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As a professional medieval historian, I can tell you right now that there are no muds that come even remotely close to portraying medieval life. It's good to get that out of the way so that as a player, you can be realisitic about the choices that really exist.
When players ask for something medieval, they usually don't mean medieval. They mean some level of fantasy (from gritty to 'high' ) that has a bare minimum of medieval or renaissance trappings, such as castles, armor, swords, and kings, but lacking everything that truly makes it medieval: feudalism, critical class differences, fashion and artistic values, farm and trade based economy, shifting borders based on the results of marriages and warfare (nations exist only as the extension of their rulers - part of the feudal construct), etc. etc. etc.
All that aside, I find myself playing Unwritten Legends because there is a genuine interest in providing more elements of various time periods. While it is generally referred to as 'medieval' and most areas follow a pre 1600's feel, some areas are definitely renaissance and some are definitely 'regency period.' There are definitely regions that feel like historical places that we are familiar with, which may be along the lines of your request.
If I was still looking for a place that was more than 50% medieval, I'd be disappointed with UL. But I don't expect game developers to deeply understand medieval aspects; it's taken me most of my life and university study to get to the point where I have a body of knowledge and context for even a small part of the medieval history and historiography that exists today.
I'm quite content with the serious interest displayed by the staff of the game to portray as much 'medievalness' as they can, when they learn about it, and to the extent that it can make a fun game.
This is the first game, for example, that I've ever played that knew a 'girdle' was a decorated belt, and allows you to buy hose in sets of braies and chausses. Sure, there are many mistakes (simultaneous management of a small village by an Abbey, a noble, and a mayoral council, for example), but over time I've seen many similar errors fixed.
I think it's important that you decide exactly what 'medievalness' you require from your game, and realize that an even mostly accurate representation doesn't exist. If you decide you just want a good medieval 'feel' and a bit more grittiness than the average High Fantasy mud, then UL may indeed be the game for you.
For some reason, medieval MUDs always seem to have magic. I haven't found a way around it that I can recommend to you.
---Brett
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