The Rivalry is one of Immortal Realm's smaller-scale narrative quests — a single, branching investigation with three permanent endings and real world-state consequences. It's not a grind quest, not a treadmill quest, and not a quest you'll forget after completing. It's a one-shot scene with weight.
This page covers what the quest is, how it plays out, what the three endings change, and how it fits the shard's narrative content layer.
The Setup
Two craftsmen in the city — Blacksmith Aldus and Carpenter Edric — are at each other's throats. Aldus claims Edric stole a hammer head he was forging for the mayor's commission. Edric claims Aldus stole his oak planks. Both swear the other is sabotaging their work.
The narrative pose is simple but deceptive. It looks like a flavor dispute — two NPCs squabbling over inventory. It isn't. The quest pivots when you start investigating: someone is framing them both.
The Investigation
The quest plays as a structured investigation with real evidence-gathering:
- Talk to Aldus. He explains his side — the missing hammer head, his suspicion of Edric, the craftsman feud he wants resolved.
- Talk to Edric. He explains his side — the missing oak planks, his counter-suspicion of Aldus, the same feud from the opposite angle.
- Recover the missing items. Both turn up not where either craftsman claims they were stolen — a discoverable problem.
- Find the merchant's ledger at Dorian Vetch's counting house. The ledger is the pivot. It documents the framing-up of both craftsmen for the same commission Vetch is trying to claim for himself.
- Make the call. With the ledger in hand, the choice is yours.
The pacing is deliberate — early steps feel like a normal "investigate the dispute" quest. The discovery of Vetch's framing reframes everything. From there, the three endings open.
The Three Endings
The decision gump presents three choices, each with permanent consequences:
Expose Dorian Vetch (the peacekeeper ending)
Tell both craftsmen the truth. Aldus and Edric reconcile; the feud ends; Vetch faces civic justice for his framing-up. Both craftsmen remain in town and continue as ongoing NPCs.
Reward: a Peacekeeper's Medallion (a gold necklace with quest provenance) plus standard quest tokens.
This is the "no one gets hurt who didn't earn it" path. It's also the only ending that preserves both craftsmen as long-term shard fixtures.
Side with Aldus (the blacksmith ending)
Hand the ledger to Aldus alone. He uses it as leverage to drive Edric out of town permanently — Edric leaves, the carpenter line vanishes from this city's NPCs.
Reward: an Aldus's Forged Blade — a quest-marked longsword with provenance tying it to your specific role in the feud.
The world has changed. Edric is gone; Aldus dominates the local craftsman scene; his prosperity has a faint shame to it that you helped create.
Side with Edric (the carpenter ending)
Hand the ledger to Edric alone. The mirror of the above — Aldus leaves, Edric secures the commission, the blacksmith line vanishes from this city's NPCs.
Reward: Edric's Finishing Mallet — a war mace with the same quest-provenance signature, this time tied to your role in driving Aldus out.
Same shape, different consequence. The town now has Edric where Aldus used to be.
Why the Three-Way Choice Matters
In most MMOs, branching dialogue is illusion — you pick a path, get a flavor text, and move on. The Rivalry's branches are mechanical, though the persistence is account-scoped rather than shard-wide:
- The chosen ending is persisted at the account level via
acc.SetTag("RivalryResolution", resolution)(verified atTheRivalryQuest.cs:513), with aRivalryCompletedDatecompanion tag. Future Rivalry-aware content reads these tags to branch on your choice. - The reward weapons carry provenance text identifying which path produced them, so a player wielding an Aldus's Forged Blade is publicly readable as someone who chose that ending.
The page previously claimed the losing craftsman is "removed from the world... actually gone for everyone in your shard". Verified: the resolution is per-account, and a follow-up Rivalry Aftermath system (RivalryAftermathQuest.cs:133-159) explicitly brings the exiled craftsman back in a dialogue scene near New Haven after AftermathConfig.CooldownDays has passed — asking whether they can return to town. So a Side With ending is the opening of a longer arc, not a one-shot world deletion. The choice is account-marked and lasting; the world-state shape is more "exile then return scene" than "permanent NPC removal."
Pacing and Time
The Rivalry is short. From first talk to final resolution, the quest is roughly 45–90 minutes depending on how thoroughly you investigate before reaching for the ledger. It's not a multi-week arc — it's a single sustained sitting that builds, pivots, and resolves.
That brevity is part of the design: the quest is dense, not long. Every step has weight; nothing pads. By the time the choice gump opens, you've genuinely investigated enough to make an informed decision.
In-game status commands (all AccessLevel.Player): [RivalryQuestStatus for the main quest, [RivalryOrbitStatus for the orbit dialogue, [RivalryAftermathStatus for the post-resolution state on your account.
How It Fits the Shard's Quest Layer
The Rivalry is one of several narrative-anchor quests on the shard:
- Ashen Pact Questline is the long-arc, multi-chapter narrative spine — months of play, deep lore.
- Britannia Murders is the investigation-and-clue-gathering procedural — slow, methodical, episodic.
- The Rivalry is the dense single-session quest — short, pivotal, choice-driven.
- Frog Collection is the long, light, low-stakes collection arc — months of incidental play.
Together they cover the full range of narrative tones the shard wants on offer. The Rivalry is the slot for "you sit down for an evening and a story actually happens."
Why the System Exists
The shard's design instinct: choices should mark the world. Two failure modes the Rivalry quest is built against:
- Branching that doesn't branch. Most MMO quest "choices" produce different reward tooltips and identical world states. The Rivalry actually deletes a craftsman line from the city if you side against them.
- Quest content that lives only in personal save data. When your roleplay character "remembers" a choice but no one else can see it, the choice never made it to the shared world. The Rivalry's chosen craftsman is gone for everyone, and your reward weapon advertises which way you went.
The cost is that the quest is one-shot per account. No replays. That's a fair trade for the choice being real.
How to Engage
If you want to play through the Rivalry:
- Start with either craftsman. The narrative converges either way; pick whichever NPC you talk to first.
- Investigate before deciding. The choice gump assumes you've found the ledger — and the ledger is the only thing that turns the quest from "settle a dispute" into "expose a framer." Without it, the three endings don't make sense.
- Think about the consequence. The two "Side with" endings produce mechanically the same gameplay outcome (one craftsman removed, one weapon awarded), but they leave different NPCs in your city. If you have any future intent to return to this town and interact with Aldus or Edric specifically, that intent should shape the choice.
- Don't expect a redo. The lock is intentional. Sit with whichever ending you pick — the weight of the choice is part of the quest.
Where to Read Next
- For the long-arc narrative spine, Ashen Pact Questline.
- For the investigation procedural, Britannia Murders.
- For the broader system map narrative quests sit inside, Immortal Realm Custom Systems.
- The download page is the on-ramp when you're ready.
