Alliance

Alliance was TERA's second generation political and PvP system. It was lauched in NA August 2013 while level cap was still 60 but carried over to 65. It succeeded Vanarchs system. Alliance has now been removed and replaced with Civil Unrest.

''With the end of the Argon War, a mysterious material called noctenium sunders the Valkyon Federation by creating conflict from within. Noctenium imbues its owner with power, and joining an alliance holds the key to unlocking its secrets.''

There were three alliances, made up by guilds. One player from each alliance was elected as Exarch to rule the alliance and continent. Each alliance had its headquarters with traders and teleports to alliance territory.

Each alliance has its own territory, not part of open world, but size of province and accessible only with teleporter from headquarters building. Territories were copies of certain open world provinces modified a bit. Each alliance had Executor NPC who was located in fort in their territory. Each alliance also had noctenium extractors in their territory. Opposing alliance member can infiltrate to enemy territory and steal their noctenium extractor keys.

Headquarters buildings still exists, but are now empty. Alliance territories and vaults are inaccessible.

There was also NPC in Island of Dawn who gave overview about noctenium and alliances. Some alliance NPCs were added on the island when it was reworked and they are part of whodunit quest there.

Free Traders Collective
The exarch of the Free Traders Collective sets taxes and policy for the entire continent of Southern Arun. You can find their headquarters in Free Traders Hall in the Velika Outskirts. The Free Traders Collective uses noctenium as a means toward financial prosperity.

Free Traders buff was 1 percent more gold drops from monsters. Unfortunately gold drops were later totally removed to prevent gold botting.

Enlightened Union
The exarch of the Enlightened Union sets taxes and policy for the entire continent of Southern Shara. You can find their headquarters in Enlightened Union Hall in the Allemantheia Outskirts. The Enlightened Union studies noctenium in academic pursuits. Members of the union gain 5 percent additional reputation credits for daily quests.

As interest to Alliance waned, most guilds joined EU to earn 5% more credits from Vanguard missions and more MWA for enchanting gear.

Iron Order


The exarch of the Iron Order sets taxes and policy for the entire continent of Northern Shara. You can find their headquarters in Iron Order Hall in the Kaiator Outskirts. The Iron Order employs noctenium to achieve superior strength. Members of the order receive 5 percent additional stun resistance.

Joining
Alliances are made up of networks of guilds, so joining a guild opens up many benefits to the new alliance content.
 * Guilds

Once you’ve joined a guild, the guild leader can talk to the Alliance Admin NPC, located in each alliance headquarters, for your guild to join an alliance.

If you are not in a guild, you can join an executor guild (aka System guild) already aligned with one of the three groups. These guilds are restricted and only allow access to some alliance content. These guilds are listed in green in the guild list, while player-founded guilds are listed in white. While in an executor guild, you can participate in most alliance activities, though it does come with some limitations.
 * Solo


 * These guilds allow a max of only 100 player characters. When it has reached 100 players, a new guild will auto-generate.


 * Regular GvG and guild banks will not be accessible via these guilds.

Ranks
Players who join an alliance will be promoted through the ranks based on their level of contribution.

Exarch
The Player that has earned the most points for their respective alliance will become Exarch for that term.

Exarchs have the following powers:
 * Distribute policy points for special alliance skills or to increase the effectiveness of the alliance enchanter.
 * Allocate policy points to your commanders so they can activate flags or alliance skills.
 * Collect taxes.
 * Receive exclusive exarch buffs, which are applied to all alliance members not in an instance or BG.
 * Exarch’s XP Bonus
 * Exarch’s Fortitude: gives power, balance, and endurance bonuses
 * Exarch’s PvP Bolster: gives combat bonus in PvP
 * You’ll also receive a special exarch mask so everyone can see the power you hold.

Commander
Each Commander is elected based on their rank for player contribution for the previous term, players ranked 2nd through 20th are given the positions.


 * Raid Commander—Summons an infiltration beacon within enemy alliance territory. Other members of the alliance can then teleport to that location.
 * Security Commander–Summons guards, fences, and siege weapons in friendly alliance territory to aid in defense.
 * Supply Commander–Summons a special alliance merchant.
 * All commanders will also receive special masks.

Echelon
Not an exarch or a commander? If you contribute enough alliance points, you can become an echelon. Echelons have exclusive access to the certain merchants, receive special masks, and can summon war flags to aid in combat. Only the 21st through 120th ranked alliance members can become echelons, and the higher your ranking within the echelons, the more war flags you have access to. The four flags improve power, movement speed, endurance, and resistance.

Member
Once you’ve accumulated 1,000 contribution points, you move from a cadet to a full member of your chosen alliance.

Cadet
This is the default alliance rank. When you first join an alliance, you’re ranked as a cadet.

Contribution Points
Contribution points are key to rising through the ranks of your alliance. Players with the most contribution points are eligible for echelon and will be distinguished on the leaderboards. Guild masters of guilds with the most contribution points are eligible for exarch. Win these points by completing special quests, defeating other players, disabling noctenium extractors, infiltrating enemy bases, or even just leveling your character. Here is a quick look at how contribution points break down. Keep in mind that while you do get points for defeating enemy alliance players, killing the same player repeatedly will quickly stop earning you points.
 * Disable opponent’s noctenium extractor during infiltration period = 10 points
 * Disable opponent’s noctenium extractor while not in an infiltration period = 5 points
 * Complete an alliance specialty loot quest = 30 points
 * Complete an alliance gathering quest = 50 points
 * Complete an alliance common monster hunt quest = 60 points
 * Complete an alliance BAM hunt quest = 70 points
 * Complete an infiltration quest = 11 points
 * Defeat an enemy alliance member inside the alliance territory = 2 points
 * Assist a member of your party in defeating an enemy alliance member inside the alliance territory = 1 point
 * Achieve level 10 = 11 points
 * Achieve level 20 = 42 points
 * Achieve level 30 = 93 points
 * Achieve level 40 = 164 points
 * Achieve level 50 = 255 points
 * Achieve level 60 = 366 points

Activities
Protect your fort from enemy alliance attacks or raid their territories to earn points and steal noctenium resources.

Invis-o-BAMs
Each alliance territory has an invisible BAM secretly roaming the grounds; you’ll need detection totems to find them. By defeating these BAMs, you can obtain superior noctenium membranes.

Noctenium Extractor Competition
One hundred extractors spawn daily in each alliance territory. When you shut down an extractor from an enemy alliance, you receive a key. Return this key to the quest NPC and the number of extractors your alliance controls increases by one, while the number your enemy controls decreases by one (so your alliance controls 101 extractors, while your enemy now controls 99). You must run your key to the alliance quest NPC for this to count! Be careful though–while holding a key, you cannot mount, teleport, or use unstuck to move, or you will drop the key.

Remember, access to the vaults is dependent on which alliance had control of the most noctenium extractors at the end of the previous day.

Noctenium extractors can only be defended by PvP during specified alliance PvP times. During peace time, you may use only “drop bombs” to force the opposing player to drop the key they stole.

Infiltration Quests
Infiltration quests allow you to invade an opposing alliance territory and steal 40 percent of the gold they’ve accumulated from taxes. The loot is split evenly among all members of the invading alliance. The executor NPC resides in the fort of their alliance territory and has a shield that prevents damage for two, four, or eight hours depending on the rank of your alliance (determined by the same means as vault access). The higher your alliance rank, the shorter your shield is active. These quests can only be completed during alliance PvP windows.

Alliance Vaults
Vaults are small instances available to each alliance—but exactly when your alliance can access them is determined by who has the most noctenium exactors at the end of the noctenium extractor competition. The alliance with the most has a higher chance of getting more entries to the vault.

The contents within the vault are random–you’ll see either the Vault of Flames, Vault of Seas, or Vault of Winter. Any alliance member can access these vaults, though there is a three-hour cooldown between entries.The BAMs from these vaults drop the latest accessory items, noctenium infusions, and occasionally a ticket to the Vault of Allies. The Vault of Allies also has a chance to drop argon vitriols and Visionmaker designs.

The Vault of Allies accepts five players at a time. It has no cooldown, but requires a ticket for entry. Only members and above have access to it (no cadets), and the monster will not spawn until all five members are inside the instance. This BAM is significantly harder than those in the single-player vaults, but drops more loot.

Noctenium
Noctenium is as versatile as it is powerful, and numerous applications have already been discovered.

Noctenium infusions strengthen your skills. When activated, using any affected skill causes your character to emanate a green glow. Noctenium infusions can be created with the following materials:

Toggle the effects of noctenium infusion on and off by right-clicking it in your inventory. Note that when these effects are toggled on, every skill noctenium can affect will consume noctenium infusion on each use.
 * Pure noctenium powder, obtained via various alliance quest rewards
 * Noctenium membrane, obtained via hunting monsters in alliance territories
 * Affinity catalyst, sold by the alliance quartermaster NPC