Shaikh

The elder the caravan consults before it moves. He keeps the well-ledgers, the star tables and a scroll of remedies copied from older hands. Sun-side shaikhs keep the well-ledgers — who drew water, and who owes it; Moon-side shaikhs keep the star tables that guide the night caravans.

Origin: the Majlis of the Road

The Shaikh’s order is the Majlis of the Road, scholars of scrolls: road-elders who carry the roads’ knowledge in a scroll and are consulted before the march. He is a scholar-judge, not a cleric, and not the Sheikh who rules Sun City. His first weapon is a Frayed Old Scroll from the old Shaikh of the road in his majlis tent: “Frayed, but its words outlived finer paper. Speak little. Let the ink speak for you.”

He fights calmly from a distance with a flick of ink, holds a foe with a tale, and is the only hero who can heal other players.

Abilities

• Level 1 · Ink Bolt: write a line of living ink in the air and hurl it at a foe, with a short cast. Or Quick Ink: instant and lighter, and the ink clings, slowing the foe 25% for 2 seconds.
• Level 5 · Remedy: mend an ally or yourself. Or Lasting Remedy: instant, healing over 10 seconds; recasting refreshes it.
• Level 10 · Decisive Word: interrupt a cast and silence the foe for 3 seconds. Or Captivating Tale, the default: hold a foe with a tale for 9 seconds; any damage frees it, but your heals on your friends do not.
• Level 15 · Shelter: on an ally or yourself, absorb damage equal to 18% of their maximum health for 8 seconds, once per hero every 15 seconds. Or Composure: take 30% less damage for 6 seconds and shake off roots and slows.
• Level 22 · Majlis: lay a circle on the ground for 6 seconds — allies inside mend, foes inside are hurt and slowed. Or Scattered Pages: scatter your pages outward for damage and a 40% slow on every foe around you.
• Level 30 · Rush to Aid: dash to an ally or a foe — an ally gets a small shelter, a foe takes an impact that interrupts and stuns it for a second and a half. Or Rescue Run: a longer dash to an ally, and you both shake off roots and slows.

Elder’s Patience and Fresh Page

Elder’s Patience mends a little of the Shaikh’s own health every second, in or out of combat. It is weaker in fights with other players, in duels and in the arena. An Epic or Legendary scroll adds Fresh Page: mend an ally or yourself below 35% health and free them from roots and slows.

Choosing who to heal

Heals need no facing. Each heal lands on the ally you chose — tap their party frame, your own frame, or an ally within three seconds of pressing a heal — then on the ally you are targeting, then on the most wounded member of your party, then on the most wounded nearby hero of your own faction, and otherwise on you. Long-press a heal button to cast it on yourself. The Shaikh heals players only, and he cannot bring back the fallen.

Healing and the PvP flag

• Inside a town, a sanctuary or a building there are no flags: heal anyone of your faction freely.
• In the open world, healing a player who is not flagged never flags you.
• Healing a player who is flagged raises your own flag for five minutes. The first time in a session the game asks you to confirm, and the heal button shows crossed swords whenever a heal would flag you.
• Smart heals, the Majlis and heals over time skip flagged allies unless you are flagged already, so nothing flags you by surprise.
• On open ground of the PvP world every hero is flagged already, so healing there changes nothing.
• You cannot heal a flagged fighter from inside a sanctuary, and you cannot heal someone who is in a duel.

Healing in duels and the arena

In duels, practice and the arena a Shaikh can heal only himself. His heals are cut back there, healing starts to fade after the first minute of a fight and dries up after a few minutes, and each duel has a healing budget — so no fight can stall. When an arena duel runs out of time, the higher score wins: each fighter’s damage dealt, less 45% of the healing his foe did on himself. So the Shaikh’s healing counts, but it cannot simply erase a lead. Even so, a well-timed tale and steady ink win duels.

Gear

A thobe, a bisht, a ghutra and agal, a sash and sandals — with jewellery and shine that rise with rarity. The plainest is a white thobe and a camel bisht; then henna-brown, date-brown with silver, charcoal with a broad gold border, and at the top ivory and sun-gold with turquoise and amber.

Ten scrolls and tomes