With the invasion of the Underhalls by Ivoln and His undead, three mighty spears now stand atop the mountain peaks of Sapience: symbols of a declaration of war by Dhar, the Underking. One can be found in the Tarean mountains at the peak of Kentorakro (v13469), another in the Vashnars (v2039), and a third in the Siroccians (v15484).

Approximately twenty-four hours from now, these spears will become focal points of death essence and a conflict between Death and Undeath will begin.

We're trialling some new mechanics for this event and we expect it to run for at least a few days. Here is what you can expect:

FOCAL POINTS
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- Each focal point activates once per real day, rotating between the Tarean Mountains, the Siroccians, and the Vashnars.
- While active, the areas are open PK and XP loss is disabled.
- Killing other players (not assists) in these active areas will cause your character to accumulate death essence.
- You can see your current death essence accumulated via DEATHESSENCE.
- At 100 death essence, you will become saturated with death energy.
- This will prevent you from damaging and landing killing blows on other players within the conflict zone, encouraging you to rotate your team members instead of bringing your whole army to every fight.

SOULS
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- During the active conflict, a limited number of the souls lost from the Underhalls during the recent scuffle will periodically begin ascending the mountain, attempting to reunite with Dhar.
- Death essence can be converted into a new defence: death_infused by using the command EXUDE DEATH
* With this defence active, players can TOUCH a soul at the active mountain peak and merge 3 units of pure essence into Dhar's spear.
* Alternatively, players can slay the soul with the defence active to taint 3 units of essence and corrupt the spear.
- The first to reach 1000 essence merged or corrupted will successfully take control of that spear
- The conflict will end when all the souls have either been destroyed or merged.
- Controlling two of the three spears will achieve victory in the overall conflict, which will enable the winning side to impact the direction the event goes.
- Winning with all three spears will have a larger impact on the story direction.

NOTE: You do NOT need to be a member of Dhar or Ivoln's order, nor any specific city or organisation to participate in the coming battle.

Good luck!

Penned by my hand on Kinsday, the 8th of Niuran, in the year 500 MA.
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