I have logged in recently for the first time in a while and may continue to do so to see how it has progressed.
  I have to say, I'm surprised that you have implemented magic resistance when, as far as I've noticed, magic still needs a lot of work before it becomes widely used.  Many spells don't work, it takes forever, lots of PP, and tons of money to train in for little results, many level 1-3 spells are more effective than level 4 ones and offensive spells just seem way underpowered when compared to weapons.  I think you should work on the current magic system a bit before you implement new things. 
Does any one else agree or am I completely off base here?

Zanzibar and Mathy, I believe both have good points.  First off, this would not inhibit those who roleplay, like the good ol days when stats didn't matter, at all and if anything will help support it as players can actually somewhat act/use skills in-game as their character should be able to according to how/what they are roleplaying as.  Also, those who feel they need to have some ranks in specific skills before he or she can adequately RP his/her character will be able to RP straight off the bat.

As for Zanzibar's statement, I do find that interesting, however that is very old and something that didn't stick.  If little to no players stick to it, than it really cannot be enforced too well.  This is how things, such as games, evolve and change a little, and should be tolerated and allowed to keep it going.  Therefore I do not believe this is much of a problem, setting wise, unless GM's and Talad strongly believe players must start as peasants, with no room for exceptions.  Also, if a player does want to start from scratch, he or she does not have to use all the points allotted at all.

Another point was brought up: How many ranks would be allowed? What is the cut-off? This would ultimately be up to the settings team, however think of it like this.  How many ranks of magic, weapons, crafting, or armor do you need to be successful, not just against npc's but against other players as well.  When you claim to be an excellent mage, or master of axes and someone tells you to prove it, how high do you need to be to do so?  Personally I believe a lot should be used, such as 75-100.  Many players have higher stats than 100 in several skills, but 100 is also very high in itself.  However, a player who puts 100 in one skill will have nothing in others, such as armor, which may force smart players to split it between 2+ skills.

This also does not include the main attributes such as str, end, int, etc. but I believe in choosing races at character creation is sufficient as those attributes change with each rank (may also think about increasing the amount of ranks per attribute since the cap has gone up significantly since the attributes coming with each race was first implemented)

yea very nice job stueben.  I'm curious, where did you get the music from? It sounds good.

LOL Earl

I feel bad cuz its kinda offensive...but its so true and hilarious i was dying on my floor laughing when i saw that pic.

@Zan read all the posts here.  Someone made a very good point and showed that Laanx and Talad did NOT create everything!

it personally doesn't make sense how coming up with new religions is against the settings.  People think differently, and nobody has the same exact beliefs on every single little issue.  Eventually people that do have common beliefs to each other, but different from the norm for their own cults or religions.  Take for example scientology as a OOC example.  Even wackos have the right to believe what they wish, and in the laws of hydlaa, i'm pretty sure there is freedom of religion.  Therefore, how can it possibly be that over such a long time people start to no believe in the gods of Laanx and Talad especially since they left the realm of Yliakum [which is why we can choose Atheism as a religion at character creation]?  From this people would start looking towards things they see, or know to exist, such as the Azure Sun/crystal.  Remember the Cult of the Dark Crystal that a group of players formed and was well played while it lasted imho?  According to the settings team, it was against the settings.

So the question then becomes:  Do the people of Yliakum have the capability to think for themselves, outside of the box, and to question their surroundings, especially when the lore of laanx and talad is so old and has the potential, in the eyes of the inhabitants of yliakum, to have been stretched or altered as time went on?  Or does everyone either praise talad, laanx, or dakkru [in which case Atheism should be taken out of the settings].

Just from personal observations from other such things:  It seems at times the settings team/devs/Talad want to be able to control everyone's actions to the point where certain things like being able to question one's own reality and life cannot be asked.  Personally, going with this further, I believe that it would be acceptable for a large group of players to create their own government and country outside the octarchy if they desire, just like how real countries were formed, however this was shot down on a couple accounts from what I hear.

oh um one problem...if you go to someone's description where it says "You evaluate that <name> will not require any effort to defeat" it still says their name.  It also says their name when using emotes like /greet, /laugh, /sleep, etc

The Nomothetes were a secret guild for a very very long time thats why you didn't hear of them unless you made good friends with people high up in the guild like odisseo, just by chance.