Facts About Mirkwood

Mirkwood is a MUD, which stands for Multi-User Dungeon or Multi-User Dimension depending upon whom you ask. Basically, Mirkwood is a place where people from all over the world can log on to interact with each other and play a vast game. It's free and everyone is welcome to play, provided they behave at least somewhat reasonably. After you've logged onto Mirkwood and created a character, type 'help rules.'

Mirkwood was started in April of 1995 by Tomasin and JellO using a ROM 2.3 codebase. Over the years, Mirkwood has changed greatly. Its code has been modified and scores of new "areas" have been added, and that process continues today.

To connect to Mirkwood, you need an internet account and a telnet client. The address is mirkwoodmud.org 4000 (mirkwoodmud.org:4000). If you use Windows or an MacOS computer, you can use your default telnet client by either typing in the telnet address or just clicking the above link. However, most default clients do not support color, and you will see Mirkwood in black and white. The BEST way to play Mirkwood is to download one of the many free or shareware telnet clients available, some of which were designed for MUDding.

Check the Downloads section here for a sample list of mud clients.

Mirkwood Academy, which is one room north of where you will start the game, is designed to teach you some of the basic commands and other information necessary to play. Be sure to read all the signs (type 'look sign'). To get a map of Bree, Mirkwood's home city, click here.

The Story Of Mirkwood

The origins of Mirkwood, shrouded in mystery and cloaked in myth, may never be fully understood. Most accounts say it was Tomasin who first formed Mirkwood from his thoughts. Other say Mirkwood always existed on the edges of imagination, that it was the treasure hoard of all the legends and stories thought and sung across the various dimensions. For myself, I believe, not without some evidence, though I admit of a peculiar and altogether singular nature, that both of these stories are correct. By my account, as I shall further explain in my forthcoming book, "Mirkwood: The Ur-World," both stories are correct. Tomasin did indeed first create Mirkwood, which he then presented as a gift to his fellow god JellO, but it also always did exist wherever any sentient being chanted, sang, or told stories. For I believe that Mirkwood is the origin of all the stories across all the worlds. I believe that all legends and myths are born in our realm, that our realm is, in fact, the Ur-World. As these legends and stories were told, they changed until they are often barely recognizable by denizens of the Ur-World. Mirkwood is therefore the source of all tales, and furthermore, lies at the crossroads of all the worlds. For this reason, we have lands of unbelievable savagery and lands of the utmost sophistication existing side by side.

I have had the privilege of traveling to other worlds that lie beyond our own, and I can testify that most of these worlds do not have the diversity that we take for granted. To the poor inhabitants of these worlds, it would seem very strange indeed to find lands of sword and sorcery alongside lands of technological wizardry. They partake of a small part of the stories that were created in our realm, and have no ears for others. But the inhabitants of these worlds, when they watch a falling star or partake of the beauty of a fair maiden, touch Mirkwood, in some small way, and are filled with longing for the Ur-World.

Revel, then, lucky soul, in the glory, beauty, and...yes...danger of our realm, for we are the origin of all.

--Professor Arronax
Author of "Myth, Legends, and Mirkwood: A Scholar's Pilgrammage"