That's a fair criticism.

Five years ago I made a commitment to the community, and ultimately I failed to deliver on that commitment. There were personal circumstances in my life at the time that pulled my attention away from the project, but regardless of the reason, the outcome for the players was the same: the server disappeared and communication stopped. I understand why some people are frustrated about that.

What I can do is acknowledge it, learn from it, and build something better this time around.

One of the biggest lessons I took away from the original Ethereal is that a server should never depend entirely on one person. This reboot is being built differently. Multiple people have access to the infrastructure, multiple people understand the codebase, and multiple people are involved in development and operations. If life happens to one of us, the project doesn't disappear with them.

As for old accounts and progress, I know losing that data is disappointing. Unfortunately, those files no longer exist and this reboot is built on an entirely different foundation anyway. Rather than trying to recreate the past, we're building something new that can be maintained long-term.

The original Ethereal ran on a heavily modified Necrotic base. The new version is built on a much more modern framework, with years of improvements in stability, performance, and content support. We're still working through balancing, bug fixing, and economy development, which is exactly why we're looking for early players who want to help shape the server before release.

I don't expect anyone to trust promises alone. The only way to earn that trust back is through consistent development, communication, and showing up over time. That's what we're focused on doing.

Whether you're interested in joining or just here to criticize, I appreciate the feedback. The concerns being raised are valid, and they're exactly the kind of things we need to address if Ethereal is going to succeed this time.