While other changes to the present cabal system have been proposed, the proposed changes didn't change the cabals' day to day operations. This change proposes an expansion of the cabals' activities aimed primarily at their RP. I propose that we add a way for the cabals to actually meet their goals!
I've written and rewritten an explanation over and over. I'm not finding the words I want. So, I will simply walk through an example and then explain it in game terms.
Nexus wants “the eradication of Light, and the enslavement of Aabahran, they
have made unholy pacts with the denizens of the underworld and the planes of Chaos to better strike down their ancient enemies, The Knights of the Crown.” So they start poking around looking for ways to make this happen. Bob the evil mage tells one of them that there is a ritual that will open a portal to the dimension of demons... unleashing them on the world. After more investigation, they find an imp who knows month in which the ritual must be completed. More investigation gives them the ritual's location, the required items, and the required sacrifice(s). Getting that information has cost Nexus gold, items, CPs, you name it.
Nexus completes their ritual and a portal opens unleashing demons upon the world. They are victorious!!! Well, they are victorious until the rest of the world gangs up on them and destroys the portal and Nexus has to find a new ritual.
There's the idea. Here's how it would work. A mob in the cabal would give a clue in exchange for a ton of CPs. The clue would only be the name of an area and the name of a mob. That mob would have a specific clue for the ritual (time, location, gear needed, mobs needed). There are at least two conditions that must be met for the mob to tell the clue. 1. The cabal must have held the area for 48 hours OR an ally of the cabal must have held the area for 72 hours. 2. There will be a cost (CPs, gold, an item, etc.). Other requirements could be that the clue's requester be of a certain race, class, sub-cabal, etc. This would be repeated for all the clues. I'm thinking that you would want a lot of clues (10?) since this should all take MONTHS to accomplish. I am guessing that this part of the process would be pretty much the same for all the cabals.
With all the required information and stuff, the cabal could execute. These would be unique to each cabal.
Nature, Knights, and Nexus would be similar. They would have a ritual that would create an item that would spawn creatures. Nexus would have a portal spawning demons. Nature would have a magic Ent animating trees into warrior Ents. Knights would have a King that would rally troops. It would be destroyed/killed by direct frontal attack.
Savants would have a ritual that would create an item, but it wouldn't spawn creatures. It could be a giant crystal or something signifying a better connection between Aabahran and magic. There would be global bonuses to spells: cast at higher level, lower casting cost, savant gates work instantly, etc. It would be destroyed by direct frontal assault.
Warmasters would find (create) the same thing as Savant, but they would immediately destroy it. There would be a ritual to restore and hide the item. While the Warmasters were king of the hill, there would be penalties to magic. Alternately, the Warmasters could uncover/restore an ancient artifact of one of the present or previous gods of war, and it would be directly destroyed. The effects of Warmaster dominance could include higher casting costs, savant gates ceasing operation, 20% chance of magic item failure on top of regular usage failure, etc.
Notes:
Summoned beasts could be shades, renamed and modified.
I have nothing for Tribbies and Syndicate. “I heart law” and “I hate Tribbies” aren't the kind of RPs that promote armies.
Once a cabal has been king of the mountain and dethroned, what happens then? Properly coded, each set of clues could be determined randomly. So this is replayable!
Pros:
Gives cabal members something to do other than fighting.
Gives cabal members a reason execute higher levels of strategy in army warfare.
Gives cabals a reason to have allies. More politics.
Lets a cabal actually win... for awhile.
Cons:
Lots of coding.
Lots of testing.
Lots of tweaking.
How to implement this:
1.Cabals need to dig into their extremist roots. Start moving Warmasters back to an anti-magic position.
2.Make sure a magic-free Warmaster is properly balanced with the other cabals.
3.Code.
4.Test.
5.Code.
6.Test.
This is the quick version. I still have a ton of notes. I wanted to get the idea out there.