Temples are an important aspect of obtaining divine blessings. Through temple construction, you will be able to maintain a permanent blessing, or multiple permanent blessings, with the gods.
More subtly, having a temple to a certain deity may unlock related events, choices during events, or even ventures, and may increase the chance of success for certain choices (including those in rituals; larger temples may give larger bonuses).
Choose your temples wisely: you can only support so many. Additionally, temples cost more than twice as much as shrines to maintain, and a great temple costs more than twice as much as a temple. Annual maintenance is reckoned at Sacred Time, and if you fall short, you will lose a shrine or temple.
The number of temples you can support is limited not only by the cost of their upkeep but by your population. Aside from that, each alliance you form increases the number of temples you can maintain. There are also some treasures that reduce the number of worshippers needed to maintain a particular god's shrine, including Aronpala's Bulb (Erissa), Copper Fleece (Uryarda), Gamari's Feather (Gamari), the Gazzam Ledger (Buseryan), the Nyalda Stone (Nyalda), the Obsidian Sickle (Pela), the Radiant Lodestone (Zarlen), the Singing String (Osara), and possibly more. Finally, a successful Worship venture increases the number of temples you can maintain for one or more years.
In Lights Going Out, during the game's clan creation, you will choose how many, if any, temples or shrines to dead gods—those being Orlanth, Ernalda, Issaries, and Lhankor Mhy—your clan will maintain. Unlike regular temples, these will not confer any divine blessing; however, a divine spark still resides in these temples that provide certain passive bonuses (for example, a shrine to dead Issaries allows you to establish an extra trade route) or help during certain events. In order to reduce maintenance, these temples may be turned into shrines and shrines may be razed. However, shrines to these gods may not be expanded into temples and, once razed, no new shrines to them can be built.
Also, temples may be damaged in certain events. In this case, they cannot be upgraded until you demolish the damaged one and rebuild it.
Another change introduced in Lights Going Out is that some of the gods your clan worships may die over the course of the game. These are Chalana Arroy, Eurmal, Humakt, Redalda, Uralda, and Voriof. Like with those of dead gods during clan creation, you may not build or rebuild temples to them once dead and they no longer provide any blessings, though their remaining shrines or temples may still be helpful in certain events. The only way to repair a temple to a dead god is to choose the "protection of temples" option during the Decade Rite event.
| Image | Size | Blessings | Construction Cost | Annual Maintenance | Highest Level For |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Shrine | 1 | 10 goods | 4 goods,
2 herds |
Ancestors, Buseryan, Osara, Pela, Venurtera, Zarlen |
|
Temple | 2 | 50 goods | 10 goods,
5 herds |
Busenari, Chalana Arroy, Dostal, Ekarna, Erissa, Gamari, Hyalor, Inilla, Issaries, Lhankor Mhy, Nyalda, Orlanth, Redalda, Relandar, Uralda, Urox, Uryarda, Voriof |
|
Great Temple | 3 | 100 goods | 20 goods,
11 herds |
Elmal, Ernalda, Humakt |