Using commands
Avaria has a wide variety of commands for interacting with the world, communicating with other characters, and pursuing your own character's story. Most of these are simple and intuitive to use, while allowing additional complexity through the use of various syntax options. More detailed information can be found under the page for each command, but the following information should help players get started with some of the different functions of the game's commands.
Free-form Emotes
Free-form emotes using the EMOTE command are the fundamental basis for roleplay in Avaria. While there are a number of simple verbs with coded messaging (socials), much of the time you will probably be interacting using your own freely written emotes, combined with the various SAY options. EMOTE allows you great flexibility to describe exactly what your character is doing and how they're doing it. In the culture of SoA, emotes can generally be expected to run one or two sentences, and only occasionally longer -- enough to provide detail, but short enough to keep up a steady flow of interaction with the others around you.
A related command is EMIT, which offers the same flexibility but allows you to put out a message that doesn't contain your character's name anywhere. This can be useful for describing a scene or making small things happen in the environment.
Please remember to EMOTE and EMIT responsibly! These commands can only be used to described your own character's actions, not to force a response on other characters. They also shouldn't directly contain anything your character is thinking, though they might imply a certain state of mind that could be inferred from your character's mien or behavior. For instance, it would be poor form to emote: "Aleph stares at Donna, thinking about how it plans to get its revenge for her refusal to sell it two hundred loaves of bread last year." But it would be perfectly acceptable to emote: "Aleph stares at Donna with a malevolent glint in all four of its eyes, looking as if it's plotting something distinctly disagreeable." And while it is fine to EMIT things like the sun glancing off the edge of your drawn sword, or a VNPC passerby glancing in your direction, you can't EMIT that another character is blinded by the reflected sunlight, or that an invading army has just entered the area.
Communicating
Most communication with other characters takes place using a combination of SAYs and EMOTEs. You can simply use SAY or one of its many aliases to speak, or you can add speech as part of your emotes. Sometimes the particular SAY alias you use will affect the volume of your speech, either limiting it to close range or projecting it to multiple rooms.
Other means of communication involve showing what is going on inside your character's head, using the commands THINK, FEEL, and REMEMBER. These are generally visible only to staff, but can be used to elaborate your character's internal life as well as to communicate it to any admin who might be watching.
Targeting Commands
Many different commands in Avaria can be targeted at another character, an item, or a room object. Most of these commands will work simply by using the syntax "<command> <target>", such as "look Aleph", "glare puddle", or "sit bench". But there are additional options for targeting that can produce more complicated emotes with dynamic text replacement. In these cases the target must be preceded by a special symbol: ~, $, or /. These symbols function as aliases for one another and can be used interchangeably depending on what the player is most accustomed to.
Free-form Emotes:
>emote looks down at her hands, studying /Aleph from beneath her lowered eyelashes.
You emote: Nemi looks down at her hands, studying Aleph from beneath her lowered eyelashes.
The target sees: Nemi looks down at her hands, studying you from beneath her lowered eyelashes.
>emote jerks sharply away from $inspector, shooting $her a dirty look.
You emote: Nemi jerks sharply away from a stout black-haired inspector, shooting her a dirty look.
The target sees: Nemi jerks sharply away from you, shooting you a dirty look.
Status Changing Emotes:
>sit bench (frowning towards ~firestriker)
You go to sit on a wobbly pine bench, frowning towards a curved steel firestriker.
>sleep blankets (exhaling a last grumbling sigh at $inspector)
You go to sleep on some ragged blankets, exhaling a last grumbling sigh at a stout black-haired inspector.
Combat Emotes:
>punch vagabond left arm emote directs a swift punch at /vagabond's left arm, smirking as she exclaims, "Don't make me break it again, criminal scum!"
You emote: Waraqa directs a swift punch at a sad-eyed vagabond's left arm, smirking as she exclaims, "Don't make me break it again, criminal scum!"
The target sees: A stout black-haired inspector directs a swift punch at your left arm, smirking as she exclaims, "Don't make me break it again, criminal scum!"
Using Parentheses
As can be seen above, parenthetical text can be used with many different commands to add extra detail to your character's actions. SAY and its aliases, GET, DROP, and various status-changing emotes such as SIT or STAND will all accept parenthetical text input immediately after the command. They will then function exactly the same as when input by themselves, but with extra roleplaying flavor added!
Getting and Dropping:
>get stick (grumbling crossly about how nobody ever cleans up after themselves around here)
You pick up a silver birchwood stick, grumbling crossly about how nobody ever cleans up after themselves around here.
>drop mug (watching it land with a thud and roll across the floor)
You drop an earthenware mug, watching it land with a thud and roll across the floor.