Thay.
The word is spoken like a curse throughout Faerûn.
It is a land of magic, shrouded in mystery. A land of evil, built on the backs and blood of slaves. A land of treachery where one must be wary not only of enemies, but also those considered allies.  A land of opportunity for the cunning, bold, or ruthless. A land of death and despair for most others.
Welcome to Thay. May you survive the experience...

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Thay and the Underdark is a Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition Persistent World (PW) set in the Forgotten Realms. The setting follows official 2nd and 3rd edition D&D and Forgotten Realms source material very closely, and in-game time began in the years prior to the Salamander War, the Time of Troubles, the arrival of the Tuigan Horde and the crusade to stop it, and more than a decade before Szass Tam makes his first bid at ultimate power using the Runes of Chaos - all events that greatly affect the realm of Thay. In short, if something, someone, or some event could be found in Thay according to official lore, the odds are that he/she/it exists in game.
 
Being widely considered an "evil" place, Thay is definitely slanted in that direction, and themes are generally mature in nature. Good PCs may face additional in-game challenges or hardships, as Thay isn't the sort of place that has much interest in being saved by would be heroes. Things like slavery, drug use, prostitution, torture and betrayal all exist. You'll find slavers and assassins (or they'll find you). You'll find brothels, drug dens, and countless other things that offer all of the vices an aspiring Thayan needs. And if you thrive, your characters may join and even become leaders of the military, magical, and political forces in one of the most evil lands of Faerûn.

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Server Type: Roleplay is strongly encouraged, however other types of play are allowed as long as they do not interfere with the roleplay of others.
 
Level Cap: 25. Leveling speed is generally slow. The average level on the server is somewhere in the 7-12 range. Experience is given in many ways, including killing things, performing quests, roleplay XP awarded by DM's or other players, picking locks, exploring new areas, and simply by being on the server and doing something.
 
Magic Level: This is a high magic world with mid magic treasure. Anything above +2 is considered rare. Players will have to enchant most of the better items themselves. Immunity items are very rare, but some can be obtained via special quests at higher levels. Equipment enchantment is available, the cost of which varies based on what is being done to the item and what enhancements already exist on the item being enchanted.
 
Notoriety: The notoriety system is used to for many things, such as assessing faction advancement, obtaining certain types of building deeds, buying special mounts, and so on. While a higher notoriety might keep you safe from slavers, it could also lead to increased assassination attempts. The actual numbers are hidden from the players, but many of the in-game systems are based on notoriety as opposed to level.
 
Death Penalty: Magic placed on all characters as a result of the opening event in Thay can save them while dying an unlimited number of times, but it weakens if used often over the course of an in-game month. If this magic does not activate to save a PC while dying, the character may choose to Respawn. If a Raise Dead contingency magic was purchased from any of the dozens of temple priests that offer it, they will be revived where they fell and saved from death. Otherwise the character will die and be drawn to the Fugue Plane.
 
Once in the Fugue Plane a player may choose to wait for allies to raise the PC (which incurs no XP penalty), they may retire the PC and then create a new character which starts out with half the levels of the ‘retired’ PC, or they may sacrifice a percentage of XP and notoriety and return the dead PC to life.
 
Resting System: Resting can only be done in appropriate ‘restful’ locations (i.e. near a bed). Resting in the wild requires a bedroll, flint/tinder, and some dry wood to burn. Resting will recover full hit points and can be done as often as desired provided it's done in an allowed location. There are no timers involved.
 
Hunger/Thirst/Fatigue System: PC's do require food, drink, and rest or they will gradually wear down (and eventually die). Access to all three is readily available, and eating and drinking provides healing and the ability to overcome disease or poison. among other benefits. However, the system, like several other configurable systems, can be turned off in-game by the player. 
 
Encounters: Thay does not use default enemy AI, nor does it limit itself to standard foes. Expect a lot of custom adversaries during your travels. Spawns do scale based on party size/level. Party play is encouraged, but a careful, powerful, or lucky PC can solo. Soloing is rather common, especially when including one or more henchmen.
 
Self Sufficient: One of the primary goals of Thay is to provide new experiences and many options to players every time they decide to adventure in the realm of the Red Wizards without requiring DMs to make things interesting. To this end, scripted systems have been created that dynamically generate creatures, treasure, encounters, traps, quests, and even areas. This provides a world and situations that are always different in some way and presents ever-changing challenges for both new and returning players.