Venture into the realm of Aetolia using the Nexus Client, now accessible on Android and iOS. Spark your adventure from wherever you are.

What is Aetolia?

Aetolia is a multiplayer RPG (role-playing game) set in a dark fantasy world.

The difference between Aetolia and other games is that Aetolia is played entirely in text with minimal graphics. This genre of games is called MUDs or Multi-User Dungeons.

Characters in Aetolia talk, trade, fight, plot and even kill and eat each other. They roam the continents and explore dungeons, killing (or helping) foul creatures, gather gold and treasure while increasing in power and prestige.

Unlike other fantasy settings, Aetolia enables you to play characters of all alignments and creeds, and it's entirely in the hands of the player whether to become a hated villain, vaunted hero, or anything in between.

Classleads February 2025 – part 4

Primality / Alchemy ============================== – [3617] Staticburst / Currents now has a curated list of afflictions it gives. * Refer to the AB help file for the list, since it’s fairly long. Battlefury / Riving ============================== – [3654] New Skill: Irongrip – [3572] Rending / Gouge can now be used with a morningstar. Sanguis /…
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Classleads February 2025 – part 3

Hey folks, Following up on the affliction audit, per report 3585: As warned on our Discord, we’re going to be doing a renaming of a bunch of afflictions to improve the consistency of grammar in certain messages, and just to fit them in a little better with our class skills and themes. This also includes…
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Bad luck protection for pots

Hi folks, Based on some feedback received, I’ve taken some steps to combat the effect of RNG swing on pots of gold for obtaining relic coffers. Essentially, you’ll be guaranteed to receive a relic coffer if you go several pots without getting one. The chances of all other prizes remain intact as they were outside…
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Twin Tournament, Twin Announcement

Hello, everybody! Based on some feedback from interested parties, and to allow Felix to conscript some of you to wash dishes from the Iron Epicurean earlier that day, we’re going to delay the Twins Tournament this weekend by an hour. This means it will start at 01:00 GMT rather than directly at Howling that day.…
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Twins Tournament Registration

In the interest of expedience on the day of the event, I’ve put Tanjos, Champion of Craneskull in charge of registration a few days ahead to smooth everything out! You can use the oathstone at v73726 to register your team – this will require the presence of your future partner for the event to come!…
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Classleads February 2025 – part 2

Hey folks, I’ve started a bit of an affliction audit per report 3585, and this is the first pass of it as I trim things down a little and make some effects a little more straight forward. There is some more to go at some point, I’m sure of it! Having said that, I’ll keep…
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Year 10 Crafting Competition – begins!

The Year 10 Design Contest is now officially open! Until the 11th of March we’ll be accepting your design submissions for the theme of [0;1;37mGEOGRAPHY[0m. These submissions aren’t tied to any one particular archetype and can be from any of Aetolia’s crafting skills. Submissions can be made by sending a clear letter to Ere with…
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The Tale of Cragfoot

In the early days of a scorching season within the Bonro region, the long-forgotten outpost of Cragfoot stirred with renewed life. Once held by the Dreikathi and left to rot in the wake of their occupation, the settlement had become a faint memory, slipping into obscurity as the desert sands reclaimed its streets. Desperate for…
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Welcoming a new staff member!

Behind the scenes over the last week, Emellan and I have been in discussion with Iron Realms Entertainment’s decision-makers in hopes of preparing a surprise for the community. Today, I am writing to reveal that surprise by announcing Aetolia’s newest addition to the staff team: Watson! For those unfamiliar with Watson, he’s been a volunteer…
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Year 10 points

Hi folks! For those unfamiliar, the Year 10 games use the point system found in previous celebrations. Most events that you participate in will give you a single participation point, and winners receive extra points. Some of the events do not award points as the formats are slightly different than normal. However, points are typically…
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How Can I Play?

Aetolia is a free-to-play game that can be played on several different platforms. To play directly in your browser, you can click this link, or the play button above.

If you're coming from another MUD and already have a MUD client of choice, you can connect to Aetolia at aetolia.com, port 23.

You can also play on mobile with the Iron Realms Entertainment Nexus app.

View the Nexus app in the App Store.

View the Nexus app in the Google Play Store.

Intricate

Player vs Player Combat

Aetolia has some of the most detailed and intense PvP ever created.

In addition to traditional RP initiated combat, Aetolia has numerous systems to encourage and reward its most skilled and bloodthirsty:

  • Open PK areas with world altering effects for those brave enough to enter
  • The Sect of Blades, a ranked system of organized combat
  • Twice monthly contests for the Orrery, a powerful location that boosts the faction of the team with the best showing
  • The power of Ylem regularly tears into Sapience, leading to clashes to control these Foci, for personal and organizational gain

Of course, PvP isn't just PK. We also have elected city positions to backstab your way into, rankings of everything from most powerful merchant to best minipet collector, and even racetracks for said pets to earn their owner winnings!

Unique

Character Classes and Skills

We take our skill system seriously, and want every class or talent to feel unique and different. Whether you are an assassin leaping from the shadows to abduct your foe, a powerful knight slashing enemies with your flaming blades, or a monk utilizing your self control to heal wounds and devastate foes, all classes have their own unique mechanisms and abilities.

  • 15+ Unique Classes
  • 12 Guilds
  • 2000+ Different Abilities
  • 80+ Skillsets of Crafting/PvE/PvP
  • 60+ Race skills

Our skillsets each include 30+ skills, varying between general skills, crafting, and class based. Every guild has its own class with unique abilities, modified by a core of abilities common to everyone. And of course, add to that our mercantile, tradeskills, and talents... you get hundreds of possible combinations!

What is a Mud?

They're the original massively multiplayer real-time online games. Before there was World of Warcraft, there were MUDs.

They aren't single-player text adventures like Zork or choose-your-own-adventure games. They're very much real-time and multiplayer.

Ultimately, you can think of MUDs vs. graphical games as books vs. movies in some respects. Just as many people feel books are more immersive than a movie, many people feel MUDs are more immersive than graphical games.

Are you one of those people? Only one way to find out. Try out our game world right now!

Storytelling

The World and Your Place In It

Aetolia is an entirely unique, ever growing world and storyline. For over 17 years our realm has worked through a player driven storyline, and it has seen some changes no other setting could imagine. Almost 20,000 rooms are explorable to players, and 13,000 more are just waiting for the story to catch up...

The drive for this? Roleplaying. Aetolia has a true player-driven storytelling with depths yet unseen. Regular events keep the story moving, while the Administration supports when our players unseat it all and take the reins! Our stories are crafted from the intricate RP of our players, with a vast overarching plot decades in scope... and all without a cutscene showing some NPC swooping in to steal the show.

Your World

Crafting, Building, Leading

Aetolia is built to let players create and lead. Our organizations are designed with player-led positions, and our crafting skills mean that the clothes you wear, the swords you stab with, even the healing potion you drink from are all player designed and created.

  • 20+ Crafting skillsets
  • Over 100,000 player made designs
  • Castles and Havens for your character's private home
  • 4 Completely player run City/Council/Empires
  • 12 Player led guilds
  • Player run packs of shapeshifters

Our crafting is complex and wide reaching. Cities expand their buildings when their leadership decides to. Characters earn their own Haven and design it themself. And again, everything is player designed and crafted. Start your mercantile empire, then run the Imperial Dominion, build a castle, and corner the market in fancy hats, everything is possible!

No Download Needed

Online Dark Fantasy MUD Game

Be ready for the dark fantasy horror world of Aetolia, which is an RPG text game of Iron Realms Entertainment.  Terror, dark forces and vampires are everywhere in the land of Aetolia. If you want to survive in the fantastic world, you will have two chances; fight back or join! Every decision that you will make affects your destiny in the world of Aetolia. When you make a decision in the land of Aetolia, you will have to deal with the consequences. You can discover more than 20,000 rooms in Aetolia, the world is massive!

Aetolia is a multiplayer online RPG with no download necessary. The MUD game Aetolia does not rely on graphics because it is an RPG text game and can be played with minimal or no graphics. Its story in the dark fantasy horror world is unique and player-driven. Characters have many different abilities and skills in Aetolia, giving you great control over the game itself.

Fantasy Vampire MUD

Horror RPG

Sapience is the continent of the everyday Aetolian world. For hundreds of years, Sapience has had its own problems until flying death machines filled the skies and led to the discovery of an antagonistic other continents. Now squabbles over resources, Dark and Light, land, and life vs death play besides an overarching worry of invasion from eldritch abomination Gods from the continent of Albedos.

There are many different abilities on Aetolia encapsulated by your skills in the game. Besides the basic skills everyone shares, hundreds of other skills vary by class, and how you play is your choice. In addition to class, there are mini skills to passively protect you, mercantile skills to generate life's necessities, hobby skills, agricultural skills, practical skills, and trade skills that you will be able to learn through varying methods in the game. You can have many different talents that you can increase, separate from level, all to help you survive and thrive.

In Aetolia, you might deal with, or even become, an undead. Vampires also walk the lands, seeking blood and domination. Light counters these unnatural beasts with Duamvi symbiotes brought from higher planes to empower the select worthy few. Help either side, or neither, your choice is free.