Religion

Organized Religion starts with a player willing to define a faith and ask the community to support it. The founding Petition records its permanent identity, description, classification, deity model, charter, Holy Scripture, Canon Law, official symbol, governance, and initial hierarchy. It is a proposal with durable meaning, not an instant guild creation button.

Each eligible Account may supply one signature to a particular Petition. A signature demonstrates genuine community support but does not make that signatory a follower. When the one-hundredth eligible signature and Approved-symbol requirement both hold, the Religion can activate and its founder becomes its first top authority under the selected governance model.

The number one hundred is a founding threshold only. An Active Religion does not need to preserve one hundred followers afterward. Ninety-nine, fifty, ten, or one current living follower can sustain the same Religion. Its later survival depends on retaining at least one follower, not on continually repeating its founding campaign.

Holy Scripture expresses what a Religion teaches. Canon Law records how it governs. At founding, Canon Law selects a Supreme Leader or Council of Elders model and defines joining, apostasy, marriage, divorce, succession preferences, and the initial hierarchy. The two documents serve different purposes: one preserves doctrine, while the other makes the faith's social rules legible.

Every organized Religion defines between two and ten ordered ranks. There is one required top rank, one required bottom Followers rank, and as many as eight intermediate ranks. Founders choose names and descriptions and assign permitted subsets of the Religion's authority catalogue. The top rank automatically receives the complete catalogue; Followers begin with none unless the founding configuration says otherwise.

The finalized target contains 26 canonical permissions. They cover doctrine and Religion administration, hierarchy management, follower and Join administration, community moderation, marriage and divorce, ceremonies, Building Access, Religion-wide religious-Building management, Blessing configuration, Pardon Heretics, and Lift Excommunications. The current founding implementation persists 21 of them while the five newest permissions await adoption.

Priest, Bishop, High Priest, Cardinal, Elder, Prophet, or Temple Keeper may be meaningful custom titles, but wording grants no authority. The Character's current rank and configured permissions determine what they may do.

Every Character begins Agnostic, the permanent spiritually unaffiliated baseline. Agnostic is not an organized Religion: it has no founder, clergy, hierarchy, ceremonies, Religious Institutions, or Blessing. A player may remain Agnostic indefinitely, but only an Agnostic Character may request to join an organized Religion.

There is no ordinary direct voluntary Religion-to-Religion Conversion. A follower leaves, returns to Agnostic, and then uses the chosen Religion's Join process. Marriage remains a separately governed special affiliation transition, not a shortcut players use for ordinary Join.

A Character may have only one unresolved Join Request. Requests do not expire automatically and the applicant may withdraw freely. Rejection creates a one-real-world-week cooldown before applying to that same Religion again. Canon Law determines whether acceptance completes the Join immediately or requires an authorized joining ceremony in a valid religious Building.

Followers are always free to leave. Departure immediately returns the Character to Agnostic, ends Religion-derived rank and Building authority, ends any linked Religious Institution membership, and removes their active Religion Blessing. Canon Law cannot prevent the act of leaving.

Excommunication and Heresy are religious classifications, not Justice judgments. Neither makes the Character a criminal, creates automatic Warfare authority, or permits violence. Pardon and Lift may target the non-follower naturally affected by the status. They restore eligibility to use the normal Join process; they do not automatically restore affiliation.

Every active member of a Religious Institution must currently follow its linked Religion. Leaving that Religion therefore ends the Institution membership automatically. This is an eligibility reconciliation, not a permanent ban: after legitimately rejoining the Religion, the Character may apply to the same Institution again through its ordinary membership rules.

The hierarchies never collapse into one generic clergy status. A Religious Institution rank called High Priest does not grant Religion ceremony authority. A Religion rank may authorize a ceremony without granting any authority inside a Religious Institution. A Religion can also exist, own religious Buildings, and practice with no Religious Institution at all.

Religion V1 defines exactly four permanent religious Building types: Chapel, Church, Great Church, and Cathedral. Each has its own crafted Blueprint and physical identity. They are not four levels of one upgradable structure. Replacing a Chapel with a Cathedral requires the normal demolition and new-construction lifecycle.

All four may be constructed only inside the established boundary of an existing Town. This constraint applies from Blueprint placement, even before the Building belongs to a Religion. Normal land ownership, collision, placement validity, and construction authority still apply; there is no special Mayor or Count approval added merely because the Blueprint depicts a religious Building.

Construction comes before consecration

A newly completed religious Building begins Unconsecrated under the normal private owner established by construction. It pays normal taxes, owes normal scheduled maintenance, has no organized-Religion access or management authority, cannot host official Religion ceremonies, and offers no active Religion Blessing at its Altar.

The current owner may later consecrate it to exactly one Active organized Religion. Agnostic, Petition, and Extinct identities are not eligible. The receiving Religion does not need to approve the dedication. A successful consecration atomically transfers the Building and everything already stored inside it to the Religion. The former owner loses possession, and the association cannot be casually changed while that Religion remains Active.

The Religion itself becomes the owner—not its founder, top authority, Local Manager, constructing Character, or a connected Religious Institution. Leadership changes alter who may manage the Religion's property; they do not make the Building jump between personal owners. Owning sacred property also grants no citizenship, territory, taxation, Justice, Warfare, Mayor, or Count authority.

The advantages of consecration

Consecration does not make a Building indestructible. Direct, attack, or other valid physical damage may still reduce its Health. Repairing that actual damage requires normal canonical repair materials. The exemption removes passive scheduled upkeep; it does not provide free restoration after an assault.

The Religion's current constitutional top authority inherently manages its Buildings on the Religion's behalf. A lower configured rank may also receive Manage Religious Buildings, giving that follower Religion-wide authority across every consecrated religious Building the faith owns. This includes local naming, Inventory management, doors and access, and appointment or replacement of Local Managers.

A Local Manager is the narrow alternative: a delegated appointment for one specific religious Building. Any current follower may be appointed regardless of rank, but one Character may locally manage a maximum of one religious Building at a time. The appointment grants control over that Building's local public name, Universal Building Inventory, and doors or access. It grants nothing over another Church.

Authority ends with its source. A rank change can end Religion-wide management immediately. Removing or replacing a Local Manager ends local access immediately. Leaving the Religion, Character death, lost consecration, or lost Religion ownership also invalidates the appointment. A client screen opened while authorized cannot preserve stale power.

Every official ceremony requires a matching consecrated religious Building. A ceremony under Religion A must take place inside a physical religious Building consecrated to Religion A. Religion A cannot borrow Religion B's Cathedral for its rites, and an Unconsecrated Chapel cannot act as an official venue. Every valid Chapel, Church, Great Church, and Cathedral supports every canonical Religion ceremony; size does not gate ritual availability.

The performer needs the specific permission granted by their current Religion rank. They do not need to be the Building's Local Manager. In the opposite direction, a Local Manager cannot validate a marriage or conduct a joining ceremony merely because they control the doors. Ceremony authority and Building-management authority remain separate.

Ceremony-specific eligibility decides who may be targeted. A joining rite naturally concerns an Agnostic applicant; Pardon and Lift naturally concern non-followers. There is no universal target-must-follow rule. The game also does not impose or collect a general ceremony fee. Players may arrange payment through ordinary economic interaction and roleplay if they wish; that is separate from the built-in Altar Blessing fee.

Every Chapel, Church, Great Church, and Cathedral includes an Altar. It becomes active only while the Building is validly consecrated to an Active organized Religion with a configured Blessing. A follower receives that Blessing through deliberate interaction—not by entering the Town, walking near the Church, or standing passively in the same room.

No clergy member, leader, or Local Manager needs to be online. The Altar checks authoritative affiliation: only a current follower of that exact Religion is eligible. Agnostic Characters receive no organized-Religion Blessing, and followers cannot visit another faith to shop for a more convenient package.

Each consecrated religious Building sets its own Copper-denominated fee. The valid Local Manager, a Religion-wide Building manager, or the top authority may set that price. Manage Blessing does not itself grant price authority: it controls which effect package the Religion uses. Successful payment enters that Building's Universal Building Inventory, using the ordinary County exchange system when different coin denominations must be compared.

One choice from each category

A newly Active Religion begins with no configured Blessing. A Character whose rank grants Manage Blessing chooses exactly one Survival effect, one Combat effect, and one Gathering or economic effect from developer-defined catalogues. Players choose effect identities, not arbitrary percentages, formulas, scripts, or durations.

After any successful configuration—including the first—the Religion must wait 30 real-world days before changing the package again. The cooldown belongs to the Religion, so a different manager or new leader cannot bypass it. Failed or stale attempts do not consume it.

The catalogue gives a Religion a recognizable mechanical emphasis while keeping balance under developer control. Effects modify eligible, successful gameplay outcomes; they do not create resources from an invalid action or allow material requirements to fall below future balancing minimums.

One active Religion Blessing

There is no personal Altar-purchase cooldown, but Religion Blessings do not stack. A Character holds one active organized-Religion Blessing. Purchasing another completely replaces the previous package and begins a fresh duration at the strength supplied by the new Building. Leaving or otherwise changing away from the granting Religion removes it immediately.

Religion reconfiguration does not rewrite an already applied Blessing. That Character keeps the old three-effect snapshot until it expires, is replaced, or becomes invalid through affiliation loss. New Altar purchases use the new configuration. This lets a committed package change affect future service without unpredictably altering active Characters in place.

Building type determines Blessing strength and duration in that order. Developers define the exact globally consistent values; Religions cannot customize them. The scale affects Blessings only. A Chapel remains just as capable of hosting every official ceremony as a Cathedral.

Once founded, an organized Religion remains Active with any positive living current-follower count. Falling below one hundred does nothing to its lifecycle. When that authoritative count reaches exactly zero, however, it becomes immediately and irreversibly Extinct. There is no grace period, delayed timer, founder exception, or leadership override. Agnostic is the permanent built-in baseline and can never become Extinct.

Linked Religious Institutions then archive through their own Institution lifecycle. Each surviving consecrated religious Building loses the Extinct Religion's association, Religion ownership, venue status, Altar service, access and management authority, tax exemption, and scheduled-maintenance exemption. Local Manager appointments end rather than surviving as stale access.

Because religious Buildings are Town-only, the municipal government inherits a surviving former Church in its Town. The Building remains physically present but Unconsecrated; normal taxes and scheduled maintenance resume without retroactive debt. The municipality may keep it, manage it under ordinary Building rules, demolish it, or consecrate it to another Active organized Religion. Reconsecration changes owner and Religion association, never the physical Building type, and preserves the earlier faith only in history.

If the Town itself ceases to exist, a religious Building cannot remain in the wilderness. It is destroyed, and its one Universal Building Inventory enters the normal owner-sensitive Loot Chest lifecycle. A surviving valid owner receives the normal protection; with no surviving owner, the chest becomes public immediately.

A Church does not emit a passive faith aura. Owning Cathedrals across several Towns does not create territorial Religion percentages, convert nearby Characters, generate followers, or grant political jurisdiction. Commoners have no Religion affiliation in V1, so there is no simulated congregation or automatic Commoner demand. Growth comes from players explicitly choosing to Join and communities giving them reasons to stay.

Blessings are a bounded gameplay mechanic rather than proof that gods objectively exist. Religion V1 does not establish divine NPCs, miracles, resurrection, spellcasting, magical projectiles, or a general magic system. It lets belief carry social, physical, economic, and mechanical meaning while leaving the world's metaphysical truth open.

That makes Religion a pillar because no single component stands alone. Founders need public support. Followers decide whether law and leadership deserve loyalty. Ranks distribute work. Builders place faith into the Town. Managers keep local sites useful. Ceremony performers turn law into significant events. Blessings shape specialization. Extinction preserves the consequence of a community finally disappearing.