Test of the Holy Shrine

The Test of the Holy Shrine
(Test - Worship)
Verification
Unverified

Build a shrine to the god of your choice, along with four others. Summon and bless the shrine at will - the more original priests present, the greater the shrine's power.

Test Description

Build a shrine to one of five gods, along with four other priests. The shrine may be called forth at any time, and the shrine's power is equal to the number of owning priests present at the time. Performing blessings increases the holyness of both your shrine and of the shrine blessed.

Principles

Principles of the Holy Shrine

• Build a Holy Shrine, or join a Sect
• Summon your Holy Shrine
• Complete a Blessing for Ra
• Complete a Blessing for Thoth
• Complete a Blessing for Osiris
• Complete a Blessing for Isis
• Complete a Blessing for Bastet
• Complete a Blessing for Maat
• Complete a Blessing for Hathor
• Have your Shrine blessed seven times
• Shrine Score of Twenty-One

University Text

Build a shrine to one of five gods, along with four other priests. The shrine may be called forth at any time, and the shrine's power is equal to the number of owning priests present at the time. Performing blessings increases the holyness of both your shrine and the shrine blessed.

Overview

The Test of the Holy Shrine is the tenth test in the discipline of Worship.

This Test is from the Kemet (German Tale 1) Worship Monument.
The original design for the test can be found here, though there may be some changes from the initial plan.

The T2 System Intro...
You know me as The Stranger. 
Before even my generation there was Kemet, a small 
but rugged band of settlers who called these lands home.  
Their society produced only a single monument.  
Yet in that one monument's inscription there is a wisdom 
that few of this generation are capable of appreciating.  
Are there any among you who can meet Kemet's challenge?  
I give you the Test of the Holy Shrine!  
-- Gharib

Build Requirements

Holy Shrines are built using a Small Construction Site. On the project menu, under Tests > Test of the Holy Shrine... a list of five gods will appear. (This is the only place you can find out your 5 gods.) Players do not all have the same five gods. Selecting one of the gods assigns the project to the Small Construction Site. Construction costs, regardless of which god is selected, are as follows:

• 600 Concrete
• 320 Cut Stone
• 2 Dodger Blue Silk Ribbons
• 6 Sky Blue Silk Ribbons
• 8 Golden Rod Silk Ribbons
• 12 Light Sea Green Silk Ribbons
• 2 Clay Lamp
• 4 Canvas
• 120 Barley (raw)
• 1 Heavy Lead Bowl

Creating a Group of Priests

Once the shrine has been built, other players may click on it to ask to become one of the priests for the shrine (set the shrine 'Usable to Anyone' if the option is not available). When four additional players have been accepted, the shrine becomes active. God list for forming Holy Shrine groups found here.

Shrines that have been built here.

[It is assumed, but not confirmed, that priests that have the shrine's god as one of their randomly assigned 5 gods are eligible. Nothing on the shrine appears to indicate which god the shrine is for, though the builder should know which one was selected.]

A WARNING

System...09-06-2005-17:18 Pluribus Here... Since there seems to be confusion, I should state that Abandoning your Holy Shrine is JUST like Abandoning your pilgrimage group, it disbands the sect and DESTROYS YOUR SHRINE.

Summoning the Shrine

The shrine is not fixed in location. Any of a shrine's priests may meditate to summon the shrine using the player menu: Tests... > Test of the Holy Shrine ... > Meditate to summon your Shrine. The shrine will appear. It will have a "power" corresponding to the number of that shrine's priests who are present when it is summoned. For example, if two priests are present, it will have "double power", if three, "triple power", etc., which affects scoring. The power of a shrine and it's accumulated score can be seen in the menu that appears when you click on it.

A summoned shrine will disappear after a period of time. How long is not yet confirmed.

(Once the shrine is summoned, any priests not doing blessings can leave without affecting the shrine's power.)

Blessing a Shrine

It takes two players to bless a shrine. These two players must each be a priest at some shrine (the shrine in question or a different one) to be able to bless.

Blessing is performed two players each doing an emote. When clicking on the shrine, there will be a menu item for "Bless this shrine ...". (If not, it probably means the player has not signed up for the test.) A sub-menu gives five emotes as options to bless the shrine:

• Enter my Soul
• Show me Mercy
• Take my Blood
• Share my Joy
• Command me from Heaven

One player chooses an emote, then the second player does the same. A message in Main will tell you if the combination was complementary (i.e. whether it was accepted). Players will have to experment to find the right combination to complete the blessing.

When a pair of players has successfully completed a blessing, each of them will not be eligible to perform another blessing for a period of time. [undetermined at this point... one day?]

A particular pair of players can only bless a particular shrine once. For further blessings at a shrine, different pairs have to be formed.

Scoring

When a blessing is completed the shrine where the blessing was performed receives 2 points, multiplied by the "power" of the shrine. In addition, the shrine(s) of the players performing the blessing receive(s) one point (not multiplied).

A shrine with all it's 5 priests present during blessing receives 11 points when is blessed by 2 priests that belong to the shrine and 6 points if one of the priests doesn't belog to the shrine. So, with the 5 priests and 1 invited priest it can get 11+11+6=28 points. The invited priest doesn't need to have the god of the shrine, but has to be associated to another shrine (even if that shrine hasn't been activated).

One more time...:

• The 'power' of a shrine equals the number of the priests of that shrine present.
• If both of the priests blessing a shrine are priests of that shrine, the base value of the blessing is 2. If one of the priests is a priest of some other shrine, the base value is 1.
• The value of a single blessing is (base value) * (power) +1.

For example: A group of 6 "holy shrine" priests gather at a shrine. 3 are priests of that shrine, 3 are not. The power of the shrine is 3.

• Two of the shrine's priests bless the shrine. The shrine gains 2 * 3 +1 = 7 points.
• One of the shrine's priests, and one of the other priests bless the shrine. The shrine gains 1 * 3 + 1 = 4 points.

Passing

The Shrine and its priests with the highest score pass on the Sunday Passes, an example from T3...

2008-11-24 10:58:55 : Egypt recognizes F:SuumCuique, M:McArine, F:andrealp, F:Alexandriall and M:StarV for passing the Test of the Holy Shrine. Their Shrine to holymaat won with 342 points. It was blessed 41 times.

Questions

Please verify these answers, if you have specific information.

• Can you perform more than one blessing a day?
  • apparently you can, if the blessings are a) for different shrines, and b) for different gods and c) with a different priest.

• If one of the priests in a blessing is a "foreign" priest, does HIS shrine gain a point as well?
  • the original scoring description would indicate that the foreign shrine gets a point.

• What is the scoring (or base value) if BOTH of the priests in a blessing are "foreign" priests?
  • Unknown. Extension would lead one to believe that the shrine would get 0 * (power) points, and that the shrine(s) of the priests would get one point each. Possibly, both (or all three) shrines would be awarded a point. But this is all speculation.'
  • I watched as two priest from the same shrine blessed another shrine that was at 5x power. The blessed shrine got 1 point, the shrine that the priests were both "owned" by gained 20. Gemstar

• How far apart do shrines have to be, for the shrines to "know" which shrine you are performing a blessing for?
  • unknown. But it does seem as if they interfere with each other. That, or the priests were clumbsy. More research needed.

• Exactly how long DO you have to wait between blessings for a particular shrine?
  • a little more than 24 hours (probably due to the lag)

• Are points scored depending on how many priests are there right now, or only when the shrine is summoned? (If only when summoned, then everyone else could leave...)
  • When summoned. I tested this yesterday - cappu

• How do you check your progress?
  • By summoning your shrine. Your score is in the shrine menu.

Demonstration

The Test of the Holy Shrine must be petitioned at all Universities of Worship simultaneously (within 2 minutes), by different priests of exactly the same rank.

Each priest must have:

1. 1 concrete
2. 1 cut stone
3. 1 ribbon of any color
4. 1 clay lamp
5. 1 barley (raw)
6. 1 heavy lead bowl

Players Gods

God	Players that have it
Bastet
Hathor
Isis
Maat
Osiris
Ra
Thoth