Tales of Maj'Eyal

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Tales of Maj'Eyal (ToME in short) is a fully graphical roguelike that started out as Pernband, a rewrite of PernAngband 5.x, but legal difficulties led to a version of PernAngband 5 to be re-released as ToME 1 (which originally stood for "Tales of Middle Earth" and was set in Tolkien's verse). Actual version is ToME 4, which moved on to its own custom-made setting. After 43 beta releases and 4 RC releases it finally went into 1.0.0 (now its 1.7.4). ToME 4 is most notable for its easy to start attitude and merciless rape at higher levels of difficulty. There are three campaigns by default, but they can be modified by community addons and modules.

You can also communicate with strangers via in-game chat.

Story

"The people of Maj'Eyal: Humans, Halflings, Elves and Dwarves.
The known world has been at relative peace for over one hundred years, and people are prospering again.
You are an adventurer,
setting out to find lost treasure and glory.
But what lurks in the shadows of the world?"

– In-game description

The game's set in the world of Eyal, which has endured all kinds of apocalyptic conflicts throughout its recorded history all the way back to the Age of Haze, when a prick god called Amakhtel created the Sher'tul to murderize all other gods that weren't himself, which ultimately backfired horribly when the Sher'tul killed him to take his power for themselves and builb a powerful interstellar empire.

Eyal is recovering from the Spellblaze, an Elf-made fireball powered by a powerful Sher'tul portal that unleashed the magical equivalent of planetary bombardment upon a bunch of poor Orcs. It split Maj'Eyal in two, blasted off some land into space, killed a lot of species and made certain people very angry at mages leading to the Spellhunt. A time when mages (and especially those knife-eared Shaloren bastards) were hunted down and killed by mostly every non-magic user, to the point most of them live secluded in hidden towns only opened to those they deem worthy. In fact, some people like the Ziguranth never stoped their crusade.

We should also mention that Eyal was the world least affected by the Spellblaze despite having its surface rearranged in such a brutal way. It hit every single planet connected to the Sher'tul network (thousands upon thousands of them, as the Sher'tul empire was very expansionist before they disappeared) and murderfucked the HELL out of all of them. One of those worlds, Mal'Rohk, was able to just barely survive and its natives, the Demons now hate the peoples of Eyal so much that they wanna kill every last one of them, while torturing them as much as possible.

Depending from the chosen race, You will start in one of few starting locations with little back-story why are you there. After clearing all starting locations You will venture into many wondrous places. Like frozen mountain/active volcano filled with dragons, underwater temples inhabited by Eldritch horrors or a good old necromancer tower (Kor'Pul).

Locations

Eyal is a big world, so categorizing its locations might be a good idea.

Maj'Eyal

The main continent and the place you'll usually fight and die in. Has climates and dungeons of all sorts. Home to most of the races that survived the Spellblaze.

Var'Eyal

The eastern continent, born when the main landmass of Eyal was ripped apart by the Spellblaze. Most of the Orcs live here after they were nearly wiped out in the rest of the world. Made explorable in the "Embers of Rage" expansion, thanks to a Sher'tul Farportal linking the land with Maj'Eyal.

Tar'Eyal

The southern continent. A hellish desert wasteland home to lizard people, giant dragonflies and an empire of undead. Made explorable in the upcoming "The Lost Land" expansion.

Races

From the start you have six races to use and three to unlock making it total of nine races. More races are available through addons (where they can be bugged and unbalanced) and (on Steam) paid DLC (where you're not so much paying to win as you are paying to see more of DarkGod's content).

Human

Typical Homo sapiens without major drawbacks or bonuses. Two sub-types accessible.

Higher - "superior" branch of Humans imbued with latent magic. Race skills make them a little more spell oriented.

Cornac - blank slate with no racial skills and stats bonuses. In exchange for being so versatile they are awarded additional Talent point at the start.

Elf

Long-lived, big eared humanoids, there are four of them in the game, but only two playable (but two more will become playable in upcoming expansions).

Shaloren - Elves closely tied with magic. If someone hits them too hard, They will turn invisible thus making them cowards. Most people hate their guts for unleashing the Spellblaze, so they live in isolation. Also, their starting dungeon is a BITCH to survive in.

Thaloren - lives in the forest. Protectors of the natural order. Spending time in the woods made them resistant to AIDS.

Doomelves - Unlockable, elves cursed by demons.

Naga/Naloren - Aquatic elves with Yuan-ti bodies. Were believed to be extinct due to the Spellblaze, but survived by changing themselves to their current form. Start out as hostiles, but can be befriended.

Halfling

Short sneaky fellows. Racial bonus to critial would make them great Berserker if not -3 Str. More, Halflings had the biggest and mightiest empire known to Maj'Eyal, the Nargol Empire, which fell due to them going too far with necromancy and other depraved shit during a war with humanity. They also made the Yeeks their bitches for a long time, which is why the latter despise them to this day.

Dwarves

Dwarf - Stout and magically lacking. Dwarves live in a city within a mountain where they dig things. When Dwarf get struck in melee there is a chance that he'll become hard, really hard, stone hard. Jews of the game, getting stronger by just having lots of gold.

Drem - Unlockable. Mutant faceless dwarf, mostly mindless monsters but some develop sapience in proximity to the mysterious ruins full of dwarfs in glass tubes. Decent modifiers to almost everything but Willpower, which takes a modest penalty. Signature racial power is a "frenzy" that sometimes lets skills ignore cooldowns.

Giants

Unlockable metarace composed of two subraces:

Ogres - Think "Ogre Magi": Big, clumsy, but surprisingly cunning and skilled with magic and runes. Hang out with the Shalor, as they need their magic and anti-magic fans are very much a thing in Maj'Eyal.

Krog - DLC race. Anti-magic/nature mage take on the Ogre.

Undead

Unlockable metarace composed from Fleshies and Skellies.

Ghoul - meat shields with biggest life per level gain. Rotting body make them 20% slower. Racial skills allow them to vomit, which damage all non-undead and heals unliving. They can bite enemies infecting them with horrible disease which rise slain foe as a friendly ghoul.

Skeleton - no weakness, crazy exp penalty(40%). They are a great choice for virtually any class.

Risen - Undying humans and halflings.

Atroren - Zombie elves.

Vessels - Warforged-like constructs that hold the souls of dead people. Playable versions are made of gold, bone, steel or crystal.

Yeek

Race of furrys with psionic powers. Those powers include raping minds into submission and leaving dead bodies. "Fun" race to play melee classes because of racial -3 Str, -2 Dex and -5 Con. They follow The Way, which is unity of all Yeek minds and enforced peace. The only race to have positive exp penalty letting them level up faster. They HATE Halflings, and for good reasons.

Orcs

Yeah, you can play as the usual bad guys--but only in a DLC campaign that limits you to them and a few other races. High life rating and a modest bonus to all stats but magic, with a hefty 25% XP penalty.

Whitehoof

Minotaurs who turned their entire race undead when faced with extinction. Huge pile of undead immunities with a big boost to most stats, but a willpower penalty and the same XP penalty as an orc. Unlockable, restricted to the orc campaign.

Yeti

Product of orcs transferring their minds into yeti bodies with psionics, which unfortunately "resets" the mind but does leave the yeti sapient and rapidly able to learn. Huge boost to strength and constitution, but a hefty dexterity penalty in turn, and, again, same XP penalty as the other members of their campaign. Unlockable, restricted to the orc campaign.

Saupur

Lizard people that live in the hellhole continent of Tar'Eyal, south of Maj'Eyal.

Reptilians - Normal lizardmen.

Draconics - Dragonborn, basically.

Classes

There are 25 classes in ToME: 7 available by default and 18 unlockables.

As a general, although not absolute rule, most power sources besides Rogue, Warrior, and Mage have two subclasses; one Gishy type, and one purer Mage type. (We'll mark the Gishes with a (#) and the Magey types with a (%))

Warrior

Arcane Blade (#) - hybrid fighter/mage that can trigger spells with melee attacks.

Archer - attacking from afar with bow or sling, good archer will unleash hail of projectiles.

Berserker - master of not dying and mauling things with giant weapons. Uses talent making him unable to go lower than 1 hit point for few turns and healing for 21% max life per foe slain.

Brawler - RIP AND TEAR opponents with bare hands(gauntlets). May grapple dragons and do fancy attacks with finishers.

Bulwark - hide behind the shield and slams everyone with it. Tank with lower life per level than Berserker.

Rogue

Rogue - Stunning (ba dum tish) melee backstabbing class, starts out with a few utilities such as trapping and sneaking and is another exhibit of a "fun" class.

Shadowblade (#) - Rogue with magic powers.

Marauder - Rogue with less utility buffed with more melee power and mobility.

Mage

Alchemist (%) - one spell caster throwing nukes with changeable element every corner. Comes with a golem (#) with laser eyes.

Archmage (%) - "glass cannon" shitting fire, ice and lightning. In fact, equipped with offensive spells as much as defensive including redirecting damage and shields regenerating mana for damage taken. Notable skills are shooting fire so fiery that fire elemental get burned.

Necromancer (%) - Ice and Darkness, undead minions kind of thing. Getting killed most of times by his own skeleton mage shooting magic beam right through their master back. Turns into Lich.

Wilder

Summoner (%) - slave driver hiding behind summoned creatures. Not a good melee fighter.

Wyrmic (#, can go %) - "Wyrmborn" with elemental powers of dragons/wyrms. They can be melee juggernauts or nature wizards.

Oozemancer - nature's answer to magic, which is obviously work of the demons. Antimage spewing poison/acid/slime and shedding slime blobs from his flesh. Turns into gelatin and tentacles.

Stone Warden (#) - Dwarves only. Super bulwark that uses two shields and combines magic and nature powers, and mostly kills enemies by standing there, getting hit and retaliating with their passives.

Celestial

Sun Paladin (#) - bulwark with light magic. That mean hardy fighter shooting heat-beams and light rays, casting heal, area heal, shield, and heal overtime removing all debuffs.

Anorithil (%) - light/dark caster worshipping Sun and Moon. Difficult to kill.

Defiler

Reaver (#) - dual wielding maniac spraying AIDS at enemies, also have acid for blood.

Corruptor (%) - "evil" mage spraying even more AIDS than reaver. Might turn part demonic and curse/hex opponents.

Doombringer (#) - DLC class. Demonic juggernauts who favor 2 handed weapons.

Demonologist (#, but % compared to Doombringer) - DLC class, from same DLC as Doombringer. Shield-using, equipment enhancing weirdos.

Afflicted

Cursed (#) - fantasy equivalent of Angry Marine. Cursed were raped by some dark powers that left them feeling only hate to everything moving. They are melee class that can use any combination of weapon/shield. Iconic ability is gloomy aura depressing enemies.

Doomed (%) - mage that lost his magicality through dark pacts. Very angry psionic raping minds and breaking bones with the power of mind. Able to suck opponent hatred to fuel his own.

Chronomancer

Temporal Warden (#) - if Dr. Who actually had some balls he would be Temporal Warden. Melee/archer class with few spells.

Paradox Mage (%) - class with most interesting game mechanic: splitting timelines, which let you try different approaches and choosing one with best outcome. Main killing method is ageing to death and maiming with gravitational force.

Psionic

Mindslayer (#) - Uses a combination of psychic abilities, mental shields, and big nasty weapons. Can telekinetically wield a weapon, allowing you to swing a magical trident with your forehead.

Solipsist (#) - Maybe the strangest class in the game, the Solipsist believes that the external world is merely a creation of his own mind, which allows him to exert control over it. Specializes in sleep abilities, and dismissing damage by simply not believing that dire wolf is chewing on his spine.

Tinker

Introduced in the Orc campaign; can be unlocked for all other campaigns through completing it. Has a unique infusion-replacement everyone wants to poach.

Gunslinger - Uses steam powered handguns to fire bullets. Also gets some agile and dodgy-powers.

Sawbutcher - Uses a pair of steam powered industrial circular saws to slice things up. The beefy and heavily-armored counterpart to the Gunslinger, with a fair number of mobility powers, damage over time effects, the ability to use their weapons defensively, and even passively damage enemies just for standing near them.

Annihilator - Uses a steamgun and shield together. Tanky, and uses heavy weapons to spread death, destruction and Dakka across the map.

Psishot (#) - Uses a steamgun and mindstar in tandem. Has psi powers.

Demented

Lovecraftian classes from a DLC.

Writhing One (#) - Has gone in for body-mods to transform their body into that of an otherworldly monster, including turning one arm into a tentacle attack. Can eventually summon a pet tentacle monster permanently, with a few other summons in the meanwhile.

Cultist of Entropy (%) - Spellcaster, debuff and sustain focused. Sucks early game but is impossible to kill and can slowly grind anything to death later on, as well as summon a pet starspawned avatar of the end times.