Hail and well met!

Some great questions you have! I hope my answer will not be too long-winded, but I want to answer the question and the spirit of the question as fully as I can.

There is one core philosophy I have for the development of this shard which will shed some light on the general way the shard will develop and grow. I too was a nostalgic uorp player who has seen the greats come and go sadly. There was nothing available on my return to match what I remember to be great about the experience. That isn't to say there is anything wrong with what is available out there! They do not match what my nostalgia craves is all there is to it. There are two main things that I have observed which can harm a shard. The first is an overbearing staff and the second is a staff with a lot of great intention who is held back by time or energy constraints. I want neither of these to affect Catharsis, so the plan is to involve the community Catharsis attracts in as much of it's growth as possible.

• Website
As for a website, I know some prefer a website while others prefer a wiki. If we have a member who steps forward and wants to put together either or both? Catharsis is not going to say - 'no, we are busy on such and such a project and when we get to that aspect we will handle it.' This doesn't mean that if no one steps forward it will not be done some day down the line, but it is preferred that we have as many hands in the pot as possible to make this a collaborative effort. The more people who are involved - the better the chance it will appeal to more people instead of having a more limited one or three person take. Also, a uorp shard is nothing without a great community and how better to feel like this is your home than to settle in and nest and make it a nice place to be? We are asking you to invest your precious time to play here. It seems only fair especially at such an early stage of development to give the opportunity for others to take part.

• Current staff/roles

• Staffing is very small right now. I wish I could find all the great people who used to be involved in uorp, but I have been away from the scene for a very long time and tracking them down would be impossible. Instead I have two people who are starting this project with me at the moment. I am focusing on the map building. The other two admins are working on scripting. They have a background in java and basic so learning pol should be a fairly simple matter for them. It is not within my skill set and there is a lot to oversee to make sure the project comes together even if we get a lot of volunteers, so I am not sure I will take part in the scripting directly.
• As for what positions are available... pretty much all. All is available. I would be happy to accept another scripter, because the more scripters available to the shard the more they can help eachother to lighten the demand. The goal is not to have staff be overbearing, however their presence is definitely needed to help guide the roleplay along. The goal is to have at least one staff member assigned to each race. Part of their responsibilities will be to run minor quests for their race from time to time when the opportunity arises. Larger, world-impacting quests would need to be discussed and approved ahead of time. This is to attempt to limit negative impact on the growth of the world and the roleplay of characters in existence.
• No real answer can be given for this, if it can be up next month then wonderful however it has been to the detriment of other shards to open too early. Maps, scripting, and other basics have to be met and as soon as they can be then the shard can open even if it is not FULLY finished to allow a community to begin to grow.

• Lore
This has been loosely discussed, but nothing is cemented. We want to see what the potential player base puts forward in the way of ideas. This goes back to the guiding principle of the shard to involve as many people as possible in it's development. The more who contribute, the greater the chance to appeal to a larger membership and the more chances for some truly original ideas to be made available!

• Race/Class system
There will be multiple races. The idea is to start small, perhaps only four races to begin with. Then as the shard grows we can entertain the idea of adding more races. A class system will be implemented. We will be using the mechanic of pay to raise your skills. This system allows for a player to spend time roleplaying as their skills raise over time and anything that encourages more roleplay time and less focusing on mechanics is a plus in my book without setting everyone to max stats on entry.

• Realism Questions

• Some brighter colors may be included, but you will not see someone in the game looking like someone took the old atari colors and mashed them together. I hope to have a varied collection of colors available and some will only be available at special events etc... but generally nothing too obnoxious. A color comes to mind of the ice fiend color? The very bright baby blue? Would that be available? Possibly through special circumstances. It is on the bright side but not terrible. I hope that gives you an idea of what to expect.
• This will depend on what our wonderful scripting team can accomplish. I would prefer that rares are just that, rare. The typical 'Indestructible cloak of Swordsmanship' is what will be used.
• There is nothing I have in mind special for the titles. Currently, the standard karma titles is what I suspect will be used. IF a player has an idea for how this can be better done and is able to do a bit of scripting to tweak something more attuned with the roleplay it can certainly be considered.

I hope this answers your questions! Keep them coming if you have more or feel free to ask me to expand upon something already mentioned here. Thank you for the time you took in considering and putting together these questions.