Welcome to Aether Kingdoms

Code of Conduct v1.0: 21 July 2026

Aether Kingdoms is a competitive strategy game. This means kingdoms will fall, alliances will be tested, and sometimes your carefully built village will take a serious beating. That's part of the game, and we think it's a lot of fun.

What makes this community worth being part of, though, is the people in it. Veterans helping newcomers find their footing, rivals becoming allies and wars become stories after a server ends. We want Aether Kingdoms to be a place where you can play hard, compete seriously, and still feel good about the community you're playing in no matter if you win or lose.

This Code of Conduct is how we keep that going. It's a shared agreement about what kind of place we want Aether Kingdoms to be.

By creating an account, you agree to these rules.

1. Player conduct

1.1 Treat people like people

There's a real person on the other side of every kingdom. Competitive play, even betrayal, is all fair game. What's not okay is making someone feel genuinely unwelcome or unsafe.

The following are not permitted in any in-game or supported communication channel:

  • Personal insults targeting someone's identity, nationality, gender, sexuality, religion, or disability
  • Persistent messages intended to intimidate or pressure a player into quitting
  • Threats of any kind, including real-world threats, even as a joke.
  • Sharing or threatening to share someone's personal information (doxxing)

Be mindful of your communication, because not everyone will read your intentions through a screen.

1.2 Trash talk and competitive banter

Trash talk is part of competitive games, and we're not here to police every taunt or war declaration. There's a real difference between "I will destroy your villages in your sleep" and targeting someone personally. When in doubt, keep it about the game.

1.3 Hate speech

Content that promotes hatred or discrimination against any group of people is not welcome here. This includes player, village or kingdom names, empire names, profile text, and all communications in-game or on official channels. While we do not moderate or exclude based on content in other communities, we will act if necessary to stop toxicity from bleeding into ours.

1.4 Spam

Don't flood in-game messaging, chats, forums or elsewhere with repetitive or irrelevant messages. Don't advertise subjects that aren't Aether Kingdoms related.

1.5 Impersonation

Don't impersonate game staff, moderators or other players, whether in-game or on external platforms linked to Aether Kingdoms.

2. Account Rules

2.1 One account per server

Each player may hold one (1) account per game server. This keeps competition fair and the playing field level.

If you'd like to try a new strategy or start fresh, the right approach is to formally abandon your current account, not create a second one alongside it.

Beta note (temporary): reach out through Discord or email to abandon an account, this feature is not yet implemented.

2.2 The official Dual system

Aether Kingdoms has an official dual system that lets multiple players manage one account. Duals must be registered through the in-game dual system. That means no workarounds like password sharing outside of it.

A few things to keep in mind with duals:

  • A dual acts as a co-manager of your account, not a separate player with their own agenda
  • Both the account owner and the dual are responsible for actions taken on the account

2.3 The official Sitter system

The sitter system is there for short-term coverage when you need someone to keep the lights on while you're away. Sitters are other players from the same Empire and can maintain an account while the owner is busy.

Sitters are expected to maintain the account in a caretaking capacity, and the owner is required to log in once every 7 days to keep the sitter feature active.

It's not allowed to work around the sitter lockout period for more than 3 consecutive weeks. At that point the account owner needs to resume playing for a longer period. If this is challenging to manage for you, we recommend using the dual system to play together with someone else.

2.4 No unofficial Account sharing

Outside of the dual and sitter systems, account sharing is not permitted. Giving your login credentials to a friend, family member, or anyone else puts your account and theirs at risk, and removes accountability that the community depends on.

2.5 No Account trading

Accounts may not be bought, sold, gifted, or transferred between players. Any account found to have changed hands will be removed without appeal.

3. Fair Play

3.1 No Bots or Automation

Aether Kingdoms is a game of strategy and decision-making. Using software, scripts, or tools that automate gameplay, including queues, resource management or timing attacks, is not permitted.

This includes:

  • Browser automation tools or macros that interact with the game server
  • Third-party apps that perform actions on your behalf
  • Mobile tap-automation tools
  • Scraping live game server data for use in external services
  • Connecting an AI agent to the game server using AK credentials
  • Modifying the game interface

Calculators and planning tools, whether private or public, that don't interact with the game server are fine to use. This includes browser extensions that read data loaded from the game server in the browser through normal play. For map data there is an hourly public map export available to use in external tools.

3.2 Bug reporting

If you find a bug that gives you or others an unintended advantage, please report it. We genuinely appreciate it. You won't be punished for reporting something in good faith, even if you accidentally benefited from it before noticing.

Deliberately exploiting a known bug will be treated as a serious violation.

3.3 No exploits or timing manipulation

Any technique that bypasses intended game mechanics is not permitted, regardless of how it's done. Reporting such issues and not exploiting them further will not lead to punishment, only a correction to the game if deemed necessary.

4. Support accounts, resource sending and conquest

4.1 What is a Support Account?

A Support Account is an account played primarily to support another player or Empire, rather than for competitive participation in its own right.

Support Accounts are permitted in Aether Kingdoms, provided they exist to offer:

  • The creation of defenses for defending objectives (passive defensive play).
  • Feeding other player's armies as reinforcement, to allow them to grow bigger.
  • Sending resources to other players, to a maximum of 10% of their daily resource production (excluding non-village objectives) over a 2-week period. Feeding your armies reinforcing another player is not part of this limit.
  • Trading resources for favourable exchange rates.
  • The account is played by one or more genuine players who log in regularly to play, not managed by sitters alone.

4.2 Resource sending rules

Sending resources between players is a legitimate and intended part of the game. To keep it fair, it requires some limitations for players making trade their core playstyle.

  • Resource transfers must represent genuine in-game exchange: they should serve a plausible strategic purpose
  • Systematically funnelling large amounts of resources from one account to another with no reciprocal benefit or strategic logic may be treated as an abuse of the system
  • Over a longer period, an account may not consistently send out more than 10% of their total resource production without getting a return.
  • Support Accounts may not exchange resources with Empire members for a better than an average ratio of 1.25:1 (so giving 25% more resources in exchange). Trading does not bypass the previous 10% rule. Small violations will be given leeway if they are the result of trading with many people, we don't expect you to be an accountant.
  • An account may send unlimited resources to objectives that are not other player's villages, and food to feed temporary defensive actions.

4.3 Support Accounts must be independently viable

A Support Account must be a real, played account, not an empty shell. It must:

  • Be actively logged in and managed by a real player (not a sitter or script)
  • Follow all account rules, including the one-account-per-world rule
  • Be registered and played by a different person than the account it primarily supports

A friend, Empire buddy, or family member may choose to play a support-oriented role. That's their choice to make, but it does have to be a genuine player.

4.4 Friendly conquests

Conquering villages is part of the gameplay of Aether Kingdoms. Not only between enemies, but also within Empires. It's common enough to conquer villages from Empire members that have gone inactive, want to stop playing or decide to team up to dual. There are limitations in place:

  • It's not allowed to have Support Accounts that solely exist for the purpose of building up villages to get conquered by a single Empire.
  • It's not allowed to play one or more neutral accounts that builds up villages for conquest.
  • It's not allowed to keep playing an account to wait for the benefit of conquest by only a single Kingdom.

4.5 Alliance-level resource networks

Alliances often coordinate resource sharing at scale. This is encouraged. Where resource networks become so one-sided that they effectively constitute account sharing or circumvent fair play, moderators may intervene.

5. Empire Rules

5.1 Empires set the tone too

Empires are communities within the community. Empire leaders are encouraged to foster the same positive, competitive-but-respectful environment that Aether Kingdoms aims for. Empire leadership is responsible for the conduct of its members when that conduct is organised or condoned at the leadership level.

5.2 Coordinated violations

Empires that collectively organise cheating, multi-accounting or harassment campaigns will face sanctions as a group. This includes the possibility of empire deletion and bans for involved members.

5.3 Diplomacy is yours to manage

NAPs, pacts and alliances are entirely player-managed. Staff do not enforce in-game diplomacy. If someone breaks a peace treaty, that's gameplay and not a rule violation. Don't submit reports for diplomacy gone wrong.

5.4 Internal disputes

Leadership conflicts, resource disagreements and internal drama within an Empire are all part of a multiplayer PvP game. They aren't matters for staff intervention, unless this Code of Conduct is violated. Sort it out amongst yourselves, or vote with your feet.

6. External Platforms

6.1 Community spaces

The Aether Kingdoms community exists across Discord, social media and other spaces. While staff isn't there to moderate every corner of the internet, behaviour on official or community-adjacent platforms that seriously affects the in-game experience may still be actioned.

6.2 Feedback and criticism

You're always welcome to share feedback, criticise game mechanics or disagree with moderation decisions. We'd rather hear it than not. What we do ask is that criticism stays constructive and good-faith, and personal issues are discussed privately. Targeted personal attacks on staff or other players, even dressed up as feedback, will be treated as conduct violations.

7. Enforcement

We review every report. Not every report results in a sanction. Context matters, and we try to be fair. Not every case follows the same path, and repeat violations are treated more seriously.

7.1 Finality

Once a decision has been made, it stands. We appreciate that's frustrating when you feel strongly about something, but reopening closed cases isn't productive and will be treated as a conduct issue.

8. Changes to this document

We'll update this Code of Conduct as Aether Kingdoms grows and changes. Significant updates will be announced through official channels. Continuing to play after an announced update means you accept the revised rules.