Riding
Tomás the Ostler, by the coach stop in Greenhollow, sells a Hill Pony (from level 20) and a Riding Horse (from level 35). Your mount goes in the Mount slot of your Satchel: click it there or drag it onto the slot. Then press Z (or click the slot) and stand still a moment while it comes; press Z again to get down. Right-click the Mount slot to take the mount out.
Riding is faster on open ground: a pony by about a third, a horse by half. It changes nothing else.
You ride in the open world only. Going indoors or into an Expedition or dungeon, swimming, fighting, fishing, gathering or playing music puts you back on your feet.
Keys: Z
Pets
A pet is a little companion that follows you about. It is company and nothing more: it does not fight, carry or change your stats.
Pets belong to your account, not to one character: every character on the account sees all of them and can call any one. Click a pet in your Satchel to add it to your pets: the item is used up and the pet joins Social > Pets. A pet you already have can be given, traded or sold instead.
Each pet has a rarity, and its price follows it: common (hens, the cat), uncommon (the hound, the lamb, the goat kid), rare and very rare. Tomás the Ostler in Greenhollow sells the common and uncommon ones; others are found along the road: the Thornback Leveret is a quest reward, and the very rare Selkie Pup only comes, now and then, from the rare creature The Old Selkie in the Grey Isles (never from ordinary seals).
In Social > Pets, Call one pet to your side (one at a time), Send it home, or Rename it. Names are 2 to 16 letters; rude words, names posing as Game Masters or staff, and the names of the world's people are refused. Your pet walks a step behind you, potters about when you stop, sits down when you rest and hops when you wave or cheer. You can also bind keys for calling your pet and for the Pets tab in Esc > Settings > Controls.
Your pet comes indoors with you (your home, inns, halls) and trots beside your mount while you ride. It stays outside Expeditions, dungeons and raids and comes back when you do. Other people see your pet; Esc > Settings > Display > Other players' pets hides theirs.
Keys: O
World events
Now and then the creatures of a place near you gather into a bolder band with a leader. A banner at the top of the screen says where, how many are left and how long you have; a golden ring pulses on the ground there.
Anyone can join in. Everyone who fights the band gets their own reward when it is broken (experience and gold), whoever lands the last blow. If nobody comes, the band melts away again after ten minutes.
These start by themselves while people are about. Nothing is missed by being away: there is always another.
World Chapters
Now and then something happens to the whole server at once, and the land changes because of what its players do. These are World Chapters. The first is the Greyflood, where the Grey Beck rises over Rowan Hill's north road.
A Chapter has omens first, then a stretch when it is under way, then a final few days, and then it ends and the world is left as it was made. There are no scores and no leaderboards. The World tab in your Journal tells the story in words: what the land needs, whether you have helped, and when it ends.
You help in many different ways: fighting in the threatened regions, bringing gathered goods such as fieldstone and timber to the sites, bringing crafted goods such as pilings, cramps and meals, and by the choices of the Moot. The result depends on what players do together. Chapters are started by the server's keeper, so none may be running at any given moment.
Keys: J
Protected Journey Areas
Some stretches of road near the start, such as the Greenhollow Road and the Lower Meadow in the Heatherway, are Protected Journey Areas. They are drawn as a soft blue region on the area map with the name and a "Protected" label showing the highest level the area protects, and tinted on the minimap.
If your level is above that cap, your strength is held to the cap's level against the creatures that belong to the area, so newcomers keep their fights and cannot have them taken in a few blows. Those creatures wear a small "Protected" tag on their name and in the target frame. Creatures outside the area take your full strength, and so does everything else you do there.
This is the rule working, not a bug. You see the explanation once, the first time it happens. Going a little further down the road leaves the area behind.
Layers and servers
When too many players crowd into one open land, the game opens another copy of it, called a layer. Only the Heatherway, Rowan Hill and the Wending Marches do this. Towns, buildings and dungeons never do. Each layer has its own creatures; everything else is shared: gold, items, quests, the clock, the Chronicle and the shape of the world.
You are placed in the layer where most of your party is, or the one you were last in, or the first with room. A party is never split. The area name shows "layer 2" when more than one is open. Type /layer to see yours, and /layer name to join the layer of a party member or guildmate (not in combat, and only once in a while).
Rare and elite creatures pay their loot to you once per respawn, no matter which layer you kill them on.
A server is a named community. /server tells you the name of yours. Moving a character to another server, or joining two servers together, is done by the keepers of the servers and not in the game.
Keys: /layer /server
Daily bounties and rare creatures
From level 20 up, the captain or hunter of each settlement posts a few daily bounties. They ask you to cull a number of creatures, bring tokens from them, or hunt a rare one. They reset once a day at 06:00 UTC, so there is always more work tomorrow, and they pay gold and XP.
Rare named creatures live in the lands from level 25 to level 96. They give more XP and sometimes extra gear, and they drop a trophy that sells for a good price.
Check the Bestiary and ask around to learn where they roam.
Keys: J
Secrets and puzzles
Some places in Hallowmyr hide secrets. A hidden cache, a riddle put to you by a stranger, or a ring of old stones that wants touching in the right order may be worth a second look. Look for faint glints, and read what the world tells you: signposts, lore stones, what people say and the notes you collect.
Secrets are not marked on the map and you will not be told where to go. Some only show at night, by day or in the rain. Take your time, ask people, and try things.
Each secret can be found once by each character. It pays a little gold and XP, a curio that collectors buy, and a story that is written into your Journal. Finding several earns titles.
Keys: J