Wow, lots of questions! We're glad to have you!

I'll try and answer best I can.

Leveling and skills - it's part of the nature of the game that these things are the way they are. It's all about game balance. Maybe it's tedious, I wouldn't disagree, but it's supposed to be a trade off, just the same as an elf is fragile but smart enough to learn these skills quickly, whereas a giant is dumb but tough. I would suggest playing an arial if you want a nice balance.

RE roles: Each imm reads and hands out xp for roles when they can. This means you have about 10 different people reading roles and handing out xp for them, so each person has a different style on what they like. I, personally, prefer to see paragraphs broken up and roles worked into reasonably bite sized chunks to read. With so much spam going across my screen (imms get a lot of random messages), if a role chapter is more than a full page of text, I get a little crabby. But, again, that's just me!

We think our helpfiles are pretty comprehensive. If you find one that is too vague, feel free to use the typo command on it and request more info. We are trying to make them as helpful as possible.

Stat gains with level are based on your wisdom. You begin gaining these stat gains on level once you have x number of skills practiced. High wisdom will see up to 4% gains, low will stay around 1-2. There is a feat called 'apt learner' that you can take that bumps these gains up.

Cabals definetly do not have a giant no newbs allowed sign on them. However, some are more friendly than others. I would not recommend Scion or even Empire for a newbie. I also would not necessarily recommend Battle, though on the one hand it's handy to have good skills and not need to worry about preps and such. On the other hand, you'll die _all the time_. If you're wanting to embark on a "my first cabal" experience, I would suggest Herald, Nexus, or Fortress. Tribunal, for me, is an inbetweener, because sometimes the laws are difficult to understand or intrepret and the punishment for a mistake can be harsh. My first char on the mud was a Trib and I regretted it. I also would not recommend Outlander for a first cabal. The dogma is difficult and it's very restricted. Once you've learned the mud a bit better, however, I think playing at least one Outlander is a must. It's a great cabal, and lately it's been really well supported by veteren players, which you can learn a lot from.

By all means, play a paladin! I love paladins. Baerinika and Corrlaan and Marcatis and me are huge softies for empowerment. We love newbs. Shrines are not exactly forbidden info, they're just something you should find IC. If you're worshipping Baerinika, for example, and you ask someone from the Fortress or someone with a Baer-type title where the shrine is, they should help you find it. Empowerment can be frustrating for newbies, which is why we generally caution against it, because we don't want to lose new players for something like that. Stick to the wizlist times, write a role relevant to a particular imm, and find the shrine IC and you'll be fine.

Observation xp is only for looking at things. For mobs, it's largely the named ones that you get observation xp for. Also, look in the directions of hidden exits, containers, etc etc.

I don't think Warrior X would demolish Warrior Y with his extra edges. They're designed to add an extra aspect to the game and it's not necessarily one of power. For example, there's a druid edge that lets you sometimes try and poison someone when you cast the thorn spell at them. This is an inconvience, but it isn't going to demolish anyone.

As far as goods killing neutrals, I wouldn't really recommend it. Again, each imm has a different opinion on it. Just try and play your alignment. Ask yourself, If I was orderly good, would I think it's ok to mow down Tarus for his bracer?

Spheres are guidelines for RP. Their main function is for religion. An imm will generally not empower or tattoo you if you are not one of their spheres.

We request that people keep their OOC contacts to a minimum, and therefore would request that you not post your aim. Feel free to use the newbie channel liberally, it's been recently redone to allow higher level newbies to keep it.

Good luck!