Character and progression

Complements 17 (attributes, talents, death), 18 (magic affinity), 13 and 23 (PvP and karma) and 25 (chapters). Fixed rules that apply here: always first person, VR-ready, NFT only cosmetic and deed, nobody loses an NFT or worn equipment on death, no power for sale. All numbers are an initial proposal for Phase 1A and the alpha to calibrate.

1. Races

Four races at launch, one per region of Chapter 1. Race is culture and appearance, not power: none changes damage, health, mana, reach, speed or resistance, in PvE or PvP. Each gives a small trade or travel trait, with no combat effect.

Rules so race never becomes a hidden advantage:

• Same game body: hitbox, arm reach, eye height and speed are identical across all races and bodies. Body shape exists for those looking from outside (mirrors, other players, portraits).
• Eye height: on PC, 1.65 m for everyone; in VR, the player's real height (the camera is never pulled). Someone very tall or short in the real world has no reach advantage, because the server validates the blow by the weapon's reach (13).
• Hands and forearms (what the person sees most): always five fingers, human proportions, so VR hand tracking works without adjustment. What changes is skin, nails, scars, tattoos, hair, origin marks and the race's bracelet. The sleeve shows the worn armor; without armor, the bare forearm shows the race.
• Traits are checked by the server, with a 15% cap on effect in any one activity (rule defined here; 09 has no numeric cap).
• Race is fixed after creation (so as not to mess up the lore and traits); appearance can change (§2).
• Races from future chapters (ideas in "What is left for later") come in without rebalancing the initial four, because the trait is trade-related, not combat-related.

2. Character creation

Six steps, ~10 minutes, all in first person: the player sees themself in a water or metal mirror (the same mirror works in VR) and looks at their own hands.

1. Race (§1) and a name unique on the server (filter and reporting, see 24 §9).
2. Face: 14 controls (shape, eyes, eyebrows, nose, mouth, chin, scars and marks, 12 hairstyles, 10 beards and facial hair), plus voice (6 timbres, only for short lines; real voice for 18+ is optional and outside this, see 32 §2).
3. Body: 3 builds (light, medium, sturdy) and visual height (±8%). Appearance only.
4. Skin, hands and forearms: tone, birthmarks, tattoo or clan/family paint (8 patterns), nails, calluses. This is where the player sees the result in first person, in lantern light and in daylight, before confirming.
5. Origin (what the person was): 6 origins, each with a small starting attribute set, a beginner trade at level 1, a starting relationship with an NPC and its own cosmetic outfit. No origin is better than another in combat.

6. Class (from 03: Lantern Warden, Wanderer, Arcanist, Druid): defines the initial talent tree, 2 hotbar abilities, the starting weapon and outfit. It's the starting point, not a prison (17 §4).

Where you start: in the two starting zones of 04, the Vale de Lumen or the Bosque Alto. Race only suggests; any race can start in either (there is a lore message: those who came back from the Coast and the Mine). No race is tied to a region.

Appearance later: the Espelho Mirror, in the village of Espelho, changes face, hairstyle, skin and tattoo for 100 gold (first change free, then a 30-day wait before changing again). Changing appearance never changes an attribute.

3. Attributes and levels

The six attributes of 17: Strength, Dexterity, Vigor, Mind, Willpower, Luck.

• Base value: 10 in each, plus the class points (+4, distributed as the class defines) and the origin points (+3).
• Per level: 4 free points (plus the 3 automatic ones the class gives: one in each key attribute). At level 20, that is 76 free points.
• Cap per attribute (points only): 60 until level 35, 80 until level 50. Equipment adds up to +25% over the player's value, and the total stays under the tier cap (§4). Nobody reaches 100 in everything: with 76 points, the level-20 player chooses two or three directions.
• Diminishing returns: above 40 points in an attribute, each point yields 70% of the previous one, which pushes toward mixed builds instead of a single column.
• Health, stamina and mana (17 §1): health = 80 + Vigor × 6; stamina = 60 + Vigor × 2 + Dexterity × 1; mana = 40 + Mind × 5 + Willpower × 2. Starting numbers.
• Experience: level 1→10 in 5 h of play and 10→20 in another ~17 h (22 h of quests and story in total, 29 §9; the guide in 29 §8 reaches level 16 at hour 10). The curve between chapters is in §4.
• Level scaling (20 §2): applies only in PvE. A level 1–10 region still makes sense at 20, and two friends of different levels play together; PvP doesn't scale (13).
• No attribute has any effect on real money, and no NFT item gives attributes (08).

4. Max level, power cap and horizontal progression

Max level per chapter

Each chapter (25) raises the level cap and the equipment power cap. Anyone who doesn't want to level up can stay (no "mandatory dailies", 20 §2.5).

Power rises +12 points per tier (index of 30 §4; not 25%): the best equipment of the previous tier is at ~90% of the current top, T1 at ~62% of T6, and works through reforging, in which the trade takes an old item to the new tier, keeping its appearance, for materials and time (a sink, not a discard). The difference between a "good" and a "perfect" item within the tier is at most 8%: the hunt is for affixes and builds, not raw numbers.

What happens at max level

The game continues with horizontal progression, without more numbers:

• Mastery: experience goes into Mastery ranks (weapon, magic source, trade). Each rank gives 1 specialization point, which opens alternatives (a second spear technique, a spell modifier, a recipe variant), not more damage. Cap: up to +5% on any single stat from Mastery. 10 ranks per chapter; each rank takes ~6 h.
• Difficulty tiers in dungeons (3 levels), which change mechanics and cosmetic and material loot, not the equipment power cap.
• Reputation prestige (27), seasons (03: they reset only ranking and season cosmetics), achievements and titles, collecting (recipes, grimoires, paradises visited), houses and lands (15), professions.
• Never: buying levels, experience, talent points or attributes with money, token or NFT.

5. Abilities and talents

Four kinds of tree, all open to any class; the class only says where you start (17 §4):

• Nodes have 1 to 3 ranks. The tiers of each tree open at 5, 12 and 20 points spent in the tree itself, as in Diablo and Path of Exile.
• Talent points: 19 up to level 20, then 15 more per chapter, plus 1 point per dungeon completed (the first of each, at most 8 per chapter). That is, nobody fills an entire class tree at launch: the choice is the design.
• Hotbar: 10 active abilities (17 §5); hotbar swapping only out of combat and at a shrine or lantern, so it doesn't become an infinite rotation.
• Synergies between trees (hammer + fire = incandescent strike) require rank 2 in both, so it remains a planning reward.
• In VR: no talent depends on seeing the body; the gestures and buttons of 17 and 18 give the same effect.

6. Death and resurrection

Consistent with 13, 17 and 23. In all cases: no NFT, worn equipment, level, experience or talent is lost.

PvE:

1. The player falls (the camera lowers to the ground, without rotating). They have 60 s to be revived by any ally holding their hands on the fallen player's chest for 5 s (arm gesture in VR, held button on PC); it doesn't require magic. Revived, they return with 30% health and −3 durability points on each worn piece (30 §8).
2. Without revival, or by choice, they respawn at the last shrine or anchor lantern after 10 s, with −10 durability points on each worn piece (30 §8, 33 §3). Durability reaches 0 and the item simply has no bonuses: it never breaks, never disappears. Repair costs gold (sink from 14).
3. In a dungeon, death sends the player to the entrance with the same durability loss as item 2 (32 §3), with no extra cost; the gold rescue is optional (33 §2).
4. No loss of experience, level, gold or loot. A boss doesn't "kill progress".

Carried cargo (ore, wood, caravan goods, catch):

• In PvE, the cargo stays in a dropped sack at the death point for 15 min, only for the owner, with a compass marker; afterward it goes to the storage locker of the nearest shrine. No cargo is lost in PvE.
• In PvP (contested zone, or PK, 13 and 23), 30% of the cargo and 10% of the pocket gold drop to the winner; if the victim has red karma, 60% and 25%, and they may drop common unworn, non-NFT items. The anti-boosting and the daily cap of 13 and 23 apply. Bank gold, the plot's vault and worn equipment never come into play.
• Safe arrival zones (20 §7) have no PvP, so cargo arriving at hard-to-reach places is only at risk after the player leaves them.

Shrines: each village and each anchor lantern is a respawn point; the player binds theirs at an inn or lantern (1 active bond, switching is free). In the open world, a field lantern (trade item) plants a temporary shrine for 2 h, 1 per group.

7. Respec

• Talents: free until level 10. After that, gold (never token): 50 × level for a full respec, or 20% of that per tree. The cost doubles with each respec within 7 days, capped at 8×, and returns to normal after a week without respeccing. At shrines and anchor lanterns; not in combat nor during an active clan war.
• Attributes: the Retreat, at a temple, returns all points for the talent cost × 2, at most once a week.
• Class: there is no class change, because it only decides the start; any tree can be learned by spending points and finding masters.
• Trades: nothing is lost when respeccing talents; changing trades only costs the time of relearning.
• Specialization points (§4) are respecced at the same price as talents.

8. Alternate characters

• Slots: 4 characters per account at launch, up to 8 with account-age milestones (not bought). Each slot has the same complete game.
• One account, one wallet: NFTs and deeds belong to the account (built-in wallet, 08); a cosmetic NFT can be used on any character of the same account, one at a time. One KYC = one eligible account (E5): alts don't multiply rewards from the economy, concession, land or reward fund.
• Bound to the account: NPC raw materials and reputation (27) belong to the account, with the weekly reputation cap per account.
• Per character: level, talents, attributes, karma, bond, backpack and the PvP cursor. Red karma is not cleared by switching characters: the server record links the accounts to the same KYC for the multi-account rule (23).
• Leveling an alt: after one character at the chapter's max level, alts get +30% experience up to level 10, and can skip the narration of the main story (the quest still counts; only the dialogue is summarized). No "level pack", not even paid.
• Shops and houses: a plot belongs to one character (the owner), with configurable entry permission. An alt doesn't avoid the per-KYC land cap (15).
• Mentoring (24 §5): a new alt can be sponsored; the mentor receives only if the apprentice has account age and KYC.

What is left for later

• Races from future chapters (ideas, no numbers): a people of Hrim, a people of Esmeralda, a lineage of the Crater and of the Skies. They come with their own trade trait, never a combat one.
• Mastery and talents of Light, Shadow and the rest of the Elemental (18 §9), which arrive with the sources.
• Mount as part of the character and tamed creatures (10, 24 §7).
• Mastery ranks above 10 per chapter and the definitive experience curve: only after alpha data.
• PC vs. VR balance in PvP (separate queues by control type, 13).
• Resurrection by magic (Light, 18) and mass resurrection in raids: they need the sources and the raid of Chapter 2.
• Advanced body customization in VR (real height, long arms) stays for after comfort and reach-fairness testing.