Building a castle from scratch is only part of the fantastic new improvements coming to ArcheAge in Ascension. How would you love to stand toe to toe with the national leaders of Nuia and Haranya? Do you think you have what it takes to lead a nation?

What is a player nation?

Player nations are 100% player run factions, similar to the main alliances of Nuia and Haranya. However, while the mainland continents are guarded by a bastion of non-player characters, player nations feature an actual player as their Sovereign, up to 10 additional players as their Hero Council, and consist as a series of allied guilds that stand under the nation’s flag. Player Nations can also claim territory in Auroria by conquering castles as they quest to unite the North.

Player nations welcome any race under their banner, as long as you’re invited to the ruling guilds and are not a pirate.

How are player nations formed?

Forming a nation is no easy task, and it can only be done by a guild who has heavily invested in their Aurorian castle.

Once the guild has successfully raised their Capital building to level 3, the building will possess a Declaration Workbench. This workbench will begin the process of found a nation, starting with the creation of the Crimson Watch Tribute.

The Crimson Watch Tribute, as denoted by its name, is a tradepack that can be crafted from 1,000 Lord’s Coins. Any member of the guild may create the pack. Once the pack is created it will only survive for 2 hours and it will need to be given to the Crimson Watch’s representative, Andre. Once the pack is created, a server wide message will be sent to all players, notifying them that a Lord or Lady is attempting to move the pack to the coffers of the Crimson Watch in Golden Ruins.

Andre will only be present in Golden Ruins on Saturdays and Sundays, between 12:00 PM and 9:00 PM GMT (5:00 AM to 2:00 PM PDT). (These times are subject to change after the release of Update 2.9 and the debut of the different NA & EU schedules) If the Crimson Watch Tribute can be successfully delivered by the Lord or Lady of the territory (and not stolen by a rival group), Andre will then offer the leader additional tasks to secure their rights to a nation.

“Cutting Ties” is the first quest in the line, and requires the leader and their guild to kill either General Arshir or General Belisar in Diamond Shores. These generals will only appear if the Alemine Fortress has been destroyed in that area. Arshir is in charge of attacking the Nuian front, while Belisar doggedly pursues the Haranyan front.

If the General can be killed, Andre will offer the next quest, “A Nation Is Born.” This quest will be to create a royal seal for the rising nation, and you’ll need 1000 One-Hander Metal Mana Wisps, 1000 Two-Hander Metal Mana Wisps, 1000 Wooden Mana Wisps, 3000 Plate Mana Wisps, 3000 Leather Mana Wisps, and 3000 Cloth Mana Wisps.

When those materials can be gathered and presented, the Lord/Lady will receive a Declaration of Independence in return. The Declaration is one of the final steps of creating a nation, and one of the most awe-inspiring.

Take the Declaration of Independence back to the city and stand in the throne room, close to the Throne itself. Use the document and make sure that over 50 members of the guild are using their /vow emote in the presence of the Sovereign-to-be. If these requirements are fulfilled, your character will trigger a cutscene and read the document aloud to all gathered.

The Declaration will become the Independence Permit, and that final permit can be used to craft a flag at the Declaration Workbench. Take the Flag’s tradepack to your Archeum lodestone, use it there, and raise it high. Welcome to independence!

What are the benefits of being a nation?

In addition to uniting all races under a single banner, Player Nations also possess their own hero council, can engage in diplomacy with their home nations, earn taxes from other castles in territories they own, and act as a completely separate faction when it comes to PvP battles like Mistmerrow. Nations also receive their own chat channel and can take advantage of nation specific buffs. Their Sovereign can also begin to raise and tame a Wyvern, if they possess a Sovereign’s Vault.

How can I join an existing player nation?

To join a nation, you’ll need to be invited by the Sovereign, who can type in your name and invite you from the Nation’s user interface. (Available in the lower right-hand corner of the screen.) To qualify for the invite, you’ll need to be over level 50, not be a member of an existing guild, and must not have joined a different player nation in the past 3 days.

Once you’re invited to the nation, your alignments will immediately be set to the same as the nation’s. If your nation is at war with one of the mainland continents (which they are by default), you may not want to be there for very long.

Guilds in the nation, outside of the founding guild, will have to be built from scratch. All citizens must enter the nation unguilded. You do not have to be a member of a guild in the nation, but you will be unable to join any other guilds except for those in your nation. Likewise, any guilds that are in the nation may only consist of other players in that nation.

Sovereigns also have the ability to remove players from their nation at will as long as the player isn’t in a guild. If they are in a guild, they will have to be removed from the guild first before the Sovereign can remove them from the nation.

Players can also choose to leave the nation willingly, but will have to leave both their guild and the nation to do so. Once they do, they will revert back to their home nation and will be unable to join another player nation for 3 days.

At their inception, nations have a limit of 100 players – the same as a guild. As a nation begins to conquer new territories, their player limit rises.

Nations that hold 0 -1 Castles have a limit of 100 players.

Nations that hold 2 Castles have a limit of 150 players.

Nations that hold 3-4 Castles have a limit of 200 players.

Counting coins: Taxes and you

Previously, Lords/Ladies of a castle received a set amount of Lord’s Coins each week on Sunday as compensation for their landholdings. Now that territories feature robust economies of their own, Lords/Ladies will receive taxes each day instead.

Taxes are calculated by how many goods are shipped out of a territory from a Warehouse (as we discussed in our last spotlight on Castle Upgrades.) Once the shipping process is complete, the Lord’s Coins generated will be assigned to a territory’s tax holdings. Taxes will be paid out daily, so it pays to have multiple warehouses shipping goods at different times.

Castles that are part of a Nation will also send some of their tax earnings to the nation’s Sovereign. While Sovereigns are usually Lords/Ladies of a Castle of their own, this may not always be the case. Should the Sovereign lose their castle but still have another territory in their nation, they remain the Sovereign of the nation and will receive Lord’s Coins from the other territories still in the nation.

It is up to the Lords/Ladies and Sovereign of a nation to distribute these earnings as they wish. Remember, members of land-holding guilds cannot work in Auroria and must earn their Lord’s Coins through taxes. Being a stingy, greedy leader may lead to a political situation you don’t want on your hands.

Beginning your own diplomatic relations

In order to officially re-establish ties with Nuia and Haranya, the nation will need to build a Diplomacy Headquarters in one of their territories. Diplomacy Headquarters are the hub of all diplomatic actions and, once created, will open the Diplomacy area of the Nation’s menus.

Player nations start at war with all other factions: their names will be red to all other factions, and all other factions will be red to them. Once each week, the Sovereign can try to send a treaty and a diplomatic gift of Lord’s Coins to Nuia or Haranya on Friday. Treaties cannot be sent to other Player Nations. Once the treaty is sent, it will be deliberated upon by the mainland nation’s hero council. They can accept or reject the offer via a vote taken on Saturday. If there are not enough heroes who vote, the offer is accepted by default.

If the offer is accepted, both factions will become green to one another for 7 days starting on Sunday. The Lord’s Coins will be taken by the NPC Sovereign. During this time players may still enter bloodlust to attack other players who are allied, but doing so will create bloodstains and earn crime points as if you were attacking a member of your own faction.

If the offer is rejected, the gift is sent back to the lord and they can try to form a new treaty in the next week. Make sure you make ties with the heroes of other nations so you can avoid your treaties getting rejected! Also, remember that the mainland continents still speak different languages, so you should bone up on your dialects if you want to understand those who hail from lands different from your own. Otherwise, it may be difficult to establish ties with the heroes of the mainland, or understanding new friends in your own nation!

While the treaty is enforced, either side may officially break ties and end the treaty early. If the player nation ends the treaty, both nations immediately re-enter war with one another. If the heroes of Nuia or Haranya attempt to end It, the heroes will be called together to have a meeting and discuss how to proceed. Once the meeting is over, a vote will be taken and the majority in the council will get their way to either keep or end the treaty.

Raising a Wyvern

Sovereigns also have the opportunity to raise and ride one of the rarest creatures in the land – the great Golden Wyvern. This mount can only be used by the nation’s Sovereign, and it lives within the Sovereign’s Vault.

If your nation qualifies to raise a Wyvern, the Territory Steward will offer the quest “Symbol of Authority” to the Sovereign of the nation. Raising a Wyvern can take over a month to complete for even the fastest, most prepared guilds (as the Wyvern needs to grow and rest naturally), and will require a substantial amount of investment.

Once the Wyvern is raised and tamed, the Sovereign will be able to call upon its services as a mount. The Wyvern is able to fly, breathe fire on those who stand against it, and more! Of course, the Wyvern is also an extremely large, very visible mount, and it can still be killed by your enemies. Bringing it into any battle should be a consideration.

The Wyvern can stay active for 21 days at a time before it needs to be refreshed. The item to refresh the duration of the mount can be crafted at the Sovereign’s Vault. If the Sovereign no longer has a vault (or a nation) they will be unable to refresh the Mount and will lose access to it.

Sovereigns also cannot “inherit” the mount from the prior ruler. Wyverns are loyal only to their owner, and will not leave their service. If a new Sovereign wants to have a Wyvern, they will have to raise it from scratch.

The Sovereign’s New Clothes

Sovereigns are also entitled to wear the formal attire of the ruler of a nation. These luxuriously regal robes can be crafted in the Sovereign’s Vault, and they will very quickly identify you as someone who oversees a lot of land in Auroria! Huge tracts of land!

Crafting these robes will take 1 Blazing Sunridge Ingot, 1 Blazing Cloudspun Fabric, and 1 Blazing Wind Spirit Leather – all of which can be acquired at the Territory Workbench in the Market.

That’s all for our spotlight on nations, but there’s more to come in our later spotlights! Next week we’ll be discussing the changes to PvP within the game, from the introduction of brand new Arena Matchmaking rules to changes in Siege Bidding. Come back next week to read our continuing series of Ascension details before the update launches on May 31st!