The Red Tide

The Order of The Red Tide is a faction in The Borderlands, roughly 150 miles north of Kingsport - which they have announced as their "sacred capital", despite having no official presence in the city. An aggressive religious cult, but with only a couple of thousand warriors in their Crimson Guard. Led by an Oracle, stemming from Hakusan, and drawing on Japanese traditions, the Law of The Red Tide is followed by some in Raikan despite being hostile to the Republic.

Effects

NPCs belonging to the Red Tide religion follow a strict code of honor, though the specifics of this may vary from individual to individual. Expect to encounter the following:

• Very high Discipline (Females)
• High Willpower (All).
• Ascetic: they will not ask for wages, or luxuries (All).
• Absolute obedience: once a member of your household, they will never run away, flee, disobey or betray you in any way (Males only).
• Weapon restrictions: can't equip Ranged Weapons (Males).
• Armor restrictions: can only equip Padded Armor (most Males).
• Gladiatrix Bonus: +5 chance in the Arena if Willpower 30+ (Females).
• Easier to Enslave (from Affect > Enslave): +25 chance (All).
• Restricted traits: followers will not be found with certain personality traits, including Bratty, Sloppy, Jester or Superficial (though converting to this religion will not remove those traits).
• "Haiboku" trait - an oath codifying much of the above, particularly restrictions on weapons and armor, though exact details can vary with the individual (Males only).

Converts

It is possible to convert other members of your household to this faith, by assigning them to a Red Tide Educator who is applying the Spiritual template. Once the Educator has reduced their trainee's Devotion to below 15, the trainee will gain the Educator's Religion (in this case, Red Tide). Converts to the Red Tide faith will gain most of the effects listed above, but they will not get a sudden boost to Discipline and Willpower, and will not lose any Traits which would not normally be found on Red Tide devotees (such as Sloppy etc.; see above). If Male, they will gain the Haiboku trait. However, though now prohibited from equipping ranged weapons, and prohibited from equipping armor other than padded, they will not drop what they are currently equipped with; this is a bug/exploit, which will probably get fixed in the future. In the mean time it means that (1) they will start with whatever armor they were wearing when converted, even though this will not be shown on their Inventory>Armor screen, and this will have normal effect in combat, though it can be unequipped; and (2) they wil be carrying whatever ranged weapon they were equipped with when converted, even though their Inventory>Weapons>Ranged screen is no longer available to show this, and can use this in combat - and it this weapon can no longer be accessed to be unequiped, so wil be locked to that character until they lose the Haiboku trait by converting to another religion.

Red Tide devotees can be converted to other religions as normal - though many found with this religion will have such high Willpower and Devotion that this might be difficult to achieve in practice. If converted to another religion, any Haiboku trait will be lost, and normal access to weapons and armor restored.