I imagine that it is fairly common for reviewers to say that their mud stands out of the crowd, and I don't plan on deviating from that. In my opinion, Dark Legacy has always stood out as a truly unique mud among the many that I have played over the years because of creative features such as star signs, ancestries, its crafting system, and spell system. The player base gradually dropped over the years, but the people that remain are quite friendly and the mud is still actively changing due to the hard work of its coder.

When I first began playing Dark Legacy I was given the choice to play as one of several races with humans being given the adding option of choosing one of several star signs that would add various benefits to the character. Since then several patches have been implemented that have introduced other options such as ancestries and opened up star signs to every race. This gives the player a vast number of combinations to choose from when they first create their character. An example of one combination could be a desert troll with the void star sign (immune to magic) and lycanthrope ancestry (added resistances) to create a strong melee character. The ancestry's name also changes as the character levels (a gold dragon pixie would first be called a draconic pixie and later a half-dragon pixie).

The player starts off as one class (warrior, rogue, cleric, mage, bard, paladin, psionicist, or ranger), but once they reach level 50 they are allowed to start over with another class as well as their original. After reaching level 50 with three classes they become an epic character with their own unique class name that is assigned based on the combination of classes they chose. A level 50/50/50 character whose classes are a combination of warrior, mage, and cleric would become an Arcane Templar. Epic characters are then allowed to level to their hearts content; gaining bonuses such as regeneration or additional stats as they reach higher levels. Upon reaching epic status the player is also given their own plane of existence (though this is currently disabled as the mud is undergoing changes).

The spell system is also unique to Dark Legacy. Rather than requiring the player to obtain a certain level before learning a spell, the player gains a certain number of complexity points in different spell categories such as body for healing spells or physical for attack spells. The amount of complexity you have is based off of factors such as the amount of intelligence you have and the race, star sign, and ancestry you chose. Each spell casting class has a primary and two secondary complexity categories such as physical, basic, and enchanting for mages and body, defensive, and sensory for clerics. Runes can also be added to spells to make them more efficient or to change their properties (adding elemental damage).

Crafting has greatly changed over the years. It has evolved from simply gathering materials, processing them, attempting to make the item, and then enchanting the finished product to learning specific processing skills, buying the craft skill, gathering the materials, and gaining crafting levels as you perfect your skill. As you gain levels you learn new recipes for crafting your item. The quality of your crafted item is mostly affected by your luck and obtaining a true masterpiece can take quite a long time. Besides quality, the materials that you use to make the item also heavily affects how useful it will be. You can now also add upgrades such as decorative plating to change appearance of your item.

Enchanting (adding affects such as sanctuary, mobility, or hp to your item) involves finding baboos. Baboos are special items that you find in randomly spawned chests from mobs you kill. They vary in level depending on the level of the player with the best baboos logically being found by higher levelled players. Once a baboo is found and the player wishes to use it they must charge it by paying gold and glory. Glory can be obtained by levelling up and through completing a wide variety of achievements (anything from killed 100 humanoids to travelling 50 miles to fishing). Once charged the baboos can then be enchanted onto the item. Weapons can also be further enhanced if they have sockets through rune words. Rune words are created by combining specific runes in a certain order in a weapon that has sockets. They can do such things as causing the weapon to return to you after you throw it, to draining mana from an opponent, and a myriad of other things.

The social aspects of the game include grouping, player run guilds, families, auctioning, the mailing system, and games. Grouping in Dark Legacy is a unique experience because of roles. Roles vary between classes and affect your chances of being hit by a mob. Fighting classes such as the warrior have the role frontline defender which will cause them to automatically try to shield any physical blows that are directed at a player in the party. Spell casting classes such as the cleric will have the support role which causes them to be least likely to be hit. A guild can be formed by any player that is rich enough to afford the price of one (though gather gold has been easy with the introduction of treasure that can be found in randomly spawned chests). These organizations have various goals and members are organized into a hierarchy that is created by the guild leader. A family can be created between any three players (marriage is optional). The two parents and child sign a form and the child inherits their last name. A new auctioning system has been introduced in which players are allowed to place an item at the auction for a certain amount of time with a minimal bid and buy out price. Players are able to send letters to one another through the use of the post office by writing a letter, buying an envelope, seal, and postage, and then mailing it. Players are also given the chance to interact in games such as freeze tag and hazard hamster as well. These games are automatically created every so often.

Fighting is in Dark Legacy involves the use of spells,the jab, thrust, and lunge command, skills, and balance. Jabs are the fastest and weakest of the three and they also consume the least amount of balance. Thrusts are balanced in damage, speed, and balance consumption. Lunges are the most powerful normal physical attack but they are also the slowest and use the most balance. Fighting classes also learn skills such as spin (enables the player to attack more than one enemy at once) or multi-strike (allows up to four hits at once) that add to the fighting experience. Dual wielding and weapon specialties (differs between classes) will also affect the speed at which you attack.

Pets are a very important asset to your leveling experience. They are obtained in egg form from random chests (tattered objects) after killing a mob or from treasures in epic leveling areas. The type of egg determines the type of pet you will get while the value determines the specific pet that will hatch from it. For example a splotched yellow egg will result in some kind of primate and one that has a 1600 value will result in a chimpanzee. These pets have a random pedigree that can be enhanced by hatching them with an incubator. The pedigree of the pet determines how good its starting values are. Pets can also wear collars and barding that will increase a variety of things depending on what was enchanted on them. What makes pets so useful are their attacks and tricks. Each grouping of pets (egg type) has their own set of tricks (with the higher valued pets generally having better unique ones) such as stone throwing for primates or canines being able to bite. Tricks are learned through the use of pet toys. These tricks can add an extra attack to your pet or magical effects that allow them to heal the player, restore their mana, speak or teleport to them. Tricks are divided into two categories, normal and magical. Each pet has a different certain amount of tricks they can learn, though they can learn more once they reach specific epic levels.

I realize that this is a crappy abrupt way to end a not so well written review, but in all honesty I'm becoming weary of sitting here trying to think of all of the many things that makes Dark Legacy an outstanding mud when compared with a large portion of those that are out there. There are sure to be friendly players online that would be glad to answer any questions you may have so if you're up to playing one of the most original muds out there (feature wise in any case; a lot of the areas are stock) come and give Dark Legacy a shot. I'm sure you won't regret it.

The previous reviews are a joke, out of date, and in some cases, written by those who only wish to suck up to the imms. I've played DL for 4 years, and have been the richest, most powerful, most influential player at various times. This is debatable by those who dislike me, but what is not debatable is my commitment to DL.

I have spent all my years there teaching anyone that was willing to learn, i have put far more into the game than i got out of it, and was happy to do so. However, the vast corruption among the immortal staff, the corruption among the players that is allowed to go on IF they are friends of said corrupt immortals, all the bugs that go unfixed because Celeborn decides to put NEW code in, rather than fix what's broken, makes Dark Legacy a truly bad mud, one to avoid if you wish to have fun playing, without a lot of politics and crap that most of us try to avoid.

The playerbase is dying, down to less than 20 ppl i think, and of those only newbies and cheats are left for the most part(maybe a few decent ppl left, but not many). The buglist is 4 screens long and growing, and instead of worrying about that or the corruption among the admins, they chose to ban my accounts to prevent me from deleting my chars, they were afraid of the reaction of the playerbase.

So here now, i give it to you, Dark Legacy, a mud where you can play for years, own everything, have defeated EVERY mob and nearly every player in game, play without breaking ANY rules at all in all that time, and STILL be treated worse than the cheaters for simply speaking your mind. At this time, every player that was banned on dl in the past has been allowed back. The official reason is 'everyone deserves a 2nd chance', even though most of those banned have had dozens of chances already :P

And yet, *I* remain banned, even though i have never cheated in any way, never done anything except demand fairness, honesty, and truth from both the immortals, and the playerbase.

Enter at extreme risk.

Dark Legacy has the best environment. Players are happy to help new people to the game and do their best to make sure they have everything they need without actually doing everything for them.

A map is on the left side of the screen. There are tons of helpfiles and the staff is very helpful.

In my 14 months of play on Dark Legacy, I've found that there are alot of positive attributes that make this MUD a really good place to play both for new players and old ones. There's a lot more to leveling than being on this MUD: you can craft your own equipment or items using a rather extensive craft system, level endlessly in the form of low-level and epic-level areas, forage for resources, mine for ores gems and stone, roleplay with your fellow man/woman/neuter, raise and level your own pet and give it attributes, customize your character with both glory and epicpoints (which are obtained when you reach the epic level status), etc. Even though multiplaying is restricted, there's no need for it. There's enough players to help satisfy your need for killing tough mobiles or gathering into groups to clear out an area.

I've made some good friends too, and the experiences I've received in being part of this MUD is something that I can take with me, no matter where I go. I suggest that people check this MUD out :)

Dark Legacy is a mud that has taken quite a few steps toward that goal of originality. The builders have worked diligently to add unique areas to replacing the usual stock areas, piles of unique and interesting equipment, and many well thought out class and race selections. Leveling is challenging, but enjoyable, with the emphasis being placed on roleplaying done after you have developed your character.

The deities, worship, and favor system works well permitting corpse retrieval and recall. A nicely developed guild and sect system is in place. Crafting which allows players to be self-sufficient and able to make a special items to sell.

Roleplay is welcomed and appreciated, but certainly not required. The immortals are not only newbie friendly, but also participate in much of the roleplay including assistance with the those just entering into the world of RP. This mud seems to have plenty to offer to experienced roleplayers, and to the player who is more hack and slash oriented.

Overall, this mud seems to be quite enjoyable, and I have found myself spending many hours (probably more than I should) immersed into it.