Architecture

Racial architecture styles in an Alpha-0 village node. Empyrean Elven influence (top). Kaelar Human influence (bottom).^[1]

The layout and architecture within a Node’s development area are determined by influential race. For example, a stage 3 Node with the majority of player contribution being Py’rai would have a Py’rai village with Py’rai architecture. Most NPCs would be Py’rai elves, and offer questlines within the Py’rai narrative.^[2] – Margaret Krohn

Each player’s contributed experience is flagged with their character race and other identifiers. When a Node advances, the race with the highest experience contribution determines the Node’s style and culture. This style and culture change can happen at every Node Stage. For example, if a Node advances to Level 2 - Encampment Stage and 51% of all experience was earned by Ren’Kai players, the Node will be a Level 2 Ren’Kai Node. If that same Node advances to a Level 3 - Village Stage Node, but the Py’Rai contributed 62% of all the experience earned, then the Node will be a Level 3 Py’Rai Node. Cultural influences bring more than just the aesthetic and storyline changes - benefits are granted to the dominant culture within that Node’s Zone of Influence.^[3] – Margaret Krohn

Node layout and style is determined by several factors:^[4]

Location of the node.^[4]
Node type.^[4]
Race that contributed most to the node's advancement.^[4]^[5]
- Racial appearance of a node's buildings and NPCs.^[6]^[5]
- This applies to all nodes, including castle nodes.^[7]
The rest is determined by the node's mayor.^[4]

Some parts are determined by the area it's in. Some parts are determined by the type it is. Some parts are determined by the race it is; and then the rest of it is determined by the mayor.^[4] – Jeffrey Bard

All nodes whether they're associated with a castle or associated with normal node structure has cultural influences that replicate over to the buildings that are produced and the NPCs that are present.^[7] – Steven Sharif

There is an attrition mechanic that affects experience and influence to curb a single race from dominating the entire world.^[8]

There is an attrition and that attrition on experience and influence is heightened based on the performance of the race in the world. So if all these nodes are Orc nodes then their attrition rate is very high to compete with the cultural establishment of new nodes because they have more influence in the world and a popular opinion is against them in their outlying regions that they do not have influence in.^[8] – Steven Sharif

Node buildings

Alpha-1 Node buildings.^[9]

Node governments decide the location and types of node buildings to be constructed within sectors of a node.^[10]^[11]^[12]

When the building types are determined, the community will then need to bring resources into the node (using caravans) and come together to construct the buildings (via quests and the like).^[10]

The government decides how to specialize their node. Once they choose certain things they won't be able to choose other things.^[10]

Different governments may change the buildings within a node.^[10]

And there could be regime change... If somebody doesn't like the fact that a market was built and they want to re-elect a new government next cycle, they can do so... and that market could be destroyed and a new building take its place.^[10]

Pre-defined parameters limit the number of buildings at in-node locations.^[11]

Unique node buildings

Each node type has a unique node building associated with it that can be activated at the Village stage of node advancement. The unique building plays a central role in the progress of civilization for a server.^[13]

Economic nodes

Scientific nodes
- Academy
- College
- Library
- University

Freehold buildings

Velkor's Eye pre-order pack cosmetic Vek freehold skin.^[14]

Freehold buildings can be placed on a freehold plot.^[15]^[16]

Buildings will require blueprints and materials.^[17]

Basements in freehold buildings are to be decided.^[18]

Players are not locked into any particular race for freehold blueprints.^[19]

Players need to manage how items and buildings are arranged on their freehold to maximize adjacency bonuses.^[20]

Depending on where your place you're freehold, you're gonna have different environmental tiles available to you and those will kind of enable or buff existing structures that you place in your Freehold... I don't know that we would put like fish farming just for a freehold that's on a river. What we would probably do is give you a buff to fishing in that area. That kind of a thing. So there'll be more buffs for existing things rather than necessarily a special buildings just for that area. But again we're not fully baked in on that system yet, so it's very possible though we end up going down that direction.^[21] – Jeffrey Bard

Artistic influences

Aelean architecture has a French medieval influence.^[22]
Pyrian architecture has a Greco-Roman influence.^[23]
Empyreans have a Greco-Roman imperialistic feeling.^[24]
The Py'Rai have a Navajo Native American influence.^[24] Py'Rai architecture has a woodland inspiration.^[25]
The Vek have a Mesoamerican racial influence.^[26]
The Niküa have a Polynesian influence.^[24]

You will see in the different races that are available from a player character standpoint a lot of different influences that reflect many cultures in the world: Not just European, not just Africa, not Mesoamerican. These cultures are going to be present in many of the races.^[27] – Steven Sharif