Welcome.
First off, I recommend also reading into
http://www.moonsilver.de if you haven't done so yet. It's the source of background information to illarion, including the pantheon of Gods, the history, the descriptions of races, and some other interesting tidbits.
1) The Role-playing:
Yes, the central focus of this game is indeed role-playing.
The client is somewhat sub-par, from a technological viewpoint, so many things can't be done within the actual game, or are somewhat inhibited. However, this is not
meant to be a limitation, it's more due to the fact that the game is still in its Alpha phase. For example, things like sneaking, cloaking, ranger abilities, priest powers, animals to hunt, are not implemented in the game yet; character graphics won't even change if you equip different items. On the other hand though, you have possibilities to get around these limitations, for example the #me-command in-game, or by using the RPG section in this forum.
2) Gamemasters and their influence:
They answer questions, and offer help for technical support, mostly. The GMs have different responsibilities, but in general respect to role-playing, there are also currently four players with GM-Status who focus on role-playing itself (
click here).
The impact GMs have on the actual role-playing is still a critically acclaimed point, and is regularly debated (or sometimes, flamed, hehe) over in the General section of this forum.
3) The game world's size:
As it is now, the game plays only on a single island. It houses about four to eight major settlements, depending on how you look at it, but the largest of them would be the town in the center surface of the island named "Troll's Bane". Although the graphics don't support it (they are 2D and terrain is displayed as overall "flat), there is mostly forest and plains terrain, but there is also a swamp, a small desert, and some sprawling mountains in the north. The island is outlined by cliffs and beaches for the biggest part, and there is only one single dock for the whole island (ideas being that if someone comes to or leaves from the island, they take a boat from the docks to a trade ship on high sea). Other than that, you'll have it figured out soon that "the island" (without a name) is relatively large, especially as soon as you've seen its size in relation to the mainlands displayed on a map on Moonsilver.
However, this also means that the element of exploration and "dungeon crawls" is currently not present in the game. Elements of collective storytelling like travel are mostly dealt with in words within the RPG section of the forum. Classical "adventuring" is not really part of the game yet, instead, the setting tends to focus on the interactions and intrigues that take place on the island.
I discovered this game a few months ago, but only found the time to try it out recently so to ease my waiting time I would like to ask a few questions about the game. I hope that is agreeable for everyone. 
