Welcome, New Player!

This guide is not so much a guide as a directory. Below, you will find links to the official website as well as to this wiki. This page is divided in different aspects of the game, be it lore or mechanics. If you are curious about a specific aspect of Requiem, you can go to this section and find references to the most relevant information.

It also includes a “Where to start” for people who want some quick pointers right from the get go and don't mind not discovering stuff on their own.

Lore-101 and Application

The story of Requiem is vast. As the name may suggest, Act VI of Requiem means this is the sixth iteration of the shard. Beyond what is written in the official lore, there are hundreds of stories which were literally played out in previous Acts.

That being said, you are not expected to know everything. The staff clearly states the purpose of Requiem is to enjoy yourself. You are, however, expected to have a rudimentary knowledge of the world history. Here is how I would suggest to go about it (and do note this is only one person's opinion).

First, take a look at the Timeline of Events, the shortest summary you'll find. The main story arc of Requiem began with the events of 1313 and the arrival of Torment in Vitaveus (the main continent). Everything that has happened since has been influenced by this paradigm-shifting event.

Second, you should look at the story thus far, as summarized in the Story Primer. This will give you a glimpse at what the history looks like from the eyes of someone who lived it.

At this point, if you are in a hurry to play, you could decide to head straight to the application (see below). However, if you can bear some more reading, we would strongly suggest taking a look at both parts of the Prelude (Part 1 and Part 2), a collection of texts summarizing events and showing glimpses of life in the Venerated Republic of Decus (the governing State).

If you wish to read further, there is a lot more information available on the Hall of Wisdom. This will help you understand more about the world, but the above should have given you the basis necessary to understand the other texts in no particular order. Do note that many sections in the Hall of Wisdom include many texts themselves. It is worth opening each at least once to see what's inside.

Once you feel ready, you will want to head to the Application Primer. You should read the entire page, as it includes important official directions. Namely, you must read and agree to the Shard Rules before you may join Requiem. You will need to register by creating an account for the forum, after which you should create a post in the New Character Applications section of the forum.

You may create your account and a character even before your application has been processed and accepted. The choices you make in the usual UO character creation will not matter, as you will first be sent to the Songmaker's Chambers, where you will have to go through the Requiem official creation of your character.

Once that process is complete, you will be sent to the Rumbling Pass train yard, the in-game RP Lobby. Story-wise, the Rumbling Pass is to the east of the mountains separating the First Province from the rest of the world. You arrive at the Rumbling Pass Outpost where you must show or obtain your visa before proceeding into the Quarantined Zone. You will be allowed out of it when your character application has been approved.

Despite the above, it may be wise to take a moment to get familiar with some of the unique systems of Requiem before jumping into creation. These many systems make the game mechanically interesting, but also complicated to fully understand at once. The team has created a Getting Started guide which should help you take your first steps into the game.

You may want to take a look at the Stats and Skill system to understand the system first. Note that the global Stats cap is 400 (split between 6 stats), and that the global Skill cap is 700 (+100 skill points in Talent skills - Geology, Horticulture and Skinning - which do not count toward your total). While the total skill cap can be increased with Animus, the total Stat cap may not.

It is worth taking a little time to research the effects of stats and skills before creating your character. While at the the Rumbling Pass, you will be able to go back to the Songmaker Room and start over your character creation. Afterwards, however, though you will have the option of reducing certain skills and stats to free up points to invest elsewhere, this process will be much longer as the points reduced will not be reimbursed and you will need to reacquire stat points and retrain skills.

Also worth mentioning are the Backgrounds, one of which you will be asked to choose to determine the skills and items you begin with.

Players have created tools to help you plan your character:

1. Burz and Kaine have created a Character Creation Tool to assist you in this process. To use it, first create a copy fo the document and put it in your own files;
2. Wyrmlance has created this online Character creation tool to do the same.

When you are let out of Rumbling Pass, you will automatically be put on a horse ride to Fort Praesidium, the main hub of Act VI. This will also be your first experience with the transit system unique to Requiem. At certain NPCs, which will ask you if you wish to ride somewhere, you'll have the chance to be transported relatively safely to another destination. You do not need to have been to that destination to buy a ride there. The NPC wil only show you the available path from where you are, not all the paths available in the first province.

Upon arriving in Fort Praesidium, you will have received a reasonable amount of silver coins, 10 loaves of bread, and the items linked with your background. You will also receive the 25 Stats and Skill points you had not yet gotten during character creation.

Due north will be Fort Praesidium. Most mechanical aspects of it are located in the central part of the city (merchants and services), while RP areas are located to the north (Legion barrack and Temple) and west (Public Baths, museum, etc.).

To your right will be the Blacksmithing, Artisanry and Tailoring merchants. To your left upon entering will be the Carpentry merchant, who sells bows, arrows, and woodworking tools. This merchant also sells torches for 100 copper. Buying a light source is a good idea if you don't already have one, as darkness imposes debuff on your character's stats.

Next to your left moving forward will be the Crafters' hall where you will find most tools (purchaseable and static) for your crafts. On the first floor, you will also find many Player vendors for players selling wares. You may also hire one yourself if you so wish.

In front of the Crafters' hall, you will find a well you may use to drink (using the hanging cup) or to fill your waterskin or water flask.

Once at the fountain, the bank will be to your right. Here, you can trade copper for silver, and vice versa. You can also access your Bank box, which only allows you to store gold (Copper, Silver, Gold) and gems. You cannot put items in it. To the northeast of the bank (at the end of the easternmost lane heading north-south) is the Storage facility. Storage can be rented for 10silver a week if you have at least 30 points in crafting or gathering skills. This box can contain all your craft-related goods.

To the west of the storage facility, past the librarian NPC (who sells tools for artisanry bookcrafting, as well as vellums for research), you will have two buildings, inside of which are weapons and armor salesmen (NPC). Those are full armor set. Be sure to inquire about their requirements before purchasing (for instance, you need 30 str to equip a light armor set). The prices there are steeper than what you would probably get from a player merchant, so try to get your gear otherwise if you can. Items sold here are of regular quality.

Last point of immediate interest is outside Fort Praesidium. Upon exiting the city from the south gate and taking a few steps, you will be in Merchant Lane. Merchant lane is a series of rooms which can be rented, as well as stands where NPCs can be placed. You need to own or be allowed access to the stall in order to place a NPC there using a contract sold by the magistrate.

Combat skills operate differently from normal shards. Here, combat skills are divided in three major categories. First, you have Tactics (1h and 2h), which determines both your chance to hit, as well as your chance to avoid being hit. Second, you have Weapon Skills (Archery, Axes, Fencing, Macing, Wrestling, Swords, Polearms, Throwing), which influence the damage of your weapons, as well as special moves which are available through perks. Finally, you have Stratagems (Parry, Finesse, Off Hand and Raging), which are not related to weapons, but affect combat.

Healing on Requiem is a system of its own. The skill “Healing” as it exists on most shards, does not exist here. Instead, it works with a system of Grit based on Anatomy and its perks. Anatomy also increases your melee and ranged combat damage, so it is common to invest in it for any melee or ranged fighter. You can explore the system by reading the Healing Guide.

The two other major systems regarding combat concern what happens when you lose combat, namely, the Injury system and Death. A list of injuries can be found here, and you can learn more about how to heal them by consulting the Guide on Allopathy.

As for Death, we are talking about the permanent death of your character following a knockout by certain special NPCs, events or PVP, depending on your Mortality level. You can learn more about Death and Knockouts here.

Magic on Requiem is certainly unique. First of all, you should expect to be met with hostility for using magic. People carrying “Writs” are tolerated, but still mostly looked upon with suspicion. As of the writing of this text, the official mechanisms behind writs and how to obtain one remain uncertain. Some factions hate all mages with a vengeance and will wish death upon you whether you have such a writ or not.

One cannot approach Magic without understanding the story behind it. This story is best explained by reading the offical lore behind the Consortium. This should give you a good summary of the recent history of magic and why it is seen so despised by many characters in-game. You may also wish to read the Magic and Arcana Primer.

If you are interested in the technical aspect of magic, you should start by reading the Guide to magic on Requiem. You may also wish to consult the List of spells.

You will notice though spells are named, most information is hidden from players, as a large portion of magical gameplay is about discovering Power Words and Mantras. Power Words are the magical words used to make Mantras, spell incantations.

You will also want to look into magic using the links to the skill compendium. There, you will find the perks associated with each skill. Note that for mages, most perks are limited to Grandmastery and a three-leveled perk which grants a bonus effect whenever casting spell from a school. For instance, General Arcana has Static Discharge which gives a fixed chance to hit the target for additional energy damage.

Noteworthy exceptions include Archmagic Arcana, which has the Enchanter perk that opens the door to enchanting. Generic magical perks are instead found in Arcane Linguistics.

Finally, World Lore and some of its perks can be useful as Research is used to discover new Mantras.

The Wiki has fairly detailed guides regarding both crafting and gathering-oriented mechanics, located here.