Factions

Three lieges fight over Meridian: Duke Akardius, Princess Kateriina and the rebel Jonas D'Accor. Serving one makes your magic or your sword stronger, opens their quests and campaigns, and, if you choose to wear their shield, puts you in the Faction War.

The three lieges#

Each liege makes their own people stronger:

• The Duke: stronger spells and faster learning in Qor and Riija, faster health and mana, and less tiring.
• The Princess: stronger spells and faster learning in Shal'ille and Faren, much faster mana, better defence, and 5% off in shops.
• Jonas: stronger spells and faster learning in Kraanan and Jala, faster learning of skills, harder and truer weapon blows, and faster health.

These bonuses grow with the liege's power in the land, the flagpoles and council tokens they hold, and shrink when a liege has far more followers than the others. Players with no liege get small bonuses of their own.

Joining#

To join you must have no liege and be of interest to the royal court: 50 base health, or a level-5 spell known to 40% or more. The court writes to you when you are.

Then do your chosen liege's joining quest (it needs 50 base health), or hand them a council token:

• The Duke's Trust: bring the Duke a ruby.
• A Letter for the Crown: carry the Princess's letter to Priestess Xiana.
• Arms for the Rebellion: bring Jonas a scimitar.

Not sure which? In Cor Noth, Rook sends new adventurers to meet all three (A Lesson from Rook).

Membership never lapses: you stay sworn until you choose otherwise.

Changing sides#

There's no resigning by command. Handing a council token to Priestess Xiana releases you from your liege, and handing one to another liege swears you to them instead, unless that liege is already far the strongest.

Leaving cuts your renown to 40 if it's higher and costs you your soldier's shield, and a Champion's Gift goes back. Your war record stays, and the renown you keep goes with you to your next liege. If you come back, you can earn the liege's shield again with their soldier quest.

Renown#

Renown, from 0 to 100, is your standing with your liege. It never fades, but leaving or changing sides cuts it to 40 if it's higher.

You earn it by:

• quests: 10 for the soldier quest, 3 for each of your liege's zone quests (the orc caves, Ko'catan for the Princess and Jonas, Brax, the bandits and Berg, the crypts and the oasis), 2 for each favour and for finding your liege's priestess, 3 for each ground daily, and 5 to 15 for each campaign act;
• battles: 5 for a win, 2 for a loss;
• claiming a flagpole: 3;
• a council token brought to a councillor or your liege: 3;
• one of Roq's contracts: 3;
• the war: 1 for each enemy soldier you kill, and 1 for every 10 of a rival liege's troops, up to 5 a day, while you wear your shield.

You lose it for a war death (1), for attacking your own side (10, at most once a minute, and at 0 renown you're thrown out), and for letting a Champion's Gift starve (10).

The soldier's shield#

Your liege's soldier quest gives you their shield: kill a soldier of each rival liege, then report back.

• A Soldier of the Duke
• A Soldier of the Crown
• A Soldier of the Rebellion

Worn, every liege's shield makes you hardier as your rank rises, and each adds one gift in its liege's style:

A shield turns aside between a third and all of that much from each blow, none of a spell's damage, and two thirds as much from a blow that's partly magic. It needs no Block skill. The shields no longer raise your stats. It weighs nothing. The temples can mark it with their god's sign as they do a guild shield, but only for its looks: it gives no spellpower.

A guild shield gives a guild member much the same, by their guild's prestige; the Guilds guide compares the two. You carry one shield at a time, and only the soldier's shield puts you in the war.

Wearing the shield is how you join the Faction War. While it's on, soldiers of the rival lieges can attack you and you them. Take it off and they pass you by, though you can't take it off within two minutes of a fight with a player. You also need it on to claim flagpoles, carry faction flags and be paid for battles. It can't be dropped, traded or broken.

The Faction War#

Players never attack each other at random. They fight only:

• in the Faction War, when both wear rival soldiers' shields;
• in a war between two guilds that have both declared it;
• over a council token: someone sworn to a liege may attack a carrier from another side;
• in the arenas, the chaos zones and a Frenzy.

No one fights inside a guild hall. Names show who's who: orange for anyone sworn to a rival liege, red for a member of a guild at war with yours. An orange name only tells you their side: you can fight only if you both wear your shields.

A war death drops nothing and costs no experience, skills or spells. Your worn weapon, armour, helm and shield break instead (a smith can repair them), though soldier's and guild shields never break, you lose 1 renown, and for 10 minutes rival players can't attack you while you regroup. Attacking an enemy soldier, or joining a battle, ends it early.

No easy kills. A kill scores nothing if the killer has more than 30 more base health than the victim, or killed the same player in the last half hour.

Battles#

Every two hours the lieges fight over a flagpole: one liege's pole next to another's, or open ground between them. The armies are called 10 minutes before they gather, and the War button by your map glows while a battle is on.

• Each side fields ten troops, a captain among them, and one more for each point of its liege's war effort, up to four.
• The armies take the field when someone arrives, the first soldier's army formed round them. A soldier who arrives after that, shield on, comes alone, unless they're on a campaign's battle or siege (Acts III and V): then three more of their liege's soldiers come with them.
• Kill the enemy captain, or the whole enemy army, within 20 minutes to win. If time runs out, the winner is drawn by lot, weighted by the health each army has left.
• The winner takes the pole. Every shielded soldier who fought is paid: a win is 5 renown and 1,000 shillings, a loss 2 renown and 250.

War effort comes from Roq's contracts and the ground dailies, a point each, up to four for each liege. It's spent on the next battle.

Watch it all in the War window: press J or type war. It shows your rank and renown, your record, the battle under way and the time to the next, the war effort, a map of every flagpole, the ledger of top soldiers and the last ten battles. The War button by your map glows while a battle is on; click it to open the window.

Flagpoles and towns#

You can claim a flagpole next to your liege's land, or one of your capital's own poles. Wear your shield, carry your liege's flag (a new one appears in your liege's hall every hour) and hold the pole for 8 minutes. Dying, leaving or dropping the flag ends the claim. A claimed pole is worth 3 renown, and a pole can be tried again half an hour after the last attempt.

Tos, Barloque, Jasper, Marion, Cor Noth and Raza each have poles around them. A liege who holds all of a town's poles holds the town:

• Occupation. The liege posts two sentries at the town's pole, and their people get 10% off in its shops.
• Celebration. Taking a town sets the capital and the town celebrating for an hour, and winning three battles in a row or winning a siege sets the capital celebrating: standards, revellers, 10% off in its shops, and a boon for members who come to the pole: intellect for the Duke's, agility for the Princess's, might for Jonas's.
• Mourning. A liege who loses a town lowers their flags to half-staff for two hours.
• The assault on the seat. A liege who takes a rival's own capital storms that rival's seat: everyone hears it, and 10 minutes later the armies meet there, at the Courtyard of Blackstone Keep for the Duke, the Bourgeois Castle for the Princess or the Temple of Kraanan for Jonas. The seat is held by its liege's guard, a quarter as many again as an army. There's no pole to take. Every shielded soldier on the winning side is paid 15 renown and 3,000 shillings, and their capital celebrates. A liege whose seat falls mourns for four hours, though their soldiers who fought for it are still paid as for a battle won. An assault nobody fights is held. Either way, the city then goes back to its liege.

Discounts add up: the Princess's people can pay 25% less in a town she holds while it celebrates.

Say ledger to your liege to hear the names of their ten best soldiers.

The campaigns#

Each liege has a five-act campaign, opened by their soldier quest. Each act needs more renown and health than the last, and pays more.

Act III asks you to win a battle and claim a pole. Act V is a siege: say march to your liege, and two minutes later an army gathers at a pole of the rival's capital. A siege takes no pole, but a win sets your capital celebrating.

Champion's Gifts#

With 100 renown (a Champion), 100 base health and your campaign's fifth act, the siege, done, say champion to your liege for their gift:

• The Duke: the Amulet of the Three, for spellcasters.
• The Princess: the Sword of the Hunt.
• Jonas: the Fist of Kraanan, dark iron gauntlets bound in gold.

A gift must be fed. It grows hungrier with every hour you play, and kills made near you feed it: rival troops and rival players most of all. Starve it and it returns to your liege, and you lose 10 renown.

Roq's contracts#

In a shadowy corner of the Barloque sewers, Roq has work for anyone sworn to a liege. Say contract, and he names an agent of a rival liege somewhere in the open lands and gives you a dagger: only it can harm them. Find the mark within an hour and strike until it lands four times. Each contract pays 3 renown, 1,000 shillings and a point of war effort, up to five a day. Say abandon contract to give one up.

Favours and dailies#

• Favours, every 12 hours: The Duke's Taxes, The Princess's Letters and Equipment for the Troops. Each pays 2 renown, training points and shillings.
• Ground dailies, every 24 hours once you have your shield: Ground for the Duke, Ground for the Crown and Ground for the Rebellion. Kill three of each rival liege's troops, then claim a flagpole, for 3 renown and a point of war effort.

Companions#

From 50 health your liege can give you a companion who fights beside you and carries a pack: the Duke a battle-mage, the Princess a spellsword, Jonas a war-priest.