Religion

The five faiths of the realm, how you are inducted into one, how their ranks work, and what tithing buys.

Five gods are served in the Five Realms, and each faith is a social structure in its own right: a channel, a ladder of ranks, a High Priest or High Priestess at the top of it, and a roster of the faithful. A character may serve one god at a time and one only, and leaving a faith is deliberately hard.

The Five Faiths#

Loralei is a faith of beauty, song, tides and gentle mysteries. Her followers often serve as healers, guides and keepers of lore, and the faith's themes are serenity, harmony, the sea and fate.

Kranos is a martial religion of battle, duty and honour through strength. Its followers protect the worthy and crush the corrupt, and its themes are war banners, oaths, victory and the proving of steel.

Sivaine is a harsh religion of endurance, suffering as strength, and ruthless discipline. Its followers hold that suffering refines the soul, and its themes are trials, scars, devotion and unwavering will.

Thalos is a storm and sky faith of judgment, lightning and hard truth. Its followers value clarity, order and the cleansing force of the storm, and its themes are thunder, law, divine punishment and purification.

Morbis is a religion of death, endings, memory and the quiet laws of the underworld. Its followers respect the boundary between life and death and preserve the legacy of the dead, and its themes are graves, silence, final rites and inevitability.

Ranks#

Each faith uses a single ladder of ten ranks, and most of them are reserved for a particular class. Two titles are shown differently depending on the character's gender but are the same rank underneath.

Repentant is the bottom of the ladder and is used as a punishment. Where a member enters depends on their class: a cleric begins as an Acolyte, a paladin as a Paladin, and everyone else as a Follower.

ordain lists everyone the faith knows, by rank, online and offline alike.

Authority Within a Faith#

Only the High Priest or High Priestess may induct, promote, demote or exile. A Prophet wields the same powers with two hard limits: a Prophet may never act upon the High Priest, and only the High Priest may name their own successor.

rpromote <player> raises a member by one rank and rpromote <player> to <rank> sets a specific one. rdemote <player> and rdemote <player> to <rank> work the same way downward. The rank named must fit the target's class, so a warrior cannot be made a Priest and a cleric cannot be made a Follower. rexile <player> removes a member from the faith.

Joining a Faith#

rinduct <player> offers induction, and the player answers with raccept. The offer lasts thirty seconds by default, up to a maximum of two minutes, and it breaks if either of you moves before it is answered.

A player who already serves a different god cannot be inducted into another faith under any circumstances. They must renounce the first one, and a player who has recently renounced is barred for three months.

Ordination and the Called#

anoint <player> is the High Priest's power to ordain a healer as an Acolyte of the faith. The target must be a healer, and accepting the anointing turns them into a cleric of that god. Ordained clerics also gain the rites of the faith, and within a temple may officiate marriages with marry <person> to <person>.

ordainpaladin <player> belongs to the High Priest or High Priestess of Kranos alone. Kranos demands proof rather than promise, and a candidate must be a cleric at level 100 or a paladin at level 100, a devoted follower of Kranos for at least two years, and tempered by at least 2500 hours of life in the realm. A candidate who falls short is declined by Kranos Himself. A worthy one answers with accept or decline, and the choice is irreversible: to swear the oath is to begin again at level one, and the whole realm is told of it.

The Holy Symbol#

Clerics and paladins carry the holy symbol of their god. It is reissued to match your faith whenever that faith changes, reconciled each time you log in, and taken away when you renounce, are excommunicated, or cease to be ordained. Members of other classes carry no symbol.

Renouncing a Faith#

renounce is the only way out of a religion, and it is the only way to become free to join another. It costs a final tithe of 1000 platinum paid to the very god you are forsaking, and you cannot renounce if you cannot pay. For three months afterwards no god will take you: no induction, no anointing, no oath.

Clerics and paladins exist only through their faith. Renouncing strips them of their sacred office and returns them to Explorer at the same level, with their class powers gone. Other classes keep their class when they leave a faith.

Tithes#

A tithe is an offering of coin laid upon a god's altar. tithe <amount> to <religion> offers that many copper, drawn from your purse across every denomination, highest coin first. For example, tithe 1000 to loralei lays one thousand copper upon Loralei's altar.

An offering may be laid before any of the Five, not only the god you follow. Coin buys a rival's goodwill as readily as your own god's. Every tithe swells that faith's collective pool and is recorded against the giver's name, whoever laid it down, so the clergy can see the depth of a worshipper's devotion.

tithes shows the collective pool of every faith, ranked from the richest god to the poorest.

Favour#

favor shows which god the Five Realms currently hold in highest regard. Standing among the gods is not granted but given: the faith whose followers have laid down the most offerings stands highest, and the rest are listed beneath it in the order of their own devotion. A faith that has received nothing does not appear at all.

Because the ranking is the tithe pool, the order changes as worshippers give. A single generous patron can lift a small church above a larger one, and a faith that stops giving slides as others pass it. tithes shows the actual sums behind the ranking.

The Faith Channels#

Each religion has its own channel, joined automatically when you are inducted and left when you renounce. religion on its own shows who from your faith is online, sorted by rank, and religion <message> speaks on the channel.

Clerics and paladins have no guild channel of their own. They belong to their religion, and their faith's channel is where they speak. See Communication for the wider channel system.

Related Systems#

• Clans for player-founded fellowships and their own ranks.
• Communication for channels, tells and mail.
• Factions for the reputation system of the Brinewarrens.