A stronghold is a location that has been declared by a faction as being their headquarters or base of operations. Strongholds provide a greater degree of protection to the members of a faction. Locations that have a stronghold are indicated on the map interface with special icons (see below).
Each faction may have one and only one stronghold. Only members of the faction who have the "Edit Faction" permission may define a location as a stronghold (or revoke stronghold status from a location). If a faction has a stronghold, all members of the faction must pay "rent" for the stronghold daily, in the form of 1 Magic Point each.
The chief benefits of a stronghold are the factional ward that is placed inside of the location and access to a communal safe. Other benefits provided by a stronghold are described below.
Here are the special icons that will appear if a stronghold is present in a location: 
These show you whether or not a location is home to a stronghold. There are several stronghold icons; each one has a different border color that will tell you if the stronghold is your own (purple), an ally (green), friendly (blue), neutral (grey), hostile (red), or enemy (black).
The chief benefit of a stronghold is the factional ward that is placed inside of the location. Other benefits provided by a stronghold include:
- A special safe that allows faction members to store items inside the stronghold. Faction members with the "Access Safe" permission can add or remove items from this safe.
- An alchemical workbench inside the stronghold, for use with the Alchemy skill.
- Facilities and tools for Crafting Ammunition inside the stronghold.
- A message board that does not require markers or chalk.
- Inability for non-faction members to cast wards upon the location that contains the stronghold.
- Multiple purchasable honor bonus upgrades.
- Attacks made by faction members on non-members within their own stronghold have NO effect on Morality.
All strongholds have faction "standards" that they protect. The standard is, effectively, the target for inter-faction raids. If the standard is "taken" by a hostile faction, then the stronghold is immediately destroyed.
When a stronghold is destroyed, faction members will be unable to access the faction safe nor will they be protected by the stronghold ward.
If a faction's stronghold is destroyed, the faction cannot create a new stronghold for a period of twenty-four hours. However, if the victim faction manages to recover one of their standards during this time, they may place a new stronghold immediately.
(You can recover a standard by breaking through the wards around a stronghold of a faction that has previously captured one of your faction's standards as a trophy and take it from the wall. And then run, really fast.)
In order for a character to create or place a stronghold, the following must be true:
- There must not already be a stronghold for the faction.
- The character's faction rank must have the "Edit Faction" permission.
- The character must have been a member of the faction for 24 hours before the attempt.
- The character must be inside of the location they intend to stronghold.
- The location must not already be a stronghold for a different faction.
- The character must have sufficient Action Points (30) and Magic Points (20).
- The location must be a valid stronghold location (see below for a list).
- The location must not be infused by a different, non-allied faction (if your faction is allied with the faction that owns the square, then you may lay a stronghold there).
- The faction's standard must not have been taken within the past 24 hours (note that if your faction manages to recover their standard during this time, the restriction is lifted).
If all of these criteria are met, there will be a new pane called "Stronghold Actions" appear in the interface. Inside of that will be a "Create Stronghold" button. Clicking that button will create the stronghold.
Revoking a location's stronghold status requires the "Edit Faction" permission and costs 30 Action Points and 20 Magic Points. The character must be located at the stronghold and be inside.
If all these criteria are met, a button will appear in the actions pane labeled "Remove Stronghold." Clicking this button will delete the stronghold. Revoking stronghold status immediately dissipates the ward protecting the location.
A new stronghold may be placed immediately - there is no "cool down" period. However, any wards will be set to 0. Access to the faction safe is disabled while the stronghold is down.
The list of "valid" locations for strongholds is actually too long to display here. In fact, it is easier to indicate which areas are not valid.
The following locations are not valid locations for strongholds:
- Any location that does not have an "inside".
- Any location that is "large" - that is, any building whose interior is more than one square in size.
- Any building declared as a "resource building." Resource buildings include, but are not limited to: police stations, fire stations, airports, hospitals, power plants, hardware stores, libraries, gun stores, museums, churches, and military bases.
When in doubt, you can look up the location in the location types help page.