Island Lifecycle

"The sea does not forget, but it sleeps. And those who sleep long wake as someone else."

— Marginal note from the Chronicler, page 4711

Short version: Your empire responds to absence. Pause, and it slumbers. Stay silent longer, and it loses its helmsman. Return is possible at any time — until the very last step.

- Three stages: Active → Slumbering → Rudderless → Old Empire Ruin

- Coming back heals any stage except the last

- Vacation freezes everything without losing a stage

- Deletion always comes with a seven-day reflection period

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Beginner Protection and the Points Tier #

New captains enjoy fourteen days of full protection from attacks and colonisations — no matter how quickly they grow. Anyone who dispatches their own attack or colonisation during that window loses the shield instantly and for good.

Even after that grace period a limit remains: a captain who has grown overwhelmingly strong can no longer attack or colonise clearly weaker players. The sea demands a measure of parity. To take the field against a foe you must be able to look up to them — never only down.

The reverse path stays open: smaller captains may always stand against larger ones.

The points barrier applies only to active players, however. The moment a captain's empire enters the slumbering stage — or drifts further into rudderless — the points check is lifted entirely. If you see "Slumbering" or "Rudderless" on the map, there is no points threshold to clear.

Section 1: Sleep and Waking #

Every island carries a breath. When you act — build, research, dispatch fleets, speak in the alliance — it inhales. When you are silent, it exhales. And at some point, that breath becomes quiet.

The Chronicler calls it the Inactivity Pipeline. Sailors call it: "He sleeps." After seven days without a real action your island starts to slumber. After fourteen days it becomes rudderless. After thirty days it crumbles into an Old Empire Ruin — a permanent part of the world, severed from its captain's identity.

• Active (0 to 6 days) — Business as usual.
• Slumbering (from 7 days of inactivity) — Plunderable. Secondary islands are now colonisable, the main island stays protected. Newbie protection itself is unaffected: anyone still inside their first fourteen days stays protected even if their island enters this state — only the point-tier barrier lifts here, as described above.
• Rudderless (from 14 days) — Fully attackable and colonisable, main and secondary alike. Trade routes pause.
• Old Empire Ruin (from 30 days) — Identity anonymised. The island becomes part of the world — yet it is not lost forever: a stranded, rising captain can reclaim an old empire and turn it back into a living island.

How you wake: A single real action is enough — sending a fleet, queuing a building, posting in alliance chat, completing a quest step. You return to "Active" in one breath. The clock starts over.

Section 2: Return and the Welcome Tide #

If you return after seven or more days, your next login shows a First Officer's report — an overview of what happened in your absence: attacks, plunder, lost islands. Alongside it, a Return Bonus lands on every island you still own. It only ever adds; never takes, never harms.

Did you lose every island while you were gone? The Frontier Respawn places you in a fresh young ocean. A clean start without an alliance, but with full control.

Section 3: Letters from the Chronicler #

If you stay silent for long, the Chronicler writes to you. He sends up to five letters to your registered email — each one carrying a single-use, secure login link (valid 72 hours, not shareable, not forwardable).

• Day 3: A friendly "still there?"
• From day 7 (slumbering): The first notice that your empire is falling asleep
• From day 12: A warning before the transition to rudderless
• After a loss: If you were attacked during your absence
• Final warning: Before the ruin becomes unavoidable

Every letter carries an unsubscribe link at its foot. You can disable individual letter types or all of them. Your email keeps its other functions (attack alerts, weekly summary).

Section 4: Anchorage of the Silent Current (Vacation Mode) #

For planned absence — travel, work, exhaustion — there is Vacation Mode. While active:

• Incoming attacks bounce (full return, no losses, no plunder)
• No fleet sets out for attack, espionage, colonisation, treasure salvage, or towards a foreign harbour
• Trade and relocations between your own islands stay possible — as do the Shipping Office's freight routes
• Production halves; no new knowledge plans are laid down meanwhile — any stock already produced is kept
• The absence clock halts completely — no stage transitions during vacation. Vacation time never counts retroactively as absence; the clock only resumes from the end of your vacation

Limits:

• Minimum 48 hours per activation
• Maximum 21 days in one stretch
• Budget: 30 days per rolling year. On activation the planned duration is reserved from this budget and shown to you. If you come back earlier, the unused remainder is credited back — but a minimum of 48 hours is always charged

You start vacation under "Settings → Vacation Mode". You may end it at any time, as long as the 48-hour minimum has passed.

Section 5: Farewell (Account Deletion) #

If you wish to permanently delete your account, there is a seven-day reflection period. During this time your empire appears on the map as "Departing" — dark red, with a tooltip hint. Requesting deletion means laying down the shield of your realm: other players can plunder, the points barrier no longer applies, and your main island becomes colonisable too. Reactivation letters pause.

What the request does not do is cut you off from your alliance — reinforcements and the distress call keep working for as long as the account exists.

• Permanently deleted: Messages, profile, email, credentials, sessions — everything personal.
• What stays in the world: Your islands weather away as ownerless old empires (like abandoned realms) — part of the living sea, but no longer carrying your name.
• What remains: Traces in combat reports other players hold (from their perspective), and anonymised entries in the alliance log.
• Rollback possible any time, but only in settings: Logging in, including via a magic link, does not cancel the deletion; it merely brings you back into the game, where you can then cancel it yourself. Only then do you return to "Active" in one breath — with your main island fully protected again.

After seven days your personal data is irreversibly deleted. You receive a confirmation email at the address on file. After that, your personal data no longer exists in our systems; your islands no longer carry your name.

"A captain never simply leaves. He gives the sea seven days to call him back."