Council of Light

The Council of Light is a society within Elanthia that characters may join. It has two chapters in Elanthia; one in Solhaven, the other in Ta'Vaalor. Prior to the existence of these two chapters, there was one chapter located in Wehnimer's Landing - it no longer exists.

Joining the Council

Solhaven

• The character must first seek out the Haggard Matron NPC in order to obtain an invite to the council. The character will receive this invite if he or she simply stands around the haggard matron long enough, as it is one of its randomized actions.
• The character must go to Kraken Manor and solve the puzzle therein in order to gain access to the Manor.
• The character must find the Grand Poohbah in the Manor. After the Poohbah gives the character a brief chat, the character must recite, "I will not betray the council."

Ta'Vaalor

• The character must first seek out a ragged old blind man and stand around him for the invite just like the haggard matron.
• The character must then enter the catacombs and find a niche, go inside, and solve the puzzle therein.
• The character must then seek out the Poohbah and recite before him, "I will not betray the council." just as in Solhaven.

Obtaining ranks

There are four NPCs that the character must interact with in order to gain ranks: The Master of Gifts, the Master of Service, the Inquisitor, and the Taskmaster.

The Master of Gifts

The Master of Gifts randomly assigns the character a skinning task. The character must obtain a certain amount of skins and OFFER them individually to the Master. The character need not skin the creatures himself.

The Master of Service

The Master of Service tasks the character to bring certain items to him, which are usually able to be purchased from a nearby shop. To offer an item to the master, one must place it on the altar first and then use the OFFER verb.

The Inquisitor

The Inquisitor simply asks the character a question, which the character must ANSWER. The character need not answer immediately, but may research the subject before giving the answer. Failure to answer correctly will delay the character's acquisition of a new sign. The question will remain until the character finds the answer.

A list of COL Inquisitor answers may be found here.

The Taskmaster

The taskmaster, after all the tasks are completed, will then give the character a new sign after a certain time period has elapsed. This time period increases should the character incorrectly answer a question by the inquisitor. The time counts down as soon as a new sign is obtained.

Demotion

A character in the Council of Light may be demoted for one of two reasons.

• The character is taking too long to gain his next rank, angering the Poohbah. He will receive a warning before this occurs.
• The character breaks his oath of silence not to reveal any of the society's secrets, angering the dark assassin. This usually results in a demotion of five ranks and death.

Sign Effects

Rank	Name	Effect	Mana Cost	Spirit Cost	Cost Paid	Duration
1	Sign of Recognition	Allows the character to identify other members and their relative ranks.	0	0	N/A	Immediate
2	Signal	Use sign language to communicate with other society members in the room.	0	0	N/A	Immediate
3	Sign of Warding	+5 to DS.	1	0	Invoked	10 sec/level
4	Sign of Striking	+5 to AS.	1	0	Invoked	10 sec/level
5	Sign of Clotting	Stops all bleeding.	1	0	Invoked	10 sec/level
6	Sign of Thought	Gives the same effect as rubbing a crystal amulet.	1	0	Invoked	1 min/level
7	Sign of Defending	+10 to DS.	2	0	Invoked	10 sec/level
8	Sign of Smiting	+10 to AS.	2	0	Invoked	10 sec/level
9	Sign of Staunching.	Stops all bleeding.	1	0	Invoked	20 sec/level
10	Sign of Deflection	Adds +20 to Bolt DS.	3	0	Invoked	10 sec/level
11	Sign of Hypnosis	Calms a random target a with hidden warding check.	0	1	Invoked	Variable
12	Sign of Swords	Adds +20 to AS.	0	1	Dissipates	10 sec/level
13	Sign of Shields	Adds +20 to DS.	0	1	Dissipates	10 sec/level
14	Sign of Dissipation	Adds +15 to TD.	0	1	Dissipates	10 sec/level
15	Sign of Healing	Fully regenerates all hit points.	0	2	Invoked	N/A
16	Sign of Madness	Adds +50 to AS and subtracts -50 from DS.	0	3	Dissipates	10 seconds
17	Sign of Possession	Mass calms the room with a hidden warding check.	0	4	Invoked	Variable
18	Sign of Wracking	Fully regenerates all mana.	0	5	Invoked	N/A
19	Sign of Darkness	Teleports the user to a "safe point" or to the nearest Council chapter (whichever is closer).	0	6	Invoked	N/A
20	Sign of Hopelessness	Causes you to decay while dead. (Previously allowed the character to commit suicide and receive a spirit death.)	0	0	N/A	N/A

Note that the various durations listed here are for members who have mastered the Council; non-masters will find shorter durations which increase with rank. There also appears to be a slight randomization of a few seconds for the durations which are rank/level based (that is, signs will not always fall in the order they were invoked).

Breaking the Oath

Should the character's oath to the council be broken, the character will be penalized.

Obvious Spirit Drain

If a character drains spirit resulting in their spirit being half or less of their total spirit (rounded down), the effect will be noticed by anyone present. If such spirit drain occurs and there are non-Council members present, the Council member will be stripped of his or her powers for a period of time determined by the Poohbah. If the character is hidden or invisible, this will prevent anyone present from observing the spirit drain. However, one must be cautious, because non-Council members who are present and hidden or invisible can still observe the spirit drain.

Examples of Obvious Spirit Drain

• When Sign of Swords, Sign of Shields, or Sign of Dissipation wear off, for each case, the member must have half their total spirit (rounded up) plus two spirit in order not to have obvious spirit drain. Thus a character with 10 total spirit must have at least 7 spirit when one of these signs dissipates, so that they will go to no less than 6 spirit. If they go to 5 or less spirit, it will be obvious. Thus such a character who may expect to encounter a non-member should be wary of putting up these signs when their spirit is 6 or less, unless they are assured to regenerate more spirit before the sign wears off. For a character with 9 total spirit, they must have no less than 6 spirit, so that they do not go to 4 spirit.

• Sign of Possession used by any member with total spirit 8 or less. For instance, initially at full spirit, using this sign will drop the character to 4 out of 8 spirit, which is less than or equal to the character's total spirit.

• Sign of Wracking when used by any member without any enhancive item because their maximum spirit will be 10. However, a character with an aura stat enhancive item to push their total aura to greater than 105 could use Wracking without obvious spirit drain. For example, a character with 11 total spirit could drop to 6/11 spirit, which is not less than or equal to half that character's total.

Sign of Darkness

Sign of Darkness will always reveal too much if it is used in the presence of non-Council members, even if the Council member is hidden or invisible. This is because the teleportation vortex is always visible and can be seen. Thus it is unrelated to spirit drain, because the spirit is drained after the teleportation effect (which by design transports the Council member to a vacant location).

Talking about the Council

Should the character speak about the Council or its secrets with non-Council members, the character is subject to be killed by the dark assassin, demotion, and in some cases, expulsion.

See Also

• List of skins
• Council of Light Answers
• Haggard Matron

Related Links

Council of Light information including answers to Inquisitor questions from Solhaven and Ta'Vaalor, and a little list of skins asked for, and where to skin them.