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Basics
It is highly recommended that all users go over this bare-bones guide to all the basics of Anathema Online. After reading it, if you still have any questions, you may refer to the more indepth articles written in the Players' Guide, or ask your question in the Help category of the OOC boards.

This guide will outline the following basic concepts :
Registering/Creating Characters
Navigation Bar/Site Layout
Commands and Posting
Report Policy Violation

Registering and Creating Characters
Registering
Registration is easy; simply click the link on the navigation bar and fill out the form. Your e-mail address is not kept so that we can send you spam or anything, or even to send you activation information. You don't *need* to enter it. It's just there so that in case we do need to get in touch with you and cannot do so over the AO system, we have a safety net and you won't be left in the dark.

Any one person may only have ONE account. In order to enforce this, your IP is crossreferenced through our database. If the IP address has already been registered to an account, you will be given the chance to give a reason. Then, before your account is enabled, you will have to wait until an administrator looks over the case and makes a decision.

Creating a Character
You can create a character by clicking the link on the top rung of the navigation bar, or by selecting "Create New Character" on the drop down menu to the extreme left (which probably says "You Have no Characters").

Creating a character takes you through three pages; The first page is where your character description and information is filled out. The second is where you select your character's bonus, civic and personal skills (just little bonuses that will make your character different from others, depending on the combination you choose). The third is where you choose your avatar's hairstyle, skin colour and starting clothes. All the clothes you see here are available in shops around the map.

You will be able to edit your character's species, age and description in the [Edit Profile] page, accessible through the second rung of the navigation bar.

Site Layout - The Navigation Bar
Since Anathema Online is very different from most simple roleplay forums, you're going to see a lot of different controls on the navigation bar. Don't worry, you need not fuss with them too much. The darker red areas (on the left side) that show up once you've logged in are the main parts that I'm going to go over. The lighter red area to the right is just a few helpful links.

The darker red area is divided into three lines;
1: [Character Name] [View Memories] [Currently In: ...]
Character name - The character you have selected currently. It is also a link that takes you to view your character's profile.
View Memories - A handy feature that we've included is the ability to look over everything your character has seen since it has been created.
Currently in: - This shows where your character is at the moment. It is structured as Town>Building>Room. When the room is hilighted in white, it means the last person to post there was not you (so you should probably take a peek). When the room is hilighted in red, you are being attacked. When it is yellow, someone is fighting in the room. When it is orange, the room is on fire.

2: [Character Control Panels] [Edit Profile] [You have -- messages in your OOC inbox]
Character Control Panels - This is where anything involving your character's inventory or anything he or she owns is managed. This is actually a drop-down menu that reveals a series of other links.
Avatar Control Panel - Where you can wear/remove/adjust the clothing your character is wearing. This is set up in a sort of dress-up game fashion, where you can select the clothes and then move their position in a stack of layers.
Character Status - This shows the main RPG elements to your character, like their combat rolls, as well as various skills. It also shows your current levels of intoxication, fatigue, hunger, health, etc.
Inventory Control Panel - This is where you can manage the items your character is carrying. It presents a panel filled with all your different items, and different actions you can perform with them.
Assets Control Panel - This is a list of links to pages where you can manage everything your character owns, including NPCs, slaves, buildings, towns, etc.
Account Control Panel - Here you can manage your account. You can make new characters, view over your current character roster, as well as alter password information.

Edit Profile - Here you can edit your character's description, age, species, etc. as well as select your bonus/civic/personal skills if you did not select them when you were creating your character.
You have # new messages - This will show you if you have any new messages; it is also a link to your private message inbox. You can send messages to any other character, but remember, it is against the rules to use information transferred through this medium. That's why it is an OOC inbox. (Out of Character)

3: [Character name] [Create an Item] [Buy an Item]
Character name - This is a dropdown menu from which you may select which character you would like to activate. If you have not reached the maximum number of characters, you may also create a character from here.
Create an Item - In Anathema Online, we allow our users to create clothing, hairstyles, tattoos, etc. for their avatars. You can use this menu to navigate to the proper page so you can upload your creations.
Buy an Item - Here, you can purchase hairstyles, tattoos and transformations made by other users for your own character's avatar.

Commands and Posting
In order to post, you must scroll down to the bottom of the page of the room your character is in. There, you will see a menu with various commands and a text box in which you type your post. Please note that all posts (except for movement posts) must be at least 30 words long. Every post you make will give you 1 gold for every 5 words, up to 100 words. The default command is always to post regularly; that is, to do nothing but post. As long as you are the last one to post, you may edit or delete your post. Please note that for some commands (attacking, attempting to tie someone up, etc), you will only be able to delete the post by cancelling through your Character Control Panel, and for some other commands, you will not be able to delete or edit at all.

This will only cover the absolute basic commands; these are the only ones you NEED to know to be able to play AO. There are more in-depth articles in the Player's Guide that cover the rest of the commands.

Basic Commands
OOC: Out of character posts will not give you any gold, and will automatically be minimized (collapsed) in the room. If you move without posting, it will show as an OOC post. Whenever the program needs to tell the users what has happened (for example, in a fight, or if a siege weapon has been fired at the room), it will show up in an OOC post written by the character "God". Please do not carry on conversations in OOC posts, as they disrupt the flow of the RP. This is meant only to point out small notes or make corrections if you are unable to edit your actual post.
Move: When you select this command, you will be shown a menu with all the different destinations you may travel to. Every building has an 'entrance', from which you can access the entrances of other buildings in the same town. If the room you are in is not the entrance, you will be limited to travelling only to the rooms connected to the one you are in through doorways or passageways.
Eat/Drink: Every player character has a 'hunger' metre. The more you post, the more your metre will drop. Once it drops to 0, you will start losing health. The way you can keep your hunger up is by eating. This command allows you to select any food, drink or alcoholic beverage from your inventory and eat/drink it.
Sleep/Pass Out: Another important metre is fatigue. When your fatigue drops to 0, you will automatically pass out. To keep yourself from passing out at inconvenient times, you may use the sleep command. It's best to do this when you're about to go do something else away from AO, or about to manage another character.

Report Policy Violation
This button enables you to send a private message to all the admins if a bug or problem occurs. The link is also on every post in the site. We encourage users to monitor the activities going on throughout the site themselves, because the admins do not always notice the problem at hand.