Chapter 2.4 Types of Claims - Land, Vehicle, Wildlife, Self

Claims Overview (Entire section edited 1/28/26 version 1.2)
Players will be able to pick 5 different playstyles. Canonically, players are playing an entity that is not entirely human, as at their chest's center is an orange core that burns hot like fire.

• Self-claim - Default starting

  • Won’t experience over-encumbrance, but is still limited by their bag size (players can make very large bags!).

  • Can link to a large number of resurrection points and campfires and other locations.

  • Can summon friends to their location when they create a new character.

  • Can construct and use buildings, vehicles, and mounts, must burn fuel to keep them protected.

  • Can become a member, go solo, or abandon membership of claims, outposts, guilds, parties, and cults.

• Claims

  • Land Claim, Vehicle Claim, and Nature Claims

    • Can choose to split their core onto another location.

    • That land/vehicle/wildlife is protected and linked to the player.

    • Can summon friends and public members to their locations when a new character is created.

    • Can unlock culture points to use on unlockable culture skills that radiate passive buffs on members, visiting, and nearby players and NPC, and/or the environment or laws.

    • Claims by default are protected from other players, but players can add other players with various levels of control.

    • Larger claims will require fuel to burn to continue being fully protected.

    • Smaller claims that don't require fuel still need the player to log in to rekindle the core they left behind.

    • Upon too much inactivity, the claim is abandoned and the remaining core returns to you.

• Shatter Core

  • Players confirm no claim.

Self-Claim Distinctions
Self-claim players are designed with the classic MMORPG experience in mind. Resurrection is generous. (Resurrection is covered in Chapter 10.) Self-claim players won’t become over-encumbered, but some items are too large to fit in a pack. Players are able to construct buildings, ride and drive vehicles, and use mounts to travel. Self-claim players can unlock linking to a single mount, or mini-wagon, that persists, that they can summon back into their core whenever they want, and other players cannot attack, drive, mount, or otherwise steal it in or out of their core. They can travel the world untethered or call someplace their home. They can protect themselves or others. Self-claim players will attract monsters based on the spirit values of their equipment and skill totals. If there isn't a monster available in the open world for too long, you may be attacked by things that spawn from the shadows. Players can attack, appease with crafts, flee, or hide their spirit values among other companies or by entering owned lands and hitching a ride with owned vehicles. They will no longer be able to sense the player and lose interest in the chase entirely.

Land Claim Distinctions
The player’s core splits into the land, and they are now unable to carry the load they once did. No matter though, as the land brings plentiful storage and resource opportunities. Land claim players own a land, but they can hire NPC or players to build or aid progress or build themselves. Land claims that grow will need to rely on self-claim players, or hired NPC, to keep monsters at bay. They can unlock culture points, and run festivals, rituals, and other events to upkeep buffs and apply culture skills relating to general upkeep or localize specializations. They will need to consider laws when protections thin with growth.

As a village, town, or city continues to grow, they will need to rely on transportation to gain resources from lands faraway. In exchange, the vehicles gain the local laws on their transports. Without vehicle claims, a land claim needs to burn resources to upkeep a vehicle's protections. It is best to use nature's tributes and leveled up raw resources (wood/coal/etc,) instead of the crafts and resources they want to transport. Land claims can be created on land, on sea, inside or on the sides of mountains. Just know that as they grow, the local monsters’ hunger grows too.

Vehicle Claim Distinctions
The player’s core splits into their vehicle, and they are unable to carry as much as they did. But now, they have a wagon, ship, or airship for that. They are mobile too. Nature provides natural paths that their wheels, or sails, catch to keep mobile which allows them to gain culture points. As they travel and transport, sell goods, and/or provide services, they gain culture points and unlock culture skills for size or buffs to their mobile workstations and utilities. Just know that size will also slow them down. They can choose between adding more living quarters, weapons, stores, storage, mobile resurrection points, and more. As their vehicle grows, so will the monsters.

They can make a quick getaway for monsters to stop attacking, or choose to fight from the wagon, or split away to fight on foot. Players would do well to work on building roads to increase speeds and hasten culture point farming, and will use less resources if they build them on natural paths. They can also put points into parked culture, so they don't have to be on the move as often. Vehicle claims use less resources when completing transport quests for a land claim, and gain culture skills.

Nature Claim Distinctions
The player’s core splits into a trusting wildlife creature, allowing them to bond with nature directly. They are no longer able to carry as much as they did, but the deities of nature would rather they abandon their old life anyways. The player is now able to tend a wild herd or pack (depending on species) that they travel with until they are ready to be released. Nature demands a life-and-death cycle. Players gain culture points as they set tributes of their herd/pack and bless raw resources as tribute to be hunted/gathered by players, NPC, and/or monsters. Tributes, when culled at peak growth, earn the most culture points that the player can imbue into themselves, their mount, or back into the wild. Small herds and packs are naturally protected, but as the player grows, they will want their herd/pack to avoid carnivore nature players/NPC. If they decide to grow their wildlife mount, they will get slower, but can place more upon their backs.

The player can set nature constructions, grow wildlife resources, or set storages upon them. Their main mount is protected, but as it or their herd grows, they will attract monsters. Monsters who consume the player’s tributes will leave them alone, but will drop better loot for other players. They will be stronger as well. (Attacking a monster the player tributed will remove the tribute and the rewards they would have gained when it is culled.)

Abandon a Claim
Players can abandon their land/vehicle/nature claim and return to a self-claim state. However, the land/vehicle/nature claim reverts to no protections, and can be claimed by someone else, and be dismantled/destroyed/killed. It is designed with the intention that a player leans towards an identity tied to their claim, and will lean on NPC or other players if they want to expand needs outside of their claim, rather than swapping between them. But nothing is stopping a player from doing so.

For example, a nature-based player may want to build up their mount, only to release it into the wild for it to be hunted and start over. Or a player may enjoy building villages and towns to hand over to another player or NPC, or allow them to fall to ruin over time, to be reclaimed by nature or monsters. Abandoned claims will decay quickly in crowded servers, and will decay at a normal rate any other time. However, same species claims for nature players always require a cooldown, so nature players will need to wait, or choose a different species.

Abandon Core
Players can shatter their core entirely, but they can only decide this once per character. These players cannot resurrect, but their crafting and gathering are worth more, and they are able to fight longer and harder. They are also unprotected if they leave an area that doesn't have protections, or don't carry adequate charms, or escorts. This option is not available in PVE, since no crime or PVP can occur in PVE.

You have your claim, now keep it.