Holy site

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Description

Holy sites are randomly spawned zones for players to find, themed after specific gods and biomes, in unsettled areas of each server. Priests and followers of that deity maintain the site through prayers and sermons, allowing the Holy site to provide bonuses to all Premium account followers and priests of that deity, as well as additional positive effects within its radius. Some benefits are available to all Premium accounts, even if they are not followers of that particular deity, so being at a Holy site still provides some benefits regardless of which god you follow.

Holy sites are temporary, lasting 2 weeks on average.

Discovery

Each type of Holy site can only spawn in limited locations. You can also receive a map of the Holy site from prayer, giving sermons, or meditating, but only on those actions that could possibly give faith (or skill, in the case of meditating). These maps have modifiers applied to make them less clear than a normal treasure map or cartography map. Players may need to compare maps with others or combine them with their understanding of the server layout in order to find the Holy site. These map hints will be given only for Holy sites that have not yet been found and activated, and that are associated with the God a player follows. On PVP servers, players may also get hints about opposite-light gods’ holy sites (i.e. maps of White Light holy sites if your God is Libila and vice-versa).

If a Holy Site has already been found and activated by a player, a “Locate Holy Sites” action will become available on altars. Using this action, on any altar, will show the locations of all activated Holy sites on the in-game map, even those not belonging to a player's god.

Restrictions

Holy Sites are special places protected by their gods, and are meant to be accessed and used by the public. The following activities are disallowed within Holy sites:

• Founding a settlement.
• Expanding an existing settlement into the Holy Site.
• Terraforming (digging, mining, etc.).
• Building structures or fences.
• Changing tile types by packing, cultivating, adding, or removing pavement, dropping dirt/sand, transmuting, planting, or cutting trees, or any similar actions.
  • Creatures grazing or moving will also not pack tiles within Holy sites.
• (PVE servers only) Blocking or intentionally restricting access to the Holy site in any way.

Activation

A Holy site is dormant and provides no benefits until it is found and activated by a follower or priest of the Holy site’s god. To activate the Holy Site, pray or hold a sermon (with enough listeners for Faith gain) at the special item at the center of the Holy Site.

Once activated, the expiration timer of the Holy Site will reset, in order to guarantee that a Holy site will last for its full duration after being found no matter how long it takes to find.

Power & Corruption

Power and Corruption are the two most important characteristics of a Holy Site. Each ranges from 0 to 100.

Power: Strength of the deity’s influence

This is represented by the quality level of the special item at the center of the Holy site, and can be seen by examining it. Power affects:

• The size of the Holy Site.
• The power or effectiveness of almost all Holy site benefits, such as the quality level of goods received from it.
• Possibility of the Holy site expiring early and with no rewards, if power ever reaches 0.
  • (most power effects are handled through adjusted power instead)

And is increased by:

• Prayers and sermons within the Holy site by followers and priests of the Holy site’s god.
• Only prayers and sermons that are valid for gaining faith may increase the site’s power.
• The prayer or sermon may be done at the Holy site’s special item, but any altar will work, as long as it is within the current borders of the Holy site.

And is decreased by:

• Natural decay over time once the Holy Site is activated.
• Chance for decay occurs at the same time as Pulse events.
• Amount of Power decay is randomized and may not occur at all.