Kris Kortright, a developer from the MUD Black Knights Realm, founded Sojourn, set in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragonsrole-playing game, in 1993, along with Tim Devlin and John Bashaw. Sojourn was based on the Sequent codebase, the Epic spell system, and areas from Black Knights Realm. The City of Waterdeep was the first zone built entirely for Sojourn. Brad McQuaid was an avid player of Sojourn. Seeing the commercial potential of virtual worlds in the course of his MUD career, he went on to create EverQuest. With Kris’ permission, used it as the model for the city of Freeport in EverQuest. In 1996, due to creative differences between developers, Sojourn was forked into two projects, TorilMUD and Duris: Land of Bloodlust. The developers had also previously worked on Copper II, Copper III and Black Knights Realm. The oldest zone on TorilMUD, the Lava Tubes, comes from Copper II, and the Underworld and Alterian Wilderness zones are from Black Knights Realm. Sojourn was based on the Sequent codebase, the Epic spell system, and areas from Black Knights Realm. The City of Waterdeep was the first zone built entirely for Sojourn, and remains TorilMUDs most heavily populated hometown. Brad McQuaid, with Kris’ permission, used it as the model for the city of Freeport in EverQuest. Sojourn continued until 1996, when a difference in creative vision among the staff led to the project being forked into TorilMUD and Duris: Land of Bloodlust. Of the two, TorilMUD is regarded as the more direct inheritor of Sojourns legacy. Toril continued until 1998, when it became Sojourn 2, and underwent another rebirth in 2001 as Sojourn 3. Kris retired in 2003, and Sojourn 3 was reborn as TorilMUD. Throughout these rebirths, the areas and code continued to grow: there are currently 300 zones, 16277 types of monsters/mobs, and 13753 different items. Many TorilMUD staff members were staff on Sojourn 3, Sojourn 2, and some are even from Toril 1, providing a degree of continuity. All Toril staff started as players on the MUD, giving them a great deal of personal experience with the game. Brad McQuaid was an avid player of Sojourn and, after its demise, TorilMUD. Seeing the commercial potential of virtual worlds in the course of his MUD career, he went on to create EverQuest.
Reception and impact
An Engadgetarticle from 2011 noted TorilMUD for its direct influence on the MMO industry.
