Sacred Space
| Sacred Space | ||
 Satellite map Local map | ||
| Type: | Sacred Space | |
| Huts: | 4 towers (and 3 ruined buildings that cannot be entered) | |
| Shaman: (None) | N/A | |
| Trader: (None) | N/A | |
| Weapons hut: | N/A | |
| Medical hut: | N/A | |
Contents
General Information
Sacred Space is a special area located on the summit of Mt. Shartak. It can be accessed through a waterfall on the southern side of the mountain, or through a rockfall on the northern side of the mountain path. Once the character has unlocked faith, it can also accessed through portals scattered across the island.
The faith skill is unlocked by making a pilgrimage to the Sacred Space and successfully chanting at each of the five totems contained within. Once unlocked, it can be purchased with XP upon a level up.
Sacred Space
Most of the Sacred Space is filled with snow, but it has several other points of interest. In the southeastern corner is an orchard with grass and nine apple trees. The northwestern part has a mud pools and a rockfall leading to the mountain path. A river flows down from the Temple of the Ancestors, to the south, exiting Sacred Space by a waterfall leading down to a small section of the mountain path and further onto the ground level, where the river continues to the sea between Wiksik and York. A set of gateways act as portals that can be used to teleport around the island once the character has the faith skill.
Gateways
The gateways are mystical stone arches located in each of the eight camps that transported a player into the gateway juncture inside the Sacred Space. Entering a gateway costs 25 AP. As of 2012, exiting Sacred Space through any of the eight portals will send you out of the Sacred Space to a random portal.
Gateways with their respective camps and locations are listed as following:
- Dalpok: [-70.432,+26.440]
- Raktam: [-70.326,+26.465]
- Wiksik: [-70.243,+26.408]
- Rakmogak: [-70.178,+26.565]
- Derby: [-70.101,+26.351]
- Durham: [-70.641,+26.346]
- York: [-70.365,+26.318]
- Shipwreck: [-70.539,+26.543]
- Grassland: [-70.180,+26.458]
- Fort Creedy Ruin Complex: [-70.663,+26.380]
There used to be another gate on Unity Island at [-70.587,+26.425], but it was removed at some unknown point and no longer exists as of 2026.
Totems
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Five totems surround the Temple of the Ancestors: one to the north, one to the west, one to the east, and two to the south.
When you enter the totem tile, you have the option to chant for 1 AP. Natives and outsiders will get different flavor messages while doing so.
Natives get one of the following messages at random:
- • While waving your arms, you chant the words of an ancient ritual.
- • You sit down and chant the words of an ancient ritual.
- • Standing on your head, you chant the words of an ancient ritual.
- • You balance on one leg and chant the words of an ancient ritual.
If the chanting is successful, the following gets added to the end of the message:
- • The ancestors are pleased and reward you. You gain 1 XP.
Outsiders get one of the following messages, depending on whether or not the attempt was successful:
Failure:
- • You attempt to imitate the native chanting but the strange noises coming from your mouth sound awful. Maybe you need to practice some more.
- • You attempt to imitate the native chanting but the strange noises coming from your mouth sound awful. It's getting better but is not quite there yet.
Success:
- • You attempt to imitate the native chanting and manage a passable version of it. The ancestors are pleased and reward you. You gain 1 XP.
Once you have succcessfully chanted at least once at each of the five totems, you unlock the faith skill, allowing you to purchase it with XP at a level up. You can continue chanting at the totems for a roughly 20% chance to gain 1 XP (39 / 194 recorded attempts). It is unknown whether or not having the faith skill or charms affect the chances.
Spirits cannot chant at the totems. Although the button to attempt it shows up, it does nothing.
Temple of the Ancestors
The sacred temple is reachable only by climbing the temple walkways in Sacred Space. It consists of grass surrounded by a walkway, a stream of fresh water, four staircases leading up to ruined towers, three ruined buildings that cannot be entered, and a secret tunnel leading to the catacomb. Three songbirds fly about on the grassy area. They exist nowhere else on the island.
Map
| Temple of the Ancestors - Territory Map | ||||||||||||||
| 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | ||
| 02 | ||||||||||||||
| 03 | B | G | ||||||||||||
| 04 | ||||||||||||||
| 05 | ||||||||||||||
| 06 | B | |||||||||||||
| 07 | B | B | ||||||||||||
| 08 | C | |||||||||||||
| 09 | ||||||||||||||
| 10 | ||||||||||||||
| 11 | R | Bl | ||||||||||||
| 12 | ||||||||||||||
| 13 | ||||||||||||||
| Legend | ||||||||||||||
| Mid-air | ||||||||||||||
| Temple walkway | ||||||||||||||
| Grass | ||||||||||||||
| B | Black Staircase | |||||||||||||
| G | Green Staircase | |||||||||||||
| R | Red Staircase | |||||||||||||
| Bl | Blue Staircase | |||||||||||||
| B | Ruined Building (cannot be entered) | |||||||||||||
| Water | ||||||||||||||
| C | Catacomb Entrance | |||||||||||||
Notes:
- The above is a territory map.
- The numbers on the map are merely for local reference and are not related to GPS coordinates at all.
Catacomb
The catacomb is an underground circular cavern located under the Temple of the Ancestors and consists of tunnels, a pool of water where smokey crystals can be found, a fungi farm, and a special tile where monkey claw charms can be found.
History
Sacred Space has gone through three phases: its initial implementation, temporary removal, and reimplementation into its current form.
Initial Implementation
From the official Shartak newsletter: 27 January, 2009 - The spirits of the ancestors reveal their temple
- • The spirits of the ancestors have seen how badly violence is affecting the island. Their descendants fight themselves, as well as the outsider menace, causing island-wide chaos. They have decided to reveal the way to their ancient temple location and offer a safe haven for those who wish to flee the conflict.
- • The sacred space will not allow violent souls to enter or leave without paying a price and the ancestors will protect all those who reside there.
Following months of escalating violence on the island throughout late 2008 to January 2009, the spirits of the ancestors revealed the location of their sacrosanct grove for all of the island's inhabitants who sought refuge from the mainland carnage. The inception of Sacred Space was a controversial move, with some players believing it to undermine the risk-based nature of the game.
As the refuge itself was protected by the spirits of the ancestors, hostile players would find themselves unable to score hits on other players, resulting in the following message being displayed:
- The spirits of the ancestors cause your attack to miss. A chilling voice whispers, “This is sacred ground. You shall not harm others here.”
When leaving a gateway from Sacred Space, if you had recently committed an act of violence (not including to animals), the following message was displayed:
- You close your eyes and step through the archway, your thoughts focusing on where you came from. The spirits of the ancestors are angered by your recent violence and as you are returned to your point of origin, a bolt of lightning appears from nowhere and strikes you. You die.
Temporary Removal
From the Shartak newsletter: 19 November, 2009 - v2 phase 1 launched!
- • You may notice that the portals to Sacred Space are no longer allowing entry and those who were there have been returned to their homes. Why this has happened and when the portals will reopen remains a mystery.
In November of 2009, Sacred Space was temporarily removed from the game until it was reimplemented in a different way.
Reimplementation
From the Shartak newsletter: 16 March, 2012 - The sky is falling mountain is falling!
- • A loud rumbling was heard around the northern half of the mountain. The cause was unknown until we caught up with an eyewitness in Dalpok. “I was hoknikickg nikth of the mogntaick wheck I lookam up and was nearak coouckhokd by fallalickg rakks. Bakstackdal thinik nearak kamled me!” Although there are some language problems, we think he said that the mountain is falling.
In March 2012, Sacred Space was reopened, a motivation being the goal of gaining the infraterritorially limited faith skill. There were some modifications, including the enabling of combat throughout its entire perimeter; the towers and huts are now ruined, trader Tamdal now roams the entire island at ground level, and the return portals send players to a random portal instead of the one they entered from.
Image Gallery
These images are from the initial implementation phase, thus do not fully represent the current implementation. Trader Tamdal now roams the jungle, the garden no longer exist, and the huts and buildings are now removed or ruined.
Mud pools
Garden and shrubbery
Stream, center of the temple sanctuary
Trader Tamdal (he moves!)
Portal juncture
Fanboys
People farming for fungi
