In the temple of the city patron or one of the most prominent deities, invariably in one of the public exterior holy altar-rooms, is the greatest of surviving artifacts from the ancient era: the Divine Globe. It is an enormous crystalline orb, inviolate and immobile. Its exterior is translucent but its interior is a ceaseless swirl essences and life-force and magical, ethereal and elemental energies. The Cardinal and the holy priesthoods maintain the closest relationship with the great divine globe: the Cardinal able to summon unique effects through personal deity-inspired communion.
What is this battleground of preternatural energies held within the globe? Nothing less than a distillation of the "time and life" narrative woven of each citizen, each passing day, everything happening inside the city's walls. Year after year this gathers in the divine globe: the distilled essences absorbed, accumulating to determine the true power of the divine globe. Great events, heroic deeds, these fuel the divine globe with "more" while passive inactivity empowers "less". Everyone is able to impact their city's globe and thus all their fellow citizens, present and future. Live small, contribute little. Live expansively and as a hero and your contribution - by default - will be significant. See HELP GLOBEIDEALS for some specifics on your character's activity as a divine globe contribution/gathering.
Syntax: HELP GLOBEACTIONS for GLOBE <action> [<details>].
Divine globes have been gathering this distillation of the lives and historical narratives for many centuries but it is the most recent decade whose accumulated power is of most importance: for the energy gathered over these recent years is accessible to you - to be channeled and wielded as an assortment of influential powers. Channeling and wielding of divine globe power is age-and-skill indiscriminate: young or old, small or large, globe powers are for everyone and their impact is not decided by character skillset or level. The Cardinal and the temple myrmidons maintain a close relationship with the divine globe and holy influence is strongly felt (if a Cardinal acts such) across all facets of city and guild life. HELP GLOBEACTIONS gives you a list of actions/powers available to the citizenry, directly via the divine globe and requiring no intermediate artifact.
Every Avalon Year (1st Midwinter - see HELP CALENDAR) the fixed divine globes for each city release a set amount of power available to all citizens for use either directly - as divine globe actions - or indirectly as empowerments drawn into the orbs of globe-staves. The amount of power released each New Year is defined by the gathered energies of the previous ten Avalon years: thus it is easy to comprehend how an active, courageous and expansionist city (over a long period) benefits over a lazy, dormant one. The former will have plenty of empowerment potential and the freedom to call on the divine globe actions to help the city or themselves. The latter will only enjoy a limited empowerment and the government will likely impose rationing or restrictions to regulate; husbanding its resources in case of emergency.
Since the direct divine globe powers are broad and more "for the good of all", depleting the divine globe's available power significantly (in some cases), most prefer to express the empowerment benefits through an artifact known as the "globe-stave". This is a portable object, created and powered from the city's divine globe (using a relatively small proportion of the annual budget) and carried in one's inventory; taken anywhere you wish. The globe-stave empowers from the divine globe but can impact faraway locations and be repeatedly empowered remotely i..e. despite being far from the temple wherein the great globe resides. The globe-stave houses a miniature orb symbolising the bigger temple globe and the globe's colour changes as more power is brought within, augmenting the effects of the stave's spectrum of powers. Globe-stave creation, empowerment and basic use is documented in HELP GLOBESTAVES and the specific powers available are detailed in HELP POWERS.
Too much of Avalon life impacts the divine globe and therefore the globe-stave empowerments but read HELP GLOBEIDEALS for more insight into maximising your own beneficial effects on your city's globe (i..e. the distilled energies gathered by dint of YOUR life and achievements). HELP REPUTATION and HELP IDEALS are more broad but nonetheless importance concepts; and both contain information useful re: ensuring the city globe goes from strength to strength.
