Test of Beacons
Can get at U Worship at level 17
Demonstration
Test opened by Egypt's Great Universities of Worship on 15 January 2007, approx 10:30 PM UTC. Demonstration required 42 possible favored activities to be done in the previous week.
Principles
To pass principles, perform the following:
- Perform the Anchoring Meditation
- Complete a single Beacon Ritual
If the beacon ritual must be performed by the three priests that perform the anchoring ritual/meditation, then you must simply complete a single beacon ritual successfully.
The Beacon Ritual
The ritual is comprised of three parts:
- Attract an altar
- Perform the anchoring ritual
- Perform the beacon ritual
Either by fortune or by deduction, an altar may be attracted to a priest, appearing by them. Once an altar is attracted, three priests must come and perform the anchoring ritual. Once anchored to this world, they will receive partial visions on how to perform the beacon ritual. Upon correctly determining the beacon ritual's steps and performing it, all three priests will receive credit for that beacon.
Complete seven beacon rituals successfully to pass the test.
Attracting an altar
If all of the following conditions are met, there is a chance that an altar will be attracted:
- Perform the favored activity.
- Have between 1 to 3 other Egyptians nearby.
- Not be at home.
- Not have attracted a beacon successfully in the past teppy week.
- Not having succesfully completed a ritual in the past teppy day
Note that satisfying these conditions is no guarantee that you will attract a beacon. The "not be at home" condition is not well understood; two current theories are that it is literally based on the home location set via expedition travel, or that it is based on a percentage threshold of non-public chests and buildings you have access to. (Note: It is stuff you have access to. Please see list of messages below. ~Shivani on 7/30/07)
If a beacon has been successfully attracted by fulfilling these conditions, the message "You have done everything you need to attract a beacon altar. If you are lucky, one will appear." will display in Main. This means the beacon has appeared somewhere in the vicinity of all the Egyptians, and requires the anchoring ritual to be performed before it disappears. Regardless of success in anchoring, this will count as successfully attracting a beacon in the teppyweek.
Favored activity
One of the more difficult aspects of the entire test is determining the favored activity, which changes once a teppy-week. Monitor E! for beacon activity announcements, and please post if you have done few activities and attract (or almost) an altar. The activities could be anything, for example:
- Drinking from an aqueduct tower
- Foraging a herb
- Expedition Travel
- Slaughtering a camel
- Fishing
- Gathering clay
- Gathering wood
- Growing flax
A message in main will appear when you attract an altar, or when you "almost" attract a beacon by performing the favored activity but fail to satisty the other conditions on the list above. Note that it can take up to an hour between performing the activity and attracting (or almost-) an altar.
Possible messages: [please correct/update!!!!]
- A beacon altar was almost attracted to you, because you did the favored activity in the last hour. However, there are not enough people nearby.
- You have done everything needed to attract a beacon altar. If you are lucky, one will appear.
- A beacon altar was almost attracted to you, because you did the favored activity in the last hour. However, you own too many of the buildings in this area. You are at home. (Note: I was hundreds of coords away from my expo Home location when I got this message, so I think that question is now answered. ~Shivani on 7/30/07)
In an attempt to document the favored activities, please check/update Beacon Activities. -Orashin
Anchoring Ritual
Once visible, the beacon altar will last only 3 teppy-minutes unless it is anchored. Any three people can anchor an altar, even if they have passed the test, even if they have not performed the favored activity, even if they have completed a ritual in the past week, and in fact even if they aren't even signed up for the test.
The ritual is as follows:
- Priest One mediates.
- Priest Two mediates.
- Priest Three mediates.
Upon successfully performing the ritual, the altar will be anchored and will now last 30 minutes before disappearing. Additionally, each priest receives a vision on how to sucessfully complete the ritual.
Beacon Ritual
An anchored beacon altar will stay for 30 minutes. The three priests that performed the anchoring ritual will obtain a vision on how to perform the beacon ritual. Only these three priests may perform the ritual at the given beacon altar. As a note, the priest order performed for an anchoring ritual has no effect on the order of the priests that perform a beacon ritual. Simply re-choose who will perform each part.
The beacon ritual itself will vary for each beacon. Additionally, the actual ritual will be hidden among the three vision received, as they are intentionally unclear.
The ritual will need two sets of gems from the following list:
The first priest's vision will state which gems are needed (not necessarily in the correct order), the second and third priests visions will each state 4 instructions for placing gems on the altar. Because the vision does not state whether the 2nd or 3rd priest's instructions must be performed first and because the 2nd and 3rd visions refer only to the first gem and second gem, there are 4 possible rituals.
DarthBobo was kind enough to create a 'script generator' for listing the different possible rituals that could be performed with the given visions. The generator is located at: http://www.purplefrog.com/~thoth/atitd/beacon.html
Note that the instructions in the vision refer to left/right pillar or focus. The pillar is obvious enough, and the focus is the round plate on top of the altar. Left means on the left side when facing the concave side of the altar.
If the ritual is performed successfully, a pop-up message will congratulate you. If you perform all actions correctly, it will take 4 attempts at most. All three participants will receive credit for the successful ritual; complete 7 to pass the test.
