Shaiya is a MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) created by Sonov Entertainment and published in North America by Aeria Games & Entertainment. Although the game is free to play, Shaiya triumphed over several well-established subscription games to win GameBorder's Best MMORPG of 2007. In addition, Shaiya was awarded first place for Best Graphics and second place for Most Anticipated Game, in the 2007 Reader's Choice contest by MMOSITE. Shaiya Trailer Shaiya Gamplay Background story In ancient times, there was the Goddess Etain and the three races she created: the Dragons, the Nordein, and the Dumianas. The Goddess Etain found faults in the Nordien and cast them into the soil. In their arrogance, the Dumianas questioned the Etain's power and authority. The Goddess was weakened by their disbelief, and the Dumianas killed her. Her soul was torn in two. The death of the Goddess left Teos out of balance and unprotected. Other Gods sought to take over Teos and created monsters to invade and destroy it. The Dragons hid themselves from the world. When the dust settled, there were two new Goddesses overseeing Teos. The remaining Dumianas were split into two factions; one for each Goddess. These two races, the Elves and the Vail, found themselves in constant conflict with each other. Age old tensions fueled their aggression. Soon after, the Humans joined forces with the Elves while the Nordein re-emerged as the "Deatheaters" and allied with the Vail, creating two factions: The Alliance of Light and the Union of Fury. Not only battling the monsters that still roam the lands, these two sides wage a never ending war over the control of Teos.  Difficulty modes One of the most distinguishing aspects of Shaiya is the four difficulty modes: Easy mode is capped to level 30 and fewer experience points are required to reach each new level. Certain player skills and items may not be used in this mode. Normal mode, as implied, is the standard for most players. Experience and skill points are acquired at a baseline rate. Hard mode is unlocked once a player has reached level 40 in normal mode on at least one character. Additional skills, items, and quests are made available. However, gaining experience takes four times the normal rate. Ultimate mode is unlocked once a player has reached level 40 in hard mode on at least one character. The difficulty of this level scales on par with hard mode, with one key uniqueness: if an ultimate mode player is killed, and not resurrected within 3 minutes, that character is permanently deleted. Note: the new German client and server allow to start a character directly in Hard Mode, without needing to level up in Normal Mode first.  Factions and races New players must choose which faction they will play before creating a character: Alliance of Light or Union of Fury. Since these factions are at war, an Alliance player cannot use the game's chat features with a Union player and vice-versa. Once a player has chosen a faction, they cannot create a character on the opposing faction until all of their existing characters have been deleted. The chosen faction determines a player's available races. The appearance of a player's character and its starting location are determined by its race. All races of both factions can be either male or female. The same customization options are also available for each race, including hair, eyes, facial features, and height. In addition, the choice of race also determines the available classes for a character.  Classes The choice of class is restricted by race, and therefore by faction. There are twelve total classes, however only six unique styles of play: Defender (Human) / Guardian (Nordein or deatheaters) The only playable tank, which is heavily armored, with high hit points and the ability to provoke enemies into attacking them. Their primary goal is not damage infliction, but rather keeping foes away from other party members. They are very wanted in parties, being sometimes at the highest level. Fighter (Human) / Warrior (Nordein or deatheaters) Standard melee damage inflicter, with access to a range of highly effective weapons. Their skills include spells as well as physical attacks. Priest (Human) / Oracle (Vail) The only class with healing and resurrection skills, but extremely weak armor. While minor damage spells are learned for solo play, this class generally does best in groups and helping other players. In Ultimate mode, this is a vital party member. Ranger (Elf) / Assassin (Vail) Stealth, deception, and evasion are used by this class to inflict damage before the enemy has a chance to strike back. Archer (Elf) / Hunter (Nordein or deatheaters) Uses ranged weapons, such as bows or javelins, to wound and slow enemies from a distance. Their light armor is compensated for by the ability to kite. Mage (Elf) / Pagan (Vail) A ranged, spell-casting class with very weak armor but multiple AoE and high-damage skills.  Gameplay Shaiya allows players to receive quests - normally by interacting with NPCs. These quests are optional and usually require players to kill mobs. Players are free to explore the game world as they pleasure, making Shaiya a sandbox game. Completing quests and killing mobs gains player characters experience points. When enough experience is accumlated, then the character gains a level and is granted ability points to spend on bettering his/her characteristics. The play mode chosen by the player has an effect here where the more difficult modes give more ability points each level. Players characters maneouvre in a 3D environment and are able to run, walk and jump. Players have the option of using either click-to-move or WASD controls. All of the available player skills may be dragged into hotbars and assigned keyboard shortcuts.  Blessing of the Goddess The Blessing of the Goddess is a gameplay element specific to Shaiya. Each faction wins blessing points during pvp combats, by killing off enemies or by destroying opposing relics on pvp maps. These points are accumulated on the faction level, not for each character, thus giving a global blessing to the entire side. This blessing gives lots of bonuses to players: higher success rate for lapising, more HP and MP, reduced hp-regenerating and mana-regenerating times, etc. The more pvp points the faction has, the more important the bonuses are. These bonuses are applied on all maps, both PvE and PvP.  Craft and Lapis The crafting system isn't implemented yet but is supposed to be added in a future update. Some equipment looted from monsters or obtained during quests can be upgraded by inserting lapis (gems, as "lapis" is the Latin for "stone", like in Lapis-lazuli) into them; the operation is often called "lapising" by players. Different lapis types exist with different bonuses (str, dex, etc.). Each lapis also comes in one of six power levels - the higher the level, the bigger the bonus the lapis gives. Getting lapises, especially higher-level ones, can be difficult, and a failure in lapising can destroy both the lapis and the equipment. The success rate in lapising improves with higher bless and the use of linking hammers (bought from the item mall with Aeria points); however, the success rate has a maximum of 50% in any case. On the other hand, a linked lapis can be extracted and set in another equipment (with, of course, certain success rates for both the extraction and the lapising).