diff --git a/evennia/accounts/accounts.py b/evennia/accounts/accounts.py
index 277cd64575..204ff93bf5 100644
--- a/evennia/accounts/accounts.py
+++ b/evennia/accounts/accounts.py
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ from evennia.comms.models import ChannelDB
 from evennia.commands import cmdhandler
 from evennia.utils import logger
 from evennia.utils.utils import (lazy_property,
-                                 make_iter, to_unicode, is_iter,
+                                 make_iter, is_iter,
                                  variable_from_module)
 from evennia.typeclasses.attributes import NickHandler
 from evennia.scripts.scripthandler import ScriptHandler
@@ -446,7 +446,6 @@ class DefaultAccount(with_metaclass(TypeclassBase, AccountDB)):
                 commands at run-time.
 
         """
-        raw_string = to_unicode(raw_string)
         raw_string = self.nicks.nickreplace(raw_string, categories=("inputline", "channel"), include_account=False)
         if not session and _MULTISESSION_MODE in (0, 1):
             # for these modes we use the first/only session
diff --git a/evennia/commands/cmdhandler.py b/evennia/commands/cmdhandler.py
index 91ad60cc54..bc98dd5748 100644
--- a/evennia/commands/cmdhandler.py
+++ b/evennia/commands/cmdhandler.py
@@ -46,7 +46,7 @@ from django.conf import settings
 from evennia.commands.command import InterruptCommand
 from evennia.comms.channelhandler import CHANNELHANDLER
 from evennia.utils import logger, utils
-from evennia.utils.utils import string_suggestions, to_unicode
+from evennia.utils.utils import string_suggestions
 
 from django.utils.translation import ugettext as _
 
@@ -618,8 +618,6 @@ def cmdhandler(called_by, raw_string, _testing=False, callertype="session", sess
         finally:
             _COMMAND_NESTING[called_by] -= 1
 
-    raw_string = to_unicode(raw_string, force_string=True)
-
     session, account, obj = session, None, None
     if callertype == "session":
         session = called_by
diff --git a/evennia/commands/default/account.py b/evennia/commands/default/account.py
index d09ab08b65..85a25a5cac 100644
--- a/evennia/commands/default/account.py
+++ b/evennia/commands/default/account.py
@@ -533,7 +533,7 @@ class CmdOption(COMMAND_DEFAULT_CLASS):
         def validate_encoding(new_encoding):
             # helper: change encoding
             try:
-                utils.to_str(utils.to_unicode("test-string"), encoding=new_encoding)
+                b"test-string".decode(new_encoding)
             except LookupError:
                 raise RuntimeError("The encoding '|w%s|n' is invalid. " % new_encoding)
             return val
diff --git a/evennia/commands/default/building.py b/evennia/commands/default/building.py
index 8e732fd1ef..a41bf872c1 100644
--- a/evennia/commands/default/building.py
+++ b/evennia/commands/default/building.py
@@ -1940,7 +1940,6 @@ class CmdExamine(ObjManipCommand):
             if not isinstance(value, str):
                 value = utils.to_str(value, force_string=True)
             value = utils.crop(value)
-            value = utils.to_unicode(value)
 
         string = "\n %s = %s" % (attr, value)
         string = raw(string)
diff --git a/evennia/commands/default/unloggedin.py b/evennia/commands/default/unloggedin.py
index 67e15dfd38..149fd03824 100644
--- a/evennia/commands/default/unloggedin.py
+++ b/evennia/commands/default/unloggedin.py
@@ -481,7 +481,7 @@ class CmdUnconnectedEncoding(COMMAND_DEFAULT_CLASS):
             old_encoding = self.session.protocol_flags.get("ENCODING", None)
             encoding = self.args
             try:
-                utils.to_str(utils.to_unicode("test-string"), encoding=encoding)
+                utils.to_str(b"test-string".decode(encoding))
             except LookupError:
                 string = "|rThe encoding '|w%s|r' is invalid. Keeping the previous encoding '|w%s|r'.|n"\
                          % (encoding, old_encoding)
diff --git a/evennia/contrib/mapbuilder.py b/evennia/contrib/mapbuilder.py
index 7d9b07d136..b4cc70778e 100644
--- a/evennia/contrib/mapbuilder.py
+++ b/evennia/contrib/mapbuilder.py
@@ -324,7 +324,7 @@ def build_map(caller, game_map, legend, iterations=1, build_exits=True):
             for x in range(len(game_map[y])):
                 for key in legend:
                     # obs - we must use == for unicode
-                    if utils.to_unicode(game_map[y][x]) == utils.to_unicode(key):
+                    if game_map[y][x] == key:
                         room = legend[key](x, y, iteration=iteration,
                                            room_dict=room_dict,
                                            caller=caller)
diff --git a/evennia/objects/manager.py b/evennia/objects/manager.py
index 22ef174636..a7c41b66bf 100644
--- a/evennia/objects/manager.py
+++ b/evennia/objects/manager.py
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ from django.db.models import Q
 from django.conf import settings
 from django.db.models.fields import exceptions
 from evennia.typeclasses.managers import TypedObjectManager, TypeclassManager
-from evennia.utils.utils import to_unicode, is_iter, make_iter, string_partial_matching
+from evennia.utils.utils import is_iter, make_iter, string_partial_matching
 from builtins import int
 
 __all__ = ("ObjectManager",)
@@ -72,7 +72,7 @@ class ObjectDBManager(TypedObjectManager):
             match (Object or list): One or more matching results.
 
         """
-        ostring = to_unicode(ostring).lstrip('*')
+        ostring = str(ostring).lstrip('*')
         # simplest case - search by dbref
         dbref = self.dbref(ostring)
         if dbref:
@@ -196,8 +196,6 @@ class ObjectDBManager(TypedObjectManager):
             typeclasses (list, optional): List of typeclass-path strings to restrict matches with
 
         """
-        if isinstance(property_value, str):
-            property_value = to_unicode(property_value)
         if isinstance(property_name, str):
             if not property_name.startswith('db_'):
                 property_name = "db_%s" % property_name
diff --git a/evennia/objects/objects.py b/evennia/objects/objects.py
index d7095012e7..0fc7f2f5aa 100644
--- a/evennia/objects/objects.py
+++ b/evennia/objects/objects.py
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ from evennia.commands import cmdhandler
 from evennia.utils import search
 from evennia.utils import logger
 from evennia.utils.utils import (variable_from_module, lazy_property,
-                                 make_iter, to_unicode, is_iter)
+                                 make_iter, is_iter)
 from django.utils.translation import ugettext as _
 
 _MULTISESSION_MODE = settings.MULTISESSION_MODE
@@ -479,7 +479,6 @@ class DefaultObject(with_metaclass(TypeclassBase, ObjectDB)):
         """
         # nick replacement - we require full-word matching.
         # do text encoding conversion
-        raw_string = to_unicode(raw_string)
         raw_string = self.nicks.nickreplace(raw_string, categories=("inputline", "channel"), include_account=True)
         return cmdhandler.cmdhandler(self, raw_string, callertype="object", session=session, **kwargs)
 
diff --git a/evennia/server/inputfuncs.py b/evennia/server/inputfuncs.py
index 6d852767af..9ed439ae13 100644
--- a/evennia/server/inputfuncs.py
+++ b/evennia/server/inputfuncs.py
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ from django.conf import settings
 from evennia.commands.cmdhandler import cmdhandler
 from evennia.accounts.models import AccountDB
 from evennia.utils.logger import log_err
-from evennia.utils.utils import to_str, to_unicode
+from evennia.utils.utils import to_str
 
 BrowserSessionStore = importlib.import_module(settings.SESSION_ENGINE).SessionStore
 
@@ -176,7 +176,7 @@ def client_options(session, *args, **kwargs):
     def validate_encoding(val):
         # helper: change encoding
         try:
-            to_str(to_unicode("test-string"), encoding=val)
+            b"test-string".decode(val)
         except LookupError:
             raise RuntimeError("The encoding '|w%s|n' is invalid. " % val)
         return val
diff --git a/evennia/server/sessionhandler.py b/evennia/server/sessionhandler.py
index 4caf0c8b1e..8d58ca9a19 100644
--- a/evennia/server/sessionhandler.py
+++ b/evennia/server/sessionhandler.py
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ from django.conf import settings
 from evennia.commands.cmdhandler import CMD_LOGINSTART
 from evennia.utils.logger import log_trace
 from evennia.utils.utils import (variable_from_module, is_iter,
-                                 to_str, to_unicode,
+                                 to_str,
                                  make_iter,
                                  callables_from_module)
 from evennia.utils.inlinefuncs import parse_inlinefunc
diff --git a/evennia/typeclasses/managers.py b/evennia/typeclasses/managers.py
index 7bd2a406ad..45d9e40618 100644
--- a/evennia/typeclasses/managers.py
+++ b/evennia/typeclasses/managers.py
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ all Attributes and TypedObjects).
 import shlex
 from django.db.models import Q
 from evennia.utils import idmapper
-from evennia.utils.utils import make_iter, variable_from_module, to_unicode
+from evennia.utils.utils import make_iter, variable_from_module
 
 __all__ = ("TypedObjectManager", )
 _GA = object.__getattribute__
@@ -494,7 +494,7 @@ class TypeclassManager(TypedObjectManager):
 
         """
         # shlex splits by spaces unless escaped by quotes
-        querysplit = shlex.split(to_unicode(query, force_string=True))
+        querysplit = shlex.split(query)
         queries, plustags, plusattrs, negtags, negattrs = [], [], [], [], []
         for ipart, part in enumerate(querysplit):
             key, rest = part, ""
diff --git a/evennia/utils/ansi.py b/evennia/utils/ansi.py
index a63a11a2db..d55191c039 100644
--- a/evennia/utils/ansi.py
+++ b/evennia/utils/ansi.py
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ from django.conf import settings
 from evennia.utils import utils
 from evennia.utils import logger
 
-from evennia.utils.utils import to_str, to_unicode
+from evennia.utils.utils import to_str
 from future.utils import with_metaclass
 
 
@@ -690,7 +690,7 @@ class ANSIString(with_metaclass(ANSIMeta, str)):
             decoded = True
         if not decoded:
             # Completely new ANSI String
-            clean_string = to_unicode(parser.parse_ansi(string, strip_ansi=True, mxp=True))
+            clean_string = parser.parse_ansi(string, strip_ansi=True, mxp=True)
             string = parser.parse_ansi(string, xterm256=True, mxp=True)
         elif clean_string is not None:
             # We have an explicit clean string.
diff --git a/evennia/utils/evform.py b/evennia/utils/evform.py
index dfa5cb3729..7685bc22d2 100644
--- a/evennia/utils/evform.py
+++ b/evennia/utils/evform.py
@@ -140,7 +140,7 @@ from builtins import object, range
 import re
 import copy
 from evennia.utils.evtable import EvCell, EvTable
-from evennia.utils.utils import all_from_module, to_str, to_unicode, is_iter
+from evennia.utils.utils import all_from_module, to_str, is_iter
 from evennia.utils.ansi import ANSIString
 
 # non-valid form-identifying characters (which can thus be
@@ -164,7 +164,7 @@ def _to_ansi(obj, regexable=False):
     elif is_iter(obj):
         return [_to_ansi(o) for o in obj]
     else:
-        return ANSIString(to_unicode(obj), regexable=regexable)
+        return ANSIString(obj, regexable=regexable)
 
 
 class EvForm(object):
@@ -407,7 +407,7 @@ class EvForm(object):
         self.tablechar = tablechar[0] if len(tablechar) > 1 else tablechar
 
         # split into a list of list of lines. Form can be indexed with form[iy][ix]
-        self.raw_form = _to_ansi(to_unicode(datadict.get("FORM", "")).split("\n"))
+        self.raw_form = _to_ansi(datadict.get("FORM", "").split("\n"))
         # strip first line
         self.raw_form = self.raw_form[1:] if self.raw_form else self.raw_form
 
diff --git a/evennia/utils/evtable.py b/evennia/utils/evtable.py
index 10881e4bb0..95d2762459 100644
--- a/evennia/utils/evtable.py
+++ b/evennia/utils/evtable.py
@@ -120,7 +120,7 @@ from future.utils import listitems
 from django.conf import settings
 from textwrap import TextWrapper
 from copy import deepcopy, copy
-from evennia.utils.utils import to_unicode, m_len, is_iter
+from evennia.utils.utils import m_len, is_iter
 from evennia.utils.ansi import ANSIString
 
 _DEFAULT_WIDTH = settings.CLIENT_DEFAULT_WIDTH
@@ -137,7 +137,7 @@ def _to_ansi(obj):
     if is_iter(obj):
         return [_to_ansi(o) for o in obj]
     else:
-        return ANSIString(to_unicode(obj))
+        return ANSIString(obj)
 
 
 _unicode = str
diff --git a/evennia/utils/utils.py b/evennia/utils/utils.py
index f083c19bcf..56514d90a7 100644
--- a/evennia/utils/utils.py
+++ b/evennia/utils/utils.py
@@ -96,7 +96,6 @@ def wrap(text, width=_DEFAULT_WIDTH, indent=0):
     """
     if not text:
         return ""
-    text = to_unicode(text)
     indent = " " * indent
     return to_str(textwrap.fill(text, width, initial_indent=indent, subsequent_indent=indent))
 
@@ -149,14 +148,13 @@ def crop(text, width=_DEFAULT_WIDTH, suffix="[...]"):
 
     """
 
-    utext = to_unicode(text)
-    ltext = len(utext)
+    ltext = len(text)
     if ltext <= width:
         return text
     else:
         lsuffix = len(suffix)
-        utext = utext[:width] if lsuffix >= width else "%s%s" % (utext[:width - lsuffix], suffix)
-        return to_str(utext)
+        text = text[:width] if lsuffix >= width else "%s%s" % (text[:width - lsuffix], suffix)
+        return to_str(text)
 
 
 def dedent(text):
@@ -702,44 +700,6 @@ def latinify(unicode_string, default='?', pure_ascii=False):
     return ''.join(converted)
 
 
-def to_unicode(obj, encoding='utf-8', force_string=False):
-    """
-    This function is deprecated in the Python 3 version of Evennia and is
-    likely to be phased out in future releases.
-
-    ---
-    This decodes a suitable object to the unicode format.
-
-    Args:
-        obj (any): Object to decode to unicode.
-        encoding (str, optional): The encoding type to use for the
-            dedoding.
-        force_string (bool, optional): Always convert to string, no
-            matter what type `obj` is initially.
-
-    Returns:
-        result (unicode or any): Will return a unicode object if input
-            was a string. If input was not a string, the original will be
-            returned unchanged unless `force_string` is also set.
-
-    Notes:
-        One needs to encode the obj back to utf-8 before writing to disk
-        or printing. That non-string objects are let through without
-        conversion is important for e.g. Attributes.
-
-    """
-
-    if isinstance(obj, (str, bytes, )):
-        return obj
-
-    if force_string:
-        # some sort of other object. Try to
-        # convert it to a string representation.
-        obj = str(obj)
-
-    return obj
-
-
 def to_str(obj, encoding='utf-8', force_string=False):
     """
     This function is deprecated in the Python 3 version of Evennia and is