Raise the monument
A world ends when one player completes a monument, or when only one player is left standing. There is no territory threshold and no turn limit to run out the clock on.
Founding a monument
Two things unlock it: the Grand Design, the last and dearest research in the game, and enough landmarks held at once. How many a world asks for is set when it opens, and every player sees the same number.
Founding is instant and free, one monument per player, in a Colony of your choosing. It takes no building slot. From then on landmarks no longer matter to it: losing them costs the monument nothing.
The climb
Queue a level and its price is set aside from the host Colony's stockpile. The level lands when the turn falls, so a monument rises one level a turn at most. Each level costs more than the last, and the top ones cost more than any single Colony can bank: they are paid for with resources Baggage Trains haul in from your other Colonies and from your allies.
The first monument to reach its final level wins the world.
Stopping a rival
Siege the host Colony and spend Marshals against its Core: that turn's level is denied and its price goes back to the stockpile. Winning the fight without spending Marshals denies nothing.
Capture the host Colony and the monument is destroyed, with nothing refunded and nothing inherited. Its owner can found a new one elsewhere and start the climb again.
Other endings
Lose your last Colony and you are out of the world. The last player still standing wins it.
If two monuments finish on the same turn, the higher level wins, then the most landmarks held, then the earlier founding.
Alliances
An alliance is founded and led by one player, who invites and removes the others; if the founder leaves, it dissolves. You can belong to one alliance per world, and each world caps how large an alliance can grow.
Every member beyond the first makes each member's Colonies a little more productive, up to a limit. Allies share sight of each other's ground, send each other resources by Baggage Train, and fight together as the Combat chapter describes. Leaving takes effect at once: armies on what is now foreign ground march home, and armies on their way there turn back. Joining turns back any attack already on its way to a new ally.
There is no shared victory. One player wins the world, and an alliance is how you help that player be you.
When a world closes early
A world that has run its course can be given a closing date. At the first turn after it, the leader wins: the highest monument, then the most landmarks, then the most territory.
Results and rating
When a world ends, its final standings are sealed and every player walks away with a result, not only the winner. Your rating moves with it, and it follows you from world to world.
Ready to take a world?
Pick a class, choose a pace, and stake your claim on the map.