Banner

Banners are faction specific entities that were added in Beta 15. They can be placed and bear faction symbols. Banners can be placed either on a wall or on the ground. There is a banner for each crafting table (so not for each faction).

Banners are also wielded by hire-able units called Banner Bearers. There is a banner bearer for each faction that has a banner.

Crafting
Banners are crafted with one wooden plank of any type, one stick and one block of wool. The only exception is the Banner of Lothlórien, which is crafted using a mallorn wood plank and stick. Each banner has to be crafted on the corresponding faction's crafting table.



Banner Protection
Banners can also be used to claim land by placing them on a block of bronze, silver or gold. In a range that depends of the material, no enemies can spawn and players that have a negative alignment to that faction cannot set or destroy blocks. When you press the F3-key, you can see the protected area. You can also increase security by white-listing a maximum of 24 players, including the one who placed the banner. Using bronze blocks results in 8 blocks, silver blocks in 16 blocks and gold blocks in 32 blocks of protected area respectively in each direction from the banner. By protecting an area, you will gain the achievement "The Conqueror".

The protection is however not totally enemy-proof, since the banner is an entity, not a block. Thus, it can be destroyed. It is recommended to put the banner at least behind a door. But even when doing this, an enemy player can build a tower high enough to reach over the protected area, activate an Orc Bomb and let it fall to destroy the banner; or he can build a TNT cannon outside of the range. Encasing the banner in an Obsidian box is the only way to make sure that this can't happen.

This feature was added in Beta 19 and changed in Beta 22.