We have just completed a total overhaul of the shrine system. The
changes should be obvious from reading HELP SHRINES and HELP DIVINE
RELATIONS, but I'll spell them out for you here too as they are quite
complex.

Firstly the simpler thing: Divine Relations. This system allows Gods to
declare their Orders as either bonded or enemies of each other. This is
not a change to be taken lightly, as it affects ALL shrine powers and
any future order powers that affect more than just the order itself
(marriage may change for bonded orders soon). Essentially, bonded orders
are allies, almost like brothers, and each order can only be bonded to
one other order, and orders with emnity between them are pretty much at
war. All positive area-wide shrine powers will help both order members
and allies (members of a bonded order) and all negative area-wide shrine
powers will hurt both official enemies (enemies declared with
orderbrand) and any members of orders with emnity between them.

Now the actual shrine changes themselves are more complex. Firstly,
there are no longer areas of influence with shrines, all shrine powers
are either personal-range or area-range. Shrines can now have
"sanctified rooms", which are rooms adjacent to the shrine, and adjacent
to any other sanctified rooms. A certain number of sanctified rooms will
be required for certain shrine powers, with a maximum number of 15
sanctified rooms per shrine. They also help to protect the shrine from
defilement, as you have to defile all the sanctified rooms (from
outwards in) before you can defile the shrine.

A change in offering is that while gold can be offered for essence (just
OFFER GOLD at a shrine), it can no longer be used for defiling or
sanctifying shrines or rooms.

Personal and area powers work in this way - personal powers only affect
the person who activated them, area powers affect all order enemies (in
the case of offensive powers) or all order members and allies (in the
case of defensive powers) in the local area. NOT the sanctified rooms,
but the entire area.

Another new feature is that there are three types of shrine - War,
Healing and Shield. War shrines are offensive, battle shrines with
aggressive powers, healing shrines are for, well, healing, and shield
shrines are for "buffs" and defences. Only one shrine of any type can be
in an area at a time per order. That means that if for example your
order already has a shield shrine in the area, you cannot erect another
shield shrine.

Each type of shrine can activate different powers, as listed in HELP
SHRINES. Who can access what shrine powers are configured by your
patron, just like all other order powers.

Shrines can also now only be used when they are fully sanctified
(sanctified rooms don't matter, they can be fully sanctified or only up
by 1 essence, it only matters in terms of security for them). Shrines
can also only be erected in villages and cities/communes when the order
erecting's patron is a member of the Divine Consulate of that
city/commune or village's controlling city/commune. Shrines erected in
villages are also destroyed when the village goes into play, so choose
carefully if you want to put them there.

I -think- that's all you need to know, but this was a rather large
project by the end so there may be things I've missed out on. There is a
power for War shrines that has not yet been released, due to it
requiring some setup by the Gods, but it will be around soon. I will
also be starting a thread in the forums to talk about balancing the
shrines, as there are many, many variables involved including eq times,
essence costs, sanctified room requirements and so on.


Penned by My hand on the 8th of Urlachmar, in the year 145 CE.