Aika (Part Two)

Nations

As you would have known by now, a large part of Aika's gameplay revolves around player versus player battles or wars. To do this, there will need to be factions or in this case, nations.

In Aika, there are five great nations. At any point in time, these nations can be at war or in alliance depending upon the diplomacy of the "Lord Marshal" (a player leading the nation). And although the names of these nations might differ depending on the game server (eg. gPotato / Aikasea), they essentially work in the same way.

When a player first starts playing Aika, their character is neutral towards all the nations up until Level 10. At level 10, they will then need to decide which nation to take up citizenship or else they won't be able to proceed much further in the game.

When you've decided on a nation, all you have to do is log into the nation's channel and find the "Citizen Registration Administrator" in Regenshein. After taking up and completing his quest, you will then officially become a citizen of the nation.

From then onwards, you will only be able to select two channels during login (your selected nation's PVP & PVE channels). And on top of that, I believe that all other characters that you create from then onwards will automatically be a citizen of the same nation.

Once you've become a citizen of a nation, the only way for you to access another nation's channel is via the Tiamat Gate (located at Halperin Three-forked Road). But even then, you will only be able to access their PVP channel and not their PVE channel. In other words, when you feel like leveling without distractions, just log into your PVE channel and you won't have to worry about the ongoing wars. However, that doesn't mean that your safe from being pked though (^_^).

Benefits of a Citizen

• Enables you to do your class advancement quest when you reach level 50.
  
• Can enjoy the blessings of holy relics in your nation’s possession.
  
• Can apply to form or join the nation’s legions.
  
• Citizens incur less tax when purchasing items from the nation's stores.
  

Castle Siege

Castle Siege is a weekly scheduled PvP event where each nation’s ruling regime (the Lord Marshal and his/her guild or guild alliance) defends the Lakian Fortress against other guilds or guild alliances that are hoping to take control of the nation.

If the attackers manage to break through the castle’s defenses, seize control of the five elemental stones and perform the Lord Marshal's ceremony (which lasts 2 mins), they will become the new ruling guild or guild alliance and its guildmaster becomes the new Lord Marshal. And of course, the objective of the defenders is to prevent the attackers from doing so.

Castle Layout & Strategic Points

Outer Gate

Inner Gate

Guard Tower

Elemental Stone

Ceremonial Altar

The overall layout of the castle is divided into five zones. The blue dot represents the defender's starting area while the red dots serve as the attacker's starting areas.

	Outer Gate Only attackers can destroy these gates.
	Inner Gate Only 2 of these gates can be destroyed by attackers. The other 3 are trap gates which cannot be destroyed even though they can be damaged.
	Guard Tower Originally belongs to the defenders and serve as defensive points. However, once they are taken by the attackers, these towers will switch to attack the defenders.
	Elemental Stone There are a total of five of these stones. Attackers must destroy these stones first before they can be conquered.
	Ceremonial Altar The altar is initially protected by a barrier which must be disabled by destroying all five elemental stones. After disabling the barrier, the leader of the attackers may then proceed with the Lord Marshal's ceremony.

Lord Marshal & Archons
Simply put, the game allows a guild to form an alliance with three other guilds in a hierarchy as follows.

When this guild alliance participates in the castle siege and wins, the guildmaster of the leading guild becomes the Lord Marshal while the guildmasters of the supporting guilds become the Archons. Likewise, members of the leading guild will automatically become the Lord Marshal's knights while members of the supporting guilds become the Archons' knights.

Now the titles do sound lovely, but what exactly do they do? First and foremost, the Lord Marshal, Archons and their minions have their own unique buffs which increases their stats and ability to deal damage to or take damage from players of other nations. For balance reasons however, these buffs do not take effect in battleground maps and castle siege.

Buff	Applicable To	Effect
Authority of Marshal	Lord Marshal	Max HP +100% Max MP +100% Damage to Players of Other Nations +50% Damage from Players of Other Nations -50%
Marshal's Archon	Archons	Max HP +40% Max MP +40% Damage to Players of Other Nations +25% Damage from Players of Other Nations -25%
Marshal's Knight	Lord Marshal's Knights	Max HP +20% Max MP +20% Damage to Players of Other Nations +15% Damage from Players of Other Nations -15%
Archon's Knight	Archon's Knights	Max HP +12% Max MP +12% Damage to Players of Other Nations +10% Damage from Players of Other Nations -10%

Next, the Lord Marshal and one selected Archon will be bestowed with the ability to broadcast messages to all citizens of the nation. This special broadcast is displayed in large red text (for the Lord Marshal) and large purple text (for the Archon) across the citizens' screen. The selected Archon with this broadcast ability can be changed and reassigned to another Archon at any time as desired by the Lord Marshal.

But frankly speaking, being the Lord Marshal does come with its major responsibilities. The Lord Marshal has to lead the nation and decide upon matters like setting the nation's tax rate, choosing the layout for the defenses in the upcoming castle siege, managing the nation's finances & diplomacy, handling relic wars and relic upgrades.

Although ideally, it would be best that the Archons can assist the Lord Marshal in these matters, but due to the way the game is programmed, only the Lord Marshal has the power to do so. And thus, the Archons will have to settle in helping out the Lord Marshal in some other ways like offering suggestions, rallying the citizens in relic and altar wars.

So did you manage to get a clearer picture as to what Lord Marshals and Archons are or how to become one? In my opinion, it is best not to think about the perks first but rather whether you have the capacity to become the Lord Marshal or an Archon. If you don't, why not just settle being their knights then?

Previous: Aika (Part One)

Next: Aika (Part Three)

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