Temples

Olympia: The Age of Gods PBEM (Oct 4 2000)

#### 3.3.12.9: Temples

Temples are sacred places of worship. Priests use temples to study prayers, to perform devotional prayer, and to perform certain difficult miracles, such as resurrection.

To create a new temple, a priest must perform a special dedication ceremony in an undedicated temple. (Temples may be built by any noble with the skill Construction [1400].) This is done through the prayer ``Dedicate Temple''. In a week long ceremony, the priest prays himself into a religious ecstasy and then blesses the structure, inscribes it with various holy symbols, and decorates it with icons. The decorations and other required implements cost 500 gold.

To be dedicated, a temple must be located in the priest's holy terrain. Only one temple (of any particular religion) may be built in any location.

Only priests of the appropriate religion may enter a temple. Non-priests wishing to enter a temple must be stacked underneath a priest when he enters. Temples may be attacked like other buildings, but cannot be occupied unless the attacker is an appropriate priest (see attack). Temples, like any building, may be razed from the outside if they are unoccupied (see raze).

Temples produce monthly income in offerings from devoted followers in the nearby countryside. 1 gold is produced for each 10 peasants in the province in which the temple is located, up to a maximum of 100 gold per month income. (The magical artifact Improved Income can increase this maximum.) The temple income is received only if a priest of the proper religion is in the temple at the end of the month. Undedicated temples do not produce income. If there is a magician in the province at the end of the month no income will be generated, as the local peasants will be too fearful to come to the temple.