Avendar is built on DikuMUD, created originally by Hans Staerfeldt, Katja Nyboe, Tom Madsen, Michael Seifert, and Sebastian Hammer. Avendar was originally created by Matt Wallace, Thane Williams, and Brandon Downey. For full credits, see Avendar:Staff.
From the original implementors, copied from HELP AVENDAR:
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Avendar began as a hobby, unopened to the public, in September of 1997. In November 1997, a core group of immortals left the muds they
played to dedicate their time to this project. Working all hours of the day and night, they produced the first iteration of the world in which you stand, which opened in January of 1998.
Avendar began as merely a derivative of Rom2.4b, originally named "Pantheon". Now, it begins to take on life of its own. It has integrated mob and object programs, "MobMemory" and "ObjMemory", hundreds of new skills and spells, and entirely replaced the world once common to Rom, with an entirely original fantasy mythos.
The development continues as Avendar is now fully in production. Our primary objectives are a highly interactive world, lots of originality, and a world where roleplaying is emphasized, and anything is possible. Our original area set is growing as we find new immortals worthy of adding to the staff, and as we revamp older areas with our newer code developments. Thanks for being a part of this.
The creators of Avendar wish to thank our predecessors, the authors of DIKU, Merc, ROM; the creators and maintainers of The CarrionFields, a progenitor of our efforts; Marc Mahoney and Chris Papadimitriou for their early efforts, as well as Xurinos, wherever you're at. </blockquote>