Shuttering Your Realm
Going away for a while? Shutter your realm. Close the gates, lock the ledgers, and send the watch home across every isle you hold. The world keeps turning, but no fleet sails for or against you while you are gone. It is the governor's leave of absence: protection earned by standing still.
CombatWhat attackers see when they sail at a shuttered isle.
Settlement & LifeHappiness, food, and the neglect that shuttering pauses.
The Black TideThe blight that cannot touch a shuttered shore.
How Shuttering Works
Open Settings, then Shuttered and lower the shutters. Your whole realm enters a still, protected state at once: every isle you hold, not just one. To return, raise the shutters from the same place; your realm also opens on its own when the booked stretch ends.
What You Can and Cannot Do
While shuttered, your realm holds its position in the world but gives no orders.
| Still open to you | Closed until you return |
|---|---|
| Chat: direct, alliance, and world | Attacks, raids, spying, colonising |
| Browsing the map and reading reports | Building, research, training |
| Reading mail and viewing the market | Marketplace listing & buying, bazaar |
| Receiving friendly support & trade | Expeditions, blessings, curses |
| Council affairs, alliance management | |
| Renaming, flags, and tax policy |
While You're Away
- Hostile fleets are turned away. An attacker can still send ships at any of your isles, but they find the gates barred on arrival and sail home empty: no battle, no losses on either side. The sender receives a brief "turned away" report.
- Spies learn nothing. Reconnaissance against a shuttered realm finds no way in; the agents return unharmed with no intelligence.
- Curses and blessings are refused. Instant magic cannot reach a shuttered isle, friend or foe.
- Your isles do not decay. Colony neglect pauses across the realm for the whole stretch, and the Black Tide cannot mark a shuttered shore. You return to the realm you left, not a smoking crater.
- Trade keeps flowing. Incoming friendly support and trade-route deliveries still arrive, so resources accrue while you rest.
- Your market stalls close. Any open marketplace listings are withdrawn and their goods returned to your wharfs the moment you shutter.
The Rules
- Up to 21 days in a single stretch.
- Up to 30 days per rolling year in total.
- You may raise the shutters early, but only after the first 24 hours.
- After opening, there is a 12-hour cooldown before you can shutter again: no flicking the shutters to dodge a single fleet.
- You cannot shutter while hostile fleets are already inbound: no ducking a blow that is already on its way.
- You cannot shutter while you hold a contested objective island. Sitting on a prize untouchable would break the contest.
Master Quill: Margin note
Shutter with a clear conscience, Governor. Your isles keep themselves while you are gone. But mind the ledger: time-limited council matters may lapse while the gates are shut, and a stretch spent shuttered is a stretch your rivals spend building. Rest is a tool, not a hiding place.