Guild castles

With five Castles in the world, and each having been owned by different civilizations from the far-flung past of Verra, you can expect that each Castle has its own character. Different terrains and different layouts will result in each Castle having its own advantages and disadvantages. Just because you have managed to take one Castle will not mean that your strategies will pan out in the next. Commanders will have to take into consideration the lay of the land, time of day, weather, and even seasons into account when forming their battle plans.^[2]

Five guild castles exist in Ashes of Creation.^[2]^[3]

Castle sieges occur in the open world but may become instanced based on testing.^[4]
- Alpha-1 castle sieges occurred in a zone that is accessible via a NPC teleporter.^[5]^[6]^[4]^[7]
There is one castle located on an island that is able to be affected by naval combat.^[8]^[9]

Castles will initially be occupied by an NPC adversary. These are the primary antagonists in the storyline.^[10]
These Castles are occupied when players arrive on Verra, and their current inhabitants will have to be removed before any player can claim them. Castles will be dangerous and high-level raid zones until they can be cleared, and the first group of players to do so will gain the Castle as their reward.^[2]
- Guilds have a period of time to level up in order to siege these castles.^[10]
- The attacking guilds need to fight the NPCs and kill a raid boss at the center of the castle.^[11]^[10]
- There will not be a relic to capture, instead whichever guild had highest contributing DPS against the raid boss will capture the castle.^[11]
- Castle nodes around NPC run castles will not be present.^[10]

Castle regions

Guild castles influence a castle region around them.^[12]

A castle's region is 1/5th the game world.^[13]
Castle regions, Economic regions, and Node ZOI (Zones of Influence) can overlap.^[14]^[15]
- A castle could have a metropolis beside it.^[16]
Castle region boundaries are static.^[14]
Guild castles impose a tax on all revenue for the nodes within its region.^[17]^[18]

Castle taxes

Castles have direct power over the Nodes that belong to it, but also have soft power across the entire region it belongs to. All Nodes belonging to that region pay fealty to the Castle in the form of taxes paid directly to the Castle. The Monarch sets the rate, and can use those proceeds to upgrade defenses, maintain the Castle’s direct Nodes, or provide buffs and benefits to the citizens of that region, as the magnanimous ruler that you are.^[2]

Guild castles impose a tax on all revenue for the nodes within its region.^[17]^[18]

The monarch sets the tax rate, and can use those proceeds to upgrade defenses, maintain the castle's direct nodes, or provide buffs and benefits to the citizens of that region.^[2]
Castle taxes are carried via NPC generated caravans from the nodes that fall under the castle's purview to one of the castle nodes at the end of each week leading up to a castle siege.^[1]
In addition to taxes, Castles also influence crop yields, resources and events within its region.^[19]
Part of the tax and resources gathered are applied to the castle for improvements.^[17]^[20]^[21]
The remainder of tax income can be used by the guild for whatever they want.^[17]^[22]
When castles change hands (following a siege), some taxes stay with the castle and some stay with the guild.^[23]

Castles have the ability to allocate taxes collected from nodes under them toward certain benefits that go back to the node. Or they can be more selfishly governed that treasury more towards the guild that owns it and that obviously is going to have some political implications, because it could- if you're not using it for the benefit of the people in the region they might rise up and help take you out from that that position of owning that castle.^[17] – Steven Sharif

Benefits of guild castles

Guild castle concept art.^[2]

It's a reciprocal relationship between the castle and its nodes essentially. There are benefits granted to citizens of the castle; and the longer that the castle remains in the hands of its incumbent guild, the stronger the benefits become overall. But at the same time that represents a greater incentive to attack the castle because the rewards will get greater over time also.^[1] – Steven Sharif

Guild castles provide benefits and trophies for guilds that capture and control them.^[1]^[24]

These benefits increase the longer a guild holds its castle.^[1]

There are levers and dials that are present to both the owners of Castles as well as the elected officials of Nodes that during their administration they have the ability to impact and influence the region around them.^[25] – Steven Sharif

Guild castles exert a King or Queen's presence over nodes within their region.^[1]^[25]^[26]

Levy taxes for the purposes of defense (additional to taxes already imposed by node governments).^[1]^[26]
Activate events and abilities that benefit node citizens under their rule.^[1]^[26]
Establish special relationships with Mayors to help build up the three dedicated castle nodes.^[1]
Unlock additional types of buildings in nodes.^[26]
Exert control and pressure over one of the five economic regions.^[1]

Castle nodes

One of the 5 guild castles is located on an island, depicted with its 3 adjacent castle nodes.^[8]^[9]

Should you be deft enough to take a Castle, you’ll now be responsible for managing it. Castles will have their own Nodes associated with them, and developing and defending those Nodes will determine the state of your Castle during the next siege. If you’ve done a good job managing your kingdom, then you’ll have more and better options available for deployment during the next siege. If you let your populace fall to ruin, you may have to rely solely on your own devices.^[2]

Guild castles have three adjacent castle nodes in close proximity.^[3]^[27] The guild must develop those nodes to enhance the defenses of the castle.^[3] It will be possible, but very difficult for a single guild to fully develop these nodes. They will likely need assistance from the broader community.^[28]

Castle nodes exist outside of the node system. They are independent of anything that's happening outside in the world with other nodes shutting off certain nodes from progressing.^[27]
Castle nodes are excluded from the normal Citizenship, Zones of Influence, Freeholds, Node governments, and Social organizations systems.^[29]
Castle nodes cannot exceed stage 3 (Village).^[27]
Castle nodes are always military node types.^[3]
Each of the dedicated castle nodes is barren at the start of the castle ownership period.^[10]
Mercenary NPCs of different types and strengths can also be hired to participate in castle sieges and defend caravans during these events based on the allocation made by the governing castle and how successful they have been defending their castle nodes.^[17]^[30]

Once the castle is owned by a guild that's when the supporting castle nodes start to come online and spawn each week prior to the fourth week castle siege. They'll have to form alliances, they'll have to get support, they'll have to get resources, they'll be able to allocate funds that have been collected through taxation in order to strengthen the defenses as well as hiring additional NPC mercenaries.^[30] – Steven Sharif

Castle nodes are leveled through questing by the owning guild or alliance guilds.^[27]

Levelling castle nodes is a hastened process compared to regular nodes.^[10]
At the end of each week leading up to a castle siege there is a period of time in the weekend where NPC generated caravans start moving toward one of the castle nodes carrying castle taxes from the nodes that fall under the castle's purview.^[1]^[31]
- During this time it is incumbent upon the owning guild, its allies, and citizens of the nodes to escort these caravans to the castle node.^[1]
- The enemies of the guild have incentive to attack these caravans to reap the rewards from the caravan and to sabotage the tax collection, which will reduce the defensive capability of the castle nodes and hence the castle itself.^[1]^[27]
- Citizens of nodes that fall under the purview of the castle are automatically registered as defenders of these caravans and may not participate in attacks against them.^[1]
Completing these quests unlocks services and functions that are useful to the occupying guild and its allies as well as boosting the defenses the castle.^[27]

If they fail to to level up those nodes or complete those quests within the three prior weeks before the declaration week, then the castle will be at a disadvantage.^[27] – Steven Sharif

Being a member of the occupying guild automatically makes you a garrison of the castle nodes and castle itself.^[3]

Only members of the occupying guild are citizens of these nodes.^[32]
This citizenship is different to normal node citizenship. Castle nodes don't operate like normal nodes.^[32]^[29]

Castle sieges

Alpha-1 castle siege gameplay.^[33]

Throughout Ashes of Creation, the player has an opportunity to participate in massively multiplayer siege warfare. Since castles are likely the world’s most limited resource, it will be a task to secure and hold them. Involving hundreds of players on a single battlefield, our sieges will employ many moving parts and intricate design features. Because of the difficult nature of taking and keeping a castle there are great rewards available to the players for their efforts. Castles will allow players to exert control over nearby lands and allow for the development of unique buildings in the nearby towns.^[34]

Guilds participate in Castle sieges in an effort to capture and occupy one of the five guild castles in Ashes of Creation.^[3]

Sieges occur once a month within a server prime-time window.^[35]^[3]^[36]^[37]

The minimum goal is for 250x250 players to be on a single battlefield. It is hoped that this can be increased to 500x500 over time.^[38]^[39]^[40]^[41]

There will be systems that mimic some of the mechanics of sieges, but there won't be practice sieges.^[42]

There may be instanced locations within otherwise open-world castle and node sieges, where specific groups can participate in small, short duration objective-based battles that will affect the overall outcome of the siege.^[43]
- It was previously stated that castle sieges may or may not be (entirely) instanced in the final game.^[4]
- Alpha-1 castle sieges occurred in an open-world zone that was accessible via a NPC teleporter.^[5]^[6]^[4]^[7]

A guild that captures a castle will own that castle for a month before it is sieged again.^[44]^[10]

Each week leading up to the siege week... is a week that's dedicated to one of the three castle dedicated nodes. So around the castle there are three nodes. They represent week, one, two, and three; and then the fourth week is the siege against the castle. Those can only be elevated up to stage three. We've discussed this in the past and there's definitely information out there on the community ran wiki.^[44] – Steven Sharif

In the first three weeks that a guild occupies a castle they will need to level up each of their castle nodes to Village stage through questing.^[44]^[10]
- Each of the three castle nodes have a siege against it at the end of each of these three weeks.^[10]^[32]
The fourth week is declaration week, where other guilds have the opportunity to lay down their declaration flag or to sign up as a defender of the castle.^[44]^[10]
Depending on how well the guild defends their castle nodes results in better defenses for the castle.^[10]^[32]
Different siege weaponry will grant the attackers the ability to destroy walls, doors and sections of the castle in order to gain access to the inner keep area.^[27]
When castles change hands (following a siege), some taxes stay with the castle and some stay with the guild.^[23]

There will be benefits to attracting people... even if they're not in your guild or alliance – kind of a feudal like system, where you can attract other players who are just independent of this whole politic. They will have things to do there - benefits to receive - and there will be a reciprocal relationship between who you can attract, what they do for you; and how that benefits you and them.^[10] – Steven Sharif

Kings and Queens

Castle keep throne room in Alpha-1 castle sieges.^[45]

Leaders of guilds that occupy guild castles are referred to as Kings and Queens.^[46]

A King or Queen may also be elected mayor of one node.^[47]

Royal stables

Some of the following information has not been recently confirmed by the developers and may not be on the current development roadmap.

Royal stables are a type of building in Ashes of Creation.^[48]

Castles come with a royal stables.^[48]
Mayors can choose to build royal stables within their node. Once chosen, the community will need to build the stables through quests.^[48]
Royal mounts must be mounted in a royal stables in order to fly.^[48]

The royal mounts will be the only class of mounts that can fully fly in the world; and they are will be needed to be mounted while in a royal stables. Royal stables are a building that can be built in a node if elected to be built by the mayor and supported by the community building it up through the quests to do so; and castles come with a royal stable as well. So once you have a royal stable and you become that Mayor or King or Queen, you may then mount the creature there and then take it wherever you wish.^[48] – Steven Sharif

Guild housing

The term "guild housing" refers to guild buildings and not guild owned player housing.^[49]

Guild halls

Summer guildhall appearance cosmetic concept art.^[50]

Guild halls serve as a focal point for a guild, offering a host of benefits and customization options.^[51]

Guild halls may be placed on guild freeholds or within nodes.^[52]^[53]^[54]
- In-node guild halls may only be claimed by patron guilds of that node. These have different perks and benefits to halls placed on freehold plots.^[54]
- When a guild reaches a certain level, its guild master is granted a guild freehold certificate to enable placement of a guild hall.^[52]

Guild halls are objectives in guild wars.^[55]
- Guild halls can only be destroyed by a successful node siege. This contrasts with guild fortresses, which can be sieged in a guild war.^[52]^[55]^[56]

A guild hall only houses a single guild.^[57]

Guildhalls are the ultimate expression of a guild's power! In Ashes these structures will serve as focal points for a guild, offering any guilds who construct them a whole host of benefits as well as customization options.^[51]

Benefits

Some of the following information has not been recently confirmed by the developers and may not be on the current development roadmap.

Guild halls unlock actions a guild can perform within a node.^[58]

Allow guilds to participate in the shareholder system.^[58]

Guild fortresses

Guild fortresses are siegable guild halls within Ashes of Creation. These are different from nodes and castles.^[56]

Guild fortresses are objectives in guild wars.^[55] These are contested on a regular basis.^[52]
The developers will decide if guild fortresses will be implemented in the game or shelved.^[52]

The fortress design is also something that might be on the shelf. We haven't decided yet. We're going to look into it, but the idea behind the fortress is that this is a competitive kind of guild hall so to speak where you have to contend for it on a regular basis so to speak; or can be taken from you necessarily. Whereas the guild hall is a structure similar to freehold structure can only be taken through successful sieges against a node per-se are not taken but destroyed.^[52] – Steven Sharif