1. What Helbreath Evolution is, and what it is not
Helbreath Evolution is a community-run, non-commercial revival of Helbreath, a pre-existing MMORPG. This project did not create Helbreath and claims no ownership over it. Helbreath and its original content are the property of their respective rights holders.
Three separate layers exist in this software, and they do not belong to the same people:
- The underlying game — Helbreath, its original artwork, world, names and design. Property of its respective rights holders. Not claimed by us.
- The engine base and third-party libraries — the reimplementation this project builds on, and the open-source libraries it uses. Authored by third parties, under their own licences. Not claimed by us.
- The original contributions of Helbreath Evolution — the artwork, animation, visual effects, data, text, systems and code that this project created and that did not exist before. This layer now includes the entire visual presentation of the game: the artwork this client ships has been remastered by us, end to end, and it is that remastered artwork — not any predecessor's — that you see on screen. These are ours, and these are what section 4 protects.
We state this plainly because it is true and because we do not want to claim anything we did not make. A full inventory of the original contributions is published in the NOTICE file distributed with this project's source.
2. Accepting these terms
By downloading, installing or using the launcher or the game client, by creating an account, or by using the website, you accept these terms. If you do not accept them, do not install the client and do not create an account.
If you are under the age of majority where you live, you may only use the service with the consent of a parent or legal guardian.
3. Your licence to use the client
We grant you a personal, limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable and revocable licence to install and run the launcher and the game client for one purpose: to connect to, and play on, the official Helbreath Evolution servers.
The client is licensed, not sold. No ownership transfers to you. Everything not expressly granted here is reserved, and this licence ends automatically if you break section 4 or if your account is terminated.
4. The artwork in this client is our own work, and it is protected
4.1 Every asset this client ships has been remastered by us
The Helbreath Evolution client does not distribute any predecessor's artwork. The whole visual presentation of the game has been remastered by this project — the terrain and floor tiles, the map objects, the creature and NPC sprite sheets together with every frame of their idle, walk, attack and death animations, the player bodies, hair, clothing and equipment, the spell, status and impact effects, the item art in each of its bag, ground, equipped and worn views, and the interface artwork. Every sheet was re-authored at high definition through our own pipeline and then reprocessed, recomposited, re-pivoted and repacked by tooling we wrote for the purpose. It represents thousands of hours of work, sheet by sheet and frame by frame, and it is the reason this client looks the way it does.
That remastering is an original work of authorship, and it is ours. Where a remastered asset occupies the same slot as, or was built to stay compatible with, pre-existing content, our rights attach to the new expression we contributed — the actual pixels, silhouettes, shading, colour, timing and animation that ship in this client. Those are not a predecessor's pixels, they are not unclaimed, and they are not in the public domain.
The practical consequence is the one that matters here. There is no artwork in this client that is free for the taking. "It is just old Helbreath art" is not a true statement about anything we distribute, and it is not a defence. Every sheet that could be extracted from this client is a sheet we authored, and we can show when and by whom.
4.2 The assets are protected by a technical measure
This artwork is distributed inside an encrypted asset container format of our own, under keys we control. That container is a technological measure protecting a copyrighted work. Breaking it, decrypting it, dumping what is inside it, or writing, publishing or sharing the tools, keys or instructions that let someone else do so, is a separate wrong from copying the artwork: in many jurisdictions circumventing such a measure is unlawful on its own, whether or not a single asset is ever redistributed afterwards. We treat it that way, and we will pursue the tool and the person who published it, not only whoever used it.
4.3 What you may not do
This section applies to the original contributions described in section 1 and in 4.1 — the work this project created. Without our prior written permission, you may not:
- Extract assets. Extract, rip, dump, capture or otherwise recover artwork, animation, audio, data or text from the client, from its asset containers, from its memory, or from its graphics pipeline — including by means of frame or texture capture tools.
- Reverse engineer the asset format. Reverse engineer, decrypt, decompile or circumvent the asset container format used by the client, its encryption, its keys, or any technical measure that protects it; or write, publish, distribute or share tools, keys, documentation or instructions that do so.
- Redistribute the artwork. Copy, publish, mirror, upload, sell or otherwise distribute the original contributions, in whole or in part, in original or modified form, whether or not for profit.
- Use the assets on other servers. Use the original contributions in any other game server, client, emulator, mod, product or service, public or private.
- Remove attribution. Remove, alter or obscure copyright notices, watermarks or other authorship markings, including markings that are not visible during normal play.
Recolouring, rescaling, re-encoding, cropping, mirroring, running an asset through a filter or an upscaler, or otherwise modifying it does not create a new work free of our rights, and does not make any of the above permitted. Neither does using our artwork as the input or the training material for a further derivation. The test is whether our expression is recognisable in the result, not how many passes it went through on the way.
4.4 How we identify our work, and what we do about it
We are not guessing when we say an asset is ours. Every remastered sheet exists in a dated version-control history with a content hash and an independently recorded push timestamp, so the date we held a given asset is a matter of record rather than of assertion. Part of the artwork additionally carries authorship markings that are not visible during normal play and that survive copying, repackaging and extraction from the container; the scheme is deliberately not published. For artwork produced with the help of generative tooling we retain the source material and the generation records behind it. Taken together, these let us demonstrate authorship of a specific sheet on a specific date.
Where we find our artwork on another server, in another client, in a mod, in an asset pack or offered for sale, we will act on it — including takedown notices to hosts, distribution platforms, payment providers and search engines, and any other remedy available to us. We would much rather be asked first: permission is free to request, and it is sometimes granted.
Nothing in this section restricts uses that the law permits regardless of a rights holder's wishes — interoperability rights, quotation, fair use or fair dealing where those apply. This section states our position; it does not, and cannot, override the law. Fan art, screenshots, streams and videos of you playing are welcome and are not what this section is about.
5. Your account
You are responsible for your account and for keeping its password secret. Do not share, sell, trade or transfer accounts. We may suspend or close an account that is used to break these terms, to harm other players, or to attack the service.
We store the minimum needed to run the game and the account-recovery flow. The distribution and website servers keep access logs, including IP addresses, to keep the service working and to detect abuse.
6. Fair play
You may not use cheats, bots, automation, memory editors, modified clients, packet manipulation or exploits, and you may not attack, overload or attempt to gain unauthorised access to our servers or to other players' accounts. Abusing a bug instead of reporting it is treated the same as cheating.
7. Coins, items and the Cash Shop
In-game currency, coins, items and characters are part of the service. They have no monetary value outside the game, they are not your property, and they cannot be exchanged for money. If you purchase coins, you are paying for a limited licence to use them inside the game; the purchase is final except where the law grants you a right to a refund.
Content, prices and game balance can change, and virtual items can be adjusted, removed or reset as part of running a live game.
8. The service is provided as is
Helbreath Evolution is run by volunteers and is provided as is, without warranty of any kind. We do not promise that the game will be available, uninterrupted, free of bugs, or that progress and data will never be lost. To the fullest extent the law allows, we are not liable for any loss arising from your use of the service. Nothing here limits liability that cannot be limited by law.
9. Suspension and termination
We may suspend or terminate your access if you break these terms. You may stop using the service at any time by uninstalling the client. When your access ends, the licence in section 3 ends with it and you must delete your copy of the client.
10. Changes to these terms
We may update these terms. The current version and its effective date are always shown at the top of this page. Continuing to play after a change means you accept the updated terms; the version in force is the one published here.
11. Contact
To request permission, to report infringement of the original contributions described in section 1, or to dispute anything stated on this page, write to [email protected], or reach us on our Discord.
If you believe this page overreaches — in particular if you hold rights in the underlying game or in the engine base — please write to us. The scope stated here is meant to be honest, and we will correct it if it is not.