The art of crafting has been present in Aetherius for countless years, from the simple making of letters for writing, to journals for recording histories, to crafting beautiful instruments to bring music to the masses. Artistry allows many mundane things to be created, for use across the world. Yet there are also certain artesian creations that have more esoteric abilities, and though the secrets of their very construction involve symbols and components that can effect the wave of magickal tides are not known to those outside of the profession, it is known that masters of their craft can create paintings which can capture the very essence of their subject, allowing them to possess certain abilities of their originator. From the mundane letter to the marvellous portraits, the abilities of true masters of crafting are without parallel.

The most important trait of any Predator is their ability to exert dominance over the various beasts of the wilds, forcing them into submission and putting their distinctive talents into use. An aspiring Predator quickly learns how to control and command the wild wolves of the frozen pines, and eventually expands these skills to control hawks, bears, and even gigantic spiders. A Beastmaster who knows his craft is truly a force to be reckoned with.

The skill of Bonecasting revolves around two aspects: Bones and Fetishes. By casting your bones onto the ground, on yourself, on other people, or on armour, a variety of beneficial or harmful effects may be achieved. Bone designs on yourself or another will work automatically, as will bones on armour. Bones cast on the ground will either work continuously, once, or when an enemy of yours enters the room. The help file for each ability will specify.

While Bones are a nice supplement to other skills, The true power of Bonecasting is only unleashed in the Fetish. By castings up to six bones on a Totem, and then either Implanting it, or Standing it, you are able to create a weapon of destruction that can wreak havoc with anyone the Fetish is tuned to affect when that person enters the room.

The artistry of bowmanship has two purposes. The first allows an individual to fashion a complex variety of arrows with a multitude of functions. It also allows the crafter the ability to fashion one's own bow for a number of purposes. The second part of it ensures the individual becomes a master of distance with the variety of skills and abilities for a bow and arrow. A true user of the bow harnesses the ability to shoot a target over a vast distance or even how to shoot two arrows at once.

The skill of Brutality contains the main offensive abilities of the Deathknight. It can be thought of as consisting of four distinct categories. The first group gives them their sword abilities, such as doubleslash and the brutal disembowel. Next is the use of their terrible war-hounds, the deadly companion often found at a Deathknight' side. Brutality also holds the techniques of archery, which when combined with their swordplay makes a Deathknight a treacherous foe indeed. Lastly, there are a number of miscellaneous offensive and defensive capabilities, such as their ability to go into a fantastic rage.

Chivalry is a skill that may be thought of as having three distinct parts. The first part, Falconry for Templars, and Kestrelry for Runeguards, involves the raising, training, and use of your bird. To gain a bird, go to a hatchery and type FALCON REQUEST / KESTREL REQUEST. The second part of Chivalry is archery. By gaining the abilities to assess wind direction and speed and use different kinds of bows (longbows, crossbows, hornbows) you may attack from afar, or shoot at a cowardly opponent who has fled to the skies. The final part of Chivalry involves an assortment of aggressive abilities ranging from howling a Battlecry to Disemboweling your unlucky opponent.

Crystalbinding is the third skill of the Mage profession, focusing around the manipulation of magickal energies found in certain types of crystals. This allows the Mages to enhance their elemental spells in various ways, as well as to conjure several types of magickal sigils and other items.

Curses draw upon the Illwill of the mysterious Spirits of Aetherius for their power. Using their knowledge of the Spirits, the Wytchen are able to channel that Illwill against their opponents, cursing them with a variety of afflictions ranging from mind-numbing fear to life-threatening plague. It should be noted that the only curse that works against mobiles is 'Bleed'.

As the backbone of the Defilers class, the Desecration skill combines the brutality of nature with the darkness of the demonic arts. Through Desecration, you will be able to corrupt mighty trees, or plant your own, to later be used for your devices. With the use of twisted spores, tainted with powers that you find useful, you will be able to summon and imbue a treant to do your bidding.

You will also find yourself as one with the twisted side of nature, switching your own heart with your treant to prolong life, and perhaps prevent death. These allies will risk their trunks for you, going as far as planting their twisted spores into the very body of your enemy and wearing their corpse as armour.

Devotion is a statistic that only those with the skill of Devotion possess. To see how much Devotion you have, you may PERFORM ENLIGHTENMENT. Most of the Devotion abilities cost a certain amount of devotion points, and the amount will generally be shown in the help files on the individual abilities

Enslavery is without question the most dangerous art within Imperian. It involves the summoning of entities from the Demon Planes. You risk your life and your very soul in dealing with them, for they are powerful and not to be trifled with.

To gain the services of a demon, you must first summon a demonic entity from the demon plane. Once done, you may attempt to ENSLAVE . If the entity feels you are weak, it will attempt to destroy you.

After you have finished your enslavement, you will see, if you type PACTS, what pacts you have made with entities. If you have a pact made, you may call upon the aid of that entity by doing SUMMON . In some cases, the entity itself will come, and in some cases, it will send its minions to assist you.

When an entity is summoned, it will remain with you unless you are powerless to further enslave it and have given into death or are unable to keep a close watch on the entity by remaining within the realms. There are ways to send it back to its infernal realm prematurely. BANISH will accomplish this if it is your wish, while others may have abilities that allow them to drive the entity off. An entity cannot be killed (though an entity's minions can be). It will only be driven back to the Demon Plane if it falls into a state that would kill a mortal.

The Druidic skill of Evocation focuses on control of the Nature. The Druids can focus the elements of Air and Earth through their quarterstaff to protect themselves, summon falling rocks, walk on the very air, and even conjure tornadoes and call forth earthquakes.

The abilities in Fayth revolve around two main things: Holy Seraphs and Spiritual Maces. When you gain the skill of Fayth, you will also get a guardian seraph, who will stay with you forever. Generally speaking, your seraph will only act in a defensive capacity, except when it involves demonic Entities. Seraphs and Demons have a long-standing hatred of each other.

Spiritual maces, on the other hand, form the core of a Cleric's offensive ability. By using them in different ways, the Cleric gains the ability to cause damage, smash limbs, and cause a variety of other effects, including the feared Judgement, where a Cleric stands in Judgement of a player. Failing the judgment means death. This is, of course, an ability that only the most powerful of Clerics may perform.

Hunting is a skill composed of four types of abilities:

Setting Traps

• Each trap is constructed of commodities. When laying a trap, you must have the required commodities (listed in the AB HELP files) in your inventory.
• Traps get laid in directions. The general syntax is LAY .
• Traps are set off only by those on your enemies list. They will be set off when someone either enters or leaves the room by the direction you specified.
• Some traps will stop movement when sprung. For instance, if you are leaving a room with a snare trap in it set to the direction you are leaving, you will set off the snare before you leave the room, and it will prevent you from moving.

Animal Guardians

• The animals you summon may be ordered about with the commands in HELP MOBILES.
• If you leave Imperian and do not come back quickly, they will disappear back into the forest.
• You may call your summoned animals to you with CALL ANIMALS.
• You can dismiss you animals with DISMISS .

Weapon Abilities

• When you gain the skill of hunting, you are given the axe proficiency.

Survival Abilities

• These abilities assist you in surviving out on your own.

Hypnosis is a science.

It has long been known that our subconscious mind is a powerful force and that it can be influenced in mysterious ways, but until a forgotten Saboteur discovered the principles of Hypnosis, there was no way to use it.

With this skill, an assassin is able to sink a target into a hypnotic trance, possibly without the target even realizing it. The assassin may then implant various subliminal suggestions, sealing them deep within the target's mind. Implanting a subtle timer, the assassin then rouses the target from his or her hypnotic trance, waiting for the proper time to trigger the suggestions within the target's mind.

Kaido is a skill with two main parts to it. The first part, comprising the lower abilities, consist of an assortment of defensive abilities that rely on bodily control, such as automatic mana regeneration, healing your limbs by force of will, and so on. The higher abilities relate to the use of Kai energy. After you have built up Kai energy by being near violent actions, you may use the Kai abilities, which are extremely powerful.

Knifeplay is the art of combat using agility and a sitara. A sitara is a blade finely crafted from the bones of a fallen foe, using the strength of that victim as a foundation for the characteristic of the weapon. An Idras learns how to manipulate the sitara in both defensive and offensive maneuvers, thus becoming a deadly opponent.

The skill of Maiming is the central one for any Berserker. In it, the warrior learns how to properly use a longsword and a shield for both offense and defense.

The hallmark skill of the Diabolist, Malignosis is the art and science of summoning and dealing with the mighty Ouroboros and lesser daemons. In it, you will learn to use the sentient daeggers, form a relationship with your loving Ouroboros, and learn to summon a variety of lesser daemons into a pentagram drawn with blood. Perhaps the most feared ability of the Malignosis skill is that which allows your Ouroboros to tear the soul from an unwilling victim.

The skill of Naturebinding focuses on the control of the Nature. By linking themselves to the great trees, Druids are capable of summoning the tree roots to create a multitude of effects.

Necromancy is the dark art of death magick. At the lower levels, there is an assortment of rather nefarious abilities. Soon though, the ability of Cannibalism is gained, a skill which has inspired widespread fear of those practicing Necromancy. Through cannibalism, a Necromancer increases his life essence, which powers the higher abilities.

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Noctu is one of the core skills of the dreaded Noctusari. In addition to the foul skills of demonology found within Enslavery, Noctu allows the practitioner additional power from the realm of the Demons. By drinking the blood of slaughtered beings and infusing their lifeforce, the Noctusari are able to manipulate the magick from the demon realm.

Pioneering is a skill shared by Druids and Hunters. Its primary focus is survival in the wilderness, and it offers a plethora of abilities designed for this purpose. Additionally, practitioners of this skill are connected to the land to the point where they can imprint their mark at a location of their choosing, creating a peaceful grove.

Subtlety is vital. The role of a master of Predation has become one of stealth and endurance. To hide within the surroundings and use agility as a weapon. Speed and accuracy become one as an Idras masters the ability to use darts against a foe, or the many other subduing techniques available. An Idras' survival is based on maintaining all these qualities and withstanding the environment as well.

Pyroglacia is the primary skill of the Mage profession. Harnessing the raw powers of fire and water, the Mages is capable of inflicting many harmful effects upon their foes, ranging from bolts of flames and freezing spells to the powerful blasts of lava and rapidly flying icicles.

In addition to combat spells, the skill also offers several utility effects, such as the ability to walk on water or to transport between a variety of locations.

Rampage is the mobility skill of the Berserkers. Based on the techniques of Wardancers originally developed by Srifat Midbere. Studying Rampage allows a Berserker to move swiftly around the battlefield, escaping where needed or charging into the fray, perform several war dances, and more.

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The skill of Runelore revolves around two aspects: Runes and Totems. By sketching various runes on the ground, on yourself, on other people, or on armour, a variety of beneficial or harmful effects may be achieved. Runes on yourself or another will work automatically, as will Runes on armour. Runes sketched on the ground will either work continuously, once, or when an enemy of yours enters the room. The help file for each ability will specify.

While Runes are a nice supplement to other skills, The true power of Runelore is only unleashed in the Totem. By sketching up to six runes on a Totem, and then either Implanting it, or Standing it, you are able to create a weapon of destruction that can wreak havoc with anyone the Totem is tuned to affect, when that person enters the room.

Sabotage is a diverse skill, encompassing abilities ranging from the secret hand signs which they use to communicate with each other, to archery, the conjuring of illusions, dimensional wormholes, and various stealth and attack abilities.

In its early stages, Shadowbinding teaches you how to store and manipulate the energy emitted from Sukhder, the moon of Terror. The energy, known as haze, will allow you to perform your shadowbinding abilities. With the progression of the skill and your abilities, you will be able to manipulate the shadows to confuse and confound your victims - from conjuring the darkness to forcing them to eat a particular plant or sip from a potion at just the wrong moment.

At the height of your knowledge, you will be able to bind the planes together in order to pull another into the Prime Material Plane. Whether walking with obscurity or projecting through the mists, Shadowbinding will assist you in your dark purpose.

Shapeshifting is the primary skill of the Hunter profession. It teaches how to transform one's body into that of a fearsome Wyvern, and how to utilise this form in a variety of ways, ranging from clawing to flying and stinging with its deadly tail.

The Hunter skill of Supremacy focuses on control of the elusive beasts of lore - basilisks. When transformed into their wyvern forms, Hunters can exert control over a basilisk and use its many unique abilities in combat. The basilisk is a master of mental control, capable of afflicting its foes with a variety of mental afflictions, as well as unleashing a psychic wave so powerful that it melts the brain of its unfortunate victim.

The skill of Warchants completes the arsenal of the Berserkers, giving them both offensive and defensive options. A central concept within the skill is the management of the berserker rage, utilising it to enhance one's offense

Weaponmastery - This is the primary skillset of any Aetherian knight, allowing for differing bladework styles. It includes the core ability to hit twice with most bladed weapons, allowing a Runeguard to deal damage and deliver toxins simultaneously. It also includes limited ranged abilities in the form of bows, and other utilitarian skills like impaling your foes and defending your allies.