Hello!

Well it seems I was a bit too happy to release beta14 and did not bother explaining the settings change as it was discussed in length in the forums.

I had two problems with the Middle-earth setting:

• ME is a really nice world, hats off to the professor, but it is not a good setting to have a high-magic game in. Mages casting fireballs and teleporting around really feel dumb there. Plus all the other stuff I added.
• The fear of the C&D letter. I already got bitten once with Pern, this will not happen again. Even though the Tolkien estate is much nicer than McCaffrey's cronies it has been known to shut down large game mods based on ME. This trend can only go up with the incoming The Hobbit film.

So we are off to a new world: Eyal, and it's main continent (well main to those living there): Maj'Eyal.

What is Eyal:

• A high-fantasy setting, magic exists and is in use. Although during the world's history there was an .. accident .. with magic that made people afraid of it, so mages are not very well liked.
• A world with a whole history, detailing all the important people, places, events, ... for multiple ages.
• A cohesive world, not just a mix of nice sounding words, places have histories, players can find bits of history here and there that make the world feel more real
• A world where I can expand all my ideas without feeling dirty about changing Tolkien's baby in ways he did not intend. Take it as a token of respect toawrd him.

So yes this will probably to some adaptation from old time players, but I am convinced this is for the best.

Now, go explore Eyal!