Altar
Altars are primarily used to pray at to gain Faith.
Altars also create the domain of the gods. You know when you're in such a domain when you get the message "You feel the presence of <god>". When you first build an altar in an area without a domain you will receive the message: "The domain of <God> now has reached this place."
Domains can overlap, but only the strongest domain can affect you. When you are in the domain of your God and have at least 10 faith, you'll get certain bonuses, including a fighting bonus. The amount of the bonus is affected by a great number of things, such as faith, alignment, the type of the altar (see below), the distance to the altar, the quality of the altar, and if you're a Champion.
Priests also get several bonuses from altars, including a bonus of up to 20% to successfully cast a spell, and an increase to the chance of casting a higher strength enchant spell.
Another use of altars is sacrificing.
Note: If you are trying to make an altar for Priest of a different religion, i.e. you are a black lighter and your priest is Vynora, you can build the altar, and have your priest put the last piece of the altar on by unclicking faithful and attaching the last piece. Works for wooden and stone altars. Underground altars will still give their bonuses above ground, for example, underground altars will spawn mycelium above ground, however you will not receive the domain message moving through these underground altars.
Types of altars
There are four types of altars. Wooden altars are the worst type, gold altars are the best type. The metal altars can be created inside each others domain, while the stone and wooden altars cannot. However, you can move a finished altar into another domain. Domains do not cross the cave/above-ground layers, so you can have one domain underground and another on the surface. this can be an easy way to get several types of altars in one spot - create them below ground and push them above as you make them (or vice-versa).
Although metal altars are the best type they do not override the influence of a lesser altar, for example a 50ql stone altar will override a 45ql gold altar, the type of material the altar is made out of does not make the influence stronger or weaker. Metal altars seem to give gifts and potion more frequently.
Special altars
See also
Images
stone altar
wooden altar
silver altar
golden altar
