Allegiance

Allegiances are one of the three Social Systems in Asheron's Call along with Fellowships and Player Factions. Similiar to that of a feudal society, character's swear allegiance to other character of equal or greater level, promising their Loyalty in return for equipment and guidance.
Unlike members of a fellowship, players who belong to the same allegiance do not necessarily adventure together, though they may decide to from time to time.
==Structure==
===Vassals, Patrons and Monarchs===
See also: Allegiance Rank
In Asheron's Call, a vassal swears allegiance (Loyalty) to you, making you their Patron. This bond helps you build Rank, and generates XP Passup for you. In return, it is common for you to provide Loot and other assistance to aid them in their character advancement.
Like vassals, the patron can also swear allegiance to another patron, and the vassal may acquire vassals of his or her own. All of a patron's vassals, and their vassals, and so on, are known collectively as that patron's followers. As vassals become patrons, they in turn rise in Allegiance Rank.
Monarchs are the leader, and highest Ranking officer, of an Allegiance.
====Loyalty and Leadership====
See also: XP Passup
Vassals automatically pass experience points up to their patrons. These experience points are not taken from the vassal's earned total, buy are extra points generated especially for the patron. Each patron passes points up to his or her patron in, on up to the monarch. How much experience a patron receives from each vassal depends upon the patron's Leadership skill and the vassal's Loyalty skill. The higher these skills are, the more experience is gained by the patron. For this reason, player characters with high Loyalty are highly prized as potential vassals. The number of experience points passed up from vassal to patron also increases with the amount of time the vassal has been in the allegiance.
====Experience Chains====
Experience Chains, or XP Chains for short, used to be common in many allegiances. Instead of an "Experience Tree" as was originally intended, the Allegiance vassals would pledge to one patron, who would pledge to another, and on up the "chain" in the manner that there was one vassal to a patron who was one vassal to their patron.
It was a method for many allegiance members to gain experience points far faster than originally intended, and eventually, a patch was made to nerf XP chains by limiting how many vassals and sub-vassals a patron could get experience points from.
===Officers===
Main article: Allegiance Officers
Allegiance Officers exist to give more structure and control over what goes on in an allegiance. Officers have different ranks and each rank has its own powers or abilities that goes with it.
===Interface===
The Allegiance Panel on the user interface provides buttons to swear allegiance and manage your direct allegiance ties. More advanced commands are available for officers and monarchs to manage the structure of an allegiance.
==Communication==
Main article: Allegiance Communication
==Meeting Areas==
===Meeting Halls===
Introduced in Shadows of the Past, Meeting Halls were added to most town to give players a location to meet without fear of Portal Storms.
Bind Stones were later added to give allegiances a quick way to reach Towns and their meeting halls. Found outside each hall, the bind stones can be used by monarchs and Allegiance Officers of rank 3 and above to set a town recall point.
===Housing===
When owned by a monarch, Villas and Mansions can be recalled to by everyone else in the allegiance. Housing storage can also be shared by allegiance members providing they have been permitted to by the monarch or a rank 3 Allegiance Officer. Mansions are more often the housing type of choice for an allegiance as villas cannot use portal devices despite them being hookable in a villa.
==Allegiances by Server==
* Darktide Allegiances
* Frostfell Allegiances
* Harvestgain Allegiances
* Leafcull Allegiances
* Morningthaw Allegiances
* Solclaim Allegiances
* Thistledown Allegiances
* Verdantine Allegiances
* Wintersebb Allegiances
==See also==
* Allegiance Commands
* Allegiance Panel
* XP Passup
* Microsoft Zone Archive/Asheron's Call Handbook/The Allegiance Primer
==Update History==
Category:Allegiance
Category:Game Mechanics