The /level command was added to the game in patch 1.62 to reward players who have achieved level 50 on their "main" character. Players can activate their "Free Character" flag by first logging into their main level 50 character, then players can log in characters under level 20 and use the /level command in capital cities to grant their characters the free experience needed to level to 20.

What's this I hear about free level 30's?

We are aware that, on some of our servers, underpopulation of a realm is a significant issue. To encourage people to move to and play on these realms, the /level command on the most severely underpopulated realms will grant experience to reach level 30 (for any characters you may have on that server that are under level 30).

We want to emphasize that there are no "quick and easy" solutions for fixing underpopulated realms. We will be monitoring the active populations of these servers, and we will keep you posted as to whether a particular realm is a "/level 20" or a "/level 30."

These underpopulated realms will be frequently updated. You can view a list of underpopulated realms on the State of the Realm section of the Camelot Herald.

Do "Free Characters" get money or items?

With the /level command, a system has been added to equip the newly high leveled characters with some base equipment. The following NPCs will be able to assist you in obtaining these items.

Camelot: Hadreth, Assistant Wells, Galaris Pritchard, and Lucia Pritchard.

Tir na Nog: Carraent, Aetheonyc, Rhyryn, Gwucyn, Somyr, and Caryan

Jordheim: Gair and Kelleher

Details from 1.62 Patch Notes:

Starting with 1.62, Dark Age of Camelot will support "creating new mid-level (20th level) characters for those players who have attained 50th level on any character on any server. In addition, we've flagged certain Realms on some servers as "underpopulated" - on those Realms, if you are eligible to use the /level command, you'll be able to create a new 30th level character."

Below, you'll find a list of realms where the /level flag will be set to 30, instead of 20. These are all realms that we have determined suffer from extraordinary population imbalances. Read on:

We aren't going to publish the method for how we determine the line between the normal ebb and flow of a server and a true population imbalance. There are several reasons for this decision, but one of the major ones is that we don't want to create a situation where people might be tempted to manipulate the system just to get free level 30s. That's not a good idea for a number of reasons (not least being that it won't work - we're looking for statistical patterns, not simple temporary anomalies), so we will attempt to avoid the problem altogether. The expected raft of new level 30 characters won't be enough to bump a server off the list either, by the way - we know that server population is not something that will be a quick fix.

Rest assured that many factors go into the decision to place a realm/server on this list. We will continue to monitor server populations, and update the list as needed. There is no "minimum" number of spots on this list, and indeed, we hope to see the day where this list has no entries but for Pendragon.

We are still discussing options for Andred. Andred may appear on this list, or we may choose another option in regards to its population. We are aware of the population problem on that server, though, and I don't want you to think we're ignoring it!

Side note - we know that many customers enjoy the battlegrounds, and plan to use the free characters as a means by which they can speed up their entry into these areas. We would like to point out that a server with a decided population imbalance will not be the best one in which to seek a battleground experience. We recommend going to a realm (that has not been designated as unbalanced) for /level 20 battleground action, or better yet, to Pendragon - a server that will always have the flag set to /level 30.

Thanks for reading! And now, the list you've been waiting for. In alphabetical order, players with at least one level 50 character may create level 30 alternate characters in the following realm/servers:

Bedevere - Midgard
Bors - Albion
Bors - Hibernia
Galahad - Hibernia
Galahad - Midgard
Gawaine - Midgard
Igraine - Midgard
Lancelot - Hibernia
Lancelot - Midgard
Merlin - Hibernia
Palomides - Hibernia
Palomides - Midgard
Percival - Hibernia

(This list will be located at http://www.camelotherald.com/realms/index.php)

A quick note - in order to use the new /level command, you will need to log in your level 50 character. You can log right back out, just pop in to get your account flagged by our system.