The much-anticipated Edron update launched on November 2nd, 2001, as Beta 6.4. Without much space left to build on the main content, the map would have to be expanded. Perhaps due to the desire to make premium only areas, CIP decided that new areas would be added mainly as island additions to the map, a decision which hasn't changed to this date. To provide the necessary space the map was expanded about 10% to the east. This left enough room to add a few more islands to Tibia, with Edron added just off Orc Fort.
An early problem with this was if the future would have islands, then how would players get to them? Fibula had been the game's first traversable island, but it was accessible by an awkward tunnel, and the introduction of the Ice Islands had been the first place in Tibia accessible by boat, but a raft was used to get to them which was a little strange. Graphicly, the options for a boat were not great and rafting to a major city didn't make sense. Fortunately, with Taghor's cleaver boat design CIP was able to use this design to create ships which could travel to the new island. These boats would be in the ports of Thais, Ab'Dendriel, and Carlin and would take you to Edron provided you were premium. At this time, it was not possible to travel between cities by boat so you still had to walk from Thais to Carlin. Despite the island launching on November 2nd, it wasn't even possible to go to the island as premium accounts were not set up for payment yet.
Though CIP thought it would take a week to sort out the final logistics, it took only three days. On November 5th, 2001 premium subscriptions launched were you could go to your account and select the "get premium account" button and go through the steps. Tibia used ShareIt as their payment provider which you could use your credit card to pay for premium. Players could also use bank transfers and other methods though they were much slower. Premium would be bestowed upon the player once the payment was confirmed to have gone through, which could take between a few hours to several days. One of the early issues with the payment method was that it wasn't easy for all players to use as only some countries were accepted. I recall having a great deal of difficulty buying a premium and resorted to doing a bank wire transfer which took a week.
The first player to purchase premium was Flattery, and he was awarded an Eplate in a little ceremony held in Edron on November 6th, 2001 at 20:00 CET.
Premium was CIPs way of generating money to continue with the game. In exchange for a fee of 20 USD for 3 months or 40 USD for 7 months, you would be able to access the new features of the game. Access to Edron and its hunting spots was only one of the benefits, another was you would have access to the new spells which could be gained exclusively by talking to the guild NPCs on the island. Being premium also allowed you to rent up to one house which would provide you with beds to sleep in which would grant you mana and hp regeneration and allow you to show off or store excess items like backpacks of runes which consumed a lot of depot space. When the server became busy, players who were premium would have priority on logging in which was the number one reason why people would get a premium account.
The system of renting worked as an auction where houses would go up for bid initially on the website and players would bid on the house. You didn’t need to have any money at all but would receive an automatic ban from buying houses for a month if you didn’t pay, plus the house would go back to its empty status, allowing bidding to start once again. A player without a vocation could bid on a house even though they had no way to pay for it, this would be changed on March 8th, 2002, to prevent non vocation players from bidding. Those who won would have the money they bid plus the first month’s rent taken out of the depot from town the house belonged (depots in each city were independent). Money would first be pulled out of your inbox (where mail was sent) before being taken from your depot. Each auction would last 7 days from the moment the first bid was placed on an empty property. You could only hold one house per account and could only bid on one house at a time. If I recall correctly, you could change your bid to 1gp higher than the current offer if you felt your previous offer was too high. It was not uncommon to see players advertise that they wanted out of a house auction and asked for someone to overbid them.
Once you won a house, only you would be able to enter the house, any others you wanted to have access you would need to assign by using special commands like Aleta Grav to give door opening rights, Aleta Som to allow sub-ownership (they could invite others in), Aleta Sio for basic access, and Alana sio "name" to TP yourself or another specific character out of the house. All properties were PZ so nothing nefarious could happen inside unlike their early counterparts. Players couldn't train inside the house but could drink mana and cast nonaggressive spells. To continue to own the house you had to remain as a Premium account and have the correct or more amount of money in the depot for the city the house belonged to. Anyone not having enough was given a week to get the correct amount before losing the house and being banned from auctions for a month.
The premium features were appealing, and premium was restrictive enough to make the island a greatly reduced place to be PKed which players enjoyed. Despite the many benefits, paying was difficult or impossible for some players and most players at the time felt the cost was expensive. Despite these issues premium slowly increased as more players realized the benefits often saved them time.
With premium now available for purchase, players could take advantage of an exclusive premium only island which was called Edron. You can see the CIP made city guild here for a comprehensive overview on its history and some facts.
The island, which was created by Knightmare, was a crescent shaped land mass with a massive town and many hunting spots, all separated by a large mountain in the middle. On its launch Taghor released an official video promotion the new town which everyone was excited to have the ability to explore once they purchased premium.
In game history has it that the island was founded by Thaians who found the island as a colony. It was a little baffling how they would discover this island on the other side of the map and not the other islands which would later spring up close to Thais. The island was also reported to have minerals in the central mountain, which is why it was founded, though those closest evidence to this seems to be the remains of mining in the form of dungeons scattered around the island. In any event, the sailors established the Royal Tibia Line shipping routes which players would use to travel around Tibia. Thus the island became Tibia's newest city complete with temple and depot.
Upon arrival on Edron you would land on the main dock which stood north of a large, impressive castle wall. You would enter the city through the north gate, and it was an impressive visage for a game where all cities were either single or double leveled or otherwise buried in a mountain. Inside you could head west and visit the stables which had many stalls with only a single Dog which would wonder around. A door in the wall to the north took you to a staircase that led to a Rat spawn in a small room below the tower. Back on the surface was two ladders which would take you up a level. South of this was a mill which was surrounded by inaccessible storage rooms. Up another set of ladders took you to a locked storage room with tons of crates and boxes. From here you could go up another level by ladder where there was a bunch of rooms to the south. The ladder you saw on your way up would take you to the top of the tower which had nothing interesting. All the floors except the first allowed you to travel east along the wall to get to the other towers.
If you headed east instead to make your way around the building, you would see an opening east and three shops built against the wall. Just inside the opening in the wall was two ladders that led up and a ladder leading down to a large room which had 9 small rentable rooms. Back outside there were rentable shops for players to the south, with the counter portion facing west toward the street. The room in the back was accessible from inside the wall. Further south of this was an opening which had two staircases which led down. The signpost outside proclaimed that this was the temple and indeed the stairs took you to a large temple of white marble which was staffed by NPC Amanda. To the north was a small room which housed the Soul Portal for Edron.
Right below the entrance to the temple were steps leading to the upper level. This level contained some of Edron's shops with NPC Rudolph taking the first shop who would sell equipment. North of this was NPC Beatrice who ran the tool shop, and NPC Willard ran the northmost shop which sold weapons and ammo. His shop would be the one you would come to after each hunt to sell your items. Blackboards announced what each shop sold like every shop in Tibia.
If you continued north of here, you would see two ladders which led down to the player shops below. The hall continued to the northeast to a ladder leading up and down to the inside of the wall below. Taking the ladder up led to a kitchen like room to the south and two large rooms below with 8 beds in each which were not rentable. A ladder at either end of the wall led to the unstaffed jail on the next floor which had 12 locked rooms. These rooms were guarded by a desk which sat to the south and directly west of it was a larger room which looked suspiciously like a torture cell. An additional ladder at each end led to two more observation towers with nothing of note.
The north part of the wall which would later lead to the magic carpet, but now only led to an observation tower. Heading back to the third level and making your way to the south wall led to a large room which looked like a barracks with beds. You could travel through to the other side of the wall though or head up a ladder to the next floor which comprised of a parapet on both sides. A final ladder could take you to another large observation deck above.
If you continued from the temple on the ground floor and headed west, you would pass a well and see the entrance to the castle to the north and an exit out of the castle grounds to the south which led into the city outside the wall. Inside the large central castle was a games room in the basement which was accessible by a staircase to the east. Heading through the double doors in the central hall took you to NPC Daniel Steelsoul who was the commissioned governor appointed by the Thain King. He was dressed in a Hero/GM outfit and would hit you with fire if you swore at him like other leaders. To the west of his audience chamber was a library which had no books. The southwest area of the castle had a door to the west which led to a large garden with a water fountain and benches. This not often used area opened to the south to invite players off the street for a moments respite.
A staircase to Steelsouls' east would take you to the room above which had a large dining area, kitchen, and some smaller rooms. Stairs further south took you to the next floor which sported a large bath, meeting hall, royal apartments, small room, and small library to the north which also had nothing to read (ironic given the allusion of the name Danielle Steel).
Back on the main road south of the Garden you could continue west and reach a double staircase led to the floor above. If you headed north, you would come across a small kiosk staffed by NPC Chrystal who would sell you postal supplies. North of this was two more shops, the bank on the east side which was run by NPC Ebenizer and a food shop to the west which was run by NPC Bonifacius. It is interesting to note that none of the area above the Edron depot was a PZ so you could be killed while trying to buy a parcel. It was not uncommon for people to throw fire fields above the staircase so people would get damaged by it the second they went up the stairs.
The triple staircase leading down brought you to the first floor of the very large three-story depot. There were 6 sets of stalls on this floor and a lot of unused space. Another triple staircase led to another 6 sets of stalls which were closer together and two stairs on either side of the stairs down led to a final 6 stalls on the lowest floor.
Heading back out to the main road you could open a door to the south which would lead you to a ladder which connected to a small room. Inside this room was some sewer grates which would take you one of the inaccessible areas west of town, which we will explore later. If you returned to the main road and headed up the two large stairs, you would find yourself in a large tavern. NPC Mirabell would sell you drinks from behind the counter.
Above the tavern was a large area with 7 rentable flats and 9 more units were on the floor above, including the ones from earlier which you could travel through to get to the north wall. A series of ladders in the southwest tower of the wall would take you all the way to the observation at the top just like the other three towers.
Just outside the wall was the outer town which had many more player rentable building and shops. Directly south of this was a large flat building with three floors of 8 flat units and two units in the basement which were all rentable. There was a room in the basement which had a sewer grate which led to the southern inaccessible part of the island which we will come back to. Directly below this was another small park with fountain and benches and a small two story double flat below that.
On the opposite side of the park was three large shop houses facing south and three large houses facing north, all of which were one complex. Each of these were two floors and had a basement which offered more room or living quarters. These six properties were very desirable to own and housed some of Tibia's most famous players.
North of these houses was two large houses which featured a large room and two smaller ones with a single bed in each. A ladder from the main room took you to the huge fenced in rooftop garden which was green grass the style seen in Carlin. Players really enjoyed these houses as it provided an easy way to show off expansive rare collections plus was close to the city. Connected to the east of these properties was the Jewelry shop, which was staffed by Iwan.
Heading west from the south gate you would find a two-story house with three beds along the path. Further north was four more houses with two beds each, all single-story properties. This area was quiet and out of the way compared to the rest of town as there was nothing in this area other than these houses. I think you could climb onto the roof with parcels.
If you headed back to the Jewelry shop you would pass by a well and a Dog which wondered around on the street. Directly to the east of the shop was a large open barn and east of that was a rentable flat with two beds. To the north was six large single room houses spread over two floors, each containing two beds, and the second-floor flats could be accessed by a staircase to the south which took you to a small hallway.
From this building you could travel north across the bridge and outside the city or head further north up the path to a fire pit with an anvil and a well hidden inside the mountain. East of the fire was another small two bedroom, single room house to rent.
South of the barn was a series of six multiroom apartment flats of different styles with beds ranging from 2-3. Stairs led to the upper flats, providing access to them via a single stair porch which players would often mana train on. To the east of these were three rentable houses, two of which had three beds on the second floor and a large basement. These were very desirable due to the amount of space and privacy offered by the basement. They also had a build in library on the first floor which was an interesting feature. The last unit to the south was much larger than the others but didn't offer a basement but did span two floors and offered a library complete with special red carpet. This unit had a massive 6 beds to sleep in which was very rare for houses and was very desirable. Players would buy up high bed count properties and mana trained characters in the bed which produced a profit due to the cheap rent.
South of this was three huge new guild halls, named Sky Lane 1 to 3 and a large four-story tower house which also offered six beds. The last hall was partially built into a hill and was made of red brick which was unlike the other structures. Around this area was four large wheat fields and an odd field of some unharvestable plant. In this area there was also a lose stone pile which I believe led to a massive four floor rot dungeon which was a popular place to level.
As the island was very popular, the Sky Lane guildhalls were an important addition to the game. The first hall, located to the west, had 23 beds and was the same styling as the Thais houses. On the first floor was three bedrooms and a small storage room was located by the stairs which led to the second floor. A ladder to the basement could also be found which led to a huge room with 14 beds. The second floor was an open room with a table in the middle and casks to the north. A staircase led to the next floor which had 5 rooms including a very small storage room and a library. Access to the roof could be found by a ladder which led to an open rampart which overlooked the city.
The second Sky Lane guildhall located just to the east of the first had 14 beds and was a similar layout to the first. Down the stairs to the basement was a room with some beds and a larger room. On the first floor was four small rooms with beds, one of which had its own library. A red Carpet lined the hall, and a staircase took you to a large dining hall on the second floor. This room also had a bookshelf on the north wall, and there was a small storage room with some casks. Another staircase took you to the next floor which had three bedrooms, each with beds and some with red carpets and bookshelves. A ladder took you to the same style open rampart on the roof as the first hall.
Finally, the last Sky Lane guildhall was very different then they others, offering no basement and 18 beds. The red brick building was built into the side of a rock and the first floor offered a large main room and three smaller rooms. A ladder took you to the second floor which had five rooms, most of which had beds. A ladder on this floor led to a large room with casks and a room with a row of 7 beds. Like the other two halls, a ladder took you to the roof which was the same open rampart as the other two.
The last place left in town was the massive Noodles Academy of Modern Magic which could be found by taking a set of stairs at the end of the main road. These led to a second-floor landing which took you to a massive tower complex which was built into the water, each of which could be traveled to by a bridge between the six high towers and the seventh huge central tower in the middle. Ladders and stairs would take you up to as high as five floors up and two floors down on the massive structure. This magic complex offered players a place to buy new spells, purchase and sell magic items, and even rent some flats.
Upon entering the first tower you could travel down the stairs and visit NPC Sandra who ran the fluid shop. She would also accept your flask return and this tower was the most popular stop for players to refill before hunting. Just below this was a shop flat for players to rent with a single bed. Above the main walkway floor was three more shops, with the first being a food shop (Flower shop) run by NPC Luna, who sold Brown Mushrooms which were very popular as they quickly filled you up and were very light to carry. The next floor up was a book shop run by NPC Thomas who sold blank writing documents which you could buy and fill with your stories. On the top floor was NPC Alexander who ran a magic shop, selling mainly blank runes and spell books.
Taking the bridge to the north to the next tower took you to a ladder leading down which had a mill and another ladder leading to a four-fountain room which didn't serve a purpose. Above the main walkway floor was a gated area which might have been empty, and above this was another gated area which was divided in two and had a Snake and a Rat in each of the pens. The last room above this had fire, poison, and energy fields which players could walk on if they were feeling particularly suicidal. These likely where thematically linked to the Academy's purpose of experimenting with magic.
Heading east from this tower was a guild hall named Guild Magic Academy which offered a large multi-story tower which had many beds. South of this took you to the central tower which branched off in other directions. This immediate central room like all the others offered only paths to other areas. Exploring the downstairs in the central tower would lead you to a large room with stairs and a table in the middle, possibly a place to demonstrate magic. The floor below this had an opening in the middle where you could see down below to what looked like a place to test out magic for those above to see in safety. Heading up the stairs from the main walkway took you to a large room with many chairs and a place for probably the guilds leaders to sit and address any guild members. The next two consisted of a massive library with many books you could read which contained a huge amount of information on Edron and magic. Above the two-floor library was a room with large tables which looked like a lab. The final floor of the tower was adorned with some kind of energy contraption that was decorative.
East of the central room by bridge was a tower designed as small rental flats. Two flats could be found below the main walkway, while three more were above. Each room was a little different, with different features and bed count.
South of this was an empty tower as no shops existed here at this time. The room below the main walkway was a large kitchen with many fireplaces and a large table in the middle, and below the floor below that was an odd nature type area with green grass. Above the main walkway was a room with a large caldron in the middle on a firepit. On the next floor was a strange room with pink stones and the top room had a sheet of ice. Maybe this tower complex was to explore the elements of Tibia? Whatever purpose it had, it would be changed into shops on the Version 7.8 update.
From here you could head west to the last tower which also was connected to the north to the central tower. This was where you would buy the new spells, and each floor offered a different NPC who would teach you a spell if you were the right magic level and had the funds to pay for the lesson. At this time the teachers would teach specific spells rather then specific vocation. The present day configuration was instituted during the Winter 2007 update.
The basement floor was staffed by Puffel who looked like a rat and would offer you primitive spells which were the ones that were already offered at other shops. NPC Ursula, who looked like a witch, staffed the ground floor magic shop and would sell Knights, Druids, and Sorcerers weaker premium only spells. On the Third Floor, Gundralph, who I am unsure what he looked like, would sell you all the advanced spells which were quite a few. The new spells offered during this update will be detailed later in this section.
The return of the UE spell was a major moment in Tibia and NPC Zoltan would sell you the spell on the fourth floor. He delt only in the highest advanced magics, but there were not many spells which fit this category, and quite possibly this was the only one.
On the fifth and final floor of the tower was an empty room like all the others, with a big table in the middle and a large blackboard which pronounced the spells. No teacher was here but according to the sign they were looking for one which could teach the most powerful spell in Tibia, the Armageddon spell. The blackboard apologized by saying "Sorry, we're currently looking for a new teacher." This incredibly spell was only known to one mage, the famous Ferumbras, who used the powerful spell during his attack on Thais. The spell filled up the entire screen like a UE but was much more powerful. Players would lust after the spell for years, believing that the spell would one day be available but this has never happened and is largely believed to be too powerful to add to the game.
Oddly, the large town had a second smaller town close by called Stonehome which could be reached by crossing the bridge north of the magic academy. If you followed the path east, you would come across a large stony hill which had a staircase leading to the level above which was grass and trees. A dirt path wound through the hill to the north into town. Once inside you could head north and see a house with a fenced in yard. This was not a rentable property, and the chicken didn't exist yet so the yard may have had a Sheep or was empty. To the east was a small rentable house which had a private fenced in back yard, and to the north was three large wheat fields ready for you to make bread.
Inside of the town was three rentable houses which perched on top of the rocky hills there which were accessible by stairs. In the north part of town was three small single-story houses which could be rented. East of these was a large dock which didn't have any ships and heading south took you to an empty grassy area with a small hill to the east. The guild hall was not added at this time but a ladder leading to two rentable houses of the second floor was there. The southernmost house hung over the ocean on stilts. Northwest of this was another house, but non rentable, which may have had NPC Albert who was a healer.
The rest of the area was filled with grass, trees, and rock formations which provided a rich environment for small creatures to inhabit like the Deer, Rat, Sheep, Wolf, Snake, and even a Bear in a rocky formation to the northeast. Directly above town, separated by water and accessible through an eastern path, was a graveyard and a cave which had a loose stonepile both inside the cave and one behind it. I believe the one outside the cave couldn't be accessed and was only an exit point to a dungeon we will talk about later. The one inside the cave led to a small single Skeleton spawn below which also had a coffin.
There was also a loose stonepile in town which led to a large Rot dungeon that spanned 7 floors. This dungeon might seem innocuous except that it held an interesting secret. Deep inside was a spot you could click on for more information which would inform you that a hole was in the ceiling. If you roped yourself up, you would reach a secret level which had a sign proclaiming you were in the secret level. Another level up was an underground lake with Sheep milling about, including a Black Sheep. Pepelu and Halfhigh where the first to discover this area which was a spoof of the Diablo 2 secret Cow level which was a popular event at the time. CIP had no idea of the area's inclusion in the game and soon other players discovered the area and began to use it to AFK macro train. CIP removed the Secret Sheep Level sometime in Version 7 due to the abuse.
