Through some recent events involving Abhorash, Ati and the old Orrery landmark, vampires are no longer affected in extra ways at midnight or noon (meaning no extra stats at midnight, no extra damage at noon).

In addition to this, a new minor periodic conflict has been introduced, reminiscent of the old landmark system the Orrery was once part of!

Every in-game year, on the 10th of Variach and the 10th of Midsummer, the Orrery becomes active for 72 hours. Essence of Spirit or Shadow will periodically spawn in a radius around the Orrery. You must pick up the appropriate essence for your tether and then take it to the Orrery and INFUSE ORRERY WITH <essence>, which is a short channeled action. Doing this will influence the Orrery towards your tether and away from the opposite, unlocking bonuses the more aligned it is with Shadow or Spirit.

Be warned, the essence is raw and volatile, and once you pick up the essence it'll begin dealing damage to its holder, increasing over time. If dropped on the ground, either due to dying or dropping it normally, the essence will respawn.

After 72 hours, the essence stops spawning around the Orrery, leaving the landmark locked to whatever tether it's aligned to, and granting some small bonuses to the tether based on how far aligned it is.

The first period of the Orrery will run starting now, running for a shorter 48 hours, and it'll begin normal operation starting this coming game-Midsummer.

Bonuses
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Level 1: 5% bonus to shadow damage audit (spirit-aligned), or 5% bonus to spirit damage audit (shadow-aligned).
Level 2: Gain +1 to celerity during the day (spirit), or night (shadow).
Level 3: Small bonus chance to gold drops at day (spirit-aligned), or night (shadow-aligned).
Level 4: At noon (spirit), or midnight (shadow), stats are set to 21 and gain increased balance/equilibrium recovery.
Level 5: Small increase to health restored by serums/elixirs during the day (spirit), or night (shadow).

Each level is progressively harder to reach than the previous. The ORRERY command will give you the alignment of the Orrery and its current level to that alignment. The Orrery itself can be found within an observatory in the Scidve Mountains, room 62642 to be exact.

PK Rules
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- The Orrery is within its own 5 room area, the observatory. This area is considered to be Open PK, and anybody entering it is fair game.
- Picking up essence doesn't mean you can be killed.
- Normal PK rules apply otherwise.

Penned by my hand on Closday, the 7th of Ios, in the year 463 MA.