Divine Favor
Contents
Divine Favor
Long have the peoples of Aerynth have looked to the Gods for guidance, but their prayers have gone unheeded. At last some of the Lost Gods stir again, and new demi-gods offer their favor to the scattered nations of the Age of Strife. Which would-be God will they follow? New altars arise in the cities, and quests have begun for the precious treasures the Gods demand as offerings. The peoples of Aerynth look to Gods new and old – how will the rise of the Upstart Gods reshape the shattered fragments of Aerynth?
The Divine Favor system is designed to make successful city building more important as well as add a new play activity to the game. City owners can place up to three of these shrines in their city and guild members can sacrifice offerings at shrines that match their own that are elsewhere in the world. This will raise their city's stature.
Favor is gathered by conquering enemy cities and killing monsters. City members who are of that race or class may get a powerful enchantment, called a boon, and the size of the boon will be based upon how much favor the guild has collected.
Purchasing a Shrine
Shrines can be purchased off of builders. Racial shrines require an R1 builder, and class shrines require an R3 builder. They have a base cost of 250-300K gold. Each shrine will correspond to one and only one race or class.
Building a Shrine
Only guildmasters can place shrines, and shrines may only be placed on the guild's city grid. You may not have two of the same shrines in a city. Also, the number of shrines your city may possess is based upon the rank of the Tree of Life.
- Rank 3 ToL for 1st Shrine
- Rank 5 ToL for 2nd Shrine
- Rank 7 ToL for 3rd Shrine
Shrines are large, visually distinct and very cool looking. There are no race-class limitations on shrines, however, as the race and class boons stack, it is advisable to choose a shrine where the race and class are compatible (Temple guilds will want the Human, Templar and Confessor shrines for maximum bang for buck).
Destroying Shrines
City leaders will be able to destroy their shrine (if say, the stated purpose of their guild changes). Once destroyed, any favor spent on those shrines is considered lost.
Offerings
Offerings are objects found throughout the world which have value when offered to a shrine. Different offerings have different values at different shrines – for example, the Relic of St Lorne is worth 10 points at a Crusader shrine, 5 points at a Prelate shrine, and no points at a Templar shrine (the shrine won't take it). Guilds are advised to form trade alliances in order to maximize offering output.
Offerings are otherwise normal objects, and can be stolen, traded or junked.
Gaining Offerings
Offerings are available in three ways:
- Monster drops
- Conquering an enemy city with a shrine (see looting shrines, below)
- Killing or stealing from someone who is carrying an offering.
Sacrificing Offerings
You can only sacrifice an offering at a shrine where that offering has a favor score. If you do so, your shrine's score will increase by the value that offering grants to that Shrine (in the example above, the Relic of St Lorne grants 10 points to a crusader shrine).
Boons
Boons are enchantments that are granted by shrines. You must be a citizen of that city to get a boon, and you must match the race or class denoted by the shrine as well. These boons will be powerful boons that may well turn the tide of battle. Class boons will be slightly more powerful than racial ones.
Boons last about 1 to 2 hours, to encourage players to revisit their cities periodically. Boons are very substantial – players with boons will have a dramatic advantage over those who do not. Boons cannot be dispelled by standard enchantment dispelling means, but they do fade upon the player's death (as most enchantments do).
Boons stack with all current enchantments. Racial and class boons stack with each other – the most successful cities will have compatible race and class boons.
Players access the boon by talking to the Votary, an emissary of devotion which must be slotted into the Shrine for it to offer its boon.
Boon Quality
Boon quality will be adjusted as follows:
Shrines that have the most favor on their server for that shrine type (i.e. the best Crusader shrine in the land) will get the boon cast at 100%. Shrines below first place will take a penalty to the enchantment effectiveness, with higher ranked shrines offering more benefit.
The shrine bonuses are more substantial for the base (nation) guild.
Looting Shrines
A shrine can only be destroyed if the tree of life protecting it is destroyed. Once the shrine is in a 'destroyed' state, it is then lootable. A corresponding number of Super-Offerings are created a can be looted by any nearby player– these offerings will be 'generic' offerings that can be offered at any Shrine, so looting an enemy shrine is always a good deal!
There are no limitations on who can loot a shrine. Be sure that your guild is around a shrine when a city falls, and be prepared to kill interlopers!
Leader Board
Players can open an interface at any time that tells which guilds have the top favor scores for each shrine type.
Favor Decay
Once per day, the two leading shrine of each shrine type loses 10% of their standing. This is to ensure that newer guilds can always compete in the system.
