diff --git a/evennia/server/portal/telnet.py b/evennia/server/portal/telnet.py
index 4112d85e2a..86199ae4ac 100644
--- a/evennia/server/portal/telnet.py
+++ b/evennia/server/portal/telnet.py
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ _RE_LEND = re.compile(r"\n$|\r$|\r\n$|\r\x00$|", re.MULTILINE)
 _RE_LINEBREAK = re.compile(r"\n\r|\r\n|\n|\r", re.DOTALL + re.MULTILINE)
 _RE_SCREENREADER_REGEX = re.compile(r"%s" % settings.SCREENREADER_REGEX_STRIP, re.DOTALL + re.MULTILINE)
 _IDLE_COMMAND = settings.IDLE_COMMAND + "\n"
-
+_TELNET_ENCODING = settings.TELNET_ENCODING
 
 class TelnetProtocol(Telnet, StatefulTelnetProtocol, Session):
     """
@@ -49,7 +49,8 @@ class TelnetProtocol(Telnet, StatefulTelnetProtocol, Session):
         # this number is counted down for every handshake that completes.
         # when it reaches 0 the portal/server syncs their data
         self.handshakes = 8  # suppress-go-ahead, naws, ttype, mccp, mssp, msdp, gmcp, mxp
-        self.init_session(self.protocol_name, client_address, self.factory.sessionhandler)
+        self.init_session(self.protocol_name, client_address, self.factory.sessionhandler,
+                override_flags={"ENCODING": _TELNET_ENCODING})
 
         # suppress go-ahead
         self.sga = suppress_ga.SuppressGA(self)
diff --git a/evennia/server/session.py b/evennia/server/session.py
index 70be0708d7..dc816ee59b 100644
--- a/evennia/server/session.py
+++ b/evennia/server/session.py
@@ -41,7 +41,7 @@ class Session(object):
                       'conn_time', 'cmd_last', 'cmd_last_visible', 'cmd_total',
                       'protocol_flags', 'server_data', "cmdset_storage_string")
 
-    def init_session(self, protocol_key, address, sessionhandler):
+    def init_session(self, protocol_key, address, sessionhandler, override_flags=None):
         """
         Initialize the Session. This should be called by the protocol when
         a new session is established.
@@ -52,6 +52,7 @@ class Session(object):
             address (str): Client address.
             sessionhandler (SessionHandler): Reference to the
                 main sessionhandler instance.
+        override_flags (optional, dict): a dictionary of protocol flags to override.
 
         """
         # This is currently 'telnet', 'ssh', 'ssl' or 'web'
@@ -87,6 +88,10 @@ class Session(object):
                                "INPUTDEBUG": False,
                                "RAW": False,
                                "NOCOLOR": False}
+
+        if override_flags:
+            self.protocol_flags.update(override_flags)
+
         self.server_data = {}
 
         # map of input data to session methods
diff --git a/evennia/settings_default.py b/evennia/settings_default.py
index fd213d333d..bb8e07fe44 100644
--- a/evennia/settings_default.py
+++ b/evennia/settings_default.py
@@ -166,6 +166,12 @@ IDLE_TIMEOUT = -1
 # command-name is given here; this is because the webclient needs a default
 # to send to avoid proxy timeouts.
 IDLE_COMMAND = "idle"
+# The encoding (character set) specific to Telnet. This will not influence
+# other encoding settings: namely, the webclient, the website, the
+# database encoding will remain (utf-8 by default).  This setting only
+# affects the telnet encoding and will be overridden by user settings
+# (through one of their client's supported protocol or their account options).
+TELNET_ENCODING = "utf-8"
 # The set of encodings tried. An Account object may set an attribute "encoding" on
 # itself to match the client used. If not set, or wrong encoding is
 # given, this list is tried, in order, aborting on the first match.