[the_logos]

Yeah, that is literally one of the worst things ever. We're pretty lore and history-heavy, and are continually generating new lore and history that matter to people through player and admin action, but nobody wants to write essays, and yet player organizations at one point evolved, in some cases, requirements to basically do exactly what you said (and write essays!). That's largely been squashed, thankfully, through general recognition that it's not fun for almost anybody beyond a few obsessive types with a lot of time on their hands. We made it very clear that the administration doesn't approve.

Oh, yeah, that really has nothing to do with Achaean combat. Once you're anywhere near competent, running out of crucial things mid-combat doesn't really happen.

Yeah, it's definitely long-winded for people used to a text interface/MUD paradigm. It's aimed at people who have never played MUDs before. And the trouble with making it optional via a "Are you a MUDer?" type question (we did that at one point) is that a lot of people who aren't answer yes and then end up completely lost. Probably need something like that though where we shunt people through a much more compressed intro.