Ishtaria
========

**Ishtaria** is an open-source, persistent, federated virtual planet of
roughly Earth's size, with comparable physics and a living ecosystem.

Players connect with a client, move freely and shape a fully customisable
avatar. The world starts as untouched wilderness: everything has to be
gathered, crafted, bought or bartered. Time keeps running while a player is
offline.

Anyone can run their own world. When the operators of two worlds agree, the
worlds are linked through **portals** that players build in-game.

.. toctree::
   :maxdepth: 2
   :caption: Overview

   vision
   world-overview
   gameplay
   quests-and-npcs
   roadmap
   glossary

.. toctree::
   :maxdepth: 2
   :caption: Architecture

   architecture/index
   architecture/server
   architecture/client
   architecture/simulation
   architecture/gathering
   architecture/trading
   architecture/story
   architecture/persistence

.. toctree::
   :maxdepth: 2
   :caption: Federation

   federation/index
   federation/agreement
   federation/portal-links
   federation/travel-ticket
   federation/items-and-economy

.. toctree::
   :maxdepth: 2
   :caption: Operating a world

   operations/installation
   operations/configuration
   operations/hardening
   operations/monitoring
   operations/backup

.. toctree::
   :maxdepth: 2
   :caption: Development

   development/repositories
   development/local-setup
   development/invariants
   development/server-tour
   development/client-tour
   development/cookbook
   development/audit-2026-11
   development/building-packages
   development/steam
   development/contributing

.. toctree::
   :maxdepth: 1
   :caption: Decision records

   decisions/index