Medals are one of the most visible, enduring and symbolic ways to recognise character achievement. They exist as both permanent addendum's to your character history (often reflected in the very helpfile) and often as personal items, treasured possessions that can be worn with pride about one's person without risk of decay. Medals can be given out by guilds (through the guildmaster), by cities (through the noble barony) and by certain gentlefolk of unique or high stature in the land. What benefit is bestowed, beyond the obvious prestige in rare, sought-after acknowledgement of some worthy deed/achivemenets varies according to city, guild, individual. There are no formal, material 'boosts' to trivialise the pursuit and acquisition of these symbols of character excellence.
Type MEDALS at any time to review those medals bestowed upon you, together with the medal's permanent legend and the personalised inscription written at the time of presentation for you and you alone. If you have high enough rank you may type MEDALS <player> to see the medals possessed by another Avalonian.
For those with sufficient rank:
MEDAL LIST NAMES
Lists out all medals over which you have influence or can gain detailed information, through your city, guild or personal status. Informs you of the medal's status and its legend.
MEDAL LIST PRESENTATIONS
Lists out all presentations of those medals as listed above, to whom they have been presented and by whom.
MEDAL CREATE PERSONAL/CITY/GUILD <medalname> <permanent legend>
This is the main medal creation command. It should not be used in a trivial or irresponsible way. Consider carefully the purpose and symbolism of your new medal and ensure it is a qualitative addition to any edxisting repertoire. It is important, of course, for all cities and guilds to have some symbolisers of achievement but too many spoil the rarity. A notable exception to thise note of caution is the aftermath of great battles or wars where medals tend to be presented in larger numbers. The medalname should be something unique, memorable and apposite. The legend should be a single sentence and will be written on EVERY presentation of the medal, seen whenever the medal item (if there is one) is examined, and shown every time the holder of that medal types MEDALS. Make it suitably noble.
MEDAL RENAME <medal> <new shortname>
It may be that you have mistyped your medal's short-name when you attempted its creation or, over the passage of time, a more suitable name has come to the fore. Use this command to rename the medal without impacting anything else. All holders of said medal will retain it, but in renamed form.
MEDAL LEGEND <medal> <replacement legend>
If you wish to change the legend of a medal to a better sentence, use this command to do so.
MEDAL PRESENT <medal> <individual> <personalised inscription>
Use this command to stage the presentation of a medal to an individual of your asssociation, ensuring they receive the medal as a permanent character addendum and any item associated with it. Their medal will bear both the permanent legend all receive with the specific medal plus a personalised inscription unique to this presentation. The inscription should be a single well-chosen sentence. Medals are datestamped automatically with the day of their presentation.
MEDAL LINK <medal> <item>
A medal is both a permanent character addendum, separate to any Avalon item, shown whenever they type MEDALS and oftn added to the HELP file - and can, optionally, be linked to a specific item (e..g. an actual medal object, or a suitably symbolic item of haberdashery, etc). Use this command while in possession of the <item> to link it and it alone to the medal. If the item is then kept in stock an inscribed version will be bestowed with all future medal presentations.
MEDAL STOCK <medal> <item>
Sends off the <item> to the divinely protected stockhouses, ready and waiting to be withdrawn for inclusion with a future presentation. The item is perfectly safe in the divine stockhouse and it is always wise to keep enough of any object associated with a particular medal in stock, so it can accompany the presentation and be properly inscriped and datestamped.
MEDAL PUBLIC/PRIVATE <medal>
Quite simply, declares a medal to be private: viewable only by its owner, the individual responsible for its presentation and the designated leader of the medal's associated city/guild/gentlefolk; or public to allow it to be viewed by all the medal-owner desires. Secret medals are not unknown as many groups wish to acknowledge the attainments of their brethren without advertising the presentation or its significance.
