The Wiki
How To Use The Wiki
There is an official wiki written to support Empire that contains everything you need to know to play the game. All the rules of the game are available on the wiki, along with a complete description of the setting. The wiki is vast, so the first piece of advice we give all new players is don't even attempt to try and read it all! The wiki is not a book to be read from cover to cover, it's a resource you can dip into to find out more about Empire.
Rather than try to read the entire wiki, we recommend a few pages to start with depending on what you are looking for. The wiki has landing pages that present an overview of different areas of the game along with links to find out more. The pages linked below are the ones we recommend people use to start finding out more about Empire.
The wiki is the best way to answer a question about Empire. While other players will usually try to be helpful, they may not know the right answer to your question. If you find the answer on the wiki, or another player directs you to the wiki page that answers your question then you can be certain you've got a reliable answer.
Learning the Rules
The wiki contains all the rules you need to know to play Empire. There are three sections that every participant should read and understand. You need to rules for conduct; these are the most important rules in the game that everyone must follow at all times. It's important to read the rules on character creation before you make your first character. Finally, it helps to read the most basic rules on combat, so you know how to react if you're involved in a fight.
Conduct
We have strict conduct rules that apply to everyone who takes part in Empire. Make sure you read these rules carefully before you attend your first event. These are the most important rules that you must follow at all times to make sure you treat your fellow participants with respect and courtesy.
Characters
You create your character on this website, but this wiki page on characters will explain the rules for making a character and playing them at the events. This page contains advice and help for writing your character background.
Combat
Everyone should know how to react if they are attacked, so you should read the basic combat rules before your first event. If you think you might want to take part in any fighting then you'll need to read the safe fighting rules and the rules for battles as well.
Exploring the Setting
The wiki includes details of every element of the setting, much more than any one person would ever need to know to play the game. Other players won't expect you to know everything about the world when you start playing Empire, anymore than anyone would expect you to know every possible detail about the real world.
Every player character in the game is from one of the ten nations that make up the Empire. This overview of the nations may help you decide which nation you want your character to be from, and provide links to find out more. If you want to find out more about the Empire itself and how the characters at Anvil run it, then the overview of the Empire is a good place to start.
The Empire has its own official religion that is called the Way. It is a good idea to read the overview at least, since your character should know something about the Way. If you're planning to play a priest or a devout character then there are links there to find out more.
Searching The Wiki
The wiki is a lot like wikipedia but for the world of Empire rather than the real world. That means it's intended to be searched to find the thing you are looking for rather than read like a book.
You can just use google to search the wiki if you're looking for something that is specific to Empire. For example if you're looking for more information about the nation of Varushka then you can just type that into google and it will provide you with a whole set of good links to find out more from the wiki. That won't work for a more common everyday word, but you can get round that by just typing "Empire " in front of your search. So to find out more about the nation of the League you can just google "Empire the League" and it will give you links for the best pages to read from the wiki.
However, the wiki has an excellent search function which you can use instead of a regular search engine. There is a search box in the top right corner of the wiki - you can use that to find anything on the wiki that you need to know. The wiki will respond with a set of links to the best pages to read to find what you're looking for.