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[greatorder]

I'll be honest, thus far there's not much I can say beyond what these two Imgur albums mention. I've not done a huge amount of research into it (yet), but from what's been mentioned, if they manage to pull it off it could be pretty damned glorious.

As it stands, though, I believe that's a pretty big if. It's hugely ambitious, and I'd be unsurprised if it turns to vaporware or comes out as a slightly gimmicky but otherwise standard MMO.

OK, here goes my attempt at describing it...

At its core, there's one major, major feature: Death. Unlike other MMOs, your characters that you create can and will die. You can't avert it, you can't avoid it, and when you die, your character stays dead.

However, there is an immortal part of you that stays even after death-your soul. Your soul is permanent and cannot ever die, instead when your character dies your soul enters the Akashic Records, a sort of afterlife. Here you can then create another character for your soul to inhabit, choosing between being reborn into a family or as a ward. Those born into a family start at age 15 and have a few bonuses, they have shared household resources, a dynasty, and help when spirit walking, as well as other players to help them learn how to do things. However, they have predetermined stats and attributes, limited customisation and limits to their starting locations. Wards, on the other hand, start off at age 12, have more customisation (including as you go through your teenage years) and the ability to pick-and-choose starting stats and attributes. On the other hand, they lack the support that a family brings.

You will age as time goes on, which can have different effects. As you get older your physical strength will decrease, but your mental traits will improve, which can make you a strong blacksmith or soldier at an earlier age, but later you may have to put down the hammer and shield, and instead take up leadership.
This is working on the assumption you survive to that age.

Any number of things can harm you- other players, monsters, accidents and so on. Most monsters and all players will, when they drop you to 0 health, incapacitate you. This is akin to being unconscious, and during this time you can be dragged,tied up and so on. However, some monsters will attempt to kill you, and players have an option whilst you are incapacitated to perform a coup de grāce. In this instance, what will happen is you will be struck with a mortal blow, sending your soul out of your body into the Astral Plane in what's called a Spirit Walk. Your time here is limited, and there's one goal: Return to your body. You will have to try and locate the area you need to be in to return before your soul fades and returns to the Records. Older characters will have less time in the Astral Plane, whilst those with family members around them will have more time, and their tether showing them the way to the location they need to be at will be more visible. If you successfully return, you will wake up with a scar and reduced spirit, both of which will last the rest of your character's life.

Some characters will be born with certain powers as well. Magic of a form, which may only become obvious under certain situations. Some characters may go their whole life without knowing that they have any abilities, others may wind up discovering them after only a few days. These can range from being pretty simple and moderately useful, such as being able to breathe underwater, to complex and powerful, such as being able to hold off death indefinitely. If someone is born with a great, evil power and realises it, it's entirely possible they may decide to try and conquer a kingdom, perform genocide or anything similar, and in these circumstances they may well wind up being a threat to the stability of the world and require many people, magical and mundane, to come together to end the threat.

Crafting isn't as abstracted as it is in many other games, requiring actual player input beyond the occasional button press in order to be completed. In addition, in order to increase your skills you need to keep on crafting more and more complex items; you can't increase it by smithing 500 axes, or sewing 500 shirts. In addition, you can decide to learn by observation. Watching someone else perform a task for long enough will also start to increase your skill at said task. Finally, your skills are affected by the skills learned in your previous lives. If you were a skilled carpenter in your last life, in your present one you will have increased rate of skill gain in carpentry, however if you were a skilled carpenter four lives ago, the effect will be diminished.

Site is here
Also, a video!

[gimli]

It's hugely ambitious

Defo.

[Ozyton]

Interesting.
But that's about it so far.

[Zangi]

That pipe dream for an MMO. 
The main question is how the game is gonna stay funded throughout its lifetime.  That'll determine a heck of a lot of things.

[Ozyton]

Except with Star Citizen you have people reminding you on a regular basis that it exists.

[Sirus]

PTW

Def ambitious and probably destined to fail, but let's see if we can't be surprised.

[Poltifar]

My knee-jerk reaction when I hear of an MMO with permadeath is to imagine a griefer-infested hellscape ala Haven and Hearth. I wonder how this game would be any different, assuming it even gets released.