Monuments as a shared glory bonus for the whole alliance
Monuments are neutral structures on the Great Empire map that give a percentage bonus to glory — and in an alliance, the bonus from the highest monument is shared with every member. Even so, most players ignore them, because they have no idea how they are captured, what the upgrades cost, or why a small monument differs from a large one far more than the name suggests. This article pulls together all the numbers and the tactics for squeezing the most out of monuments for your alliance.
What a monument does and where to find one
A monument is a neutral structure that appears exclusively in the Great Empire — there are no monuments in the Everwinter Glacier, the Burning Sands or the Fire Peaks. Its single function is all the more valuable for it: a percentage bonus to glory from certain attacks — on player castles, outposts and the castles of foreign lords (War of the Realms) and Bloodcrows. Anyone who plays glory events collects glory faster with a monument for exactly the same effort.
Monuments don't stay put: they relocate every month to different spots on the map — sometimes into populated areas, sometimes into empty corners — and the game notifies all players about the move. On large servers they can appear in up to 1 000 different locations. Anyone can capture them and there is no limit on the number of monuments per player.
Capturing works much like laboratories: the monument is owned and defended by the castellan of your main castle — so you don't need a spare castellan from the Estate the way you do with outposts. Once captured, you can build up defenses on the monument by placing units and tools on the flanks and the front.
The small monument runs from level 1 to 9
A small monument starts at level 1 with a +2% glory bonus and tops out at level 9 with +10%. It is upgraded exclusively with wood and stone — kingdom resources (not even honey or mead) cannot be sent to a monument:
| Level | Glory bonus | Resources for next level |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | +2% | 54 892 |
| 2 | +3% | 304 260 |
| 3 | +4% | 651 430 |
| 4 | +5% | 1 050 000 |
| 5 | +6% | 371 670 |
| 6 | +7% | 391 190 |
| 7 | +8% | 402 190 |
| 8 | +9% | 413 190 |
| 9 | +10% | maximum |
Note the oddity in the pricing: the jump from level 4 to 5 costs 1 050 000 resources — more than any other step. Anyone who wants to max out a small monument pays over 3.6 million wood and stone in total, with almost a third of that going on a single step.
The large monument runs from level 5 to 19
A large monument starts straight at level 5 (+6%) and climbs all the way to level 19 with a +20% glory bonus — double the small monument's cap:
| Level | Glory bonus | Resources for next level |
|---|---|---|
| 5 | +6% | 371 670 |
| 6 | +7% | 391 190 |
| 7 | +8% | 402 190 |
| 8 | +9% | 413 190 |
| 9 | +10% | 424 190 |
| 10 | +11% | 435 190 |
| 11 | +12% | 446 190 |
| 12 | +13% | 457 190 |
| 13 | +14% | 468 190 |
| 14 | +15% | 479 190 |
| 15 | +16% | 490 190 |
| 16 | +17% | 501 190 |
| 17 | +18% | 512 190 |
| 18 | +19% | 523 190 |
| 19 | +20% | maximum |
The cost rises linearly by roughly 11 000 resources per step, and fully maxing it out from level 5 to 19 comes to about 6.3 million wood and stone in total. That is brutal for an individual — but monuments aren't designed for individuals.
A monument in an alliance means one pays and everyone collects
The real power of monuments shows in an alliance. As soon as the monument's owner is in an alliance, three rules apply:
1. The bonus is shared. Every member gets the glory bonus from the highest-leveled monument in the alliance — even those who don't own a monument themselves. But beware: multiple monuments do not stack, only the highest one ever counts.
2. Everyone contributes. Any alliance member can send wood and stone to the monument for upgrades. Six million resources for a maxed-out large monument works out to 200 000 per head for 30 players — that's a few days of normal production.
3. The alliance receives 25 power points for each monument it owns.
And one rule about ownership that every alliance leadership needs to know: a player who joins an alliance with a monument keeps it. But a player who leaves an alliance immediately hands the monument over to the Robber Barons — together with every upgrade invested in it. So before an alliance pours millions into a monument, it should be held by a reliable player, not a newcomer on trial.
Tactics for when and how to grab a monument
In practice, this approach has proven itself:
Act fast after the monthly relocation. When the monuments move, they all start out unoccupied again. Whoever grabs a large monument on day one has a month of upgrading ahead and a head start nobody will catch up on.
Prefer the large monument. A small one caps at +10%, a large one at +20% — and since only the highest bonus is shared, an alliance wants one properly leveled large monument, not five small ones. Treat small monuments only as a supplement when no large one is within reach.
Build it some defenses. A monument is defended by the castellan from your main castle, and you can lose a monument just as easily as you gained it. Investing in units and tools on the walls pays off in proportion to how many resources are already sitting in the monument.
Time your upgrades around glory events. The bonus applies to attacks on castles, outposts and event lords' castles (War of the Realms, Bloodcrows). Ideally, level the monument up right before an event starts so the whole alliance collects glory with the full bonus from day one.