Vanarch

Vanarchs are leaders of the provinces of Arborea. Vanarchs system was first political system in TERA, activated in first patch after game release (May 2012). Vanarchs were replaced with Exarchs of Alliance system in August 2013.

TERA politics are going to be driven entirely by players on each server. The main political goal of the players will be to become Vanarchs, who have "a shit-ton of power, a shit-ton of money, and a shit-ton of fame." One can become a vanarch by popular vote or through epic guild vs guild battles. Vanarchs are able to do many things usually out of the players' reach in MMOs—they can raise or lower taxes, enable certain NPCs, or disable open PvP (on PvP servers).

Vanarchs will need to collect Policy Points to fund their edicts. These points can be obtained two ways: through popular vote (Praise) or extremely challenging Vanarch quests, often involving gigantic monsters whose defeat requires not just the Vanarchs themselves, but also armies of their subjects.

Registration
During the registration phase, a player must declare his/her candidacy to either in Velika Consul Office or  in Allemantheia's Consul's Hall. The player chooses a continent, ranks the provinces in order of preference, and submits a short candidacy statement. Upon registering, candidates will be mailed one.

Requirements for Registration
The character being registered for candidacy must meet the following requirements:
 * Minimum character level: 50
 * Guild level: 3
 * Minimum # of guild members: 20 characters (multiple characters from the same account qualify)
 * Registration fee: and 100

Voting
Any character above level 40 can vote for a candidate and view the current rankings. However, players are only allowed one vote per continent, per account. A player will be mailed one per vote.

Restrictions for Candidates and Elected Vanarchs

 * Players can only register one candidate per election, per game account
 * Cannot delete the registered character during the election and ruling phases
 * Cannot leave or disband guild, or promote another player to guild master
 * Cannot give up their Vanarch position—an elected player is responsible for their province during their reign

Vanarch Abilities
The following abilities do not cost policy points:
 * raise or lower taxes (1-15% on general goods, crystal sales, specialty stores, flights, skill training, and teleportals)
 * make global announcements within the province (using the /Vanarch command)
 * access to a special 290 speed white stallion mount (the mount has no minimum level requirement, but will disappear once a vanarch's rule ends)

The following edicts cost policy points:
 * 5000 points: disable open PvP (in Northern & Southern Shara, on PvP servers)
 * 1500 points: enable specialty vendors
 * 500 points: enable trade brokers
 * 500 points: enable Magic Instructor
 * 500 points: enable Tactics Instructor
 * 500 points: increase cleric of restoration quality (provides run speed buff)

Obtaining Policy Points

 * 1000 points: obtained automatically upon election
 * 5 points/praise: only applicable during reign (cannot convert old praise to policy points)
 * 100-500 points/quest: Vanarch-only quests become available upon election