I like the honors idea, though it can be a bit inconvenience when you want to check to see if someone is from an enemied organization or not.

My explanation is that Aether is just made up of invisible 'strands' connecting everyone and everything. When you send a tell, you send vibrations (using your mind) to someone else, who receives it (using his mind) and interprets the vibrations as speech or sound. Which is why you can't smile over aether. Guild and clan aethers are just people relaying the same message unconsciously, or listening to all vibrations in a particular strand and sending to that strand (The particular strand is known only by members of the particular organization.) Cities and communes use their Nexi as focuses for their aether communication. Shouting is basically sending a very powerful vibration through all availiable strands; that way, by spending some endurance, you are able to reach everyone who isn't consciously ignoring such vibrations. Snubbing cutting the strings between you and a person you don't want ot hear (Which is why they can still reach you indirectly through a guild/clan/city/commune channel). Messages are 'knots' or 'nodes' of information that is kept along with the receiver; they cause a minor vibration when they come, which is why you don't know you got a message if you're deaf. Honours are basically listing of information about people that is public and set at the Hall of Records; you can access it by aetherically connecting to it. Aether communication is basically very basic Planar skill; with higher Plannar you can pull matter across a string, teleporting and summoning. The skill to use aetherwave communication is natural to all sentients, not just Portal-touched; and the permanent named denizens are, I think not getting their strands cut because they're too important to have their lives ended by some random adventurer who goes on a killing spree. I actually think it's good of Lusternia trying to actually explain the usual quirks that are a 'necessary evil' in MUDs. This goes back to Achaea, of course (There are entire chapters in the Achaea stories that are written like a session log). Treating worldwide channels and such things as part of the game world and actually trying to picture some of the effects that would have on people's daily lives (For example, in the aformentioned chapters, you see army commanders giving orders through telepathy.) is a Good Thing, since it allows us fast communication without having to sacrifice immersion.

As for IC/OOC-ness, I consider tells to be IC unless stated otherwise; I only send OOC tells to people whom I know won't mind, or to respond to another OOC tell. Messages are IC or OOC depending on context and I use them for OOC communication with everyone else. Clan/guild/city/commune channels are definitely IC. Using those terms ICly isn't that much OOC, but I tend to prefer using an ambiguous phrase ('Contact him' or 'call him' instead of 'tell him'). Honors are a bit of a borderline, and I don't mention them unless I have to. Score is definitely OOC and I don't talk about it (I also can't imagine why anyone would need to talk about it). All game statistics are more or less OOC and I try to refer to them only comparatively ('High Elfens have high intelligence' instead of 'High elfen int is 17'). I never, ever talk about Health/Mana/Ego ICly in numeric terms. And I tend to call levels 'circles', when I have to talk about them.

A number of things I disagree with here.
I like that there is an excuse provided by the world to explain instantaneous mass communication, but I have to feel that the less they are explained the better.

There are some game mechanics that are necessary, but should not be explained, because, in the end, they detract from the immersion of the world.

However, what I intended to comment on was the least important point raised by Verithrax:

Does anyone here else hate the term 'circle'. It really annoys me. Its an unnecessary euphamism that just makes it obvious that you are trying to hide from the word 'level'. If you can avoid mentioning levels then great (there is no need to use 'circle'). If you can't avoid it then say level. That is what the game system uses.

I tend to use rank, but just because I dislike the word level but I answer to rank, level or any other variation with the number attached. When somebody tells me "I'm invincible" I don't associate that with a rank.

"Circle" myself, since that has become the Basin's "Slang" for how experienced you are, though I hate having to bring it up. Rank sounds better but I use that to talk about Guildrank and would get those confused easily. If it were possible, I'd just not even refer to it.

As for 'nessisary evils', I agree that some things are better left in the background, like HP/MP/Ego: You can see how silly it feels to talk about Levels.

Ideals like Tells and messages, however, are a major facet of how you interact with people. Let's face it, Aether communication is used MUCH more regularly than Says and Letters and if it's considered IC then our characters need to be aware of it and capable of wondering just where it comes from (whether our characters WILL care is another matter: some IRL people don't care how gravity and computers work so long as they DO work).