The Old Ones are alien races so old, their science and levels of thinking are beyond anything we can comprehend.
Whilst the Old Ones generally consider involvement with the younger races, including the players, to be beneath them, they do recognise the value of guidance and in cultivating allies amongst those who one day will walk with them.
There are four Old Ones that take an active interest in the younger races around them. These are:
The Mighty One: The Mighty One believes in strength through sheer physical power. To be able to out run your foes, to wield more power in everything you do, is the key to victory.
The Wise One: The Wise One believes in strength through knowledge. To know your foes actions is to defeat him.
The Merciful One: The Merciful One believes in strength through compassion and unity. No matter how powerful the foe, if you have enough allies willing to fight beside you, enough friends at your side, you can defeat them.
The Fierce One: The Fierce One believes in strength through force of arms and the dedication to use them. If you wield the better and greater number of weapons and wield them most skillfully and with the will to win, then victory will be yours.
Thus they are always watching for ships which suit their needs and behave in ways that suggest that they may be useful tools.
Ships can gain the notice of each of the Old Ones through acts of particular interest to that Old One. This attention is represented in game by favour. Favour accumulates until it is used to gain the aid of its associated Old One in some fashion.
If a player gains enough favour in one area, the Old One interested in that area could make him his Prophet amongst the younger races, though there may be otehr candidates to deal with first...
The Mighty One awards Engineering favour to ships for having powerful starships, excluding weapons and pods which are not proper engineering, and lots of energy.
The Wise One awards one Science favour for each starnet terminal that your Science Officer currently has access to.
The Merciful One awards Medical favour for each homeworld your Medical Officer has worked to cure plague on.
The Fierce One awards favour for each alien race which has declared you an enemy and for scoring hits on enemy ships.
In addition to these methods which take effect each turn, one off favour gains can be made by completing adventures with the relevant Officer. ie a Medical adventure may yield Medical favour.
The Old Ones, whilst powerful, do not have perfect memories and the deeds done today are more valuable than those done yesterday. Consequently, any favour above 100 suffers a 10% decay until it returns to 100.
Each Artifact requires 5 favour each turn of the type associated with the Blessing it provides. eg a Weaponry Bless artifact requires 5 Weaponry favour a turn to upkeep. Failure to maintain an artifact means it breaks and ceases to function until enough favour is gained to make it work again.
Also, favour can be expended by each Officer to cast a single spell each per turn.
A quick reference table for all the spells can be found here.
These spells are as follows:
TopIn order to make it easier for there favoured ships to gather together, each Old One may choose a Prophet, if one player shows that he is worthy. The Prophets of the Old Ones gain certain advantages:
Each Prophet is Chosen by his Old One. In addition, a Prophet can Choose any vessel currently in the same system as him, though a Prophet pays favour each turn equal to the square of the number of ships Chosen of his Old One (including himself).
Chosen vessels provide the Prophet with twice as much favour each turn as they would normally (12% instead of 6%).
The Chosen gain several benefits, including:
Access to the Commune Officer Action, which earns the Officer an extra amount of favour equal to his Total Officer Skill.
A bonus of +1% to the reliability of all modules within their Old Ones sphere of
influence. eg Warp and Impulse Drives for Chosen of the Mighty One.
This bonus allows a ship to exceed the Maximum Reliability of 99% rule.
A Prophet can unchoose a Chosen vessel at any time.
Any player who casts the Become Prophet spell or Denounce Prophet spell can be excommunicated by the Prophet during the following turn, though only one player can be excommunicated a turn.
Heretics have the 6% favour bonus that they would give to the Prophet deducted instead.
Once excommunicated a player becomes a Heretic of that Old One, suffering the following:
A 1% penalty to reliability of all modules within the Old Ones sphere of influence.
Denounce spells cost 15 favour to cast instead of yielding 15 favour.
A Prophet may forgive a Heretic at any time.
If no other player occupies the position of Prophet of an Old One, becoming their Prophet is as easy as clicking on the Become Prophet option in the spells list.
If the position is already occupied, however, then one of two things must occur before you can take the position:
The current Prophet must have his favour level reduced to zero, at which point he ceases to be the Prophet. Then all that remains is to cast Become Prophet.
The current Prophet must have his favour reduced to the point that, when you cast Become Prophet, his favour total is less than yours. At that point you replace him as the Prophet.
When one Prophet is removed, all Chosen and Heretics are removed from these positions.