How to play
The Field Manual
The manual players read in the game, here to read before you play: how to move and fight, build a city, raise an army and take ground.
Keys shown here are the game's defaults. In the game, press F1 to open the manual: it shows your own keys.
Your character
Four choices make a character: a Race, a Path, a Class and the Disciplines you add.
Start here
The training grounds The Tutorial on the character screen: a practice field that teaches every system with the real HUD, chapter by chapter.Your first hour The handful of things every new arrival needs: move, look, fight, loot, talk, and find your way.The HUD at a glance What every part of the screen tells you, and how to move the panels around.Every key at a glance The complete list of default keys. Gold keys are your current bindings; grey ones are fixed.Melee: aiming your swing Flick the mouse to choose the swing, hold to wind up, release to strike. Where it lands matters.The world map Pan, zoom and read the realm: find settlements, set a waypoint, see your group, and read cities, armies, roads, territory, magic and dungeons.When you fall You have 35 seconds in the guttering. A friend can bring you back; if not, or if you choose not to wait, you wake at your bind point.Joining or founding a guild Accept an invitation, or found your own guild with a name and a coat of arms.A power will not cast Work down this list: most refusals are one of these.
Every section
Essentials
Adventuring
Movement & Travel Walking, jumping, swimming, climbing, flying, and the roads that carry you faster.World, Map & Magic The world map and its layers, the minimap, regions, dungeons, and the ground where magic thins or dies.Horses & Riding Summoning, riding and stabling a horse, fighting from the saddle, and the couched lance.Ships & Harbours Sailing a ship by the wind, piers and shipyards, launching a hull from a deed, and getting aboard and ashore.Creatures How beasts behave: prey that bolts, predators that weigh you up, packs that answer, and blows that knock you flat.Bestiary What lives out there: where each creature is found, how it treats a traveller, and what people know about it.Lore of Kilmoryn The gods and saints, the ten cultures, the factions and houses, and the words everyone uses for the world.Towns & Services Talking to people, shops, trainers, banks, the Runemaster, the Waykeepers who send you between towns, and your journal.Items & Inventory Your bags, equipment and weapon sets, potions and scrolls, loot, and trading with other players.Gathering & Crafting Chopping trees, breaking rock, fishing and skinning; your professions; making and enchanting gear at a station; work orders and the city armory.Death & Recovery What happens when you fall, how friends bring you back, and where you wake if they cannot.
Combat
Guilds & Cities
Guilds Founding a guild, ranks and what each may do, invitations, fealty and leaving.Building a City Planting the Heartwood, build mode, construction crews, upgrades, rubble and rebuilding.City Economy Storage and the treasury, housing and population, food, ale and morale, farms, workers, tax and upkeep.
Territory & War
Territory & Trade Who holds the ground, outposts, homeland and supply, mines, the caravans that carry your goods home, and the raiders who wait for them.Armies Raising soldiers, sending armies across the map, and commanding them yourself in the field.Sieges & Banes Siege engines, Warstones and banes, protection, and the doors and gates that keep a city shut.