Chapter 10.4 Spirit Relics

Spirit Relics

Accumulated Legend
As you play the game and complete quests, befriend or kill NPC, gain fame or infamy, unlock skills and gain or lose proficiencies, monsters you've killed and/or worshiped, all these choices and more add to your total legacy. Imagine this as categorical experience bars, instead of one general one. Accumulated legend decides what relics you will leave behind as Spirit Relics.

Spirit Relics
The player's current equipment, loadouts and items are what will be lootable upon death. Your legacy will be split among your equipment and tools in the matching categories, adding stat boosts. Items that match your character's current archetype will receive extra bonuses. For example, if you were a combat based adventurer, your weapons and equipment will now have added stat boosts, as well as a random active skill in the combat category. If you were a smith, your smithing tools, and any ores carried on you will also have added stat posts, as well as a random active skill in smithing. These are Spirit Relics.

Names Engraved
All tools, weapons, equipment dropped, will now have the character's name engraved on the items. Raw resources will only have a character's name engraved if it matches their archetype. Such as a wildlife player having their names on seeds, a fisherman having names on fish, and a smith's name on ores. In most cases, raw materials, consumables, and non-equipment items will often not take on a character's legacy.

Tinder Value Increase
Legacy values increases an items tinder worth when using them as offerings, festivals, and after-life worship. Also they gain increased base stats for using for crafts. Some will give context cues for NPC interaction and other world events. It may be that a mount who is unruly, will only listen to a person carrying enough legacy from their previous master, or perhaps a certain NPC will show you the same secrets or quests as a past player, now that they sense their deaths, and you now own some of their spirit.

Gaining Legacy for a Dead Character
Communities that are hosting festivals will gain more festival points from items that have legacy, whether they are offered, or used for crafts or activities. The player who's items are used for community activities such as festivals, worship, museums, and other events will gain death legacy points.

Gaining Death Legacy and After-Life Favor
After a player's passing, interactions that players do with their spirit relics will gain them favor from faith based mechanics (offerings, prayers), as well as death legacy for experience based interactions (such as, slaying monsters with a combat relic). Death legacy is the only experience bar available after death. Accumulated favor will automatically disperse buffs to users of their relics, (players and NPC,) as well as outposts that perform festivals as a bonus to outpost culture buffs.

After-Life Screen
A player can activate favor skills from their character's new after-life screen, similar to the logged off screen. A player interacting with this screen, they can toggle favor skills that can evolve as they gain death legacy, and activate them. Automatic blessings ensure that even players that pass away in real life can continue to give back without needing to log back on. Just like regular favor, after-life favor will fade over time if not used up, but can continue to stack as offerings and prayers are sent to them. A dead character can toggle views at active festivals and funerals created in their name, as a will-o-wisp, unseen by players, unless they have a high cosmic proficiency.

Adding to a Legacy
If a relic holding player dies, and exceeded the previous quantity of total legacy spirit upon death with the item, it will add the difference to it, and add the newest player's name under it, preserving the old name. If a player's legacy exceeded the past relic's user(s) their names will appear at the top. After a certain number of names, the old ones will start to fade, but can be found again and written into written crafts using scholar skills. (This written craft is not a relic, just an in-game history tracker.)

Name Fading
The names on relics with low legacy will fade quicker. This will keep low legacy players from adding their names on too many objects. The amount of low legacy will scale depending on average spirit relic values, but also a set base amount. However, if crafted and used in active remembrance constructions, it will not fade. Relics with faded names will not be counted towards gaining culture in festivals, but repairing will re-link it.

Remembrances Crafts
Remembrances include statues, lanterns, graves, shrines, display cases, festivals, and worship. This way, legends large or small can be remembered, with or without community events. For example, a friend that played with you can be remembered with a lantern or grave desired. But the fading mechanics will help the world not overfill with relics.

Players with More than One Loadout
Alternative inventory, such as extra loadouts, and items in core inventories, will drop as core shards. These can be opened with skills, and will shatter upon being emptied. (These will generate even when empty.) The names of the players will also be engraved on these shards. These shards will not be able to gain more legacy from other players, or add any names to it.

Relic Decay Rules
Items with low legacy will decay at normal item rates, whereas items with high legacy will have slower decayed rates. Items linked with special world events, or quests, will appear rotten or ruined, but may persist due to a quest needs. NPC that have generated loyalty to a player, will seek out a player's Spirit Relic. In these instances, the item the NPC is looking for will not fully disappear, until they die. Some NPC will seek out more relics, but will only do so one at a time, and only if more relics still persist. NPC may ask other players to help them find it, and will mark a general location radius where they think it may be at.

Stolen Tags
Stolen tags wear off after the character dies or becomes inactive, or the original owner discards it from their core menu. Riftmist (crime trails) collected for dead characters into a pale purple color, indicating that its link to the victim is weak, but will not be worth less in trials.

History Erasing and Keeping
Relics found in states of decay may have their names wiped off until repaired. Players who currently hold a relic, can also remove old names from it to hide its history, but can continue to add to the legacy if their legacy exceeds the last owner.

Wildlife Relics

Wildlife Based Relics
All of the above applies to wildlife claim players, however, they have an increased influence on nature itself. A player's claim (creature link) becomes infused with their lightsource. If in an evolved state, it will no-longer de-evolve. Based on the player's wildlife legend, this animal will now have increased base stats for crafts and harvest when hunted, and will apply higher base stats to new herd/pack recruits at a % scale of the animal's evolution progress and player's legacy points. These animals are called Spirit Beasts.

No Range Limitation
A Spirit Beast's formation not dependant on location of the player's death. So, if a player doesn't feel like they will make it out of a battle, they can release their animal in an appropriate location for them to continue wandering in the wild.

Wildlife Claim Inactive At Death
Spirit Beasts lose their claimed status and can be hunted, captured, and/or tamed by players and NPC. This way, players can choose to allow spirit beasts to make stronger wildlife in general, or merely cull it for a one time collection. However, allowing them to persist if they can automatically manage a herd/pack, will allow these creatures to have increased stats than other creatures that spawn in the wild. Spirit beasts will only replicate herds/packs in the wild, not in a domesticated setting.

Taming Spirit Beasts and The Herd/Pack
Spirit beasts can only be tamed by a character who has a total living legend match or exceed their previous owner. However, the herd/pack it leads can be tamed by any player with the right tools and resources, regardless of legacy. They are desired by any player who wants a stronger mount, meal, or to start integrating them into their ranch. These animals will be harder to hunt and domesticate at first, but it may be well worth it. Thus players can choose to cull spirit beasts, or protect them to continue the effect they have their species. Faith-based mechanics can strengthen a spirit beast to allow them to fend off more NPC, monsters, and potentially players.

Continued Spirit Beast Evolution
The longer Spirit Beasts live, they will evolve and devolve based their original owner's after-life favor system. These points are gained through festivals, and faith based systems. Their herd/pack will also evolve as their base stats exceed certain thresholds in response to their evolutionary traits. However, they will never revert to a lower evolution from where their Spirit Beast status started. The spirit beast will also not de-evolve.

Spirit Beast Relics
Every part of a Spirit Beast when harvested from the bones to the meat are considered relics of the original player that owned them. If a Spirit Beast is claimed by another wildlife claim player, or a no-claim player, their legacy can be added onto it if it matches or exceeds the past accumulated legend upon it. Unless they have a special skill/trait. Spirit beasts are not usually tamed by NPC, but it is not impossible either.

Death Near Flora
Nature based characters who physically die in a wild, unclaimed area with nature, or applicable wildlife controller, will also provide legend points to the resources in that area. These plants will replicate and heal resources faster, and offer better base stats for as long as they perpetuate in the world. Players who tend to these plants, or pray to them, will favor of the player and their Spirit Beast (if the beast is still alive.)