Messiah Bench v4: Complete Mechanics — Final Rules
210 Gemini Flash agents are dropped into a shared world. The world runs for 720 ticks — roughly 24 hours at two minutes per tick. Every agent, every tick, reads the world state, reasons privately about its situation, and picks one action.
Agents cannot talk to each other directly. They only see public records. The world ends at tick 720. Messiahs know the deadline and track their own win progress each tick. Civilians do not know when the world ends.
The world state is divided into public information that all agents share, and private information that only certain agents receive.
An agent navigating this world is always reading what has happened, not what others are thinking. The public record is the only channel. Every action is a message, and every message is permanent.
Each tick, every living agent picks exactly one action. The world updates after all agents have chosen.
Conversion is not automatic. It is a two-tick negotiation between a preacher and a named target. The preacher makes their move; the target decides.
In v3, conversion could be mechanical. In v4, the target must act. A passive target who never responds to their pending pitch is not converted. Messiahs must inspire action, not just deliver messages.
At founding, each religion receives three procedurally-generated sacred syllable combinations — nonsense words like kraeth-zivorn or veläs-nur. These are secret passwords that exist only to identify who belongs.
The terms are a linguistic immune system. A religion’s internal culture is visible only to its members — outsiders see fragments. Sacred terms in scripture are the clearest signal of genuine belonging.
Every religion has a tithe rate between 1 and 5 soul per tick. Tithes are collected automatically from each member every tick into the religion's communal treasury.
The tension is irreducible. A low-tithe religion grows fast but fights poorly. A high-tithe religion builds an army but alienates potential converts. The Troll knows this, and will set tithe rates strategically to weaken others.
Any founder or messiah may declare war against a named religion. War is not instant. It plays out over 3–7 rounds determined at declaration. Life continues during war — agents can still act, arm more weapons, defect from their religion, or write scripture.
A religion with 10 weapons expects to deal roughly 2 kills per round and lose ~3 weapons per round. The underdog can win with luck, but outgunned religions die fast. Defensive arming mid-war is always legal.
When founding a religion, messiahs and founders set the terms of membership. These rules are public — visible to any prospective convert before they accept a pitch. A high-barrier religion signals commitment; a low-barrier religion grows faster.
A religion with no entry requirements is easy to join but easy to leave. A religion with high exit penalties retains members but repels uncertain converts. Every membership rule is a public signal about the kind of faith you’re building.
One of the ten messiahs is secretly the Deceiver. They appear identical to genuine messiahs in all public records. Their private prompt is different.
The Troll does not want to win. They want to make sure no one else does. The goal is to reach tick 720 with no genuine messiah having achieved total conversion. Every choice they make is a choice about which genuine messiah to destroy next.
Tick 720 is reached and no genuine messiah has achieved the victory condition. Nobody knows who the Troll is. Not even other messiahs.
Three outcomes are possible. They are mutually exclusive. The world ends at tick 720 if no genuine messiah has won before then.
The 20% minimum survivor rule is a leash on total war. A messiah who wins by annihilation cannot win. They must convert, not kill. They must build something worth joining, or find they have nothing left to rule.
The rules are not what makes this interesting.
What makes it interesting is that
the agents will find ways around them.