Pilgrim shrines are built by players. Each shrine has a tithe associated with it, set by the builder. This tithe may be any quantity of any single item. A shrine costs seven marble to construct, plus seven times the tithe. The type of marble required will vary with the type of the tithe. It is not possible to transfer ownership of a shrine to a guild or other player. The builder must have the Pilgrim Shrine Construction skill, available at a school of Worship for 1 piece each of Oyster Shell, Mud Granite, and Yellow Alabaster marbles.
Pilgrims may only tithe at a shrine if it is holy. A shrine is holy if:
For example: If Akhenaton builds a shrine with a tithe of 5 iron, and there are no other shrines with an iron tithe in his region, his shrine will be holy. If Tutankhamen then builds a shrine with a tithe of 6 iron in the same region, his shrine will be holy--and Akh's shrine will stop being holy. If Tut's shrine had required 5 iron or less, it would not have been holy, and Akh's would have remained holy. On the other hand, if Tut were to build a shrine with a tithe of 2 copper, both his shrine and Akh's 5 iron shrine would be holy, since they require tithes of different types.
The size and location of the regions in which pilgrim shrines interfere is not known.
It is usually best to build a pilgrim shrine at least 600 coordinates from any other shrine (see below).
There is a map of known shrines at: http://www.frmug.org/~archer/atitd/pilgrim.html
The information in the above map is also available in the pilgrim shrines topic.
A pilgrimage consists of seven people. The leader should visit a University of Worship to form a group. The other six members must also visit a University to begin the test; once they have done so, they may select an option from the leader's menu to join the group.
Once formed, a pilgrimage may not change its membership. If any member drops out, the group will need to start the test over from the beginning.
Once formed, the pilgrimage must tithe at shrines. In order to successfully tithe:
The pilgrimage will receive 100 points for successfully tithing at a new shrine. It is possible to tithe multiple times at the same shrine, however the points received will halve with each successive tithe. The following chart shows how many points per tithe.
| Tithe | Points | Total |
| Once | 100 | 100 |
| Twice | 50 | 150 |
| 3 Times | 25 | 175 |
| 4 Times | 12 | 187 |
| 5 Times | 6 | 193 |
| 6 Times | 3 | 196 |
| 7 Times | 2 | 198 |
| 8 Times | 1 | 199 |
| 9 Times | 1 | 200 |
| 10 Times | >0< | 200 |
Pilgrims may check their progress from their Tests menu, which will report the current total score of the pilgrimage, as well as what shrines have been tithed at and how many points were received from each.
Every week, the pilgrimage with the largest number of points will pass the test. Pilgrimages that do not pass in a given week retain their points, and may either continue visiting new shrines to increase their score or wait and hope their existing total will be enough in an upcoming week.
(See also: tests)