What this is
Pax Dei Bounties is a player-run bounty economy built on top of the game and orchestrated through a bespoke discord community/bot.
Why this exists
Right now, the only PvP objective in Pax Dei (Mournwood trees) appeals to only a very narrow set of players: those looking to own a shrine and willing to grind to maintain it (for seemingly no reward or advantage other than having your clan name on the map).
Beyond grinding Mournwood trees...
- ...there's no killmail system
- ...no leaderboard
- ...no other loci of conflict
- ...only a small segment of fights to point at and say "that mattered, that's a story"
This project aims to introduce a player-run system to address all those points.
How it works
Someone wrongs you, or just has a target on their back. You put a reward on their head. We call that underwriting (or placing) a line on a named ◎ quarry (or target player).
To place a line you must first have established a chest at the House, in-game. Once you do, you deposit your line(s) into your chest.
The House's ♜ Factor then ratifies the line (verifying the funds placed against it) and accepts it into escrow and enters it to the House's ledger which establishes a public bounty on that quarry.
As other ✎ underwriters place lines against the same quarry, that bounty grows.
At some point, the size of a bounty will start to appeal to † hunters.
Hunters (like underwriters) are patrons of the House and are required to establish a chest at the House before they can claim a bounty.
The first hunter to provide evidence of a new kill against that quarry lays claim to the bounty, locking it into probate: a period in which the community may weigh in on the validity of the kill.
The House's ⚖︎ Clerks use that community signal, a set of criteria, and their own judgment to cast a vote to either ratify or reject the hunter's claim.
If ratified, the Factor settles the claim by first taking a house rake (or cut), then depositing the rest into the hunter's chest and notifying them.
If nobody ever claims a bounty, the line doesn't sit in escrow forever: it refunds to the underwriter's own chest once a configured window passes. If that refund then goes untouched through a second window, it escheats to the House instead.
- ✎ Underwriters place lines
- The House ratifies
- † A hunter claims the kill
- ⚖︎ Clerks and the ♜ Factor rule on it
- The Factor settles it
Terminology
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| The World | |
| Houseor Marque House | The institution and its physical, in-game location. Patrons visit it to place lines and collect payouts: the "bank" of the bounty world, run by a Factor and their Clerks. |
| Ledger | The House's master record of every line, underwriter, and quarry, past and present: the source of truth behind the public leaderboards and summary. |
| Roles | |
| ♜ Factor | Head of a House, and its sole financial authority: oversees operations, ratifies lines, and distributes bounty payouts. Also casts a vote in claim probate, alongside Clerks. |
| ⚖︎ Clerk | House staff who review claim evidence and vote on submitted claims during probate. No financial authority. |
| ✎ Underwriter | A patron who places a line against a quarry. |
| ◎ Quarryor Mark | The bounty target. Not necessarily a patron of any House: just the exact name of any avatar in the world. |
| † Bounty Hunter | Whoever hunts a quarry down to collect the bounty on their head. |
| Patron | Anyone with a chest at a House, whether acting as underwriter, hunter, or both. |
| Mechanics | |
| Line | A single underwriter's committed amount (gold and/or items) against one quarry. |
| Bounty | The sum of all active lines on a given quarry. |
| Rake | The cut the House takes out of a bounty payout. |
| Escrow | The House's reserve where a ratified line's funds are held, on the underwriter's behalf, until its bounty is claimed and settled, or the line expires. |
| Chest | A patron's personal secure box at the House: where lines are funded from and payouts land. One chest per person, regardless of role. |
| Probate | The review window between a hunter's claim and the House's ruling on it, during which Clerks (and the Factor) vote and the community weighs in. |
| Refund | What happens to an escrowed line when its bounty goes unclaimed within the configured window: returned to the underwriter's own chest, and dropped from the bounty's public total. |
| Escheat | What happens if a refund itself then goes untouched for a second configured window: read as an abandoned account rather than an unreachable quarry, and claimed by the House. |
Why a rake
Every settled bounty pays the House a rake: a cut off the top that compensates the ♜ Factor and ⚖︎ Clerks for the time they put into ratifying lines, reviewing evidence, and voting during probate.
It also exists to blunt certain kinds of abuse and prevent reputation farming: the rake escalates on repeat pairings, making it costly to trade a bounty back and forth between the same few people just to pad a leaderboard.
Base rake on a first-time pairing.
Rake by pairings in the window
Every repeat of the same hunter↔underwriter or hunter↔quarry pairing, within a rolling window, raises the rake:
| Pairings in window | Rake |
|---|---|
| 1st | 10% |
| 2nd | 25% |
| 3rd | 45% |
| 4th+ | 70% |
The window length and steepness are configurable settings, still being tuned against real pilot data. Underwriter↔quarry repeats don't count toward this. Only pairings where money could plausibly loop back to the same pocket do.
Effective rake over time
The same pairing escalating on quick repeats, then going quiet long enough for the window to close and the count to reset:
Once the window closes on a pairing without a repeat, the count starts over: the next claim from that hunter and underwriter (or hunter and quarry) settles at base rake again.
Examples
All use the same lines for Underwriters A, B, and C and the same bounty. What changes is the number of repeat claims between hunter↔underwriter and/or hunter↔quarry:
No repeats yet, first pairings
- Line A: 500 gold10%
- Line B: 40 canonite10%
- Line C: 15 ambergrasp + 200 gold 10%
This is the first time this hunter has killed this quarry and the first time this hunter has claimed a line from any of the three underwriters. Base rake.
† hunter ↔ ✎ Underwriter B, 3rd pairing
- Line A: 500 gold10%
- Line B: 40 canonite45%
- Line C: 15 ambergrasp + 200 gold 10%
This is the first time this hunter has killed this quarry, but the 3rd time this hunter has claimed a line from underwriter B so that line sees a higher rake.
† hunter ↔ ◎ quarry, 3rd claim
- Line A: 500 gold45%
- Line B: 40 canonite45%
- Line C: 15 ambergrasp + 200 gold 45%
This is the third time this hunter has killed this quarry, but the first time they have claimed a line from any of the underwriters. All lines see the increased rake from the quarry repeat only.
Both at once: † hunter ↔ ◎ quarry, 2nd claim, and ↔ ✎ Underwriter C, 2nd pairing
- Line A: 500 gold25%
- Line B: 40 canonite25%
- Line C: 15 ambergrasp + 200 gold 45%
This is the second time this hunter has killed this quarry, and the 2nd time this hunter has claimed a line from Underwriter C. That line sees rake hikes from both the quarry repeat and the underwriter repeat.
Where this is going
This starts as a single House: run by the project's founder, Spero, on his own server, Selene, as a closed pilot. The long-term goal is bigger, a House on every server that wants one, eventually with room for more than one House per server. Getting there happens in stages, not all at once.
- Phase 1, internal testing. One House, on Selene, run by Spero for his own clan only. The goal here is simple: get the bot's mechanics solid and its bugs worked out before anyone else is relying on it.
- Phase 2, open the doors to selene. Still one House, still on Selene, but opened up to the rest of that server's community, with clerks invited in from other magnates active in that server's PvP scene.
- Phase 3, other servers. If adoption on Selene is wide and abuse stays at a level the community can live with, individual Houses start rolling out to other servers, one at a time.
- Phase 4, multiple Houses per server. The end state: any server can support more than one House at once, each one independently run.
Closing the gaps
The four gaps called out above aren't just complaints; they're a checklist. Here's how this project answers each one:
- Killmail system: every claimed bounty requires evidence of the kill, reviewed by the House's ⚖︎ Clerks and the community during probate. That review record is the killmail system, just built on top of a bounty instead of stapled onto the base game.
- Leaderboard: every House publishes a leaderboard of hunters by lifetime claims and underwriters by lifetime amount placed, plus a ledger summary of what's currently at stake.
- Other loci of conflict: a House sitting inside Lyonesse itself, not somewhere safe, is a second point of interest that has nothing to do with shrines. Lines funded in lootable canonite and ambergrasp, not just gold (which can't be looted), mean placing or collecting a bounty is itself worth intercepting.
- Fights worth a story: a claimed bounty comes with video proof, a public vote, and a name attached: exactly the ingredients a "that mattered" story needs.
Abuse is expected
The rake escalation, probate voting, and evidence requirements all exist to blunt abuse, but none of them are airtight. Some amount of abuse is going to get through, and this project accepts that as the cost of doing business. The goal isn't zero abuse: it's keeping it rare and small enough to become a story someone tells later, instead of a reason the whole system stops being fun. That's a known weak point of this project, not something being hidden.
If Mainframe ships this first
Mainframe, the studio behind Pax Dei, might eventually ship an official killmail system, better permissions, or something else that does part of what this project does. That's a good outcome, not a threat: if it happens and this project has real adoption by then, the plan is to move quickly and build on top of whatever Mainframe ships rather than compete with it. This project exists to fill a gap in the game, not to become dead weight once that gap closes on its own.
Becoming a patron
Every patron, anyone with a stake in the bounty economy, gets a chest: a personal, secure box at the House. It's where a line's funds come from when an ✎ underwriter places one, and where a payout lands when a † hunter collects. One chest per person, whatever role they're playing at the time. In Pax Dei, a privately-flagged chest is only accessible to you and the plot owner, which is what makes it work as an account without anything fancier bolted on.
Getting one isn't self-service yet. Pax Dei doesn't expose the permissions needed to automate it, so linking your Discord account to your in-game avatar is a manual step: you apply to the House through Discord, and the ♜ Factor coordinates an in-game meetup to place your chest and link your avatar's name to your account. Alt-avatars and separate hunter identities are expected and fine: the Discord-to-avatar link just needs to exist, it doesn't have to be your main.
Running a House
Every House is effectively a franchise. Anyone can become a ♜ Factor and start one; how well it's run (trust, fairness, turnaround time) is on them, not this project.
This project's goal isn't any single House's success. It's providing a reusable means: the bot, the mechanics, and a set of recommended guidelines, not a guarantee. If a House runs badly, patrons are free to take their business elsewhere, or stand up a rival House of their own.
FAQ
Living document — expect this to be revised as mechanics get built out.
What is a House?
A House is a franchise: any clan can stand one up, appoint a Factor to run it, and start taking bounties. It's a physical, in-game location patrons visit to place lines and collect payouts — the "bank" of the bounty world. How well it's run — trust, fairness, turnaround time — is on that House, not on this project.
Who's who — Factor, Clerk, underwriter, quarry, hunter?
The ♜ Factor runs the House and is its sole financial authority: ratifying lines and handling payouts. ⚖︎ Clerks review claim evidence and vote on it during probate, but hold no financial authority. An ✎ underwriter is anyone who places a line; a ◎ quarry (or mark) is whoever it's placed on; a † bounty hunter is whoever collects. A patron is the umbrella term for anyone with a chest at the House, in any of those roles — most people will be both an underwriter and a hunter at different times.
How do I actually become a patron?
You apply to a House through Discord, and its ♜ Factor coordinates an in-game meetup to place your chest and link your avatar's name to your account. It's not self-service yet — Pax Dei doesn't expose the permissions needed to automate that link. Alt-avatars and separate hunter identities are fine; the link just has to exist, it doesn't have to be your main.
What's a chest, and why do I need one?
A chest is your personal, secure box at the House — where a line's funds come from and where a payout lands. Everyone gets exactly one, whatever role they're playing at the time. In Pax Dei, a privately-flagged chest is only accessible to you and the plot owner, which is what makes it work as an account without anything fancier bolted on.
How does placing a bounty work?
An ✎ underwriter places a line — gold, canonite, and/or ambergrasp — and tells the House who it's on. Once the House ratifies the deposit, the line moves into escrow and the bounty goes public with a running total anyone can see — first come, first served, no way to "call" it ahead of time.
Why canonite and ambergrasp, and not just gold?
Gold can't be looted in Pax Dei — only inventory can. A line funded purely in gold would be completely safe to carry. Canonite and ambergrasp are real, lootable materials, so hauling a line in to place a bounty, or walking out of the House with a payout, is itself something worth intercepting — part of what gives Lyonesse's danger somewhere to live outside the Mournwood tree fights.
How does a hunter actually claim a bounty?
The first hunter to kill the quarry submits video evidence — showing the quarry's name and their loot being taken, plus visibly contested combat rather than an execution of a passive target. That locks the bounty into probate, a review window before anything's paid out.
Required
- ✓ Video link (YouTube)
- ✓ Fight happened in Lyonesse, not a duel
- ✓ Quarry's name clearly visible
- ✓ Quarry's loot being taken, on camera
- ✓ Contested combat, not an execution of a passive target
Flagged during probate
- ✗ AI-generated video
- ✗ Duplicate or historical video
- ✗ Other, with a stated reason
Who decides whether a claim is valid?
⚖︎ Clerks, and the ♜ Factor, each cast a vote to ratify or reject a submitted claim, changeable any time until probate ends. A Clerk connected to either party recuses — not voting counts as recusal. At the end of probate, a simple majority of votes cast decides it; a tie defaults to rejection.
What happens if a bounty never gets claimed?
Nothing sits in escrow forever. If a bounty hasn't resolved within a configured window, the line refunds — it returns to the ✎ underwriter's own chest and drops off the public total immediately, so no hunter's chasing money that's already gone. If that refund then goes untouched through a second window, it escheats to the House, on the read that it's an abandoned account rather than just a hard-to-reach quarry. An underwriter who's still around just notices the refund and re-places the line.
What's the House's cut, and can it change on me?
Every settled payout pays the House a base rake, which is how the House compensates its ♜ Factor and ⚖︎ Clerks for the time they put into ratifying lines and reviewing claims. That rake escalates if the same † hunter↔✎ underwriter or † hunter↔◎ quarry pairing repeats within a rolling window — a cost on reusing the same relationship to farm the leaderboards, not a penalty on genuine repeat rivalries once enough time has passed. A repeat hunter↔underwriter pairing only raises the rake on that underwriter's own line; a repeat hunter↔quarry pairing raises it on every line in the bounty. The escalation schedule is published, not hidden, so a patron can always predict their own rake before placing a line or claiming a bounty.
Does the quarry have to be a member of the House?
No. A ◎ quarry is just the exact name of any avatar in the world — they don't need a chest, an account, or any relationship to the House at all.
What's public?
A leaderboard of bounty hunters by lifetime claims, a leaderboard of underwriters by lifetime amount placed, and a per-House ledger summary: lifetime payouts, lifetime rake, and what's currently at stake in active bounties.