Reputation & Standing¶

"A name is a coin you spend slow and earn slower. Carry the wrong one into the wrong door and it'll cost you more than gold - it'll cost you the door." - A guild fence, Ghelmyon

Standing in Ghelmyon comes in two flavours, and they pull in opposite directions. Reputation is what each faction thinks of you earned, per-faction, and the thing that opens shops, trainers, and whole locked rooms. Notoriety is what the town thinks of you - your criminal infamy, earned by getting caught, the thing that makes guards suspicious and merchants tight-fisted.

This is the systems page that sits above the individual faction pages, above Crime & Stealth, and above Bounties & Wanted. Those cover the acts; this covers what the acts do to how the world treats you.

At a glance¶


Two systems	Reputation (per faction) and Notoriety (per town) - separate
Reputation is	A standing with each faction, from hostile up to exalted
Earn it by	Faction quests, the right kind of kills, deeds witnessed
Lose it by	Crimes, betraying a faction, helping its rivals
The six tiers	Hostile → Unfriendly → Neutral → Friendly → Honored → Exalted
Tiers unlock	Better prices, rare stock, trainers, services, locked doors, paths
Notoriety is	Your criminal infamy in a single town - rises when you're caught
Spillover	Helping one faction can anger its rivals; infamy spreads town to town
Both fade	Untended reputation drifts to neutral; notoriety cools over time
Check it	`rep` for the overview, `faction <name>` for the detail

Reputation - what each faction thinks of you¶

Every faction keeps a private opinion of you, tracked as a single running score. You don't see the raw number much; what you see is the tier it lands in, and the faction-flavoured rank title that comes with it. The Town Guard calls a trusted ally a Deputy; the Thieves Guild calls one a Shadow; the Temple of the Dawn calls one Blessed. Same tier, different words.

There are several factions in play - the civic powers (Town Guard, Merchants Guild, Thieves Guild, Temple of the Dawn, Ranger's Lodge, and the Velvet Curtain) plus the scattered orders of mages. You hold a standing with all of them at once, and they don't always like each other.

The six tiers¶

Standing climbs a ladder. The early rungs come fast - a new arrival is expected to be a nobody, and clawing up to Friendly is the work of a few sessions of genuine faction effort. The top rungs are a long haul on purpose:

Tier	What it feels like
Hostile	They'll refuse you, overcharge you, or draw steel on sight.
Unfriendly	Wary. Higher prices, cold dialogue, no favours.
Neutral	The default. You're a stranger - served, not trusted.
Friendly	Doors open. Discounts, first real services, basic perks.
Honored	Trusted insider. Rare stock, deep services, path access.
Exalted	A pillar of the faction. The best prices, titles, the lot.

Because the climb steepens, gains shrink the higher you go - past the friendly mark a deed counts for a little less, and past honored, less again. There's also a daily ceiling on how much you can raise any one faction in a single day, so you can't grind a faction to exalted in an afternoon. Standing is meant to be earned across a playthrough, not bought in a sitting.

How you earn (and lose) it¶

Faction quests are the main road. Run errands, deliveries, contracts and patrols for a faction and your standing climbs. Repeat the same job over and over and it pays diminishing returns - the faction rewards loyalty, not busywork, so each repeat of a given quest is worth steadily less.

The right kind of kills count too. Putting down the things a faction hates earns their favour automatically: the Temple warms to you for destroying the undead, the Ranger's Lodge for culling dangerous beasts, the Town Guard for cutting down outlaws. The same outlaw kill that pleases the Guard quietly displeases the Thieves Guild - see spillover below.

Witnessed deeds ripple. A notable act seen by an NPC gets gossiped onward, carrying standing changes with it. Quiet good (and quiet bad) travels less far than public spectacle.

You lose standing by working against a faction: crimes against its members, helping its rivals, or simply turning on it. Fall far enough and a faction you were Honored with can feel betrayed - a sharp drop is treated as a personal slight, not a rounding error, and they remember it.

What the tiers unlock¶

Reputation isn't just a number to admire. Each tier buys you concrete things, and they stack as you climb.

Prices. Standing moves the till both ways. Hostile and unfriendly factions mark everything up; friendly, honored and exalted ones give a deepening discount. Walk in hated and you'll pay a heavy premium - if they sell to you at all.
Stock & services. Friendly opens the basic services and discounts; honored unlocks rare stock, deeper services (temple rites, smuggler routes, transmutation, scrying) and the good gear. Exalted unlocks the signature, named rewards.
Trainers. Many trainers gate their higher lessons behind standing - a faction won't teach its best to someone it doesn't trust. See Training Venues.
Locked doors. Some locations simply won't admit you below a required tier - a guild safehouse, an owner's suite, a private grove. Turn up short and you're turned away at the threshold.
Allies in a fight. Stand friendly or better with the Town Guard and nearby guards will wade into combat on your side. Honored standing also bleeds off any bounty on your head over time - the Watch cuts a trusted ally some slack.
Faction paths. At honored, a faction lets you commit to a specialization path - a tiered track of perks, exclusive items and signature abilities that deepens as you push toward exalted and beyond. Factions behave a bit like a second class, and paths are how you specialize within one.

Check before you commit. faction <name> lists that faction's unlock ladder with a tick beside each tier you've already reached, so you can see exactly what the next rung buys.

Notoriety - what the town thinks of you¶

Notoriety is the dark mirror of reputation. It isn't tied to a faction; it's tied to a town, and it measures one thing: how infamous your criminal behaviour has made you here. Every crime you're seen committing - a lift, a mugging, a brawl gone public - feeds it. It climbs through its own ladder, from Unknown, through Suspicious and Known Troublemaker, up to Wanted, Infamous, and at the top, Public Enemy.

The higher it sits, the worse the town treats you on sight:

Guards grow suspicious - more likely to stop, question, and move on you before you've done anything.
Merchants charge more and trust you less.
NPCs go wary - the welcome cools across the board.
At the top of the ladder, you're a marked name on every street.

Crucially, this stacks on top of the Bounty and wanted-poster system. A bounty is a specific price on a specific head for specific crimes; notoriety is the general cloud of infamy hanging over your name in that town. You can clear a bounty and still be the most-distrusted face in the district until your notoriety cools.

How it spills over¶

Standing in Ghelmyon is a web, not a row of isolated dials. Two kinds of spillover matter:

Faction rivalries¶

Factions have allies and rivals, and your deeds for one bleed onto the others. Please the Town Guard and the Thieves Guild sours on you a little; the reverse holds too. Some orders are bound in mutual loathing, others in quiet sympathy. The practical upshot: you can't be everyone's champion. Climbing high with one faction will, by design, cost you ground with its enemies - so pick the standings you actually care about rather than chasing all of them.

faction <name> lists each faction's rivalries and synergies, so you can see who you'll annoy before you take the job.

Infamy spreads town to town¶

Notoriety doesn't stay put. Let it climb to Wanted or worse in one town and word starts reaching the neighbouring towns - they begin to build their own (lesser) notoriety of you off the strength of yours. Run wild in one city and you'll find your reputation has walked ahead of you to the next. Lie low and it works the other way: the spread stops once you stop feeding it.

Both of them fade - but slowly¶

Neither standing is permanent.

Reputation drifts toward neutral. Ignore a faction long enough and your standing - good or bad - slowly erodes back toward neutral. A short grace period after any dealing keeps it stable while you're active, so this only bites on factions you've genuinely abandoned. Hard-won honored standing won't evaporate overnight, but neither will it last forever on its own. Keep the standings you value warm.
Notoriety cools over time. Infamy decays day by day when you keep your nose clean - faster at the lower rungs, slower once you're truly notorious. Living virtuously speeds it up: a track record of good deeds makes a town forgive faster. But once you've climbed past a certain point, a town never quite forgets - your notoriety settles to a low simmer rather than vanishing clean.

Quick reference¶

Want to…	Do this
See all your faction standings	`rep`
See one faction in detail (+ its unlock ladder)	`faction <name>`
Raise a faction's standing	Run its quests; kill what it hates
Find out who you'll anger	Check the faction's rivalries in `faction <name>`
Unlock rare stock & services	Reach honored with that faction
Specialize within a faction	Reach honored, then pick a path
Get guards fighting beside you	Reach friendly with the Town Guard
Lower your notoriety	Keep clean; live virtuously; let it cool
Stop infamy spreading to other towns	Lie low before it reaches Wanted