As promised, today I will share with you another interesting feature of our game: the process for building temples.

As all Majesty fans know, temples in Ardania are not only places to worship the gods, but they are also powerful Guilds, capable of training the strongest and bravest of heroes.

Ardanians at the time of Majesty 2 worship six supreme gods: Krolm, Helia, Dauros, Fervus, Krypta, and Agrela. In times of old, the pantheon also included a seventh god, Lunord, but now Lunord is no more. (I will speak of what happened to him in an upcoming post.) 

Over the centuries, Ardanian true-believers have grown in compassion, and the followers of different confessions now show greater tolerance towards one another. Certainly there are still conflicts, as when a hotheaded paladin draws a righteous blade upon those evil spirits accompanying a Sister of Krypta. However, compared with the wars of the past, these are mere trifles. After all, in those times one could never imagine the temples belonging to any opposed gods even coexisting! Temples to Krypta and Agrela were never seen side-by-side, but now you are free to build any temple you want, worship any god you choose, and train any hero you wish for the greater glory of the King.

Well, it may sound like everything is fair in Ardania, but alas, no such luck!

Times indeed have changed, and not only in terms of the people’s attitudes towards religion. The world itself has changed as well, and the rulers of Ardania now face new difficulties. Whereas once temples might be built upon whatever site the King found most convenient, as time passed, poorly placed buildings began to fall spontaneously into ruin. Moreover, priests would refuse to conduct services in temples wherein they felt no "divine presence.

And the situation grew even more serious. The King's most powerful heroes, who once were trained in the Temples, ceased taking service to the realm. Naturally, the King's enemies were encouraged by this, and grew ever bolder and more aggressive.

Krolm only knows what desperate times this "temple issue" might have led to, if the situation had continued to deteriorate. But then, finally, on one clear and moonlit night there came a turning point. The greatest court magician brought to his King a surprising piece of news — that a place irradiating an unknown divine Power had been found in a faraway jungle! This place, now known as "Holy Ground," was marked by a mysterious, shimmering purple artifact. And this place was guarded by a number of fierce monsters, who later came to be known as Holy Sentinels — incredibly wrathful warriors, who would defend this sacred land to their death

The King sent forth many an experienced and skilled hero to explore faraway lands, and soon enough they discovered a few more such sources of divine Power. It was soon discovered that temples raised on such lands would not fall to ruin, and could instead stand for ages while new generations of strong, brave, and bright heroes were trained within their walls.

Well, that is the story, my friends. As you can see, one can build any temples in Majesty 2, with one limitation only — you can only build temples on Holy Ground. To build a temple, the King must engage in a great many deadly struggles, for the Sentinels in Majesty 2 are numerous, mighty, and absolutely determined not to let people approach these sacred lands. And even after all the Sentinels are defeated, the good sovereign must make the very difficult choice of which confession is to build their temple there, for Holy Ground is a rare and precious thing indeed.

To show what fighting for a piece of Holy Ground is like, I have recorded a special video featuring a struggle against the Sentinels, followed by the initial stage of construction of Krolm's Temple on the conquered spot.

Please note that the video (from last week) has been captured while playing a work-in-progress version of the game. At the time the video begins, there is a small party struggling with only three Sentinels. We wanted to let the brave heroes win (so that you can see the Holy Ground captured), so the King has done his very best. But I am afraid that such a party would most probably fail to win such an easy victory over the Sentinels in the final release version of the game. :)

Well, it is time for me to conclude this post with my normal reminder that each of you is most welcome to leave comments to our blog entries, and suggest subjects for upcoming posts on the official Majesty 2 web forum. Feel free to come, communicate and ask any questions you have.

That's all for now. Talk to you soon!

Alexey Kosyrev, producer Majesty2