Dear Lusternians,

We know that news of the game going into legacy mode is bound to elicit distressing emotions among many because technically it means no more support from Iron Realms and no more paid staff. But we want to reassure you that as far as we are concerned it is business as usual here.

The entire admin team of Lusternia is not only staying on but we also have admin rallying back from retirement. Uilani is also staying on as a volunteer producer, soon freed of a lot of time-consuming administrative maintenance tasks. This does not change anything for us because, for the entirety of Lusternia's life, it has been the volunteers keeping the game going and to say otherwise would be a disservice.

We are here and we will remain here. This is our home.

This change offers us a lot of opportunities. We now no longer need to worry about finances and promotions every month. No longer have to devote coding and building resources to new promotional items. We can work towards a level playing field of a truly free-to-play game and make new things as desired or when a great idea strikes instead of being driven by sales. We can move customisations from a producer-only job to a task shared by all and into an in-game system, and the same can be said for a lot of other producer-only tasks. We can also make any number of changes to our policies together with you and change what and how we share about development.

As long as we are here and you are here, Lusternia continues. Starmourn, who we have been keeping in touch with, is doing just fine in legacy mode and so will we. A truly free-to-play MUD of this quality and with such staff is a rarity and this is sure to attract new players to the game as well.

We are not worried or saddened. We are excited.

September will be a month of big changes but as we make those we will also be working on everything we have already been working on. Conflict reports will see implementation, meetings with organisational leaders regarding their admin requests will take place, the treasure hunt will continue, and events for various releases of new content (or divine...) will take place. We also have a budding combat lead whose work you have seen in the implementation of combat reports and who has been invaluable in helping make report decisions. We will be revamping the envoy system and doing more reports as well.

To answer any questions and concerns you may have, and to take your suggestions and ideas, we will be hosting an in-game town hall meeting today (2 hours before weave) and another one at the weekend (most likely Saturday). The one today is more of an impromptu meeting and not all admin will be able to come (work, life, other obligations), but you will see more of us at the weekend and some will also be writing personal godblogs about all of this.

Welcome to a new, free(d) Lusternia!

Signed,
Ais, Darvellan, Drocilla/Uilani, Elathir, Iastor, Kaewa, Kalikai, Manteekan, Maylea, Nocht, Nymea, Orael, Suurae, Valtreth, Zvoltz

Penned by my hand on the 12th of Urlachmar, in the year 688 CE.