Relics turn guild PvP into a structured, named contest with public stakes — not random ganks. They're guild-tied artifacts with a multi-stage state machine, hall-seating mechanics, a fade clock that prevents permanent hoarding, and raid declarations that turn relic defense into scheduled engagements.
This page covers how the system works.
What Relics Are
A relic is a persistent in-world artifact tied to the guild system. Relics:
- Spawn or surface as Wild relics in the world.
- Get Recovered by guilds.
- Are Carried between locations.
- Are Seated at guild halls for ongoing perks.
- Fade if not actively defended (~30-day clock).
- Release back to the wild on fade.
The cycle keeps relics moving. A static "first guild to find one wins forever" model would be boring; the fade system ensures every relic eventually returns to play.
The State Machine
Each relic exists in one of six states:
Wild
The starting state. The relic is in the world, ungoverned by any guild. Anyone can find it; recovery requires a qualified guild member to claim it.
Recovered
A guild member has claimed the relic. The relic is now associated with that guild but not yet seated. Recovered relics can be carried to a destination.
Carried
The relic is being moved by a guild member. Carry transit is the most vulnerable state — the carrier can be intercepted, killed, and the relic forcibly returned to a Recovered state for the recovering guild (or back to Wild if no guild has standing claim).
Seated
The relic is installed at a guild hall location. Seated relics:
- Grant the holding guild perks tied to the specific relic.
- Are publicly visible at the hall.
- Become defensive targets for rival guilds.
- Begin the fade clock if not actively defended.
Fading
A Seated relic that hasn't been actively defended (no recent civic engagement, no raid defenses, no member presence at the hall) enters Fading. The relic is still nominally seated, but the perks degrade and the relic is on a countdown.
Released
The fade clock has expired. The relic returns to Wild. The next guild to find and recover it starts the cycle over.
The full cycle is roughly 30 days from Seated to Released without defense. Active guilds can hold a relic indefinitely; passive holders lose it.
Recovery: Finding and Claiming Wild Relics
Wild relics surface in specific zones — historically meaningful locations, contested territories, dungeons-with-lore. Finding one requires some combination of:
- Geographic knowledge (where Wild relics tend to surface).
- Velvet Hand sensing (the Velvet Hand Order can sense relics in motion; their members are valuable contracts for relic-hunting guilds).
- Patience — relics don't surface on a fixed schedule; the spawn rhythm is loose.
Once found, a qualified guild member claims the relic, transitioning it to Recovered.
Carry: The Risk Phase
Moving a Recovered relic to your guild's seating hall is the most dangerous phase:
- The carrier is publicly identifiable as carrying the relic.
- Other guilds can intercept and forcibly take the relic via combat.
- Velvet Hand sensers can locate carriers; this information sometimes feeds rival guilds.
- The longer the carry, the more risk.
Smart guilds plan carries: timing, escort party composition, route selection. A bad carry loses the relic; a good carry establishes the Seated state.
Hall Seating
Seating a relic at your guild hall produces:
- Perks specific to the relic. Different relics grant different effects — gathering bonuses, combat-flavor effects, civic standing modifiers, defensive bonuses for the hall itself.
- Public prestige — the guild visibly holds the relic, which matters in shard politics.
- Defensive obligation — the hall becomes a raid target; the guild must actively defend.
- The fade clock — without active defense, the relic begins fading.
Active defense looks like: members present at the hall during raid windows, civic engagement (Order participation, public records, contribution log activity), and willingness to fight when raids are declared.
Fading and the 30-Day Clock
Fading isn't a punishment — it's the system's pressure to keep relics moving. Verified mechanics:
- The total Seated-to-Released clock is 30 days (
RelicItem.cs: "Fades after 30 days and returns to a random wild location"). - The last 7 days of that cycle are the explicit Fading state — visible warning that the relic is on its way out.
- Once Released, the relic spends 48 hours in a respawn pool before reappearing as Wild somewhere on the map (
RelicConfig.RespawnDelayHours = 48). - A Seated relic checks its activity level continuously; sustained inactivity accelerates fade.
Guilds can prevent fade by demonstrating active hold: scheduled hall presence, civic engagement, raid defense, contribution to the holding guild's standing. There's no single "feed the relic 1000 gold" anti-fade button — the system specifically rewards real engagement.
Population note: relics are rare. The shard runs roughly 3 relics total at any time — they're persistent world Items, not respawning loot. Holding one is a real distinction.
Guild Raids: Declarations and Breach Windows
Rival guilds can challenge a Seated relic via raid declaration. Verified mechanics from GuildRaidManager.cs:
| Setting | Value | What It Means |
|---|---|---|
| Raid duration | 15 minutes (RaidDurationMinutes) |
The breach window |
| Cooldown between raids | 14 days (CooldownDays) |
A guild can be raided at most every two weeks |
| Formation time | 5 minutes (FormationTimeMinutes) |
Time to assemble before breach |
| Required guild members | 3 (RequiredGuildMembers) |
Raid party minimum from the raiding guild |
| Required Velvet Hand member | 1 at Sleeve+ rank | Raid Deeds craft from Velvet Hand Sleeve+ members |
So a raid takes a minimum of 4 attackers (3 guild + 1 VH) and runs in a 15-minute breach window after a 5-minute formation phase. The 14-day cooldown means a holding guild can plan its defenses on a known schedule.
- If the attackers succeed, the relic transfers (Recovered → ready to carry to attacker's hall).
- If the attackers fail or don't show, the holding guild keeps the relic and demonstrates active defense (resetting fade pressure).
The declaration system structures the conflict. Random ganking the hall outside the breach window doesn't transfer the relic; ad-hoc PvP encounters at the hall don't replace formal raids. This is one of the cleanest pieces of the system — it turns guild-vs-guild conflict into scheduled, named events with stakes.
The Velvet Hand Sensing Layer
The Velvet Hand Order has a system-tied ability to sense relics in motion — Carried relics in particular can be tracked through Velvet Hand members. This produces a market: relic-hunting guilds contract Velvet Hand sensers for intelligence; carrier-guild members try to evade detection.
Velvet Hand is currently a beta Order (Velvet Hand Guide), so the sensing layer is rolling out alongside the rest of the Order's mechanics. The framework is in; the day-to-day rhythm of contract-and-counter is still developing.
Why the Relics System Exists
The shard's design instinct: guild PvP needs structure to be meaningful. Random ganking produces no story; faction warfare requires faction commitment some players don't want. Relics give guilds a long-arc, named, public contest with clear stakes (the relic, the perks, the fade clock) and clear mechanics (declaration, breach window, defense).
A relic isn't just an item. It's:
- A reason to seat at a hall.
- A reason to engage civically.
- A reason to declare and accept raids.
- A reason for guilds to know each other by name and history.
- A reason for solo players to specialize as Velvet Hand sensers or freelance scouts.
Without the system, guild PvP would mostly be random Felucca encounters. With it, guild PvP has the shape of a slow strategic game with episodic peaks.
Where to Read Next
- For the broader guild layer, Immortal Realm Guilds.
- For the PvP mechanics that relic raids sit on top of, PvP on Immortal Realm.
- For the Velvet Hand sensing layer, Velvet Hand Guide.
- The download page is the on-ramp.
