Dao Sermon

A Dao Sermon (讲道) is a lecture. A cultivator with a sect hall opens one at the hall, expounding their chosen Dao aloud, and every meditating cultivator who sits within earshot - far enough below them in realm - comprehends a trickle of Heavenly Dao for as long as it lasts. When it ends, the lecturer is paid Merit for everyone who sat and listened.

It is on by default (Sermon-Enabled), and it needs Merit to be enabled too: a sermon's whole reward to the lecturer is Merit, so with Merit off the server refuses to start one rather than waste your cost and cooldown.

Giving a Sermon

Run /cultivation sermon start standing in your sect's hall. Every one of these must hold; the game tells you which one fails.

• You belong to a sect that holds a claimed hall.
• You have chosen an Elemental Dao (see Spiritual Root).
• Your realm is at least Foundation Establishment (Sermon-Min-Realm-Gap, 2). That figure doubles as the lecturer's floor: someone lower than two realms up could never have a listener two realms below them.
• You are standing in your hall's own world, inside the chunk the hall sits on.
• Your hall is not under a live siege - see Sect Wars (Sermon-Blocked-During-Siege).
• You are not mid-ritual: no breakthrough, advancement, refinement, Closed-Door Retreat, Ascension or Reincarnation under way.
• You are not already lecturing.
• Your last sermon was at least 6 hours ago (Sermon-Lecturer-Cooldown-Hours).
• You have 15 sect contribution points to spend (Sermon-Contribution-Cost). See Contribution Points.

The cost is taken at the start and the cooldown is stamped at the start, however the sermon ends: neither is ever refunded.

Your element is flavor. The words are about the Dao of Fire or Water or whichever you chose, and the invitation your sect receives names it, but what listeners comprehend is always Heavenly Dao - the element changes nothing mechanical.

When it begins, an aura of light rises around you, and (if Sermon-Broadcast-Enabled) every online member of your own sect is invited to come and listen. It is never a server-wide announcement.

Listening

You do not have to belong to the lecturer's sect to listen; the sect is only who receives the invitation. You qualify for a pulse of insight when, at that moment:

• you are meditating normally, not mid-ritual;
• you are within 16 blocks of the spot where the lecturer opened the sermon (Sermon-Radius-Blocks);
• you are at least 2 realms below the lecturer (Sermon-Min-Realm-Gap);
• you are not the lecturer, not in Creative mode or spectating, not using the admin bypass, and not on a test profile.

Every 10 seconds (Sermon-Pulse-Interval-Seconds) you bank 0.30 Heavenly Dao comprehension (Sermon-Heavenly-Per-Pulse). The first time it lands you are shown an Insight Settles title, and a faint mote of light rises. A full 10-minute sermon is 60 pulses, which is 18 comprehension at full rate.

That comprehension counts toward your Dao Mastery and carries the same chance to spark Dao Enlightenment as any other Heavenly Dao gain.

A bonded disciple sitting before their own master gains 25% more (Sermon-Disciple-Multiplier, 1.25).

The daily budget

Listening is rationed per cultivator across a real-world day, so no one can live in a lecture hall.

You are told once when your insight starts settling more slowly, and again when you reach the day's limit. The budget belongs to your account, not to a profile, and a new 24-hour window starts the next time you listen after the last one lapses. /cultivation sermon status shows your minutes so far against the full-rate allowance.

The Lecturer's Reward

When the sermon ends, you are credited Merit:

• 8 for each qualified listener (Sermon-Merit-Per-Listener), counting at most 6 listeners (Sermon-Merit-Max-Listeners-Counted) - a packed hall does not pay fifty times over;
• plus 4 more (Sermon-Merit-Disciple-Bonus) for each listener who is your bonded disciple, on top of the listener payment and not limited by the six.

Six listeners is therefore 48 Merit; eight listeners, two of them your disciples, is 56. A listener counts once they have earned at least one pulse, and one who has already hit their daily limit does not count. An empty hall pays nothing.

That amount is a base figure: it is credited as the Merit deed sermon, so it passes through the Merit gates - the 300 daily cap, the Karma and Path multiplier, and your ceiling.

Ending a Sermon

A sermon lasts 10 minutes (Sermon-Duration-Minutes). It ends early, and still pays for everyone who qualified so far, when:

• you run /cultivation sermon stop;
• you leave your hall's chunk or change world;
• you lose the hall, or leave the sect;
• your hall comes under a live siege;
• the server owner turns Sermon off.

The exception is your own disconnect. If you log out or lose your connection while lecturing, you forfeit the Merit. If the server ends your session - a stop, a staff kick or ban, or the Siren's Commands AFK kick - you are paid exactly what /cultivation sermon stop would have paid at that moment - never more than you could have taken by typing it. Sermons live in memory: a plugin reload or a crash forgets one without paying.

For Server Owners

Every value on this page lives in mods/Siren_Cultivation/Society/SermonConfig.json; see also the Society config page.

The admin bypass lifts the lecturer's realm, cooldown, location, siege and cost checks (it cannot give someone a sect, a hall or an element they lack).

Related: Sects, Master & Disciple, Dao, Merit, Commands.