Erion: A Curious MUD with Remarkable Sound Design

The swish of a blade, the flash of a spell — that’s how your journey begins in Erion, one of the most vivid text-based worlds today. This MUD combines a rich role-playing system, a well-crafted world, and an immersive sound design that truly brings the experience to life.

Gameplay and Key Mechanics

Over the years, the game has accumulated new mechanics faster than a hero can gain levels and now resembles a layered cake: at the base, a classic MUD on top, modern life-sim systems, and in between, a generous filling of quests and lore.

Playable Races

Erion offers 18 base races, ranging from classic dwarves and elves to exotic spider-like Weblings and plasma-based Sparks. Each race comes with a concise yet comprehensive description and a distinct set of stat bonuses and penalties — for example, the Illithid possesses innate mental powers, while a horse (and yes, it’s real) can move swiftly through the open world.

One of the game’s standout features is racial evolution. At a certain point, for example, a human may be reborn as an angel or a demon, while a vampire can ascend to become a lich. These transformations aren’t just cosmetic changes to your character profile — they bring entirely new abilities and stat adjustments, significantly altering gameplay and strategy.

Who Will You Become, Adventurer?

The class system in Erion is vibrant. The game features 11 basic classes:

Archer, Cleric, Gaian, Illusionist, Mage, Monk, Necromancer, Psionic, Thief, Warrior, and Witch.

And that expands further into specialized roles — each of these classes has 3 subclasses that differ dramatically in their skills. For example, a warrior can become a gladiator, mercenary, or barbarian. A thief can specialize as an assassin, ninja, or spy.

It’s worth noting an interesting feature: each character can choose a second class. Unlike in Alter Aeon, where multiple classes can be leveled simultaneously, you cannot build a long chain of multiple classes and level them all simultaneously. In Erion, experience points are awarded only to the currently selected class. As soon as you switch to another class, all experience from your activities starts going to that new class. This system enables you to create highly interesting combinations and build truly unique heroes.

Hobby Houses: Small Factions — Big Bonuses

Instead of traditional guilds, Erion offers players a choice of nine “Houses.” Joining requires gold and quest points but unlocks unique buffs, exclusive shops, and monthly rewards. The choice of House influences your playstyle as much as your class does. Houses cater to both PvE and PvP preferences, and peaceful crafting enthusiasts are not left out. Here are a few examples of the Houses:

• Luminati House is the home of explorers, with buffs focused on the ability to access the most secret parts of the world.
• Slayers House welcomes all those who love to smash monsters and bosses left and right; their buffs are designed to provide advantages in PvE battles.
• Artisans House — the name says it all — gathers various crafting and gathering enthusiasts from across this vast world under its hospitable roof.

Main Activities

What can you do in Erion? For fans of peaceful activities, there’s a powerful system for gathering various resources, crafting items and tomes, as well as farming with a wide variety of animals.

Those who enjoy testing their strength against others will spend hours in the arena, while fans of combat-focused PvE activities will find plenty of exciting content prepared for them.

Various random events, slay-and-gather quests typical of the genre, and expeditions to hunt all kinds of monsters await you. The cherry on top is the set of “missions” — story-driven tasks where you can learn a lot about the world and earn unique rewards.

The project hasn’t overlooked mini-games either — from classic “guess the word” challenges to quizzes with rewards.

Another interesting feature is the faith system. There are five deities, each offering unique bonuses and the opportunity to undertake pilgrimages to earn faith points.

Friendliness and Accessibility

Erion offers excellent accessibility features, including robust screen reader support and a full sound pack, making blind players feel right at home. The unlimited-character account system encourages experimentation with different builds, while chat channels retain message history so newcomers can easily catch up.

The community is known for its warm, family-like atmosphere — veterans often share buffs and loot, and it’s not uncommon to see a line of players ready to help the next newcomer on their journey.

General Impression of Erion

Summing it all up, here are the key pros and cons of Erion.

Pros:

• Robust class system: 11 base classes and 33 subclasses, enhanced with flexible multiclassing.
• Hybrid MMO-sandbox design: from brutal PvP battles to cozy farming and crafting.
• Racial evolutions and class changes without losing progress.
• Full screen reader support, rich soundpack, and a genuinely welcoming community.

• Deep crafting and player-driven economy.
• Frequent events and a rewarding achievement system.

Cons:

• Grinding to level 150 may not appeal to everyone.
• The abundance of gameplay elements can overwhelm newcomers — without any guide, it’s easy to get lost.

Erion is a vast and diverse project where, behind every command, lies another gameplay mechanic. Its mini-games put many browser games to shame, and its well-designed class system rivals that of half the modern MMORPGs. Give yourself some time to get accustomed, and you’ll find that the lines in the terminal sound louder than any orchestral soundtrack.