[camlorn]

You may want to stick to the mush/muck style of game--muds tend to be about mechanics. Even the best rpis that I'm aware of advertise their mechanics: unique magic, emote experience point system, xxx, yyy, and of course zzz...

I think the reason you have trouble finding this is because most people have other things to do on a mud--I can go fight off a dragon for the ring of power or something, I'm not going to sit in the tavern north of the common square and emote all day long (though, an engine for an emotive combat system that can Gage the plausibility of emotes entered as attacks and work out damage, besides instantly earning you a PHD in computer science, would be really fun).

You might have luck with moos--the few I know of tend to be fast-pased, though, and again they generally have other things to do besides emote all day, but there are some social ones; lambdamoo is still active, of all things, though again it's not what you want.

Maybe Shadows of Issildur or Atonement; I don't know how they actually are, but they give the impression of having the option of being non-combative in all things and playing a ponderous rp style like that. Rp really isn't my thing, and I've never played either, so I can't really say. The only thing like this that's a "mud" that I'm aware of is The Inquisition.