Shrines Of Creation
Work in progress: Shrines of Creation are planned content and do not match current game behavior.
Shrines of Creation are hidden places where Blackmar can rewrite a Mythic soul. They are not ordinary prayer shrines. They are older, stranger, and far less generous.
A shrine can offer rebirth, class access, exotic clades, permanent marks, domain affinities, rare memories, and burdens that follow the character into the next life.
Finding Shrines
Most shrines are hidden behind exploration, rumors, omens, portents, pilgrimages, quests, or domain stories.
Shrine leads can come from:
- Mythic quests
- Strange dreams
- Omens and portents
- World events
- Pilgrimage routes
- Rare books or inscriptions
- Domain relics
- Guild or class discoveries
- Hidden rooms in old areas
- NPCs who speak only after a character has the right history
The Esper shrine is the public example: a Darkwind City shrine resembling the diadem worn by members of the Psionic Order.
Shrine Flow
- Discover the shrine
- Read or sense what the shrine wants
- Attune to the shrine
- Bring offerings or complete its trial
- Review available boons and burdens
- Confirm the remort
- Wake in a new life with the shrine's Creation Mark
Offerings
Offerings give shrines a reason to answer. A shrine can ask for one offering or a chain of offerings.
| Offering | Examples |
|---|---|
| Mythic life | The level reset itself |
| Domain relic | Ashad engine part, Dramasa ice lens, Kerei temple token |
| Craft work | Masterwork device, rare ink, purified metal, living seed |
| Pilgrimage | Visits to linked shrines, moons, ruins, or holy places |
| Memory | A preserved language, old title, quest memory, or learned route |
| Service | Killing a marked enemy, healing a place, freeing a bound spirit |
| Sacrifice | XP weight, guild access, future shrine debt, bodily drawback |
| Witness | Another player present for the rite |
Shrine Types
| Shrine Type | Boons |
|---|---|
| Class shrine | Opens a class path |
| Clade shrine | Opens an exotic clade |
| Domain shrine | Grants regional affinity or domain mark |
| Moon shrine | Grants lunar mark, vision, omen, mind, disease, or craft effects |
| Memory shrine | Preserves a narrow unlock through rebirth |
| Burden shrine | Grants a stronger boon with a permanent drawback |
| Forgotten shrine | Opens hidden or forbidden progression |
Shrine States
| State | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Dormant | The shrine exists but ignores the character |
| Stirring | The shrine reacts to a mark, rumor, relic, or omen |
| Attuned | The character can read its choices |
| Hungry | The shrine waits for an offering |
| Open | The shrine can perform remort |
| Spent | The shrine has completed the rite and waits for another cycle |
Known Shrine Targets
These are design targets for major shrines.
| Shrine | Location Theme | Unlocks |
|---|---|---|
| Esper | Darkwind City, psionic diadem | Psionicist |
| Wyrmseed | Dragon ruin, hoard, or volcanic lair | Dragon |
| Brass Crucible | Ashad workshop or Tekal machine chapel | Artificer |
| Thousand Masks | Morpher flesh-lab, changeling grove, or old blood shrine | Morpher |
| Crimson Cup | Hidden night court or cursed noble chapel | Vampire candidate |
| Ash Crown | Ashad desert and corpse-burner rites | Ashborn clade |
| Clockwound Gate | Tekal moon | Gearborn clade |
| Sanctuary Mirror | Markas moon | Markasi clade |
| Fever Bell | Dailos moon | Dailosi clade |
| Rime Door | Dramasa ice waste | Rimebound clade |
| Cinder Throne | Iglantu lava river | Cinderkin clade |
| Mycelial Font | Lerquird fungal swamp | Sporekin clade |
| Shadow Cairn | Bodachian Fallows | Fallowsworn clade |
| Reeflight | Virodian coast | Tideborn clade |
| Lotus Gate | Kerei hidden temple | Lotuskin clade |
| Serpent Sun | Souvraeli snake temple | Serpentblood clade |
| Thunder Stone | Hyperborean storm road | Stormtouched clade |
Class Shrines
Class shrines alter the character's future more deeply than ordinary boons.
| Class | Shrine Pattern |
|---|---|
| Artificer | Build, repair, and sacrifice a working device the shrine accepts |
| Dragon | Bring hoard, blood, breath, and a vow to grow beyond mortal scale |
| Morpher | Survive controlled bodily change and return with the pattern intact |
| Psionicist | Still the mind until the shrine answers without words |
| Vampire | Accept hunger, night law, and a social cost that never fully leaves |
Clade Shrines
Clade shrines open bodies outside ordinary reincarnation halls. A character who earns one can choose that clade in a later life.
| Clade | Shrine Demand |
|---|---|
| Ashborn | Burn, ash, engine heat, and corpse-burner study |
| Gearborn | Tekal craft, exact timing, and machine surgery |
| Markasi | Sanctuary vows and moonlit pilgrimage |
| Dailosi | Disease trial, fever survival, and plague mercy |
| Rimebound | Dramasa endurance and a frozen memory |
| Cinderkin | Iglantu heat, lava oath, and flame survival |
| Sporekin | Lerquird spores, fungal pact, and rot-tending |
| Fallowsworn | Ghost witness, grave offering, and shadow trial |
| Tideborn | Virodian sea rite and reef offering |
| Lotuskin | Kerei temple trial and faerie-touched token |
| Serpentblood | Souvraeli venom rite and snake temple vow |
| Stormtouched | Hyperborean storm vigil and thunder mark |
Shrine Sigils
Shrines can leave persistent sigils. These are smaller than a class or clade, but they make future shrine work easier.
| Sigil | Effect |
|---|---|
| Attuned | Improves shrine reading and hidden shrine hints |
| Pilgrim | Improves shrine pilgrimage rewards |
| Witnessed | Records that another player stood at the rite |
| Offered | Marks a completed shrine offering |
| Debtbound | Marks a shrine debt that remains after remort |
| Created | Marks a completed remort |
| Moonmarked | Improves lunar shrine and omen interactions |
| Domain-marked | Improves shrine work in one region |
Failure
Shrine failure is meant to be recoverable. A failed attempt can consume offerings, delay attunement, add a temporary mark, or awaken enemies, but it does not delete the character.
Common failure causes:
- Wrong offering
- Missing Creation Mark
- Broken pilgrimage chain
- Incomplete trial
- Conflicting class or clade state
- Shrine debt from a previous life
- Attempting the rite below Mythic
Shrine Etiquette
Shrines are story places as much as mechanics.
- Read the room before offering
- Expect the shrine to ask for something specific
- Bring the object, memory, witness, or vow the shrine names
- Treat shrine choices as permanent
- Read boon costs before confirming remort