FAQ & GLOSSARY

A realistic medieval open-world RPG in development. You follow your own adventure while contributing to a persistent world shared with other players. Combat, trade, exploration and relationships are connected to the same changing places.

Early medieval Europe and the Mediterranean provide the historical frame: inherited rank, local courts, trade routes and competing institutions. The world begins in 812 and has its own continuing calendar. It is historical inspiration, with fictional characters and places.

The Franks, the Eastern Roman Empire and the Arab world form the three cultural and political areas. A neutral zone lies between them. Each has institutions, livelihoods and internal tensions; none is written as a single moral enemy.

No major historical figure appears in person. The rulers and other characters are fictional, informed by the period. Real events can provide background, but the player’s story takes place among invented people and places.

No spells or fantasy creatures are part of the design. Inhabitants may believe in the supernatural, fear it or reject it; the game does not confirm their beliefs. The unexplained Impulse is experienced through the body, with a restrained presentation.

Validated actions contribute to local needs and crises. Their combined outcome can affect routes, supplies, prices, rules and the presence of guards. The design connects these changes to later opportunities, so the next crisis starts from the state left by the previous one.

No. Titles and places remain with the world’s characters and institutions. Players can earn influence with a court, take temporary offices and propose permitted changes through relationships and completed work. Political weight comes from actions, without acquiring a crown or a settlement.

No. It is a destination in its own right, with routes, markets, disputes and local holders of authority. It has no court or Delegation score. Your standing there depends on what the person responsible for each place remembers of your actions.

The planned protagonist is a man of unknown origins, beginning as an enslaved fighter in a bandit arena. The prologue introduces the Impulse and the Weavers. After this introduction, you leave their hideout without a starting faction and choose where to go.

There is no starting class. Character experience is organised into trade, exploration, crafting, social activity and combat. What you do develops those areas; the design allows you to specialise without requiring you to rotate between professions.

Yes, that is part of the design. Supplies, route information, mediation and work for local needs can contribute to the same crises as combat. A contribution is assessed for what it changes, so civilian work is part of the shared world’s progression.

Your character develops skills, relationships and reputation through validated actions. An Entail has its own level, techniques and record of deeds. Buying or receiving an established weapon does not transfer its previous wielder’s personal experience or achievements.

The design reduces returns when substantially the same opportunity is repeated, while keeping specialisation possible. Completing different combat situations is not treated as repetition just because they involve combat. The exact rules and tuning remain part of testing.

When charged, it triggers an automatic dodge at a lethal blow. It belongs to the character, has a recharge and is introduced through play. Character growth makes the movement cleaner; it is not a spell cast by the weapon.

If a lethal blow arrives while the Impulse is unavailable, the character falls rather than dying permanently. The design puts carried cargo, some consumables and part of the purse at risk, with recovery and travel costs. Weapons and earned progression are not lost.

Roads, services and the condition of routes are part of the world. Horses are planned for travel in the initial scope, and fast travel is tied to in-world services. Mounted combat belongs to a later development stage, not the initial closed test.

A weapon bound to a Weaver through a ritual. It develops through deeds in which it takes part and keeps an individual history. It has no consciousness and is not treated as a magical weapon by the game.

Yes. Sword, shield, bow and sax are separate pieces with their own identities and histories. The initial closed-test design includes sword and shield, bow and sax, and sword and sax. A pair is a configuration of two Entail, not a third combined object.

The design gives each Entail levels grouped into stages, with techniques becoming available as it develops. Progress follows validated deeds and use. Your character must still learn to use the techniques available on a weapon, including one acquired from another player.

Drift changes how the weapon handles as it levels up. Choices involve trade-offs, informed by use, history and the weapon’s underlying seed. They describe its current configuration; the record of what it has done remains a separate part of its identity.

Its identity, configuration, techniques, name and recorded history remain with it. The former wielder keeps personal skill, reputation, influence and credit for their deeds. The planned transfer process must preserve that distinction.

No. Its chronicle is based on server-validated facts. Corrections are recorded as corrections instead of silently replacing the original entry. The design distinguishes the weapon’s participation, a wielder’s achievement and the results of an arena clone.

No. The game has moved away from its old NFT direction. Entail are game objects whose identity and history are held by the game service. They do not require a crypto wallet and are not external blockchain assets.

No. The design is asynchronous, even when players visit the same place. You encounter changes they helped cause, rumours of their actions and objects with previous owners. The shared experience is carried by the state and history of the world.

An internet connection is part of the intended design. Persistent objects, rewards and world changes depend on the game server, and NPC conversation depends on its dialogue service. An offline mode is not planned in the current scope.

Conversation can affect tone and what that character remembers of you. A concrete commitment is presented separately and must be accepted and validated by the server. Simply typing a claim does not create a reward or make the claim true.

No. Their knowledge is limited by their role, memory and the information that has reached them. A witness, a merchant and a distant court need not know the same facts. Rumours help carry information through the world.

No. The planned arena pits you against a server-controlled snapshot of another character and their equipment. It is tested separately during internal development; its introduction for players is scheduled for a later stage after the initial closed test, with timing still to be decided.

The world continues, so an opportunity can pass or a temporary office can move into another person’s care. Absence does not take away your possessions or erase your history. A return summary is planned to show what changed and the outcomes of work you contributed to.

MADHORSE STUDIO is working on the foundations and internal prototypes. The systems described here are design commitments to test, not a claim that the complete game is already playable. Scope and balancing can change as the prototypes are evaluated.

There is no public demo or public beta available, and no release date has been announced. Access to future tests will be communicated when the scope and entry conditions are confirmed.

The current plan targets 64-bit Windows through Steam and Epic. Minimum requirements must be measured during testing. Steam Deck is a later evaluation, not confirmed support, and no console release is announced.

Italian and English are developed together, including dialogue, rumours and interface text. The writing aims to preserve differences in status and relationships in both languages. No additional localisation is announced.

The public roadmap describes the order of validation: foundations, internal prototypes, technical testing, closed testing and gradual expansion. Each stage depends on evidence from the previous one. Dates and completion percentages would imply certainty we do not have yet.

MADHORSE STUDIO does not currently have public game captures to show. Those frames are reserved for authentic images and footage. The site’s animated diagrams explain design concepts; they are not gameplay.