Bands

Overview

We encourage players coming to Empire to attend as part of a group of friends. Groups can help to add depth and enjoyment to characterization, making all the characters feel more real and be more fun to play. The group can have its own identity and history and gives characters a way to belong to something that is bigger than they are, yet is still something they can create a history and background for. Groups give OOC friends good IC reasons to roleplay together and good groups are great for helping new players get involved in a game.

The brief for every nation in Empire includes at least one concept for a group, effectively the most common format that a group may take. For instance a noble house in Dawn, or a chapter in Highguard. There are pages for some of these group concepts explaining the part they play in the setting and offering advice on how to create and play one. These group concepts have been designed to be fun to play, but the list is not meant to be restrictive. You can create a travelling band of Dawnish troubadours, or a secretive guild of Highborn artisans if you wish to. Working with your friends, you have the same freedom to create a group concept as you do to create your own character.

Bands

In Empire it is possible to make a group that allows characters to extend their abilities or powers to work together. These groups, called bands, use the hearth magic power of oaths combined with magical bonds created by magicians.

Bands are intended to build on the characterisation of the group concept that you have created for your characters. They are there to recognize and support the choice to act as part of a Dawnish noble house, a League guild or a Freeborn family. Players creating characters together are encouraged to use the potential abilities of bands to add depth and character to their group concept.

There are three types of band: banners, covens and sects. It's possible for a band to be more than one type at the same time. Your group could be a banner, but it could also be a coven or a sect. A character can never be a member of two banners at the same time, or two covens or two sects.

E.g. The Highborn chapter of Exile's Hold is a banner and a sect. The members gain all the benefits of being a banner and a sect but any character that joins this band cannot join any other band that is a banner or any other band that is a sect.

Your group doesn't have to be a band, but only bands have any game effects, which is why we only record what bands your character is a member of. We will update our website to allow you to create bands online at the same time that we add the character creation system.

Oaths

• Oaths must be appropriate for the setting
• An oath can never be changed

Bands use the hearth magic of an oath to give them power. For this reason, the band must choose an oath when it is created. The oath is usually reasonably short - because it must be recited by any character who joins the band in play. The player creating the band online should enter the text for the oath when they create the band. The only requirement for the oath is that it is in-character and suitable for the setting, any oath that meets these requirements is fine.

Although an oath is required to create a band, it is not magically enforced - there is no automatic magical consequence for any individual that breaks their oath. It is a matter for the roleplaying of the characters who are members of the band to deal with any character who breaks their oath.

Once created, the oath cannot be changed, a new band must be formed if characters wish to change their oath.

Restrictions

• You can only join a band with members of the same nation
• You can only join one of each type of band at once

Only members of the same nation are able to join a band together. The power of the hearth magic involved does not function for characters who do not share the same nation as the rest of the group. If you create a band then you must choose the nationality of the band at that point. Only members of the same nation may join the band.

You can only join one of each type of band at once. For example, if you are a member of an existing banner, then you cannot join another band that is a banner without first breaking the bonds that join you to your existing banner.

If you have used the abilities of your band that day then you cannot use the abilities of any other band of the same type that day. For example, if you have performed a ritual with a coven that day, then you cannot perform a ritual with any other coven that day.

Joining a Band

• Bands may be secret or public
• You may start play as a member of one or more bands that are public
• You may only join a secret band in play

A band can be secret or public. If the band is public, then the name of the band and the nation it is associated with is public to all players in the game. Players making a character can choose to begin play as part of a public band. If the band is secret, then the name of the band is not visible to any player, but new characters must join the band in play, they cannot begin play as part of the band.

If you are creating a new character then you can opt to join to begin play as a member of one or more bands. (You can only be a part of one of each type of band). The character creation system lists all public bands for the nation you have selected and you can opt to join. Please ensure that you have the permission of the players who are part of a band before joining.

Banners

• A banner may benefit from using a magical standard

If your group concept incorporates the idea of a group of close-knit warriors that fight together then you may wish to create a banner to represent this. A banner is named for their ability to use a magic standard, which is a magical item created by an artisan. A magical standard provides a benefit to every member of the band that is bonded to it.

Covens

• A coven may combine their skills to perform rituals together
• A coven can perform up to two rituals a day

Groups that intend to perform rituals together need to create a coven. A coven is a band of oath-sworn magicians who choose to work together to perform powerful rituals that they could not do alone.

Members of a coven can work together to perform a ritual with each participant contributing crystal mana to a ritual up to the limit of their ability. This allows a coven to perform much more powerful rituals than an individual could achieve alone. A coven may also benefit by being bound to a covenstone, a powerful magical item created by an artisan.

A coven can only perform up to two rituals each day. A character may perform any number of rituals by themselves and they may include others in the ritual performance. But the power of the coven can only be used to combine magical strengths twice per day and no more than once per hour. Some magical covenstones increase the number of rituals a coven can perform in a single day.

If a character is part of a coven that have already perform a ritual together that day, then they may join another coven but they cannot participate in another ritual conducted by that coven until the next day.

Sects

• Some liao ceremonies may be performed on every member of a sect who is present

If your group concept incorporates the idea of a shared set of beliefs and worship then you may wish to create a sect to represent this. A sect is a band of oath-sworn devotees of the Way who choose to work together to further their common goals.

If an annointing, dedication, excommunication or exorcism is performed by a member of a sect, on another member of a sect, then they may choose to extend that benefit to other members of the same sect up to, and including, all members of the sect who are present when the ceremony is being conducted. The priest leading the ceremony may be supported by other priests, including those from outside the sect, but the effect will only apply to the lead priest's sect.

For example, if two priests of a sect devoted to Vigilance perform a ceremony together to anoint a member of their sect, then they may choose to apply the same effects to some, or all, members of the sect who are present. If one of the priests is from a different sect, they may only apply the effect to the members of the sect to which the priest leading the ceremony belongs.