Rankings & Scoring
Rankings are the public face of private investment. They show who has built the broadest domain, which banners have gathered strength, and which commanders have turned war into reputation.
Achievements
Correspondence
AlliancesAlliance XPScore is development and deeds
Score reflects investment in structures, research, trained forces, direct rewards from achievements, and recorded accomplishments from the wider domain. The public ledger highlights the clearest score sources rather than every internal tally. The board is built from hourly snapshots. Troops lost in battle, buildings destroyed, new works completed, or counted accomplishments can all move the next total.
The board has three arguments
The Rankings panel carries three views, each useful for a different kind of judgement.
- Governors: two rolls under one tab. Realm, which opens first, ranks by score. Renown ranks by what each Governor has done of late. Both raise the top three on a podium with portrait, alliance flag and the identity they are known by, and both open at your own place.
- Alliances: the three leading banners hung above the full roll by alliance XP, each with its world dominance, member count and banner rank. World dominance is the water an alliance holds, not its islands: 10 for each ocean it has claimed and 1 for each flag it flies on a sea rock, shown as its share of what every alliance holds. A flag that comes down, in a storm or to a rival, takes its point with it.
- Warlords: combat reputation built from contested wins, losses, troops slain, notable wins, and streaks.
A name on any board opens the profile behind it. The Governor's name sits beside their alliance flag, with whether they are online and the day they made landfall. The tabs follow: About, with their title, bio, distinctions and identity compass; Realm, with their war record and the score behind it (on your own profile, Renown, with the deeds that earned yours); Honour, which only you see on your own profile; and Islands. Social actions such as private messages, friend requests, aid, or alliance invitations sit beside them when those actions are allowed. Another Governor's Honour shows only when they are Wanted: a mark beside their name, and a WANTED poster in About while a bounty is open on them.
Renown is what you have done lately
Score measures what you have built. Renown measures what you have done: battles won, islands taken, defences held, trades made, buildings and research finished, spy runs and curses. Every deed fades by half every two weeks, so the Renown roll moves, and a Governor who stops acting drifts down it however large their realm.
Not every deed counts alike. A win over a far smaller realm earns nothing, a win over a bigger one earns half again, and striking the same Governor again in a day earns less each time. Trading over and over with one partner earns for the first three trades of a day and no more. Past a daily line in each kind of deed, the rest still counts, at a falling rate. Unsigned Sails earn no renown at all.
A Governor unseen for two weeks, or Shuttered, steps off the Renown roll into the band of the away below it, with their renown kept, and takes their place again on their first day back. A Governor who holds no island holds no seat, as on every board. Building and research count from the day renown arrived, so builders and Stewards fill in over the first fortnight. An arrow under each number shows how many places they have moved since yesterday.
The realm watches the boards
Climbing matters in public. When a Governor or alliance rises into the top ten of the established boards (the Renown and Realm rolls, the Warlords board, or a scoreboard such as Treasure Hunters, Plunderers, Spymasters, Stewards, or Wealthiest), the move is announced in the world ticker and recorded in the Chronicle, named board and all. Taking first place earns a gold celebration line and, where the board grants one, the title that comes with the seat. Only upward moves are announced; the realm does not gossip about who slipped.
Specialist standings
Black Tide Liberators ranks publicly credited islands freed. Treasure Hunters and Stewards record treasure finds and council affairs resolved. Market Traders counts completed marketplace sales. Most offer This Week and All Time standings. Creature Slayers ranks damage dealt to the things that come up through a Lumen Rupture, and is All Time only: the tally lives on the creature itself, so there is no daily ledger to slice.
What the Creature Slayers board counts, and why the last blow is the least of it, is on The Lumen Rupture.
The Daily Chronicle celebrates a rotating selection of yesterday’s combat, trade, governance and exploration. Strong runners-up can earn the spotlight, and recent winners receive less preference. These editorial choices do not change the specialist standings.
Only standing Governors hold a seat
Every board ranks the living realm, not the archive. A Governor who has lost their last island keeps their recorded deeds, but holds no seat on any board, whether rankings, Warlords or the scoreboards, until they hold land again. A Shuttered Governor is likewise hidden from every board while away and rejoins them on return.
How score is counted
Settlement score is recalculated regularly from the current state of a Governor's holdings. Buildings and research count from their invested upgrade costs. Troops count from their trained value, but at a much lighter weight. Achievement rewards add direct score on top.
Counts and score are separate ledgers. Inselnova counts treasure finds, Black Tide attacks, Black Tide attacks repelled and liberations, bazaar purchases, marketplace trades, spy successes, colonisations, affairs, and war facts from the record of the world. Some entries add Governor score directly, while derived records remain visible beside the score so the same deed is not counted twice.
Black Tide actions carry special weight because the whole archipelago benefits when those sails are broken. Spy successes, colonisations, profitable trade, treasure, plunder, and resolved affairs also add standing as proof that the Governor's authority reaches beyond the building yard.
This is why a commander can win a battle and still drop on the board if the victory burned too much army value. It is also why an active scout, trader, or Black Tide hunter can climb even before another warehouse roof is raised.
War record is a second reputation
War record is counted beside Governor score. Some combat deeds add to standing, while the full record remains separate so the board can distinguish builders from survivors. A profile's Scoring tab shows total wars, wins, losses, draws and surrenders.
The Warlords board turns that combat record into a dominance ranking, but only for battles you launch, and only for battles that were battles. A win over an island with troops standing on it pulls you upward; a lost attack pulls you down; troops slain on your own offensives break ties between commanders who look similar at first glance. Sailing into an empty harbour and taking what you find is a raid, not a victory: it earns you nothing here, though the spoils will carry you up the Plunderers board. Repelling a raid still builds your war record and your defense tally, but holding the wall never moves the Warlords board: dominance belongs to those who sail out and find someone waiting.
The Census counts what you have spent and taken
Realm → Census is your own ledger rather than a board. It holds four lifetime figures: enemies slain, troops lost, islands taken and plunder hauled. They are yours alone, set against nobody else's.
Under them stand your reputation title and your identity compass, drawn exactly as other Governors see it on your profile. The Realm Identity chapter covers how the compass itself is read.
Two measures of a banner
An alliance's place on the board is its alliance XP: what its members have achieved together. XP only climbs, so a banner keeps the place it earned through a bad week.
World dominance is the other measure: the water an alliance holds right now, as its share of what every alliance holds. Each ocean it has claimed counts 10 and each flag it flies on a sea rock counts 1; islands do not count at all. It rises with every claim and flag and falls with every one lost. A strip above the roll shares the held water out, each leading banner in its own colour. The two can disagree. An old, accomplished alliance can rank first on XP while a younger one holds more of the sea, and that gap is often the story of the season.
The board also shows member count, making large banners and elite small banners easy to tell apart.
The alliance profile carries its own war record as well, gathered from the members beneath the flag. That makes the board a recruiting tool and a warning label at the same time.
Common questions
Does score unlock bazaar tiers?
No. Bazaar access follows island prestige, not score. Score still matters because it shows growth, threat, and public standing.
Why did my score fall after a battle?
Troops are part of score. If losses remove more army value than your buildings, research, or achievement rewards add back, the total can fall.
Why does a lower-ranked alliance have the longer dominance bar?
The board ranks by alliance XP, which only grows. Dominance is the share of the water held today: oceans claimed and flags flying on sea rocks. A banner that has spread its flags quickly can hold more of the sea than one that has achieved more.
Why is the Warlords board different from the score board?
The score board measures development and scored activity, and an undefended island still counts toward it. The Warlords board measures combat dominance: contested wins, losses and troops slain, so a harbour that could not fight back adds nothing to it.