Ceremony of Chaos

The Ceremony of Chaos is a sanctioned free-for-all style PvP battle exclusive to players in clans. It is meant to help train clans to work together and give opportunity for further practice and honing of one’s own PvP combat skills. Rewards from the Ceremony of Chaos benefit both clan and individual character.

Gran Kain, the father of all creatures and the world, observed the progress of his daughter Shilen’s evil plans. Although he felt resistance to her was futile, he was saw the races of Humans, Elves, Dark Elves, Orcs, Dwarves, and Kamael continue to fight. It was slow progress, but the determination of the races moved them forward steadily.

Gran Kain was impressed by this and decided to promote their cause, despite that he rarely involved himself in the fight between light and darkness. He called upon his subordinates, the fallen angels, to call upon the heroes of the races and challenge them to a test of ability, offering to grant some of his own powers to the victor and their clan.

Rumors circulated among the adventurer races that a representative of the gods—perhaps Pa’agrio or Shyeed—was helping them battle Shilen. Some also suspect it may be Gran Kain himself, but they doubt this because of the god’s generally negative nature.

The orders came from a mansion but the identity of the owner is never revealed; the only representatives of note are the Mysterious Butlers Lumiere and Ains, who organize the Ceremony of Chaos. Lumiere appears to be human but this is but a disguise to hide his seraphic identity.

Lumiere has the ability to create spaces in other dimensions, and upon Gran Kain’s orders he created four arenas for the Ceremony of Chaos battles. The arenas exist in a dimension located between the material world, and the world of Chaos ruled by Gran Kain himself. As such, Gran Kain can watch the battles easily. To protect the truth of their location and the identity of the organizer, the arenas were designed in style of familiar places in the material world.

The Ceremony of Chaos runs on a monthly cycle, similar to the Grand Olympiad. It begins at midnight (server time) on the first day of the calendar month, and ends on the last day. Matches occur every 15 minutes for 4 hours every day (Monday-Thursday), from 20:00 to 24:00 (server time). At this rate, a character can participate in up to 16 matches per day.

The 15-minute long match process follows this schedule:

• 0 minutes, Match period begins: an invitation is sent out to every eligible character and appears on their interface and in their chat window.
• 0-5 minutes, Registration Period: eligible players have 5 minutes to sign up. Registration can be canceled with no penalty during this time. Cancellation of any kind after this results in a penalty (see below).
• 5-7 minutes, Entrance Waiting List: after the sign-up period ends, registered characters are notified that they will be moved to the arena after 2 minutes.
• 7-8 minutes, Entrance and Preparation: you are moved to a random Ceremony of Chaos arena and have 60 seconds to prepare for battle. During this time, they are invisible to the enemy.
• 8-13:59 minutes, Battle: battle lasts a full 5 minutes
• 14 minutes, Exit: the character is removed from the arena after the match ends.

To be eligible to fight in the Ceremony of Chaos, a character must meet the following requirements:

• Belong to a clan that is level 6 or higher.
• Be level 85 or higher and have completed awakening class transfer or 3rd liberation.

At the beginning of a match period, all eligible characters in the game world see an invitation message appear in the chat window, and also as a blinking icon the radar map. If a character is ineligible at first but reaches eligibility status within the first 40 minutes of a match period, they will receive the invitation message at that time.

To participate, the character must click on the invitation message, and click Challenge in the pop-up window that appears. Next, the registration interface appears and a character can manage their registration status (sign up, cancel). The sign-up period lasts 5 minutes, after which time the invitation message ceases to appear. If you are not sign-up, the interface and icon will also disappear. If you are signed up but then log out of the game, your registration will be canceled.

Once registered for a match, you must wait until the registration period closes, and then you will be moved to an arena 2 minutes later.

A cancellation penalty is applied to prevent abuse and spam in the Ceremony of Chaos waiting list system. A cancellation penalty is applied if any of the following happens:

• The character cancels their match registration over 4 minutes into the Registration Period.
• The character logs out or is disconnected from the game, canceling their registration status and removing them from the waiting list.
• The character cannot be moved into the arena when the match begins. Conditions that prevent a character from moving into the arena include:
• Is dead
• Is inside an instanced dungeon
• Has over 80% weight and volume in their inventory
• Leaves the clan
• Changes to a class that is below level 76 and has not passed their third class transfer
• Is Chaotic
• Possesses a Cursed Sword
• Is offline (by choice, or by disconnect)
• The character presses Quit before the match is over, or forcefully leaves the match by any means before the match is over.

If a character accumulates 30 cancellation penalties by any means they cannot participate in the Ceremony of Chaos for that month and will not receive invitations to the matches. The penalty count is reset at the beginning of the next Ceremony of Chaos cycle.

The Ceremony of Chaos matches are organized and created partly by formula and partly at random. There are two different kinds of battle: PvP against other characters or PvE against five NPC monsters. A single match can contain anywhere from 1 to 18 characters. You are placed in a match type and group number at random.

Upon arrival, a character has 60 seconds to prepare for battle, during which time they can also read the pop-up guide about the Ceremony of Chaos. The countdown timer is displayed. After the 60 seconds end, all participating characters become visible and the battle can begin.

All characters that enter the Ceremony of Chaos arena receive the following items, which can be used to buff themselves. Buffs from one item are overwritten if another item is consumed.

• Ceremony of Chaos Attack: For 7 minutes, the Horn Melody, Guitar Melody, Pipe Organ Melody, Lute Melody, Harp Melody, Drum Melody, and Warrior’s Harmony level 1 effects are received. Can only be used in the Ceremony of Chaos arena.
• Ceremony of Chaos Magic: For 7 minutes, the Horn Melody, Guitar Melody, Pipe Organ Melody, Lute Melody, Harp Melody, Drum Melody, and Magician’s Harmony level 1 effects are received.
• Ceremony of Chaos Defense: For 7 minutes, the Horn Melody, Guitar Melody, Pipe Organ Melody, Lute Melody, Harp Melody, Drum Melody, and Guardian’s Harmony level 1 effects are received.

When entering an arena, a character’s skill enchantment and transformation status (unless it’s a flying transformation) remains. Servitors and cubic summons remain, but pets are unsummoned. The character’s HP, MP, and CP are fully recovered. Skill reuse timers for all skills that have less than 15 minutes of cooldown time are reset. If a registered character is in a party, they will be removed from the party went they are sent to the arena.

Herb Boxes may drop at random in the arena during either type of battle. When attacked, it drops an HP Recovery Herb that recovers 5,000 HP. If there is extra recovered HP left over after a character’s HP is fully restored by this herb, the remaining amount recovers CP. The Herb Box may also drop a Power Herb that increases P. Atk. by 100% and M. Atk. by 400% for 30 seconds.

• Inside a Ceremony of Chaos arena, the following restrictions apply:
• All functions that aid in the identity recognition of another character are made neutral or hidden:
• Names of and references to other characters in an arena are all changed to Challenger with a number suffix—for example, Challenger 3—and all characters are flagged as enemies for PvP combat. In addition, your view of the Challenger list is different than the next player's view of the Challenger list. For example, character A might appear to you as Challenger 1, but to another player they appear as Challenger 4.
• The character’s name color also appears neutral.
• All opposing characters’ clan and alliance information is hidden, and their ranking level is changed to Vagabond.
• Agathions are unsummoned and cannot be summoned in the arena.
• Items and buffs with visual effects, such as Hero weapons and fireworks, cannot be used or seen in the arena.
• All weapons are disguised as special S80 weapons.
• Head accessories and cloaks are all disguised as the same appearance, even if you're not wearing one of them.
• Characters cannot use beneficial skills on each other.
• Chatting, private shop, workshop, friend invites, and other interactive actions are unavailable.
• Character return and summon skills are not available.
• Consumable scrolls and potions can be used.
• XP is not lost upon death.
• A character can receive two items either from monsters in the Ceremony of Chaos, or by exchange Mysterious Marks to the Mysterious Butler NPC. These items can only be used while in a Ceremony of Chaos battle.

If entering an arena alone in PvP version, you are immediately declared a winner.

If entering the PvE version, you win after defeating five NPC monsters. If you are killed by the monsters, or do not attack the monsters until the match ends, you lose the match.

If two or more characters enter an arena (no matter which version), the last character alive, or the one that scores the most kills over 6 minutes is declared the winner. If killed by a NPC or another character, you lose the match. If two or more characters survive the match but none are singled out as an obvious winner, a tie is declared.

If killed, you cannot be resurrected: you can watch the rest of the match as a viewer until the match is over and you are moved out of the arena at the end of the match.

There are various rewards from the Ceremony of Chaos.

All winners, and characters winning a draw, receive powerful buffs:

Doubtful Herb of Power: Increases P. Atk. by 100% for 5 minutes. Doubtful Herb of Magic: Increases M. Atk. by 400% for 5 minutes. Doubtful Herb of Vitality: For 5 minutes, Vitality is replenished when XP is acquired through hunting.

After a winner is announced in either battle version, 1 to 5 Mysterious Boxes will be added into the inventory.

Contents include:

Guaranteed reward: 2 to 4 Mysterious Marks Possible additional reward of one of the following at random: High-level Stone of Life R95-Grade Top-grade Stone of Life R95-Grade High-level Stone of Life R99-Grade Top-grade Stone of Life R99-Grade Yellow Soul Crystal Fragment R99-Grade Teal Soul Crystal Fragment R99-Grade Purple Soul Crystal Fragment R99-Grade Yellow Soul Crystal Fragment R95-Grade Teal Soul Crystal Fragment R95-Grade Purple Soul Crystal Fragment R95-Grade Mysterious Belt 3-day Limited Period

The character obtains the most Mysterious Marks that month is declared as a True Hero when the monthly cycle ends. The declaration is made as a server-wide announcement in the chat window. Spending Mysterious Marks for items before the month is over does not affect the count of how many one obtains. There can only be one True Hero character per server per month: if the highest count of Mysterious Marks obtain is tied between two or more characters, no True Hero winner is declared. The number of Mysterious Marks you collect during a Ceremony of Chaos cycle can be checked by using the /ceremonyofchaos command in the chat window. A character that has True Hero status can obtain exclusive buffs and items from the Mysterious Butler:

Ruler’s Authority

Increases P. Def. by 50, weight limit by 25,600, Max HP, MP, and CP by 1,000, attack damage by 8%, reflect damage resistance by 5%, the number of inventory slots by 36, and resistance to all attributes by 15. Decreases damage received by 9%. Can be exchanged.

Item - Mysterious Belt 3-day

Increases P. Def. by 50, HP, MP, and CP by 500, PvP damage by 6%, and reflect damage resistance by 5. Decreases PvP damage received by 7%. Cannot be exchanged, dropped, or sold.

The clan of the True Hero character receives a special buff from the Mysterious Butler NPC:

Skill - Ruler's Blessing (Lv.1)

Sleep, Bleed, Shock, Poison and Hold attack bonus increases by 30% for 30 minutes.

The character that accumulates the most PKs in the match but does not win receives this prize. When opened this item may give one or more Improved Stones of Life R95- or R99-Grade, or possibly a Soul Crystal Fragments. Cannot be exchanged, dropped, or sold.

Even the losers win something! If you are defeated during the match, you receive 2 Mysterious Marks as a participation reward once the match ends. Be sure to stay until the match ends, however; if you leave prematurely you will not receive the reward.