Limestone
The bulk of ambition
Used across village construction and accepted by the pyramid at one construction power per unit.
Starting reserve · 500A living strategy game
Your village never becomes a spreadsheet.
It remains a society.
People age. Grain is eaten. Crews leave the fields to build. Armies draw from the same population that powers the economy. Every system meets at one question: how much can you commit to Ascension without leaving the dynasty exposed?
The strategic loop
Grow. Specialise. Contest. Ascend.
Phratek’s systems do not sit in isolation. Every worker moved, building started, voyage dispatched, and troop trained changes what the village can do next.
-
01
Assign citizens
Put available adults into production, construction, monument crews, or military service.
-
02
Expand capacity
Use production to raise and upgrade structures, opening stronger economic and civic choices.
-
03
Read your rivals
Trade and negotiate when interests align; train defenders or launch a raid when they do not.
-
04
Commit to Ascension
Reserve limestone and obsidian, assign pyramid workers, and advance through five phases.
Time & population
One real day is one dynastic year.
The world clock divides each game year into twelve monthly ticks. Citizens age at the turn of a year, while births, mortality, and happiness changes are resolved month by month.
Ages 15 through 64 form the working population. Children and elders still consume grain, while housing limits new births. Health and happiness shape survival, growth, and the productivity of the village.
Population ledger
- Starting population
- 1,000
- Working ages
- 15–64
- Months per year
- 12
- Real time per year
- 24 hours
Grain shortages lower health and happiness. A surplus is therefore more than a stockpile: it is stability for the generation to come.
Workforce & resources
Three resources.
Several competing futures.
Production is driven by assigned workers, the capacity of the matching buildings, happiness, and active modifiers. Stored resources keep changing between visits until their capacities are reached.
Grain
The cost of staying alive
Feeds citizens in every role and also funds construction, training, research, and other commands.
Starting reserve · 1,000
Obsidian
Rare machine glass
Required by advanced structures and troops; each unit reserved for the pyramid supplies two construction power.
Starting reserve · 250Development systems
A village grows one commitment at a time.
Infrastructure, knowledge, trade, divine allegiance, and civic policy each open a different route to strength—and each consumes time or resources that could have gone elsewhere.
Construction
One village queue
Only one building upgrade can occupy the construction queue. Every structure defines an allowed crew size; assigning more builders within that range shortens its timer, but removes those citizens from other work until completion.
Explore all twelve structures →
Knowledge
Recover an ordered research tree
A Library of Knowledge unlocks research. The library studies one project at a time, prerequisites matter, and completed discoveries apply lasting economic, building, population, or trade modifiers.
Trade
Convert one surplus into another
A Trade Port opens timed merchant routes between grain, limestone, and obsidian. Voyages reserve a berth, consume their export at departure, and require storage room for the returning cargo.
Covenant & council
Choose what the village stands for
The Temple unlocks one active divine covenant; the first oath is free. Changing gods later requires tribute, costs happiness, and has a seven-day cooldown. A Council Hall separately allows up to two active policies, with one policy change per 24 hours.
Meet the machine-gods →
Military & diplomacy
Force is a tool.
So is restraint.
Train spearmen, archers, and chariots from the same working-age population used by the economy. Raids travel across the world map and may target a rival’s stores or pyramid. Ready defenders and Obsidian Guard Towers add to a village’s defense.
Diplomacy creates other options. Resource gifts move supplies between villages, while an accepted non-aggression pact blocks raids between its two signatories for seven days.
- Founding shields protect new villages from raids for 72 hours.
- A failed attack suffers heavier losses than a successful one.
- Pyramid damage is capped across a rolling day.
- Rankings expose population, military strength, and monument progress.
Monument construction
The economy exists to create options.
The pyramid demands a choice.
Limestone and obsidian become stored construction power. A crew of 5–200 citizens converts that reserve into progress at a base rate of 12 power per worker-hour.
1
Limestone
construction power
+
2
Obsidian
construction power
×
5–200
Citizens
assigned crew
→
5
Phases
to victory
A world has no fixed end date
The first completed Capstone decides the season.
When one dynasty completes all five phases, the world freezes immediately. Its final state remains available for seven real days before archival.
Practical questions
What a new ruler should know.
Does the village continue while I am away?
Yes. Resource production, grain consumption, construction, training, research, trade voyages, population ticks, and an active pyramid crew all resolve from elapsed server time when the village state is refreshed.
Can I join a world that has already started?
Yes. A new village receives a 72-hour raid shield and a production bonus that begins at 50% and tapers over its first fourteen days.
Can pyramid progress be lost?
Yes. A successful pyramid raid can damage the defender’s most advanced stage that contains progress, subject to a daily damage cap.
Is there a scheduled season-ending date?
No. The world stays active until the first dynasty finishes the Ascendant Capstone. A balance target is not a countdown or a guaranteed duration.
Every system is already in motion
There is no perfect build. Only the reign you can sustain.
Found a village, make the first workforce assignment, and begin shaping a dynasty that can survive its own ambition.