Alright, first off, I posted this idea first on the old steam forums for this game. I am essentially rewriting it here to bring new light to this idea and with that feed back from the community. I don’t actually expect Funcom to do this one out side of may be a paid for CE expansion, if at all. That said it is still I think a GREAT idea to talk about. So here we go.
Rituals are continuous effects that have to be maintained by the player or a priest at the alter. Peirodically the ritual has to be renewed costing Zeal which is the mana used to power the whole thing. Actual cost to activate or maintain a ritual is determined by the level of the player’s religious level (1 - 4) for the religion or the priest’s level.
Ritual Magic (RM), not to be confused with sorcery, RM focuses on rituals and rites done at the religious shrines in the game. RM is broken in to Rituals and Rites both containing a lower and a higher tier.
The higher tier having the similar power rating as summoning an avatar with similar requirements (need an arch priest, and tier 3 alter), though you don’t actually need to sac the alter or priest to use them. The range for most high tier Rituals is the entire map of CE. For this reason they are exspensive to cast and maintain. High Rituals and rites would be toggled with the use of avatars on the server setting menu when setting up a game.
Lower tier rites and rituals on the other hand are much more down to earth and more importantly don’t affect the entire map with a range determined by the two god shield ranges used around the alter. Full potency is done at the inner circle of the god shield, while one half or one third (depending on the Ritual done) being done in the outer ring.
Rites, are one off effects that can be given to the player providing some sort of buff. Like rituals above, they are split into two tiers upper and lower. You may only have one upper level rite effect upon a player and as many lower rites as you can afford to cast, though they do not stack. Upper tier rites last till “expended” (it gave a triggered effect that was used), is dispelled through sorcery, is lifted at the alter of the god it was given, or is replaced with another. Upper tier rites have a cool down of 6h to 48h with a casting time of 30 secs. Lower Rites on the other hand have 2 hour timers, and can be lost with death. Average casting time for all lower tier rites is 15 seconds. Each god would have about three to Four upper Rites and six to eight lower rites.
Zeal in all cases acts as mana for everything done at the alter, from item creation (other mats needed in that process) to rites and rituals. Gathering zeal at the alter requires offerings and human sacrifices for all the gods except Mitra. Offerings are gathered with the God tool produced at the alter ( which would not cost zeal). Sacrifices on the other hand would require a victim dragged to the alter instead of the wheel of pain and a special rite being initiated for sacrifice. In fact a speacial slot on the alter menu probally would be needed for this to store the Sacrifice. Ammount of zeal gotten from the “offering” would depend on the level of the priest there. The sacrifice since its done by the player would depend on the level of the religion tier the player has.
Mitra obliviously would not gain zeal this way as stated above. Instead, he has two other options; a ritual (that uniquely doesn’t cost anything to main and can be kept going indefenetely) which drains corruption from all players in range (outer god shield range) providing the alter with zeal. Or a special ritual called prayer thats use builds up the alters zeal counter. “Prayer” cannot be maintained by a thrall priest only players. Prayer’s use drains stamina and is stackable, multiple player can engage in prayer at the same time synchronizing the stamina drain and bumping the zeal gain per tick. Stacks till seven players are praying. Mitra under this system would be the only alter to have a zeal cap.
Lastly with the exception of mitra and Dkerto, each of the gods would have a upper Rite that Boosted a particular sorcery. This would be my list.
Set -> Mesmorization
Jibal Sag -> Spirit Summoning
Yog - > Demon summoning
Ymir -> Weather (summoning storms and such)
Expanded list (gods I would add to game any ways);
Morrigan -> Thaumaturgy
Yun - > Necromancy (should have been in the Khitai DLC)
Bel - > Illusion
Hanuman -> Divination
Xotli - > Shapeshifting
For Dkerto I would give her instead of a formal sorcery I would give her basically an serious advantage in alchemy through the use of transmutes. Transmutes would be rites that produced any alchemy or agriculture product except gold or silver. the reason being each transmute would take gold or silver. Each of the transmutes would be in the upper and lower tiers. Lower tier transmutes costing silver dust and zeal to do producing either five or ten of an item. Upper tier transmutes would cost the same but in gold dust producing ten times the amount of it lower tier counter part either fifty or a hundred. Items up for transmutes include but not limited to tar, brimstone, demons blood, blood raw ash, ichor, viotile glands, both mushrooms and ANY SEED you want. Upper tier transmutes would have a six hour cool down timer that would trigger for all of them when one is used.
Mitra for his sorcery boost, would instead offer special relics that utilized the sorcery mechanics providing healing and protection for clan member / owned thralls in range of the healer. An example of such a relic would be the mitraen Ankh. Such effects would include acceralted healing, reducing / eliminating of debuffs such as cripple/ bleed / sunder etc. and naturally protection against sorcery.
Its late here I will finish this up again when I got a chance. Peace out.