Religion

The Empire runs on three main strands: magic, religion, and politics. This chapter of the manual deals with GOD’s interactions with religion. Because we only care about recording religious ceremonies (and more pertinently, because MattP), the relevant tab in the crew interface is labelled “Ceremony” instead of “Religion”.

For the processes in this section, start by getting to the “Ceremony” tab of the crew interface.

More information about these skills is described on the Religious Skills wiki page on the Empire wiki.

New Ceremony

This section of the web interface is used for recording ceremonies.

Anointing

Anointing is a priest skill that creates a potent personal aura on a character drawn from their virtue. More information is available on the Empire wiki page for Anointing.

1. Don’t actually record anointing into the system. Just hand the priest as many of the virtue/anointing cards as they’re willing to take away.

Consecration

Consecration is a priest skill that creates a powerful location aura in a place. More information is available on the Empire wiki page for Consecration.

1. In the “Lead Priest” section of the page:
   1. In the box labelled “CID”, enter the lead priest’s PID.
   2. Press Tab or Enter.
   3. Confirm the name of the caster’s character.
2. In the “Ceremony” section of the page:
   1. From the “Skill” drop-down menu, select “Consecration”.
   2. Ask the player if they are performing the ceremony alone.
      • If yes, select “Lone Priest” from the “Type” drop-down menu.
      • If no, select “Virtue” from the “Type” drop-down menu.
3. Ignore the “Date” section of the page, or escalate to a head of department or referee if there’s some reason you think you shouldn’t.
4. If multiple priests are involved in the ceremony, advance to the Participants tab.
   • Add additional casters either by entering their PIDs into the CID box and pressing Tab or Enter.
5. Advance to the Targets tab.
6. In the “Consecration Options” section of the page, select a radio button for either “Consecration” or “Remove Consecration”.
7. In the “Enter Target Location” section of the page, provide a description of the location sufficient for a ref to positively identify the intended location in the field.
8. Advance to the Strength tab.
9. For a lone priest performing a Strength 1 ritual, take 1 liao from the priest (if it’s already torn up, or they tell you they already tore it up and disposed of it during roleplay, that’s fine).
   • Note: Occasionally, it’s more complicated than this. See Calculating complicated liao costs for details, or grab a more experienced crew member.
10. Get an A5 area effect lammy from the refs.
    • TODO add details.

Dedication

Dedication is the foundation priest skill, and is a pre-requisite for all other priest skills. More information is available on the Empire wiki page for Dedication.

1. In the “Lead Priest” section of the page:
   1. In the box labelled “CID”, enter the lead priest’s PID.
   2. Press Tab or Enter.
   3. Confirm the name of the caster’s character.
2. In the “Ceremony” section of the page:
   1. From the “Skill” drop-down menu, select “Dedication”.
   2. Ask the player if they are performing the ceremony alone.
      • If yes, select “Lone Priest” from the “Type” drop-down menu.
      • If no, select “Virtue” from the “Type” drop-down menu.
3. Ignore the “Date” section of the page, or escalate to a head of department or referee if there’s some reason you think you shouldn’t.
4. If multiple priests are involved in the ceremony, advance to the Participants tab.
   1. Add additional casters either by entering their PIDs into the CID box and pressing Tab or Enter.
5. Advance to the Targets tab.
6. In the “Dedication Options” section of the page, select a radio button for either “Dedication” or “Remove Dedication”.
7. In the “Add Target Character” section of the page:
   1. In the box labelled “CID”, enter the target character’s PID.
   2. Press Tab or Enter.
   3. Confirm the name of the target’s character.
8. Advance to the Strength tab.
9. For a lone priest performing a Strength 1 ritual, take 1 liao from the priest (if it’s already torn up, or they tell you they already tore it up and disposed of it during roleplay, that’s fine).
   • Note: Occasionally, it’s more complicated than this. See Calculating complicated liao costs below for details, or grab a more experienced crew member.

Hallow

Hallow is a priest skill that creates an item aura on an item and names the item. More information is available on the Empire wiki page on Hallow.

1. In the “Lead Priest” section of the page:
   1. In the box labelled “CID”, enter the lead priest’s PID.
   2. Press Tab or Enter.
   3. Confirm the name of the caster’s character.
2. In the “Ceremony” section of the page:
   1. From the “Skill” drop-down menu, select “Hallow”.
   2. Ask the player if they are performing the ceremony alone.
      • If yes, select “Lone Priest” from the “Type” drop-down menu.
      • If no, select “Virtue” from the “Type” drop-down menu.
3. Ignore the “Date” section of the page, or escalate to a head of department or referee if there’s some reason you think you shouldn’t.
4. If multiple priests are involved in the ceremony, advance to the Participants tab.
5. Add additional casters either by entering their PIDs into the CID box and pressing Tab or Enter.
6. Advance to the Targets tab.
7. In the “Hallowing Options” section of the page:
   1. Select a radio button for either “Create Aura” or “Remove Aura”.
   2. If creating an aura, ask the lead priest which aura they would like to create, and select the appropriate option from the drop-down menu.
8. In the “Ribbon Options” section of the page:
   1. Select a radio button for either “Ribboned Item” or “Non Ribboned Item”.
   2. Enter a name in the “Item Name” box.
      • The name should not be comedic, or obviously taken from an existing work of fiction. If in doubt, ask a head of department.
9. In the “Add Target Ribbon” section of the page:
   1. If the target item already has a ribbon, enter the Ribbon Id in the box.
   2. Press Tab or Enter.
   3. Confirm that the details on the ribbon in front of you match the details on screen.
10. Advance to the Strength tab.
11. For a lone priest performing a Strength 1 ritual, take 1 liao from the priest (if it’s already torn up, or they tell you they already tore it up and disposed of it during roleplay, that’s fine).
    • Note: Occasionally, it’s more complicated than this. See Calculating complicated liao costs below for details, or grab a more experienced crew member.
12. You should then cause the newly-generated ribbon to be printed, then hand it to the player.

Insight

There are two kinds of Insight ceremony: Quick and Thorough. Quick Insight does not require GOD/referee involvement, whereas Thorough Insight does. More information is available on the Empire wiki page on Insight.

Thorough Insight should not be processed as a ceremony. Instead:

1. Confirm the character who wishes to cast Insight has the Insight skill. (Look up the character: see REF GOES HERE.)
   1. If they wish to perform Insight on a character, see REF GOES HERE.
   2. If they wish to perform Insight on an item, see REF GOES HERE.

I don't understand the ref bits and also don't know what else to put into that bit so leaving it, TODO- make clearer (???) - Jess

Testimony

Testimony is a priest skill that places powerful, enduring marks on a living subject—sort of like tattooing words on a character's soul. Further information is available on the Empire wiki page on Testimony.

1. In the “Lead Priest” section of the page:
   1. In the box labelled “CID”, enter the lead priest’s PID.
   2. Press Tab or Enter.
   3. Confirm the name of the caster’s character.
2. In the “Ceremony” section of the page:
   1. From the “Skill” drop-down menu, select “Testimony”.
   2. Ask the player if they are performing the ceremony alone.
      • If yes, select “Lone Priest” from the “Type” drop-down menu.
      • If no, select “Virtue” from the “Type” drop-down menu.
3. Ignore the “Date” section of the page, or escalate to a head of department or referee if there’s some reason you think you shouldn’t.
4. If multiple priests are involved in the ceremony, advance to the Participants tab.
   • Add additional casters either by entering their PIDs into the CID box and pressing Tab or Enter.
5. Advance to the Targets tab.
6. In the “Testimony Options” section of the page:
   1. Select a radio button for either “Create Testimony” or “Remove All Testimonies”.
   2. If creating a testimony, enter it into the text box.
      • A testimony should consist of at most two words, one adjective and one noun.
      • Offer the priest the opportunity to confirm they’re happy with spelling and capitalisation.
7. In the “Add Target Character” section of the page:
   1. In the box labelled “CID”, enter the target character’s PID.
   2. Press Tab or Enter
   3. Confirm the name of the target character.
8. Advance to the Strength tab.
9. For a lone priest performing a Strength 1 ritual, take 1 liao from the priest (if it’s already torn up, or they tell you they already tore it up and disposed of it during roleplay, that’s fine).
   • Note: Occasionally, it’s more complicated than this. See Calculating complicated liao costs below for details, or grab a more experienced crew member.
10. Click the button labelled “Process” on the right-hand side of the “Ceremony Details” section

Calculating complicated liao costs

All ceremonies cost liao to perform. The vast majority of ceremonies are performed by a lone priest as level 1 ceremonies, and cost 1 liao to perform. Things are generally more complicated when ceremony is being performed at a level higher than strength 1, for example because:

• there’s more than one priest involved, or
• magic items, potions, or ritual enchantments that allow a priest to use additional liao are being used.

The players will generally let you know this is happening!

In the “Strength” tab, the “Strength Achieved” line tells you the automatically calculated maximum level of ceremony that can be performed, taking into account only the number of priests. The “Strength Achieved” will be equal to the number of priests. (There are columns for items and potions, but you can’t tell the calculator about these at the moment.)

In the “Ceremony Details” section of the “Strength” tab:

1. Enter the level at which the players want to perform the ceremony in the “Strength” field.
2. Take some liao off the priests.
   1. If the number you have entered in the “Strength” field is less than or equal to the number after “Strength Achieved”, and there are no other effects, take that number of liao and leave the “Notes” field empty.
   2. If the players are using magic items, potions, or enchantments to affect how much liao the ceremony costs, enter the details of what they’re using, what effect it has, and how much liao you actually take off them in the “Notes” field.

Search ceremony

TODO