differents weapons and armours with an amazing array of different bonuses, most of which even autoloads. Over 1200 different mobs ( that I know of cause I've got the kills in my list :) ) meaning that there is no need to spend hours just killing the same mobs. Advancing is easy enough so that starting is not too difficult but challenging enough so that getting all the way to Legend will be a real achievement. Also eq gives no benefit to levelling so there is no reason why your very first character can't end up being as strong as any character already playing! If you like a challenge, are not daunted by a huge playable area, not afraid of mobs that can kill instantly if you don't use the correct strategy, or put off by quests which require real thought then you will love this mud. Enjoy!!!

Merentha over the years has been good but till recently it was stagnating.. now the admins have started to code and make it better.. added some new skills spells and newer lands which also inclide a new subclass quest and the most revered Dragon quest.. i now have fun in Merentha again after like 2 years

I have been playing this mud for about half a year now... I find that Merentha is an awesome mud with many things to get you addicted. I have not been long enough to know of its past but have heard many facts, I find this mud great as I get along with nearly everyone but the lack of updates and degrading of things is bad. If there were more color, equipment and some new areas as I find when you level up higher as an elite or legend... there is not much to kill or get

I played Merentha for 7 years, I just recently quit and suicided all my characters with my highest being 9 levels from legend. Merentha itself is amazing, Great admins but lately they have not been on or nor care about the growth of the mud. The players make it the trashiest place to be ever, it's set up so you can get stronger forever and forever and once your a powerhouse you can just not care what people do or say, which is stupid. Even though I was one of those powerhouses, I would reccomend many many other muds before this one.

I have played merentha for many many years. It's one of the best muds I've ever experienced. Most of the areas are brilliantly coded and made with an good theme. That is why I find the current situation so depressing. The game originally held huge potential to be one of the best muds on the net. Sadly, the game became stagnant and plummetted down thanks to the head admins, Jewel&Petrarch. The playerbase in the game was great some three-four years ago. The death system is harsh in Merentha, and nowadays there are bitter banned/dested players or bored teenagers going on playerkilling-sprees just to cause mayhem. If the situation would have been quickly taken care of, I sincerely believe things wouldn't be so gloomy now. But after witnessing an player using the same character to playerkill people for over five months without receiving punishment from the admins, I was forced to re-think my opinions of merentha.. The two head admins are rarely seen, and when they are - they are bitter, cynical and insult the players. The help files on rules are horribly outdated, and there is an bunch of undocumented rules that few people know of. When politely asking one of the admins, Jewel, what is the situation regarding some rule, you'll be lucky if she doesn't kill you on the spot. You can expect heavy insults to happen - even when suggesting that the help files _shold_ be updated. The lower admins are great people on the other hand. They have firsthand experience of the game from an players point of view, especially Boreas. Feyr is rarely seen and Viresse has left for ..shall we say, disagreements with some certain other people. The game revolves around exping heavily, and it's mainly meant for lower-level characters. There are only few abilities to be gained after passing level 20. For an fighter, you're stuck with 'slash' for the rest of +80 levels after gaining it..Whoopiedoo! There have been splendid and excellent ability&spellideas suggested to the admins by the players, yet they have not even bothered to reply to them. And on top of all, the game has been lagging big time for the past year. After politely asking the admins what was causing it, I was threatened to get dested and banned for not *RESPECTING* the admins. Power corrupts. So in short, it was an good game, but the majority of people have understood what the situation is now. At some point, there were over 100 users most of the time - now it's an rare sight if there are even 50 to be seen at the same time. My advice: stay away from this game. Find an better one suited for your tastes - god knows there are better muds to be found than this.

I've posted reviews before, though I don't quite remember the content outside of the first. Let me begin with the following statement. Merentha is a good game. Now, let me continue with another statement. The population of Merentha, overall, is horrible. When I began playing, I got the feeling that Petrarch, the head admin, was a very... aloof person. Detatched from his player base, and barely caring. Through the years, I believe I twice convinced myself that I was wrong, and he was merely keeping himself unbiased by not being approachable. From time to time, he'll talk to people, and he's even personally opened a few events. In my personal opinion however, these were more likely to keep up appearances. His mission statement claims he once played muds and suffered the injustice of being persecuted by his former admins, and that their player base was highly abused. Now, I can't claim any persecution, and I can't claim that the player base received any strange abuse. What I can claim is that the player base -is- abuse, and that Petrarch himself barely knows, or really cares about his own Mud in my eyes. In the past, he's contradicted himself by claiming that 'they'(the admins, though more likely just himself) don't care about player ideas. This was in a post in response to a player who spoke up and who had gotten themself banned. Said player warranted the banning, however, nothing warranted Petrarch's statement. The player population, as I said before, is horrible. He does have near 100 players, as he claimed in an earlier review, however, his quantity of players does not make up for the lack of quality. More than once, the communication has been severely lacking with the administration, not to mention, they often do not see eye to eye when it comes to their decisions. While no one can expect them to see eye to eye 100% of the time, they should at least come to some sort of compromise. I've seen people dested by one admin, only to be reinstated by the other, when said player was dested for mass-pking in the first place. If you'll notice in the mudstats, it says 'restricted pk'. Mass-pking, or pk-spreeing, is against the rules in the game. From what I know, Petrarch has not played his game in years, and aside from some recent changes, the mud has grown particularly stagnant. One of his most recent ideas of a 'quest' was effectively an easter egg hunt that resulted in the finders of said eggs, or in this case, egg shards, getting dragon characters. The aforementioned quest was actually talked about when I began playing, around 5 years ago. One would think 5 years would be time to develop a better quest than having egg shards randomly placed in the mud for players to find. The random places chose did not play into the quest either. They truly were just random rooms. Overall, I've attempted to use only in... Read More

I have been a member of the merentha community since around 1998. There is a lot I can say for it. I can say that it has some of the best Admins I have ever seen. The coding is amazing. There are kingdoms and guilds. You can own boats, balloons, pets, and horses. It is one of the best muds in so many ways that I have ever played. However, the part I cannot give praise on is the player base. I'm afraid that through the many years our realm has been in existance we have lost some amazing people and they have been replaced with some of the most arrogaunt selfish immature and childish people I've ever come to know. There are good people in our realm, however they struggle to exist and so many of them have come to sit in the shadows and watch the destruction of what we love. There are too many bullies with too many high powered friends that will back up their buddies wrong or right. You'll often hear the words "it's just a game" come from their mouth. Take notice that these words will only escape their mouth when other people who aren't their friends, are killed, looted, or degraded. When it comes down to them being killed, looted, or degraded; or their friends being killed looted or degraded it's an outrage and people will die to whatever extent they can get away with. They will skirt along the rules avoiding harassment by inches and sometimes scratching past, just enough to keep them from being dested. Someone who reviewed previous to this review said "Protecting oneself from PK is a challenge though, and it is quite unfair that if a higher level decides to kill you, he is probably going to kill you no matter what you do. So if a higher level tells you that 2+2 = 5 , you'd better tell him he is right. You are going to like Merentha only if you accept this "fact"." Sadly I mus admit that this is true. If you so much as disagree with certain high level players you face threats and death, not only from them but from every underling and friend they can come up with. The players there have a might is right attitude, some of us try to fight against it, but sadly we are outnumbered, and so many have just marked it off to that being the way it is. Or try to avoid pk even though they know that the things these bullies do are wrong. Sadly it seems fear has become the code of ethics and backbones are either none-existant or easily broke under all the high level power hungry bullies and their friends. However, even with these people who seem to outrank the good people of Merentha I would still suggest this mud to be one of the best around. I would highly suggest playing it. I would rank our admins top... Read More

Merentha has disappeared i dont kow were it is. Anyone have any info. please tell me.

Hello and howdy.... I play and have played Merentha for many years off and on.. I personally like it. Its fun. its big.. I was a newbie, am a newbie and will be a newbie on this mud again. However I am going to start with telling you why I hated being a Newbie on this mud. YES i love the mud... yes I hated being a newbie. Well not hate... but it was a slight dislike far from the love i have now. First of the highest level player i have ever seen that is not an admin... is level 95. I consider my newbie stage to end at level 10. Getting to 10 was hellish experience. Fun but hellish. To me.. the issue was not of not being able to find mobs to kill. They are everwhere... its just a mater of decideing what you can kill and what can kill you. You can trip over them if your not watching... the newbie area has some form of all basic life forms you will find in the game.... from Dragons to faerie,, from kobolds to orcs.. .you name it... beautiful to ugly strong to weak... . organized to scaterbrained they are all there... My issue with my first five levels was the inability to understand basic commands of the MUD. How to move, what my skills were, how i was to advance, how to pick a class, the mechanics of the world... It took me a few levels to figure it all out. I died a few times.. Just before level 10 i think it was level 7. i pissed off some other low level player. And He Player killed me... that is when I should have left and never come back... it really pissed me off... i was mad as all burning blue lighting in hell... but what happened next was amazing.... What appeared to be half the active players.... ( I was still in the newbie area, and had not seen that many people) Well anyway a ton of players i had never seen before charged to my aid..... some level 70 female centaur came chargeing in put me on her back and took me to a hospital... and paid for my repairs... For the life of me I can not remember her name... But she spent the next three hours mentoring me one on one. Making sure I was fine. Other players delt with the character that slayed me. ( I DIED ) I am pretty sure that player is still active... and I run into them now and then... I might even have partied with them a few times... For newbies there is an intire guild of players that their main goal... not job, is to aid newbies..thier guild name is Cabeiri Knights. They are named after the Newbie Area. The cool thing about the CBK is that they will aid any level character with knowledge of how to play the I... Read More

Okay, I'll start with facts. Merentha has been there for over 5 years, it's a gigantic as a mud, hundreds of areas, weapon and armour, and dozens of skills, spells, abilities, races and class, including classes available by quests, and mini-quests "deeds" that you will run from time to time. I've been playing for Merentha for almost 2 years, and I say with full honesty it is the only MUD I ever had full interest in. Start off with awesome ANSI system which clears the game very much, and the minimap function ( ) helped me really much in the beginning. And I still use them, of course. All the other muds (expect for some other Nightmare MUDs) have been to messy for me and I haven't been able to concentrate on the, because there is too much white text in the screen or the colors are harsh and messy, and do not clearish out the concept at all. But Merentha, my first mud, was awesomely clear when I first started. I got the hang on it real quickly, and by that time, the community was really nice and helpful, and the lines were full of interesting conversations. Lately though, Merentha's community's niceness has fallen because more and more immature players come to the game because it's so easily understandable, but there are still lots of nice and helpful people here. (for example, me ;) ) PKing is restricted, anyone MAY pk (by the rules, pk-spree'ers WILL be dealt extremely harshly) from time to time, but with it's own resposinblies. You can count on that you'll get killed when you pk, and you will get hated, and you may not never gain the trust you had. Merentha is really wide, and doubtly no-one in the Merentha has ever been in every room in the MUD. It is gigantic, and still they keep adding more areas to explore, and dozens of quests and deeds offer a nice challenge when you are fit up with exping. You'll get the hang of Merentha really quickly, believe me, and instead of just believing me, direct your network-browser to http://www.merentha.com Tips for newbies: - When you enter the Merentha for the first time, choose a good race for a fighter or rogue, because these classes are good for the beginners. (I would recommend Goblin or Centaur (for fighter), but these are not the only choices, good choices could be Ogre Troll Orc Half-Orc Half-Ogre, ie. Don't choose human, even though it's balanced, its balanced to low stats. It's one stupid thing in Merentha) - Once you enter the Cabeiri Square, make sure you put and and , and too. They easen your gameplay A LOT. - Now direct to your classhall, you can type to find out where it is, and if you seem lost in this mud you could check out or , !! !! in the beginning. And go for it, you'll get the hang of it real soon. And you... Read More

I have been playing Merentha for several years and to be completely honest, I LOVE IT. There are rooms that I have never been to and even more that I will probably never go to. Secret rooms are around every corner. The people are great, I have never meet a better bunch. Props to Pet, who has made the single best game I have ever played. Anyone who wants to play something that is ever changing and truly a great experience, you need to play Merentha.

Newbies are extremely welcome to the world of Merentha. I was completely shocked and stunned by the demeanor of the player who submitted the review for Merentha earlier this month. He came onto the mud and asked for directions to mobs. We gave him general directions to several areas. He received responses from about two dozen people. We do not believe in giving specific directions often, unless the person in question is in peril. He would not accept this. He wanted specific directions, and by golly, if he didn't get them, he was going to write us a negative review. We promote players who are willing to put effort into their gameplay. We do not promote blackmail. We do not promote players who are not willing to at least TRY to play the mud on their own without constant help from others. If you like a challenge, Merentha is for you. If you want a small mud where everything is easy to explore and discover within a week, this is not the mud for you. The mud is so expansive that you could spend years searching it. You can pk other players in Merentha, but Merentha is NOT a pk mud. It is for roleplaying purposes. We have newbie areas and many, many xping areas for newbies, mids, high mortals, elites, and legends. There is something for everybody. This is the kind of mud that you will spend years playing on a variety of characters and classes, completing many quests and deeds, and being many different races. But don't take my word for it that this is a good mud. Don't take the other guy's word for it that it is a bad mud. Try it yourself. www.merentha.com

STAY AWAY FROM THIS GAME This game is 90% un newbie friendly! Ignore some of these other posts there just people with no life who play this game after three or 5 weeks and point out what little good points there are about the game and then lie about other stuff.

This mud isnt perfect by a long shot. But is any mud yes you can go to aarwolf or something and play a mud everyone plays but why play what everyone else plays. Now if your a advanced mudder youd think that this mud is average and the spells are average. But what takes this game above the rest is its newbie friendly yes there are jerks on there who dont help anyone and are unhelpful. I know alot of people who will help no matter what. in fact asl me for help any time and sad you read the review ill help. the government system is a little less then what others have but is effective. Pking is notencouraged but if you do it you go to jail. where someone can kill you . If you pk someone like a newbie and your not you prolly will get dested. Anyways to help th last review your prolly on a network and the network was banned email the pet and hell help you out. all in all merentha is alot funner then any other mud ive ever played end of story. Holt

I recently visited this site, for the first time, i come to find that IP has been banished, but why? ive never been there before? if they wish to recieve more people they should sort that out.

At first this MUD is quite impressive. The website appears to have been professionally developed. The MUD's coding seems to have been tuned with exceptional care. There appears to be a lack of consistency in terms of a "newbie-friendly" help file system. While the MUD is documented quite professionally regarding the rules and consideration of others, in terms of actual helpfiles, it is severely lacking. No problem for me. I'm an experienced MUDer and was able to figure it all out. ...but what about people who are new to MUDs and don't have established friends to help guide them? Three things that really upset me about this MUD are: 1) There is no way of distinguishing the difference between a Player Character and an NPC up front. Sure, once you get to know the game, *then* you will discover that you can type "kill monster" and that will not allow you to attack another player, but guess how I found that out? Fortunately, in that situation, the players I offended were very polite and courteous to me. I had felt bad as it was, despite the fact that I had spent a couple of hours reading over all the online documentations I could find before actually playing. Unfortunately, those two were the only 2 players who were as understanding. 2) As I was travelling along looking for a creature to kill for experience I had entered a room just as the person who was fighting that creature had killed it. I *never* typed *any* such command to kill the creature. I only typed EAST to enter the room, but for some reason I got credit for the kill. I'm the type of person who generally feels bad about such things even though they really aren't my fault. I don't recall reading anything in any of their documents or help files about an autoattack so I don't know how that happened. This particular player was exceptionally rude, discourteous, and misunderstanding immediately accusing me of kill stealing. Well, I can understand how they would be upset at first. However, I did notify them that I had no knowledge of how that happened and if it was really to be an issue, I would've had no objections to the Immortals checking the logs or snooping my character while we tried to recreate the scenario, because I *know_for_a_fact* that I did not kill steal. I can handle such bugs and mechanical issues as nearly all MUDs will continually have them, but the player's attitude toward me was immature, unprofessional, and above all completely unacceptable. Now, it's not fair to anyone to judge an entire MUD by *one* circumstance like this. However, this circumstance was taken with full consideration of the personas revealed via the "newbie" communication channels which clearly indicated that there were more than just a few players of this lack of quality. 3) I admit I'm a bit biased on this one, because I am a big advocate of that... Read More

I have only been playing muds for about a week but the reason i say this is beacause when my friend first suggested i should get into the mud community i thought boring those text based games id much rather play some other game with an ace storyline and rich graphics not some text based game no thankyou,But i gave it a go now this is where merentha comes in Merentha was the first mud i played and at first i was a bit disorientated and weary but then i saw the range of races guild and classes and i thought to myself this is a game im gonna like. Merentha for me has an exelent well everything and recently i have tried other muds and there all a bit boring to tell you the truth the only one i found interesting was fallout 2 the reckoning but anyway back to merentha merentha is brilliant from its storyline to its quests at first its a bit hard exploreing but whenever u ask for any assistance theres someone there to help you some people are even so good as to come find u in that forest you got lost in and show you the way out. one last sentence.. PLAY IT YOU DONT KNOW WHAT YOUR MISSING ITS VERY ADDICTIVE JUST PLAY IT AND FIND OUT FOR YOURSELF IM SURE YOULL AGREE... Brian(ferox)mountford

I have been playing Merentha for about 3/4 months and I am still hooked. Merentha has very few rules, like no feeding allowed, no kill stealing allowed, no swearing on lines, no bug exploiting, no harassing... Compared to other muds, you can do whatever you like, you can choose any name, what the admins can and will do if they feel you have broken a rule is desting you. Sometimes it seems to happen to people who did not even know they were breaking a rule, and seems very unfair. So don't even dream of transfering money between alts, because you will be banned. But there was the infamous "stacking skills" bug, and players were dested without warning, and they were maybe thinking they were using a feature. They got restored later. It is a sad fact that PK happens very often in Merentha, often only just out of fun or greed. But there are guilds / kingdoms you can join if you are against PK, and these will protect you. There are actually several players, probably most, who won't pk just on a whim. The ones who do generally get pked back, so there is actually a kind of "justice". Protecting oneself from PK is a challenge though, and it is quite unfair that if a higher level decides to kill you, he is probably going to kill you no matter what you do. So if a higher level tells you that 2+2 = 5 , you'd better tell him he is right. You are going to like Merentha only if you accept this "fact". Merentha is a great MUD, there are many spells, races, classes, objects, it is well balanced, there are a lot of things to do, quests to solve, places to explore. Hardly anybody tries to RP, but Merentha is a great place to socialize too. There are lot of way you can interact with other players : parties, buying & selling stuff, helping them retrieve their corpse... and killing, which actually doesn't happen that often.

Dear Petrarch, That is quite possibly the biggest load of crap I've ever seen/read. Do you KNOW how much PKing goes on in Merentha? Probably not, as you're busy making up ex-post facto laws to punish people you don't like. Let's look at Doc, he gave money to a newbie, it didn't used to be feeding. You didn't like it, you made up a rule and punished him for a crime he didn't commit. Let's address the question of skills/spells. I count Merentha has about 119 skill/spells. Nightmare 3 has 53, plus the layout for any fighter ability. (The give the layout for whirl). Not to mention, this is Nightmare 3.2 that I am talking about, and you used Nightmare 3.3, which of course, has more features. And by the way, that's 49.57% of the spells being unoriginal. On to PKing, more in depth. I have been PK'd for voicing my mind, in humor. Not insulting someone, in simple humor. Actually, that's happened twice to me, on the same character. Silly, eh? And I had never PK'd anyone. If Merentha weren't a PK Mud, PK would have strong consequences. However, it does not. You spend 3 minutes in a jail. Woop-dee-freakin'-doo. And when you're an outlaw from killing someone, the only thing that can really happen to you is someone killing you. Encouraging PK through discouraging PK. Hmm. Yeah, that works. Nobody uses PK as a last resort, people use PK as a way to vent their excess testosterone. And few people RP. Maybe one entire guild, and about 20 people RP, that's less that about 8% of the population. At least half of the population PKs. I may not run the most populated mud in the world, but I can still tell you what makes a bad mud, and Merentha has a lot of it. The only reason Merentha is where it is today is because of a large number of dedicated coders who came along, and many of them left. Petrarch, you do a lot, but really, it's not enough to make a good mud out of the hell that your players make for other players. Drackmire@Forgotten Paradigm

It is a sad state of affairs when good players go bad. However, to set the record straight, Merentha is not a PK MUD. Anyone with more then 2 brain cells knows a PK MUD is one where the theme is PK, much like a RP MUD is a MUD where role playing is the theme. Merentha on the other hand is neither a PK nor a RP MUD, there is much more RP then PK in Merentha, yet I find no claims here that Merentha is a RP MUD, of which it is not. It is so sad to see a level 70 player who spent countless hours and years playing the game, who spent his free time writing an online novel for a game he so enjoyed, to throw a sissy tantrum and suicide his main character. It is sad and it is pathetic. Though I would expect nothing less from a someone who can not do simple math. The Nightmare MUDlib came with 15 spells and skills, Merentha has over 130 at the last count. Anyone with a grade 2 education in math can tell you it is impossible for most of our spells to be the default Nightmare spells. To everyone else out there I invite you to come play Merentha yourself. We have over 100 players on during the day, we have thousands of registered users, and more new players every day. Rijer will not be missed, and with someone with his attitude out of the game, the game will be all the better.

Merentha was the only mud I played on a regular basis. It turned to crap, however, within the past year. It is the most unfriendly environment ever dreamed of. Everything said in previous posts is ENTIRELY TRUE, only much much worse. The higher players form into 'gangs', if you will, enforcing their ways (of acting stupid) with threats of PK. PK is supposed to be a last resort option, but 'last resort' has NEVER been enforced and NEVER WILL BE enforced. The mud is a PK mud. It will always be a PK mud. The only day it will stop being a PK mud is *NEVER*. Expect to be killed or threatened to be killed by many, MANY different people for saying stupid things over lines. Expect to be hated just for existing. There is no way to have a peaceful existance on this mud: The morons seek you out and ruin everything. Expect MANY high level players to hate you for voicing your opinions. What should you expect? Nothing. I was level 70: I had the same respect as a level 1. People are so incredibly rude, its unbelievable. You go to play the game and people purposely try to ruin it. The quests and deeds there...they are all shared. People find them out and spam them over lines and put up websites for quests. A good portion of Merentha's 20,000 rooms are repeated rooms, as well. What does that mean? Entire areas have the same descriptions, or just variations of the same description. The few areas that are original are crippled with many typoes. They claim to have added 100+ spells. Yet quite a few of those spells came standard with the Nightmare3 mudlibrary. So what if their 'modified versions', those spells are still not original and used on other muds. Rijer, ex-level 70

This mud has nothing to do with RP, it's a Diablo/chat-mud nothing else. Restricted PK means: 1st PK is legal, 2nd, you would need a good reason, 3rd, you will get rid if you don't have a Real good excuse (right!). It Is addictive for a while, but quickly dives into boredom. You are not allowed names with lord/king/lady/dame in it (unless the char. is made long time ago) Anything else is legal so: FrozenDonut is a legal name. That's probaly the only reason to check out the mud. To see all the Moronic names, and when you look at all the players who are no more, you'll only find even more shitnames. If you want ignorence, and players that acts like immature kids, Merentha is your thing. Multiplaying are not allowed, unless you suck up to the admins ofcourse. If you have been harassed you can use to log things, but that's rather hard when you don't expect it to happen! That's what I've got out of playing Merentha. >Ding

Merentha is a PK mud. It will always be a PK mud no matter what anyone says. The players rule by PK. If you upset another player, you will always get threatened with a PK. Someone voices their opinion, wham, PK threats and the next thing you know you see deaths flying across the screen. The mud is ruled by idiots. They bully others and PK for stupid reasons. They think that because they are 30 or 40 levels higher than the people attack that they are strong. Well, they aren't. They are cowardly. All the PK threats are so discouraging to newer players. Why would someone want to play a mud where people kill each other all the time, even though PK is suppposed to be a 'last resort', yet NEVER used as a last resort? Why would someone want to waste his or her time on a mud where unintelligent people play and use PK as a tool to prove they are right? Why would someone want to play where they lose hours, days, and even weeks of work on a character because someone decided they wanted to prove their point right? Ask yourself those questions, then ask yourself if Merentha is a good mud for you.

Well first of all I guess I shall tell a little about myself. Well my mud name on the game is Psychostryker(yeah a bit OOC but I was a newb) I've mudded a total of 3-4 years on Merentha and I've seen many things happen on this mud. I've accomplished a decent amount such as Class Council and High leveled ranked player. Okay well I guess I'll talk about some of the problems in Merentha. Well like many have said in older reviews that new players have trouble really starting out. Help files are decent some may give more then others but usually someone is willing to help out if not try asking individual players maybe not the top of the list(as some usually ignore them) but maybe couple levels higher then you. Another problem is OOC names, but you can't really blame people because with 100+ people on a day and multiple creation of alternative characters(alts) names are quite hard to think up. As for another problem would be the number of jerks and stuck up people but thats normal for any mud. It isn't as if we all came from the same surroundings so some might like to be a bully or a jerk but it isn't uncommon in another other community. As for another problem most people complain about the admins. Some fellow reviewers argue about how picky and mean the admins are but they do have a right to a certain extent to be mean. Being an admin is not all fun and games, every time they enter the mud they are most likely bombarded with numerous tells which could easily be answered by players. They are also committed to keep the laws from being broken, fix bugs, create new areas, and many other tasks. The admins do have lives and are not bound to continously serve your needs 24/7. But Merentha isn't all bad, in my experience it has been enjoyable. I found the mud to give players a fantasy which they would enjoy of but with enough reality to make you come back for more. I've found many friendly players as well as some morons who do nothing more then cause trouble. Merentha has many features to keep you entertained. Some of my friends who also reviewed, Red Hamster and Rijer, have found other methods to make the mud fun for them besides slaughtering monsters and becoming stronger. Red Hamster loves to explore and he is well known for it. Rijer another explorer finds pleasure in figuring out quests, deeds, and learning all parts of merentha. Some more features that will keep you want more are now being able to purchase ships and creating them into fighting warships and duel people out in the open sea, creating guilds and making a small community for those who enjoy a certain method or style you like, or even invasions from neighboring continents during mud-wide quests. Well thats my experiences from Merentha that I sharing... Read More

About my previous "review", I wish for it to be taken down. I was revealed that some of the statements were misinformed. I don't want to make up lies. Sorry.

Petrarch once wrote: >>> Merentha's Mission Statement by Petrarch ---------------------------- Ok, we don't really have a mission, but that is what I chose to call this. This help file details a bit of the history of Merentha, and the goals we have for her. Years ago, I played a MUD called ShadowMUD. Go ahead check it out, you'll be back. It was at one time a great game. But they would change things, taking away powers from one class while making others stronger. And they would lie about coding, when a thieve's backstab could kill in a single hit, yet a fighter's charge wouldn't. They lied about the difficulty in coding, they created super characters for themselves to play and gave them immortal powers. They cheated. They went around and killed and harassed players they did not like. They were unqualified to run any sort of game. Suggestions were made, and for the three years I played there they were always ignored. Great suggestions, but always ignored. And the lying and the cheating continued. At one time it was a great game, and it was sad to watch it dying. So I spoke out against the lies and the cheating and everything else which was wrong. I had been there three years and knew the game better then most of the staff. I held the records for advancement in all classes and knew the world better then anyone. But I was called a liar by the staff and banished from their game. At that point I was offered a coding position on a new MUD, Merentha, just starting out. I took it and created the Sunken City. I created horses which were not yet in place here since I wanted seahorses. And I created pets for sea monkies. I created the balloons to link the world together, and the ocean as well. Time went on but within months our host and admin at the time, Arithon, could not longer host us and put a copy online which I took. A few months later, on November 21, 1997, we came back online at a commercial service. I was now the admin, and this was my game. And I looked back at the time I had spent at that other MUD. And I remember all their lying, and I remember how their classes were nothing but the default ones which came with the Nightmare Library, and how maybe at most a half-dozen of the commands they had were actully unique. And I promised that Merentha would never become what they did. I remember all the hundreds of suggestions made and ignored. And I took the good ones and implimented them here. I created dozens of races and classes, and over a hundred new spells and skills. Thousands of rooms were added and dozens of quests and deeds. And Merentha continues to grow in the same way, with new features and races and classes and guilds and kingdoms and spells areas... Read More

I have played on this mud since fall of '98, and this mud has improved since then. More stuff to talk about, and many things to enjoy. It is a place for all players... Of course, there will be bad players, but there is no way that a mud can prevent them from playing other than banning them afterwards. Play with us and you will see how different it is than other muds.

After reading a few of the reviews on this site, i must say, Merentha is not as many see it as. People talking about how big their balls are couldn't be true, the admins have access to all tells, lines... anything you say or do basically is logged. should something like that ever happen, *chuckles* they're pretty much waved at and banned. need i say more? i think not... newbies: a command you will love: "who cabeiriknights" it will list all members of the Cabeiri Knights, a guild dedicated to helping newbies. simply send them a "tell" and you'll be helped probably within a few minutes. another command you'll probably love: "councils" to find out who the council members are, and "who council" to figure out which council members are on. if you're wanting to select one of the classes, simply type "help " and try to find it yourself.... should you not be ABLE to find it after making an attempt, ask a council member where it is. i'm more then certain they'll be willing to help you. the races... the list of races is quite extensive. human, centaur, elf, ogre, giant, kobold, goblin, hobbit, faerie, imp, etc... drow, ogre-magi and dragon are quest races, however. after chosing a race... chose your class: the classes... you have 5 choises: cleric, fighter, mage, monk, and rogue. type "help " and it will tell you it's approximate location, but will not giev you the exact directions to where the class halls are. once you've found your class hall, you get to pick from a list of sub-classes: fighter: paladin, warrior, berserker, ranger (mercenary and antipaladin are quest classes) mage: healer, necromancer, sorcerer, wizard, druid, warlock cleric: black cleric (evil cleric), neutral cleric(exactly that... neutral cleric), white cleric (good cleric) monk: healer monk, scholar, priet (shaman is a quest class) rogue: thief, assassin, bard after this, time to kill :P go to the map's section on the Merentha site and you'll see "Cabeiri: Map carried around by Edward" (you'll know who Edward is eventually), and you'll find a number of places you can go to kill things. as you go on, you can ask for help of course, as stated above. theirs quests, deeds(mini-quests), guilds, kingdoms/queendoms, pets, boats, balloons, a MASSIVE selection of weapons and armour, skills, spells, abilities, etc... the list of things goes on! point being: AT LEAST GIVE IT A GOOD, DECENT TRY! you won't be disappointed, i promise :)

I played this mud for a few days and at first was very impressed with the character building, number of classes and the help I recieved from more experienced players. What ultimatly made me leave was the simplest of all things to fix and Im very surprised that there are no other reviews that speak of it....OOC NAMES OF CHARS!?! Its really hard to get into the game when you fighting it out with some Ghouls in the newbie town and (these are actual names I saw) Jimi Hendrix Walks by, or Han Solo or my personal favorite who seemed to be relatively high level Duff Man who proceeded to pass out Duff to everyone and yelling "OOHH YEAAH" or "HAVE A DUFF". This drove me nuts, that wouldn't last for ten seconds on the mud that I play now, I mean come on this is a problem that can very easily be fixed and with all the hard, hard work put in to build this game you think they'd take a second to enforce some rules. A very well put together game with one stupid easily fixed problem.

> If you wish to be lost in a huge crowd of people > and have no one pay any attention to you, then > Merentha or Realms is the place for you. With a > combined player list reaching near 1000 players, > no one on either MUD said even so much as a > hello when i logged on. I guess being on the > top makes you forget what humility is... enjoy > it while it lasts. Someday you will be among > those stuggling to keep every newbie that logs > on. There have been lots of reviews lately. In the past these negative reviews were posted at the urging of admins from other MUDs wanting to discourage people from voting for us. If you are looking for a MUD to play then do try Merentha, why you may ask? Well look at the previous poster's remarks, which I have included here. They pretell of a time when we will be struggling to keep every newbie..... Do you know why Merentha and the other top games have 100 players on during the day. It is because we do struggle to keep newbies, and we always have, and we always will. I can think of no other proof to the dedication of an administrator then the population of his game where multi-playing, and anti-idle scripts are illegal and idle logouts occure. When you log on and see 100 players, thats 100 unique individuals around the world currently active in the game.

If you wish to be lost in a huge crowd of people and have no one pay any attention to you, then Merentha or Realms is the place for you. With a combined player list reaching near 1000 players, no one on either MUD said even so much as a hello when i logged on. I guess being on the top makes you forget what humility is... enjoy it while it lasts. Someday you will be among those stuggling to keep every newbie that logs on.

I have played Merentha for almost three years now. I have played a variety of the choices available. I have explored much of what is available on the mud, know almost every syntax by memory, know how to get from point A to point B in almost every area in the game (and there are a lot of areas). I have also contributed something very important to newer players, but saying what would reveal my identity, which I do not wish. I have a few negative comments about the mud, which I will fully explain. The players there are disgusting. I can't believe most of these people play here. It's so disturbing to log on these days. You get newbies asking questions and then a few seconds later, people of all ranges (from newbies, mids, hm, elites, even PEOPLE DEVOTED TO NEWBIE HELPING), start discouraging from asking questions by saying 'Its right in front of your face. Try looking.'. I have been a respected member of the mud for quite some time, being a guild owner, on a kingdom council, and on a class council. This is one of the few muds I can say that I have ever been insulted on lines even though I am trying to help people. Only on this mud...will you have admins publically insulting the players. I quote, from 6-8-02, around noon: 'Jewel what the f*** are wrong with you people' (originally not censored). Now, ignoring the fact that she was grammatically incorrect saying 'are' instead of 'is'...why would you ever want to insult your player base? I see this behavior frequently, where administrators say rude remarks to players. Maybe the admins don't care if they lose some players from their rudeness over lines? Well, they certainly have lost me. Jewel, on numerous occasions, has clearly stated that 'if you do not know how to use the mudmail system by level 30, you shouldn't be playing here' or something. I didn't learn how to use the mudmail system correctly until about a year into the game, along with MANY other players. Why? Because the help files don't explain anything. That's another thing, the help files are so non-helpful. The help file for the skill 'bash' was 'You bash things.' for about 2 years before it was finally changed. The help file for 'destroy' was 'Attempts to destroy something,' (close to that, and with the comma typo). There is also incredibly inbalance. The clerics are repetively downgraded. They are horrible, even when partying/grouping with other classes. After around level 70, clerics aren't even needed by other classes anymore. Clerics have waited for years for upgrades, and only receive downgrades. Then there's Merentha's 'rival'...Primal Darkness. Primal Darkness comes up with a feature, then Merentha comes up with almost the same thing, and vice versa. Both muds bash each other over lines. Most the abusive, violent players who are dested and banned just happen to go to Primal Darkness, where they are yelled at the... Read More

What to say about Merentha. Well I noticed they are still saying the world is all original. This is not so, the newbie town is a modified copy of Praxis that comes with the Nightmare mudlib. The game over all was fun. I played it for years before moving on but alas, one disagreement with the main admin and I was not allowed back, which is his choice. Be warned, the staff will banish over the silliest reasons, one is to disagree with anything they say it seems. Recently they have been adding and updating alot of things but it seems most of the new things were ideas taken from other muds, which is fine...as long as you do not try to claim them for your own, which Merentha does. There are some good players at Merentha and why they would stay has to be their level cause they are outnumbered by the bad players 4 to 1. If yu are new to mudding, or are looking for an easy mud to play, I would say Merentha is the game for you. If you are seeking a challange in your gaming or you are an experienced mudder, I would suggest skipping this one... to many politics to deal with and just mentioning you come from elsewhere could find you banned or laughed at for the rest of your days. I would give Merentha a 6 on a 1-10 scale.

First off, a bit about me: I have been mudding for about 6, almost 7 years. I have been mudding on Merentha for 4 years. Now onto the game: I agree with most of what was said in other reviews...both the good and the bad. I will not bother repeating what has already been said. Rather, I will offer my humble opinion and addend a few of the comments I saw. Take my advice as you will. 1) Admins - I find the admins very pleasant. Some complained that they do not want to be involved in mortal life...personally, I do not have a problem with this. On Merentha, they have chosen to make the immortals coders and law enforcers. So be it. Yes, they do request that you go through class councils. With 100+ players on at a time, they cannot possibly address everyone's issues themselves. That being said, if there really is a problem that only an immortal can solve, one of the immortals will do so. 2) Quests and Deeds - A list of quests is provided, a list of deeds is not. Deeds are miniquests and are generally found by accident. I think this is fun. Adds to the pleasure of the game. I would rather that there was not a list of deeds. Also, restricting help on quests/deeds is excellent...where is the fun and challenge in having someone else tell you what to do? 3) And finally, the friendliness of the players - This seems to be the #1 complaint. To a certain extent, I agree with it. With 100+ players, there are going to be some jerks, it is unavoidable. These are also the people who tend to be most vocal, particularly on the lower level lines. Frequently, real/good questions from newbies get lost in the banter. If you really need help I suggest either being patient or sending a tell to a class council (found on the 'councils' command) or a Cabeiri Knight (those with [CK] next to their name on 'who'). Four years ago, with a smaller player base, this was not as much of a problem. It is a problem that the admins and higher level players recognize and are trying to combat. With all that being said, I suggest giving Merentha a try. I did and have never regretted it. If you have any questions online that you think I may be able to answer, send me a 'tell'. I may be idle, but if I am not, I am happy to answer any/all questions (within the rules, of course). Hope to see you there. --Gable

Well it's review time again, and for the last week, I've been playing Merentha. How does it measure up? Read on. First of all, I have to say that I was impressed by the selection of races for this MUD. I must have spent the better part of an hour trying to decide. Once I had finally settled on Elf (old habits die hard) I began to poke around Cabeiri, which I later found out was the newbie city. Somebody noticed my wanderings and was quick to offer directions and any other assistance that he could. In no time, we were in a party, and I was wracking up experience like there was no tomorrow. This was a very positive experience for me. Also, the spell and ability system was incredibly diverse. By level 3 I had a lot to play around with, but nothing too powerful that would unbalance the game. I'm still looking forward to getting the really big ones. Plus the Ansi color was superb. There was just enough not to make you go blind and still make the game more than just a dull scroll. Unfortunately, not all MUDs are perfect. For starters, the help files could have been a bit more...well, helpful. I had to ask dozens of questions to fill in the blanks. The age group is also down a few notches from what I'm used to. This can create more than a few headaches in itself. Despite the few shortcomings, this MUD is definitely worth playing. I would recommend it to anyone who just wants to have a good time. Happy Mudding, folks. -Fal

Well first off this is one of the best muds i have played. For all the loses out there that said i died in the first 2 minutes of the game, that is not true becuase if you are below level 6 then you can not be attacked unless you attack them first. The spell system is very good, not complex or anything, to se what spells you have you type 'spells mine' and to cast a spell you type 'cast '. One of the best things I like about like about the game is that you are able to choose from many races and from there the type of class you want. After you pick your class you pick a subclass. For example if you pick a cleric as your subclass you have the choose to be a Black Cleric, White Cleric, or Nutrel Cleric. From there on you can do deeds which you can get more exp for or even items. The people there are friendly only if you do not piss them off by saying the samething over and over like some do. If you do then it will result in your death because another player had killed you. If you pick a stuped name then you will more then likly get banned by the Immortals (example: I IAmAMan). Merentha offers horses, pets, air ships, and sea ships for you to buy. The quest Merentha has put on the game are very good, one example is that you have to rescue a princess from the devil but the only way to get there is by going to go see the queen in the Wolvesdale forest. From there she wil tell you how do get to the underworld. once you get the princess you have to excape. The excaping part is one of the hardist. A very funny thing that Merentha had done is the death seen, to access the death seen you must die, and then you will be taken to hell to meat Hades. If you dont like Merentha or dont want to play it just create a charater and die by being killed my a NPC. Afeter you do that just suicide (deleteing) your character so it will remove you character from the game. That is all i have to say.

After reading these reviews I am astonished at what players think of this mud! I have played this mud since I first started mudding 2 years. The only mud I have played almost every day... I am a high ranking player who is the Guild Master of the Pet Lovers Guild, Class Council of the Fighter class, and Queendom Council for the Queendom of Jewel. First, to those who did not have a pleasant stay at Merentha, over the past few months we have been experiencing some odd hostility towards newbies. The main admin, Petrarch, recently assigned class councils to re-inforce newbie friendliness, and one of the guilds, Cabeiri Knights (named after the newbie town of Cabeiri), is dedicated to helping newbies. Very rarely these days do you ever see such cases where people are treated horribly. And to all who read these reviews, we get many new players a day, just because negative comments are posted does not mean there aren't any positive comments. The administrators at our mud are very busy. Recently they have added many new commands and bug fixes. Players can even code and submit their own areas, complete with quests, mini-quests(deeds), and whatever else you want to put on the area. The mud is a very large, complex area. Its the best mud I have ever come across because if its uniqueness. There are so many commands available that just today I learned we had a command that's been around for a very long time, and I've been here for 2 years. Okay, once you get started in Cabeiri it'll be a bit crazy...you won't know where the heck your going but you soon get the hang of it. There are 5 classes with different subclasses that determine spells and abilities you will get. Certain spells are better than others but cost more mana, and so on. Certain classes will be better in certain areas and so on. Also, on the topic of newbie friendliness, there were a lot of comments about 'players calling people morons and idiots' and so on. The newbie line is a line held by everyone. When you have 80 players on, people are going to talk. Just because one person starts a bad conversation doesn't mean there is always one going on. And if you think the newbie line is bad, you don't even want to know what our high mortal line is like. ;) You can own boats, balloons (which you can change the description too), houses (which you can also change the description too and buy as many rooms as you want), pets (you can level them up), horses. The autoloading (saving equipment) system is like this: Overly powerful objects do not autoload. Stupid things (such as a bottle, a vial, a piece of paper) will not auto. Normal day weapons and armour will auto. Money is fairly easy to come across. Clerics can offer resurrects which can change race and give back experience for lost.... Read More

After seeing so many mixed reviews about Merentha I thought I would write my own review as well. First let me suggest that anyone reading the reviews take them with a grain of salt. I have spent much time visiting other MUDs and found Merentha to be the best on many different scales. During my travels I was also asked by some admins of other MUDs to write bad reviews for the top muds on this site. I have been playing Merentha for about a year and first let me say that I have never encountered any of the problems which some of the reviewers complain about. It would appear that some of them didn't even log into the game for more the a few minutes either, due to their complete lack of detail of the game itself, but instead repeat standard complaints in a very poor attempt to defame Merentha. One of the reasons I stayed with Merentha a year ago when I was searching though hundreds of other such games was due to its newbie-friendlyness. There is always someone around willing to help if you ask quickly. If you log into the game with a name like DuDeImCoOl be prepared to be treated like the idiot you are, in fact the administration does a good job of immediatly deleting and banning anyone who does log in with such names. The help files were very detailed and I found help for just about every topic I typed in. There was no newbie school which treated you like a blind retard either which is a big plus. Instead the whole starting town itself is a newbie stomping ground. Until you advance a few levels you can not leave the area as the only way in or out is via a balloon ride which you will not be able to take at level 1. As my life went on in Merentha I was made aware of hundreds of other features which are not immediatly apparent. I would say that above all else this is where Merentha exceeds well above any other MUD I have seen. Pretty much everything is customizable from your colour set up to how your vitals (hp/sp/mp/exp...) are displayed. There is a map mode which allows you to run around with a graphical map in each room, brief modes for combat and running, air ships, sea ships, hundreds of built in mini-quests.... man I could go on and on. And I could go on, but the point is all these things exist at level 1 for all players as well. A level 1 could in deed customize all his screens and how information is presented, he could go out and buy a pet, or a house with a half dozen rooms. However, a true newbie to Merentha will not know of all these features, nor is that newbie swamped with a thousand different features of the game, not knowing which ones are important and need be... Read More

Gave this MUD a try as it was ranking quite high on the top list. +'s: Great variety with races and classes. Cool visual auto-mapping feature for exploration will keep you from getting headaches. Large world to explore. Large player Base. -'s: Grammar does not seem to be a concern to the creators of this MUD, as the homepage and the MUD itself are crippled with mistakes, quite a turn-off. The homepage also lacks any originality, as i've recognized much of the artwork on there from popular AD&D books. Role-playing is at the whim of players, as it is not enforced. It also lacks a general plot. Extremely newbie Hostile. Expect to be called a "Moron" and "Idiot" for asking simple questions in the newbie channel. Overall I find this MUD to be diluted and it lacks any seriousness. It is a big free for all where rudeness runs rampant. This one gave me a very-amateurish impression.

Ok mud,horrible immortals. I attempted to play this mud as a spell caster only to find it was very hard to start out.. after asking in newbie help why its so hard to be a spell caster a immortal was summoned to me.. i explained how i thought something really needed to be done about spell casters because a warrior at my level was 3 to 4 times stronger.. I said NOTHING rude only to find myself banned. Apparently the creator [i think Jewel was her name] dis agreed with me. Don't waste your time with this one there are ones with much better staffs..and the mud was kinda average anyway

This mud was NOT very good, I saw it in top ranking so thought I would check it out. I log on to find many people playing, thought this was a good sign, I was wrong. The players of this mud do not seem to want anyone else to play. I was new and did not quite understand a few features, I asked severald questions and never got a response, the newbie channel was filled with idle chatter about whos b**ls were bigger. Finnally tired of getting no where and getting no help, I ask on the newbie channel what was wrong with the mud, why no one wanted to assist a newbie. With that I got a response, EVERY one, all 75 players, one at a time and in twos and threes told me that if I thought something was wrong I should leave, If I thought something was wrong with the mud and still played, then something was wrong with me, that I sucked, and several other responses I do not wish to post. I feel compelled to write this to inform those who see this mud near the top of the list, it is not what it appears to be, the reason it has so many players is that the players can play as many chars at once as they wish, as for the votes, I just dont know, I dont see how many people could have found this mud welcoming.

I have been going to Merentha off and on for the last 3 years. It has an attraction that keeps me coming back and a repulsion that inevitably makes me leave. So, this is a somewhat mixed review from an insider's view. (this also responds to some previous reviews in topic, but not specifically) Basically I like this mud because I'm used to the lp setup of skills and stats and because there is still so much left for me to explore. It truly is a well coded mud with a lot to do that can waste years of time for any kid at heart(quests, deeds, ocean, ships, races, subclasses, quested subclasses,special events, it's all there). In addition the mud is somewhat integrated realmwide in that the story lines involved sometimes cross the continents or islands. Unfortunately there is a certain uneasiness about the mud, due to both players and administration. Admin don't really play a huge role here in the actual game play. Their functions are mostly coding and law/rules. The Rules: First I have to say, the rules really are meant to be followed and most people either don't understand them or read them or read them properly. (quests/deeds) So when a new player asks about something that happens to be a quest or deed (unbeknownst to him/her) the common answer is "quest info." Well, quest info isn't to be given out or shared, but you *can* ask. And, any information about quests that is revealed in your class halls (type list) or found on the Merentha webpage can also be told. (pk) The pk system needs a lot of work. If a level 1 player attacks you (usually Cenn, a previous poster, or someone claiming to be Cenn) and he dies, you become outlaw.. not him. (outlaws go to jail and cannot move for about 10 mins, anyone can kill them and not become outlaw) Yet, you can't attack a newbie unless s/he is outlaw. (lvls 1-5 can't be attacked except by certain unfortunate means) Pk deaths are just like death to a mob and in addition, you will most likely lose all your equipment. *shrug* Not a big deal, except that at lvl 79 you can easily lose 50 mil or more xp which will take a long time to get back. The thing about their rules is it states that you can have multiple characters but they can't interact which partly means you can't get killed and then take revenge with another character. But, you can, because the rules also state you can kill someone with no reason at all one time. More than that can be called harrassment. (harrassment) Reports are frequently sent to the admins, and generally all they have time for when they get online is to look through harass logs and emails and see who is being narc'd on for some slight misdeed or who is truly being abusive to others. And this kind of thing is not rarity,... Read More

I decided to give this MUD a try because of its high ranking here on the site. I've played a few other MUDs, I may not always stick with them, but I like trying them out. So after playing on Merentha for about a week and getting a general feel of how things go, I thought I'd submit a review. My general feelings are mixed. As with anything, there are good and bad points, but I get the impression that you just have to deal with some things to have this be a good game. Some good things first. The class/race system is interesting. You pick a race when you create your character, but don't choose a class immediately. You enter the game without one and can reach up to level 5 before you must choose a class. Each class also has a number of subclasses for you to choose from, sort of specialists in a particular area of the larger class. I think that's pretty neat. Another interesting thing is that certain races and subclasses require you to complete quests before you can join them. I have no idea of exactly how that works, but it's certainly another interesting aspect of the game. There are also a list of quests that you can do whenever you want. You can read a brief description of them and get a suggested level from your class hall. Having a set of quests available on demand is a plus. Likewise there are deeds that you can do and get rewarded for. These just sort of pop up during the game. Figure them out and you get a reward for doing a good deed. I like these, too, but see below for negatives. I was told that mortals can reach up to level 99 which is a larger maximum level than other MUDs I've been on. Skills and stats can be increased by training them, spending experience points on them, which is another plus. There appear to be a number of different "worlds" to explore, at least some of which are connected by balloon rides. I haven't been playing long enough to check them all out, but it's neat that they're there. It supports aliases right in the game, no need for some client program to store them for you. I find that helpful since I'm sometimes on a straight telnet connection. Generally the other players are helpful and I usually get my questions answered, so I haven't had many problems in that regard. Now some of the problems I've found. The help files are not complete. There are a number of commands that exist in the game but have no corresponding help file. This not only leaves you without a good description of exactly what the command does/is used for, but you're left to guess the proper syntax for the command on your own. Well, guess or ask people and hope they'll be helpful. The help files that do exist to... Read More

I tried this mud for the first time and I have to agree that it was not a pleasant experience. Within minutes after I logged on I was subjected to the sight of some jerk at the fountain in the center of town "licking the vagina" of a sleeping character. Immediately after, another character backstabbed me. This was all in the first 2 minutes of play. I found the site to be unfriendly and unhelpful and simply could not get questions answered. Help files were just not complete. I stuck it out for about 6 hours and finally suicided my character after a final try at asking a question about how to find someting in the help files. I tried 3 times at intervals on the newbie line with no response. Others were told to shut up for asking questions on the newbie line. Not silly questions. They just asked repeatedly since no one was responding, and finally were told to shut up. I was very very disappointed. What I saw of the game, I really liked. It seemed like it would be a very good game indeed, but the IM's need to take steps to make it much more friendly and they certainly need to curtail emotes like I saw, in public at least. I had the distinct impression that the IMs do not want to get involved there in the least. A board posting told players that they were never to contact the IMs directly for ANY problem but to channel it through their class councils. Anne Kaider

Recently when the MUD that I have played on for almost 2 years now decided to join this rating site I decided to explore a few of the muds that where listed in the top 10 and see what they were like. I found this one, compared to a few of them I tired, to be very enjoyable, and seemed to be quite original. What was probably the reason I checked this MUD out for was that it was a LP mud codebase, which is the same codebase as the one I came from, I figured it had to be worth a try. Though some of the people can be rude generally most are helpfull. However, regardless of whether players are helpfull or not, I prefer to rely on what they provide newbies with to help them start out. I found this mud to do a good job at helping newbies start out. The main reason I like this MUD is its skill system. You have two choices on how to advance them either by physically useing skills or spells to increase your ability or spend your hard earned xp into them and raise them that way. Also your stats such as str,con, etc. can be improved by spending xp. When you begin your stats naturally reflect your race choice. The choices in race class, and subclass, provide you with great variety to play with. Overall I consider this to be a very good mud. Salutes, Don

Last night, I saw some glowing reports on the quest-y nature of character development in Merentha. I'm looking for a place to grow a new character, and decided to give it a go. It wasn't a terribly enjoyable experience. I've got no doubt that the MUD is very well constructed - just the volume of players indicates a stable, mature product. But if you're a RPer like me, it's the people - and how they play their characters - that make the MUD. And this is where my most recent Merentha experience wasn't pleasant at all. I spent two hours doing a bit of exploring, a bit of trading and mobk, and tried talking to some other players. Surely not every player in this MUD can be as arrogant, bitchy, aggressive, nasty and poorly behaved as the bunch I met last night. I've MUDed with kids before, but I have never come across a group of people so consistently immature, puerile and loudmouthed. There were two definite exceptions, but that didn't offset the gaggle. I'm in two minds whether to name some characters whose names have stuck in my mind.... but discretion is probably the better path here. I hope your Merentha experience is better than mine was. A MUD with the number of players it attracts must be doing something right. I feel a bit ripped off that I didn't find it. MattB.

Merentha is one of the most unique MUD's I've played to date. I started off playing muds around junior year of high school after seeing other people play them peaked my interest. I tried a few, most of which were uninteresting, and bothersome with their controls. I eventually stumbled onto one that I stuck with for about 2 years, which was a Lord of the Rings MUD. One of the few that was actually a LOR MUD and didn't just say that to gain players. This MUD accustomed me to most of the basic functions one should learn to play a mud, except for public lines that is. Having played for over a year on this MUD, I was pretty much hooked on MUDS in general, still trying out other's from time to time. At some point, friends of mine discovered Merentha, and every time I saw them, I kept hearing stories about it, which made me eager to see if it was as good as they had said. I logged on, and was instantly amazed at the number of available races to choose from. That was the first thing I liked. I made my first character, and looked around a bit, then had to leave, and didn't get to play Merentha again for about a year, due to no computer access at home, and school having installed a firewall and disabling telnet on the network. At some point, I had regular net access again, and looked Merentha back up. I had forgotten the old characters name and password, so I created a new one. From that point, I was hooked and have been hooked for the last 6-7 months I've been playing. Merentha has a system that I think is rather easy to learn, if you actually want to learn it. Most of it is common sense. The auto-loading system was actually new to me, as all the other muds I had played did not let you keep your equipment. Things are balanced well, so you don't have level 5's running around with God-slaying swords, and wearing inpenetrable armour. Because of this balance, the game continues to challenge you at any level, keeping your interest and concentration. It is also ever-expanding, as new areas including new equipment are added regularly. Thus appealing to those types who like exploration, like myself. There is a multitude of class and race combinations, including races and classes you must quest to find. A multitude of player run and created guilds to join, and the possibility of creating your own if you can raise the funds for one. 5 player run kingdoms, 3 of which are openly available to join, and 2 you must quest to join. An ocean system where you can buy a boat and sail from continent to continent or to islands scattered throughout the sea. It doesn't stop there. The admins work on new innovations and additions to the MUD regularly, and continue to better it. I recommend... Read More

There are many muds out there. Some have really strange themes, others more conformist. Many are original, many are mere clones where the word "L337" is holy and the word "compile" makes the admins scratch their heads. Yet you will never find a mud that isn't home to at least a small number of loyalists; people who will perverbially live and die for their mud, which, of course, is the greatest mud in existence. Merentha is no different in that respect, so it's understandably hard for the objective first-timer to read this review and not sense the same bias. Merentha was not my first mud. My first mud was something called "Lothlorien", an old DIKU mud with little more than 5 players online at any given time. There were virtually no help files, and I became bored rather quickly with killing little children and leveling up to 5 automatically in less than 15 minutes. So I went to the search engines. I tried mud after mud, but many were the same way. On some muds, I'd start dying of thirst while trying to read the first room descriptions. On others, the help files were organized into some huge, disorderly novel, which covered everything from the 'look' command to what punishment a level 62 immortal can give out to a two-time offender of pking in a temporarily-designated no-pk zone. Then I found Merentha. First-off, the website contained the entire theme of Merentha right then and there. Not too long, not too short, so I read it. I then read the classes and races sections. They contained not only relevant information to making an intelligent choice, but also role-play information, such as their appearances, personalities, and even pictures of what each race and class looks like. I practically fell in love with this mud before I even connected to it. When I connected, I was of course just another confuzzled newbie. I tried typing 'help look', and Lo and Behold! It told me the syntax, and even related help topics, all of which were just as informative. There's a newbie line on Merentha, which can be used to ask various questions. The players are usually rather helpful; at least most of them. Nearly 2 years later, I have gone from someone who doesn't even know what a mud is, to someone who has an intimate knowledge of mudding, coding, role-playing-- even to the point to where I'm now creating my own mud! As you can see, I could fill up pages and pages of reasons why Merentha is likely the best mud ever to exist. It's different in a lot of ways, but if you're open-minded, patient, and if take the time to read the help files and ask questions, you'll find yourself never wanting to leave. But, don't take -my- word for it! Try it out for yourself. I would suggest you visit the website: http://www.merentha.com You can connect to Merentha at: game.merentha.com port 10000 Have fun! =)

First, I'd like to say that Merentha is the BEST mud I have ever played. When I came here I had no experience with muds, but I did know a little about single player text-based games so I guess I knew a little more than the average newbie. There are helpfiles about everything, and despite a few very minor inconsistancies the helpfiles are..well..helpful. Merentha's communication system is very easy to use. You just type the line name followed by what you wish to say. If you can't find the answer in the helpfiles ask it over a line and someone will tell you. Several people have mentioned the autoloading system is complicated, but it isn't really. Items autoload based on your level, class, and sometimes alignment. On the inventory screen it tells you if any of your items do not autoload. Merentha also has an ocean system that allows you to sail your own ship between lots of small islands and even giant continents. We have 5 Kingdoms (three that are open to anyone and two special Kingdoms which can be entered only through questing) and 18 player owned guilds. With around two dozen race choices and almost as many classes it allows tons of variation in characters. Races are not limited to certain classes, but some races preform much better in certain occupations. (Imp Wizard rather than Imp Berzerker) These odd race/class choices can actually be done quite effectively, but usually by older players with more experience. Personally, I would recommend a fighter for a new player because I believe they are cheaper and easier to start. This point has been argued a great deal, but I'm writing this so I will give you my opinion on the matter. Interesting Websites: http://www.merentha.com/ - Merentha Homepage http://www.fortunecity.com/marina/tidal/2195/ - My Website which has some Merentha Information.

yo yo yo merentha is the beeeest mud i have every played i loved merentha then i got banned and i started causing havok on it, i think all the trouble i caused improves the gameplay, it adds a villian to the mud and makes the playing the game more exciting, instead of just level pk advance, theres a major villian who everybody hates, and then theres people who support the villian, even though the villian is banned, he still goes and, I am the villian, cenn, and i add to the gameplay and its actually fun and I asked other players and they said as long as I am not getting other people dested or taking their charcters, i make the game much more fun and intresting.

Well..I've played Merentha for around 1.6 years..and I can only say how great Merentha is..its addictive, the quests are MAGINFICENT, and the events..just great, try merentha for a month..get to around level 15..and play the game, its your adventure.

I am rather new to MUDs and have to disagree completely with the other reviewer on Merentha. Even though I am new I found the help system quite advanced and having a help file on any topic I typed in. One thing which I found a lot different then the other MUDs I visited was the way you choose your profession. Instead of doing this at character creation time you first entered the game and were free to explore and advance without picking a class. Each class also had several subclasses which you could join. I played two different classes, a mage and a fighter and each had different ways of leveling and advancing. However a simple question asked on the class lines as to how to advance was quickly answered. I also found their system of autoloading somewhat unique. Certain items will load when you come back while others will not. This wwas explained as some items are too powerful to have readilly available. Although you can use them you can not save them. I was told that there are special storag areas that let you store such items over a period of time so that they are not lost forever. People mentioned to me lots of other features which I need to level up a bit before I can see. For example a giant ocean, ships you can buy, pets and more. There are even guilds and kingdoms you can join. I found Merentha to be quite advanced to most of the other games out there, which is probably why it has over 100 players on a lot of the time.

This MUD is .... well ok let me start at the beginning. It took me two days to figure out how to advance a level and start to get the hang of how to use the public lines to communicate with questions and such. The HELP system is too vague even for a veteran MUDDER in my opinion. After three days I had a pretty good character going and was roaming around all over into new areas and actually starting to enjoy this MUD! I had noticed earlier that I would buy a Knights helmet and then when I came back online to play again it was gone. I bought the stupid thing three times this was frustrating. LAST STRAW! day four my fighter was doing great so I went out and bought all new armor and weapons with my hard earned gold! I went around slaying things left and right having a good old time. I logged off for five minutes to use the restroom and when I returned...... eight of my eleven new items .. GONE! *SCREAMS INSANELY* Forget it this system has enough glitches in it to drive even the most hardcore MUDDER completely insane! Good concept poor gaming system! Lord Sylven Slayer