# Factions & Holy Relics
The realm is split in two. Every character alive belongs to the **Aesir** or the **Jotun**,
and the two sides do not share a world — each walks its own copy of the same isles, the same
bridges between them. Crossing the border is a decision, not an accident, and on the far side of
it every stranger is an enemy.
What the war is fought over is the **Holy Relics**: six altar stones whose blessings reach
every single member of the faction that holds them.
Aesir
Banners of stone and gold, sworn to the old order. Half the realm marches under them this week — maybe you.
Jotun
Banners of ice and black iron, the winter host. The other half — and next week, quite possibly, your own.
## You do not choose your side
There is no faction question at character creation and no way to transfer. A new character
is dropped onto whichever side is thinner at that moment, and after that the draft decides.
**Once a week the entire realm is redrafted.** Every character is sorted by level and dealt
out between the two factions in turn, so neither side can hoard the high levels. You may
wake up Aesir and go to bed Jotun. That is deliberate: the war is the point, not the tribe.
At the moment of the reshuffle:
- You are moved to your new faction's copy of the capital city.
- Any relic being carried at that instant goes straight back to the altar it last stood on.
- **Relics do not change hands.** They belong to the faction, not to the players in it — a
relic your side stole on Friday is still your side's on Monday, whoever "your side" now is.
## Two worlds, one map
Both factions inhabit the same **Capital Isles** — the capital city and the four isles around
it, Blossomere, Rimeholt, Emberfall and Saltmarrow, and the bridges that join them — in
**separate copies**. Everyone you meet in your own world is a faction-mate. Everyone you meet in
the other world is not.
The one door between them is the **Faction Gate** in the capital: the **Warden of the
Crossing** stands on the approach to the temple ring and will send you over if you ask him
twice. He is also the way back, and the only soul in enemy territory who will still speak
to you.
Not everything is split. **Dungeons, guild crypts, houses and castle-siege maps are
faction-blind** — you can party, guild and siege with the other side there without any of
this applying.
## Open war
Cross-faction combat is hardcore: no flag to raise, no consent to give, no duel to accept.
| Who you are looking at | Can you fight? |
|---|---|
| Same faction | **Never** — not even a duel |
| The other faction, anywhere in the field | **Always**, on sight |
| Anyone standing in a capital sanctuary | No. The heart of both capitals is safe ground |
| A guildmate or party member from the other faction | **Still an enemy** out in the world |
| Anyone inside a dungeon, a guild crypt, or a Castle War | Faction is ignored — the usual rules apply |
Guild and party ties deliberately give no protection across the border. If they did, every
relic thief would simply bring an unkillable escort.
## Marked as an intruder
Stand in a world that is not yours and the whole realm can see it: a **skull over your
nameplate** and a **red aura** on your sprite. The locals notice too.
**No NPC in enemy territory will serve an intruder.** No shops, no bank, no crafting
stations, no quests, no repairs — *"They will not serve an enemy of Jotun."* You are there
to fight, not to shop. Only the Warden of the Crossing breaks the rule, so you always have
a way home.
## War Wound
Die on enemy soil and you get up with a **War Wound: −50% to all stats for 3 minutes**. It
sits on your buff bar, it cannot be cleansed, and it makes an endless corpse-rush on an
altar a losing strategy. Dying in your own world costs you nothing extra.
## The three Holy Relics
Three of the four outer isles keep a relic on the green of their shrine hamlet — Blossomere, the
spring isle, keeps none — and each faction starts with its own full set: **six relics in the
world**.
| Relic | Home isle | What it gives your entire faction |
|---|---|---|
| **Relic of Vitality** | Rimeholt — the winter isle | **+15%** maximum HP |
| **Relic of Wisdom** | Emberfall — the autumn isle | **+15%** experience gained |
| **Relic of Fortune** | Saltmarrow — the salt flats | **+15%** drop rate |
How far a relic has to be carried is not the same for all three. **Rimeholt borders the capital**,
so the Vitality run is one bridge. **Emberfall is reached only through Rimeholt** and **Saltmarrow
only through Blossomere**, so Wisdom and Fortune each cross two isles and two bridges — at 30%
speed, with no warp of any kind.
- **The blessing reaches everyone, everywhere.** Every member of the owning faction carries
it on every map — overworld, dungeon, capital, castle siege.
- **Duplicates stack.** Take the enemy's Relic of Wisdom while holding your own and the
whole faction reads **+30% XP**. A side that owns all six runs +30% HP, +30% XP and +30%
drops at once.
- A relic only blesses while it is **on an altar**. Carried, dropped or in transit, it does
nothing for anybody.
## The altar clock
Every relic runs the same cycle, over and over:
**Protected — 24 hours.** Sealed on its altar. Nothing can touch it. The blessing is live.
**Vulnerable — 2 hours.** Announced across the realm, with a countdown on the altar and in
your HUD. The blessing stays live, but for these two hours the enemy can come for it.
When the window runs out:
- **Relic still on an altar** → it re-seals for another 24 protected hours, at full health.
- **Relic anywhere else** — carried, on the ground, mid-cast, lying broken — → it **snaps
back to the altar it last stood on**, at full health, protected. Any catch or place in
progress is cancelled. Missing the clock loses you the theft.
## Breaking a relic
A relic is as tough as an Emperium: **30,000 HP**, and it must be brought to zero before it
can be taken.
- Only the **enemy faction** can damage it, and only **during the vulnerable window**.
- The owners can **heal it while it still has HP** — the same way defenders heal a castle
Emperium. At 0 HP it is beyond healing.
- A relic sitting broken at 0 HP for **5 minutes** without anyone taking it **stands back up
at full health**, and the window keeps running. Break it and leave, and you have achieved
nothing.
## Taking it, and getting it home
Both halves of a theft are a **10-second hold of E** — the same cast bar as
gathering — and **any hit you take cancels it**. Not pauses it: cancels it. You start again
from zero.
| Cast | Where | Who |
|---|---|---|
| **Catch** | A broken relic on its altar | The enemy faction only |
| **Catch** | A relic lying on the ground | **Anyone** — thieves grabbing it, owners recovering it |
| **Place** | Your own faction's altar | Whoever is carrying it |
- **A completed theft** enshrines the relic under its new owner and starts a fresh 24 hours
of protection. It is the only thing that resets the clock early.
- **A completed recovery** — a defender walking their own relic back home — restores its
health but **not** its clock. If the window is still open, it is attackable again the
moment it lands.
## Carrying a relic
Everyone will know. Grabbing a relic announces it to both factions, puts a glow on you and a
marker on the map, and then makes you very easy to catch:
- **You move at 30% speed.** No buff, mount or trick beats the clamp.
- **No teleports, recalls or warps of any kind.** You walk it. The Faction Gate is the one
exception — it is the only road home.
- **Die and you drop it** where you fell.
- **Log out and you drop it** too. Disconnecting does not save a theft.
- **Sanctuary is a one-minute breather, not a hiding place.** Stand in a capital's safe zone
with a relic for more than a minute and it is ejected to the ground five tiles outside.
- A relic left on the ground for **5 minutes** untouched returns to its last altar.
## Reset day is open season
The moment the weekly redraft lands, **all six relics open at once** with a full 2-hour
window — both factions, all three relic isles, everything in play. It is the single biggest
brawl of the week, and the fastest way for a side to swing from nothing to total dominance.
## Where to next
- **[Combat](/wiki/guides/combat)** — how damage, dodge and spell scaling work.
- **[Castle War](/wiki/guides/castle-war)** — the other war, fought by guilds over
Winterhall, Harrenfell and Astrun.
- **[Controls](/wiki/guides/controls)** — the keys, including the hold-E cast.
- Browse the **Compendium** for every class, monster, item and place.
---
Source: https://arcanoronline.com/wiki/guides/factions
