Faction Pillar Conflicts have received their largest update in years. Events are no longer locked to a single thirty-minute ruleset at a random site. Faction players can now configure almost every aspect of a match from their faction stone before it goes live, choose where it is fought, and pick one of three distinct game modes. Portals still open in major cities when an event starts, and the classic pillar arenas remain the battlegrounds — but how you fight there is now largely up to you.

To schedule an event, use Activate Pillar Event on your faction stone. A setup window lets you pick duration, respawn rules, player limits, combat mode, base protection, mounts, bolas, and location. When you are ready, press Schedule Event for a Team Pillar or Free-For-All match using those settings. Capture the Flag is started separately with the CTF Mode button, which applies fixed CTF rules on top of your chosen duration, respawn, mount, bola, and location options. You must select a location before anything can be scheduled. The server also checks that enough players are online; team and CTF events normally require at least two factions represented, while FFA events can be scheduled when only one faction has members online, as long as the minimum total player count is met. A short countdown follows approval, then the announcement goes out and the portals open.

Duration and reward scaling now follow the length you choose. Team and FFA events can run ten, twenty, thirty, forty-five, or sixty minutes. Capture the Flag requires at least twenty minutes; if you had ten minutes selected for a pillar event and switch to CTF, the duration automatically bumps to twenty. Rewards scale with time, using thirty minutes as the baseline at one hundred percent. A ten-minute event pays roughly a third of that, a twenty-minute event about two-thirds, forty-five minutes one and a half times, and sixty minutes double. Team events capped at one player per faction pay twenty-five percent of the scaled amount on top of that. FFA gold payouts use the same duration scaling.

Respawn and stat loss can be set to Zerg (instant respawn, no stat loss), Fast (light stat loss and quicker healer cycles), or Standard (classic delay and heavier stat loss). This applies to all three modes. Player limits for Team and FFA range from Open (everyone can fight), Balanced teams (overpopulated factions may bench extra players as inactive standby), or hard caps from one-versus-one through five-versus-five per faction. CTF always uses balanced teams with a plus-one standby slot. Combat mode for scheduled pillar events is either Team battle, where only rival factions score kill credit and a faction wins by total points, or FFA, where everyone can damage everyone and the top individual player wins the announcement. Faction bases can be Safe, with guards protecting spawn areas as in classic events, or Open, allowing fighting inside enemy spawns. CTF always uses open bases. Mounts can be allowed or disabled; when disabled, players are dismounted on entry and cannot use mounts or ethereal mounts for the duration. Bolas can be allowed or turned off entirely. Locations include Spiritwood Outpost near Skara Brae, Vraal's Mausoleum near Minoc, Deep Forest Ruins in Yew, Samlethe Pass in Wind, and Dragon's Peak on Dagger Isle.

When an event goes live, faction members who enter the arena receive the Faction Event buff automatically if they are eligible. While under that effect you do not consume reagents, bandages, or arrows, though you must still carry them. On death you drop only magical equipment and volatile spellbooks. Recall and gate travel are blocked, skill gains are paused, and after a short delay you teleport to your faction's event healer, which resurrects on a timer depending on the respawn mode you chose. Bonded pets teleport with you; healers generally will not resurrect pets unless they are mountable. If death teleport fails, the /basereturn command sends your ghost and pets back to your faction base while you are dead. Players suffering event stat loss are not worth silver and cannot earn kill silver until it wears off. Under Standard respawn, expect roughly ninety seconds of reduced stats and slower movement, scaled by the selected preset. Factions with more active players than the smallest faction may suffer increased stat loss over time. If safe bases are enabled, enemies who enter a guarded enemy spawn are killed by guards; that protection does not apply in CTF or when open bases are selected.

A draggable event HUD shows the mode, faction standings, your kills, deaths, and captures where relevant, the options in effect, and in CTF the flag status including a respawn countdown when the flag is returning to the pillar. The plus button opens the leaderboard. When balanced teams are active and one faction is overpopulated, extra members join as plus-one Inactive standby. Standby players are in the event but cannot fight for score and cannot pick up the CTF flag; they are activated automatically when team sizes even out. Balance benching does not apply when fewer than three players are in the match. Please note that Minax characters are temporarily blocked from joining live pillar and CTF events, though staff may still spectate; this restriction may be lifted in a future update.

Team Pillar remains the default classic mode. Every thirty seconds the pillar ticks if at least two factions have active fighters present. One faction controlling the pillar earns two faction points and two individual points for nearby members. Two factions contesting earn one point each. Three factions present, or nobody holding the pillar, earns nothing. Kills steal a portion of the victim faction's points when that faction has points to lose, with the top damager credited on the leaderboard. Same-faction kills do not score. Kills between characters on the same machine do not score. Repeat kills on the same opponent within two minutes do not score, except in one-versus-one team events where that cooldown is skipped because there is only one enemy. Valid rival kills during the event pay kill silver through the pillar system rather than normal overworld faction payouts. The faction with the most points when time expires wins.

End-of-event rewards for Team Pillar and CTF require meaningful activity in the match: at least two total kills across all players for team events, or at least one flag capture plus two opposing factions having been present for CTF rewards. If the gate fails, everyone is told that no rewards were given. Winning faction members receive faction coins and silver scaled by duration, with bonuses if your faction controls Cove. Losing faction members who earned individual points receive a participation silver payout. The top five players by individual points receive tiered silver bonuses if they meet presence and participation requirements; team mode requires sufficient combat involvement and, for top rewards, kills on multiple unique opponents (one unique opponent suffices in one-versus-one team events). The number-one player by points also has a ten percent chance at a rare faction pillar prize, but only on events scheduled for thirty minutes or longer. Presence requirements are fifty percent of the event for team pillar and twenty-five percent for CTF. Standby players generally do not receive win or lose payouts unless activated onto the fighting roster. You must still have the Faction Event effect when rewards are processed at the end.

Free-For-All mode removes faction victory. There are no pillar faction points and no kill point stealing between teams. Individual score comes from your share of damage on kills, and same-machine and repeat-kill restrictions are relaxed so scrimmages flow more freely. The top individual player wins the end announcement, with ties possible. FFA does not pay faction coins, silver, or the rare prize, but it now pays gold to the top five players deposited into your bank. At a full thirty-minute event the winner receives fifteen thousand gold, with second through fifth place receiving twelve thousand, nine thousand, six thousand, and three thousand respectively, following a five-four-three-two-one split. Shorter or longer events scale those amounts with the same duration multiplier used elsewhere. FFA requires at least two total kills in the match for any gold to be paid, and eligible top players must have scored points or sufficient combat participation and meet the twenty-five percent presence requirement. Scheduling an FFA event only requires one faction to be online rather than two.

Capture the Flag is a entirely new way to fight at the pillar. Use the CTF Mode button on the faction stone rather than Schedule Event. CTF uses balanced teams with plus-one standby, open bases, flag captures as the only scoring, no pillar control ticks, and no kill-based point stealing. Kills still matter tactically because they drop the flag, and rival kills during an active CTF now pay kill silver the same way team pillar kills do, without affecting capture points. The flag spawns at the central pillar. An active fighter uses the flag to pick it up, wearing it as a flag quiver on their back, and carries it to their faction healer base within capture range to score. Each capture awards ten points to your faction and to you personally. After a capture the flag respawns at the pillar after two minutes, with a countdown shown on the HUD. If the carrier dies the flag drops where they fell. If the carrier leaves the event the flag returns to the pillar after two minutes. Carriers can pass the flag to a teammate through the quiver's transfer target, but cannot mount, and sigil or siege key holders cannot carry the flag. Standby players cannot pick up the flag. To prevent solo abuse, the flag cannot be picked up or captured until at least two different factions each have one active fighter on the roster; the HUD will show when the flag is waiting for another faction. End rewards follow the same coin and silver structure as team pillar, with CTF-specific presence and participation rules tied to captures and roster membership rather than kill counts.

When an event ends, the pillar deactivates, healers are removed, rewards are calculated, leaderboards are shown, and the Faction Event effect remains briefly so payouts can finish before normal rules return. Staff who stop an event early end it with no rewards for anyone.

Whether you are organizing a quick ten-minute skirmish, a full-hour siege for maximum payout, a free-for-all gold hunt, or a capture-the-flag grudge match, the faction stone is now your war table. Rally your faction, choose your rules, and meet your enemies at the pillar.