After you get a login (connect to southerncross.mine.nu port 1234 as a guest, then type request), and you are logged in as your new character, type +chargen. This will set all your primary stats to 1 and prepare you to start fleshing out your character.

Primary Stats - Primary stats go from 1(crippled) to 25(Olympic gold medal) with 12 being average.

Strength - Your physical ability to move things around and exert force. Swinging a sword hard, pounding metal with a hammer, moving rocks, and other physical exertions require strength. Wearing heavy armor also requires strength and stamina.

Dexterity - Flexibility, speed, agility. A character with high dexterity will show an aptitude with juggling, swinging swords accurately, dancing, and other feats of agility. 

Stamina - Toughness, Health. Stamina determines how much abuse a character can take before becoming seriously injured. It also determines how much endurance the character has during long or hard activities before growing tired. Willpower can sometimes extend stamina (pushing yourself past your limit).

Perception - Your ability to notice things quickly and thoroughly. Sherlock holmes had a high perception. Snipers and bowmen also need high perception to have good aim. It is much like the mental version of Dexterity.

Intelligence - Your ability to think things through logically to a reasonable conclusion. This does not denote how quickly you come to the conclusion, which is a combination of Intelligence and Perception, but more of how accurate your conclusions tend to be. It is much like the mental version of Strength.

Willpower - Your ability to resist mental tampering and mental fortitude. A person with high willpower can ignore impulses to flee and tend to take things head on with little hesitation. It can also be a measure of how stubborn someone is. It is much like the mental version of Stamina

Magery - Your connection to the ambient magic of the world. Those with high magery have the potential to become very powerful mages. This is not to say that all high magery people fall into this line as becoming a mage is a long and costly endeavor. By the same token, there are many with little natural 'talent' for magic, who become very powerful in their own right.

Appearance - Your physical attractiveness in the eyes of the average person. Attractive qualities in the Empire for males include broad shoulders, defined muscles, clean clothing, either clean shaven, or thick bearded, but not inbetween. For females, if non human, long tails, fair sized chest, large hips and blue eyes are the current 'appealing'. Human females are found to be attractive if a bit taller than the male, and have small feet. Yes, this can sound a bit odd, but to each their own. Your own characters measure of beauty can vary.

When defining these primary stats (+set stat=new amount), you have an effectively unlimited amount of points with which to play. However, as you add points, your growth rate slowly drops from +103%(really fast) to 0%(average) then down to -99%(incredibly slow). You will have to measure how much you're willing to sacrifice in either direction. It is possible, but expensive, to raise primary stats after character generation.

You should now select a Profession via +set Profession=(the profession you want).

Profession - A basic job that has many other jobs under it with multiple Branches of choices.

Fighter - Masters of war and combat. They excell in melee and brawled fighting. Some train in the fine art of leading others into battle, acting as generals and captains in huge battle campaigns.

Acolyte - Followers of the church, their powers vary from the protective Paladins, to excorcists, sermonizing Missionaries, and blessing priests.

Mage - Weavers of the latent energy of the planet. They can manipulate the energy into many complex and wondrous spells. Their path can be said to be the hardest to yield fruit from, but they are the largest fruits.

Rogue - Skirting along the edges of society, Rogues tend to be outlaws and miscreants. Experts at ranged weaponry, thievery, and stealth.

Mundane - The gears of the machine. The Overwhelming majority of the populace is made up of Mundanes. They can fight, cast spells, hide, sneak, pray, but not as well as anyone else who is more specialized. They excel in basic skills.

Monster - Despised, reviled, and hunted. Monsters are said, religiously, to be souls so darkened or burdened that they could not reincarnate properly. The only way to put them out of their misery is by death, allowing them another chance. Monsters boast a wide variety of innate abilities.

Branches - Inside of a Profession are many branches. Branches are a string of jobs leading upwards that all have the same theme. For example, in the mage Profession you will find the black mage Branch, which includes Black Mage, Black Wizard, ShadowMancer, and Dark Sorcerer. You do not have to restrict yourself to one branch as you move along the profession and can leap from one branch to another without penalty. Some jobs belong to no branch at all.

Now that you've set your Primary Stats and chosen a Profession, you may type +finish. You are now ready to start spending XP! You received 100 of it just for being there. I recommend deciding on what next job you wish to persue and reaching it before proceeding. For example. If you made a mage character, decide on what next job you want, let's say, white mage. Type +rpinfo white mage, this will show you what the requirements are for being a white mage.

Basic Skill - A skill that can be learned normally. Anyone can learn any basic skill, given some time to figure things through. They have no inherent supernatural or magical ability of their own, but can be quite powerful if put to intelligent use. Examples: Brawl, Melee, Politics, Homekeeping. Skills go from 1-25

Subskill - A subskill is a more specific version of a basic skill and has the same limitation of 1-25. A rating in a subskill is usually added into any roll involving the basic skill that applies. For example, if you swing a sword at someone, your roll will be Dexterity+Melee+Melee/Swords to hit them. Subskills are very important for rounding out a character, and getting high rolls otherwise impossible to get.

Special Skill - Special skills are magical and/or rare abilities that are difficult to learn on ones own and tend to be taught as part of a Profession. Special skills are limited based on what jobs you choose to buy, and your current level in your Profession.

+buyskill - Used to buy basic skills. type +buyskil (basic skill)=(amount to buy). For example, +buyskill Crafts=5 will try to purchase 5 points of Crafts. To purchase a Subskill, type +buyskill (basic skill)/(subskill)=amount. In this case, subskills come at a 2 for 1 bonus. If you enter 2, you'll get 4 points of the subskill.

+buyspecial - Works just like +buyskill, only for special skills, there are no subskills for special skills.

+xpsheet - Shows how much it will cost to raise various things, including basic and special skills. For a complete listing, type +xpsheet #spam.

+buytier - If you have the requirements for the job you wanted, and you have enough XP to raise the profession the job belongs to (see +xpsheet), you can type +buytier (job you want), and you'll get it, and it's bonuses. With a new job, new special skills will become available for cheaper, and several basic skills will get cheaper. All bonuses gained from jobs are cummulative.

Tips - You may want to get Linguistics/Writing if your character can read and write. Science/Mathematics or Lore/Mathematics is useful if you can do more than count things.

You thought you were done, didn't you? There's one last little thing to do. You have to write a background. Pull up your favorite word processor (or notepad) and start typing up about your character. Here are some questions you may want to answer

1. Where are you from?
2. What were your parents like? What did they teach you? Are they still Alive? How are your feelings towards them?
3. What was your childhood like?
4. What are your long term goals?
5. What are your short term goals?
6. Why did you come to Capital city, and how long have you been here?
7. If you were born here, why did you stay?
8. What do you think of Capital City?
9. What do you think of the Empire?
10. What do you think of the church?
11. What do you think of Monsters?
12. What do you think of Mages?
13. What do you think of Law & Order?
14. What do you think of the Caste System?
15. What do you think of magic? of mages? of the mages guild?