Server Guide

Realms Of Cinder is a geopolitical Minecraft server set in Middle-Earth. Players join one of nine factions, swear allegiance to a House or strike out alone as a Free Agent, and shape the world through settlement, roleplay, and war. This page collects the server's rules and core systems.

For the current political situation, see the live map. Questions and appeals go through the Discord.

General Rules

Server rules

1. Respect. Treat all players with respect. Hate speech, harassment, and personal attacks are prohibited. Report issues to staff rather than escalating in chat.
2. No griefing or stealing. Destroying or taking from structures or areas you do not own is not allowed.
3. No cheating or exploits. Unauthorized client modifications (xray, fly, no-clip, etc.) and duplication glitches are prohibited. Only mods explicitly approved by staff may be used. Report any exploit you find.
4. No advertising. Posting invite links or references to other servers or communities is not allowed without staff approval.
5. Appropriate names. Usernames and in-game names must not contain slurs, references to hate groups, or explicit content.
6. Respect staff. Do not publicly argue with or abuse staff; appeals go through the Discord. Attempting to bribe or impersonate staff is a bannable offense.

Roleplay rules

Realms Of Cinder is a roleplay server first: conflict between players is built through story, not surprise attacks. The following rules govern player engagement.

1. Roleplay reasonably. Act as your character believably would. Escalation should make sense: grudges, threats, and wars need a story behind them.
2. Give time to react. Before engaging another player, you must give them ample time to respond in a roleplay fashion. No attacking out of nowhere: open the interaction, let it play out, and only then act on it.
3. No killing players on their own land. By default, players are safe on their own territory. Killing someone on their own land is only permitted after the conflict has been properly escalated through sufficient roleplay and diplomacy has been given a genuine chance to resolve it.
4. Bases are always off-limits. Even in a fully escalated conflict, killing players at their own base is never allowed. Attacks on settlements only happen through official wars.

Contact staff in-game or via Discord.

Faction Structure

Each faction is made up of Houses ruled by Lords, plus independent Free Agents. One House holds the Kingship and leads the faction.

Houses & Lords

The House is the primary political unit of a faction. Each House is ruled by a Lord and made up of its member players. Houses hold provinces through their cities, wage war, and compete for prestige and influence within their faction.

Kingship

One House per faction claims the Kingship. The Lord of that House is the King, the ruler of the whole faction. The King speaks for the faction in diplomacy and holds the authority to declare war.

Free Agents

Players who belong to a faction but not to any House. Free Agents play within the faction and may make personal land claims, but they cannot participate in diplomacy: no treaties, no war declarations, and no seat at the table when Houses decide.

To found or join a House, ask in the Discord.

Provinces & Settlements

The world is divided into provinces (see the live map). Each province contains a unique resource and can hold a limited number of settlements.

Cities

Each province can hold one City. The House that holds the City is the regent of that province; city and province rule go hand in hand. Cities are also the backbone of the fast travel network: all long-distance travel runs from city to city.

Cities are allowed to have multiple defensive layers (walls, tunnels, and so on) and cannot be raided.

Towns

Each province supports up to four Towns. Towns are the production centers of the realm: this is where farms, houses, and resource buildings do their work. Every town is linked to its province's city for fast travel.

Because towns can be raided, they are not allowed to have defenses that cannot be passed. Palisades and similar defenses are fine, as long as there is an opening and the nexus point stays accessible to potential raiders.

Outposts

To gain a fast travel point in neutral or unclaimed territory, a faction must build an Outpost there. An outpost can be linked to one of the faction's cities, but travelling to or from it carries the longest cooldown on the network. The only building an outpost holds is its fast travel point.

Buildings & production

Settlements run on three resources: population, food, and coins. Population buildings house your people, and that population is then consumed by food and coin buildings to work them. Plan your towns so the numbers balance.

Population

Food

Coins

Roads, stables & forts

Road

A road connects a town to its city. Roads reduce the fast travel cooldown on that route by 50% and allow toll bridges to be built along them. A road can be as simple as a dirt path, but bridges or tunnels must be built where the terrain requires it. Roads do not have to be claimed (to save chunks), and griefing a road is not allowed.

Stable

A stable is required to hold a fast travel point, with one stall per connection, and each stall must have a mount in it. A town only ever links to its own city, so it never needs more than one stall. A city links to multiple towns and outposts, so it needs a stall for each.

Fort

A purely military structure: a fort produces nothing and costs 4 coins per day in upkeep. If a province has a fort, attackers must win a fort battle before they can lay siege to its settlements. Staff decide which defenses are allowed during inspection; they must stay immersive and roleplay-friendly, so no death traps.

Upkeep

• Every 10 population consumes 1 food per day.
• A fort costs 4 coins per day.
• An active war consumes 5 coins and 2 food per day.

Colonization

To colonize a province, you must build at least a Town or City there. Starting with a City is recommended (or placing an Outpost first): a Town alone cannot be fast traveled to, since towns only link to their own province's city.

Fast Travel

Fast travel connects the realm through its cities. There are no waystones; travel follows the settlement network your faction has built.

The network

• Cities are the hubs. Long-distance travel always runs between cities.
• Within a province, you travel between the city and its towns.
• Between provinces, you travel from city to city, then onward to a town if needed.
• Outposts extend the network into neutral or unclaimed territory, linked to one of your faction's cities.
• Every fast travel point needs a stable with a mounted stall per connection (see Roads & stables).
• Roads pay off: a road connecting a town to its city halves the cooldown on that route.

Cooldowns

A road between a town and its city reduces that route's cooldown by 50%, bringing City ↔ Town down to 5 minutes.

Access

Fast travel points are only accessible to players of the faction that owns them. Sharing your network with another faction will become possible through Military Access once in-game diplomacy is added.

Cooldowns are subject to balancing.

War & Diplomacy

Wars are the culmination of roleplay, not the start of it. A war needs history: grievances, failed diplomacy, and a reason the realm can believe.

Declaring war

Only the King of a faction can declare war, and only once enough roleplay and legitimate reasons have built up to justify it. Wars declared without buildup or cause will not be recognized.

Casus Belli

Every war needs a valid cause. The following are recognized:

Civil War works differently from the others: when unhappy Lords call for one, every House in the faction is asked to side with either the rebels or the ruling House. Each side starts with the provinces it owns, and the war does not end until one side occupies everything or sues for peace.

House participation

• When war is declared, a vote is held among the Houses of both the attacking and the defending faction to determine who joins the fight.
• Houses that vote against participation stay out of the war.
• Exception: if the war is declared to take over a province, the House that rules that province is automatically forced into the war; a regent cannot vote away the defense of their own land.

General war rules

1. One mount per player. Wargs, goats, elks, or horses.
2. No other tamed creatures. Wolves, trolls, and other tamed beasts cannot be brought to war.
3. Faction gear only. Each faction fights in its own gear. We encourage factions to divide ranks with it, regular soldiers in regular plate and kings in the special variant, but this is not enforced.
4. Max one weapon per type. As a dwarf, for example, you cannot bring more than one crossbow.

The course of a war

When a war is declared on a province, both factions' status is set to war and raids are enabled between them. A battle date is then picked that fits both sides. For each battle, players are teleported to the starting area.

Battles are fought in the following order:

1. Border battle. Fought in open terrain at the border; players are not allowed to build. Defenders get 10 minutes to dig trenches and find a suitable defensive spot, after which the attackers march on the defenders' position. A capture point is placed at the defenders' position: if the defenders retreat, the attackers win by holding it uncontested for 15 minutes. Defenders win by killing all attackers or forcing them to retreat.
2. Fort battle (if applicable). If the defenders have constructed a fort in the province, a fort battle takes place. It follows the same rules as a siege.
3. Siege battle. The strongest settlement in the province is besieged: if the province only has towns, the battle takes place in a town; if it has a city, in the city.

Sieges

Sieges are never fought at the real settlement, so nobody's build gets ruined. Instead, a copy of the settlement is pasted into an arena. The arena has retreat points for both sides, so attackers and defenders can always fall back.

Attackers must take at least two capture points, in order:

1. The gate. Holding this point for 10 minutes opens the gates. This gives the defenders a chance to sally out, or to thin the attackers' numbers with bows from the walls.
2. Additional gates. Cities are allowed multiple defensive layers (walls, tunnels, and so on), and every extra gate adds another capture point that must be taken.
3. The nexus. The final point, at the settlement's nexus. Taking it wins the siege.

To keep sieges fun and fair for everyone:

• Neither side may place blocks. This includes lava and water buckets.
• All doors can be opened by both sides during the siege, so there are no safe spots during pvp besides the official fallback gate.

Raiding

While a war is active, factions can raid each other's settlements between battles.

• Each town can only be raided once every 24 hours.
• A raid cannot be started unless defenders are online.

Military access (planned)

Once in-game diplomacy is added, factions will be able to grant each other Military Access: permission to use one another's fast travel network, enabling allied troop movement across the realm.