Guild System
In the Fortress Town’s early stages, you will need to take a direct role in expanding the town by gathering resources, conducting trade, and so forth. However, as the Fortress Town gets bigger, you’ll gain the ability to found “guilds”: a miners’ guild, woodcutters’ guild, guardsmen’s guild, blacksmiths’ guild, cooks’ guild, traders’ guild, etc.
Once you’ve established these guilds around town, they will start doing some of the resource gathering and other legwork for you. And if you expand the guilds further, you’ll be able to set up special detachment parties (separate from your main party) to carry out guild work and amass even more resources and funds. These resources can then be invested to upgrade the Fortress Town and its guilds even further.
Now, we plan for these detachment parties to actually move through the game world toward their objectives. And while the more responsible heroes may head straight for the finish line and mine the ore or defend the town that’s in trouble, other heroes may be more inclined to warm a tavern seat or take side trips. Not only that, depending on the abilities of the heroes you choose for the detachment, they may bring home extra resources. Or, if they are attacked along the way without an able fighter, they may be put to flight and return home empty-handed.
Basically, since your characters have a variety of abilities, you’ll want to choose your detachment rosters carefully to maximize your results.
Rune Lenses
Rune-lenses are the backbone of all power in the world of Eiyuden Chronicles. Lenses have different significance from nation to nation and culture to culture, but people everywhere have learned to harness their magical power and have handed that wisdom down—whether it’s to cast spells; use supernatural powers; or wield the lens symbolically, claiming the “divine gifts” represent a communion with god. The lenses are commonly crafted into weapons and accessories. However, the Galdean Empire has figured out how to amplify the lenses’ power by placing them inside specially engineered rings called “regules.”
The most valuable rune-lenses are sometimes handed down through families. There are also some individuals who are born with them inside their bodies. Many heroes have their own rune-lenses—no doubt you’ve noticed the back of Marisa’s hand or Perrielle’s hairpin—but you may also encounter heroes who don’t rely on rune-lenses at all.
The lenses’ importance carries over into the game system, too. By affixing runes to your heroes’ lenses, you can give them new magics and skills, or perhaps improve their physical abilities. Each hero’s lens is unique and supports runes of different type, rarity, and quantity. Some lenses may already contain a specialized rune that cannot be removed. Others may require runes of a certain type be affixed in specific positions. And when your heroes level up, the number of runes their lenses hold can potentially increase. We hope that players will use this system to create a roster of heroes that feels personal and powerful.