War is staged. You don't go from peace to total war in a single move — you climb a ladder. Each rung has triggers, penalties, and unlock conditions for the next.
| State | Trigger | Effects |
|---|---|---|
| Peaceful | Default | Trade and movement unrestricted; no morale aura. |
| Cold | First aggressive act (raid, spy intrusion, missionary deployment) | Counter-actions allowed; reputation softly penalized. |
| Hot | Public declaration or major hostile act | Combat permitted; supply lines targetable; morale auras active. |
| Active war | Sustained combat | Full territory contestation; siege; victory-condition pressure. |
| Ceasefire | Negotiated pause | Combat blocked, territory frozen; can return to Hot or de-escalate. |
| Peaceful (post-war) | Treaty signed | Returns to default with reputation residue. |
Each rung has a minimum duration before the next can fire — you can't oscillate.
Conventional escalation is the public ladder above. Hybrid war runs in parallel, attribution-tiered:
Hybrid actions don't trigger Hot war until attribution is sharpened enough. A subtle saboteur leaves a trail; a clumsy one outs themselves and pulls the empire into Hot.
See espionage for the attribution-tier model.
Each god has an attunement zone — a radius around the god's sacred sites within which the god "witnesses" what happens. Inside an enemy's god's attunement zone:
Attunement is the spatial extension of faith into the war system.
In Hot or Active war states, both sides project morale auras over their territory:
Auras stack with weather / season / hero / divine effects.
If a treaty breach occurs inside an enemy god's attunement, that god "witnesses." Consequences:
This is why high-stakes betrayals are usually committed outside enemy attunement, or with a divine override pre-cast to silence the witness.
You can step down the ladder via:
Each step down has a cool-down before the next is permitted.
Sources: escalation_system.md, combat_system.md, faith_system.md, diplomacy_system.md.