Wes Johnson turning up in Markarth got me thinking about Shivering Isles, and thinking about Shivering Isles made me conclude that any hypothetical Shivering Isles chapter, if one ever exists, would be incomplete if there isn't a major focus on the Mania/Dementia dichotomy. So here I am to present the concept of a new asynchronous competitive multiplayer element for this hypothetical Shivering Isles chapter. It's not active PvP, as that already exists in the Alliance War and Battlegrounds. It's not endgame competitive PvE, as that already exists with Arenas, Dungeons, Trials and their respective Leaderboards. This is Mania vs Dementia, the never-ending struggle of the two halves of the Isles to earn the favour of the Madgod and have the Great Torch shine in their colours above New Sheoth. (This concept is first introduced in The Cold Flame of Agnon but never really explored beyond that.)

Main Concept
If any of you know Elite Dangerous, the concept is similar in its general themes to that game's Powerplay system. This would run in cycles, similar to Cyrodiil campaigns, with the winning faction of the cycle being the one "in favour" for the duration of the next cycle. Members of the faction in favour would receive bonuses of some sort appropriate to whatever other content exists within the Shivering Isles chapter.

There would be three primary components to gameplay, which would vary depending on the current state of favour.
Influence: If neither faction is in favour, gameplay activities would focus on gaining influence for your chosen faction or reducing the influence of the other faction. The side with the most influence at the end of the cycle wins that cycle, and is in favour for the next cycle.
Reinforcement and Undermining: If one faction is in favour, gameplay activities focus on either reinforcing that status (for the faction in favour), or undermining it (for the faction not in favour). Reinforcement is weighed against Undermining with the highest scorer winning that cycle - either the faction in favour remains in favour for the next cycle, or they fall out of favour resulting in neither faction being in favour for the next cycle.

Gameplay Activities
Gameplay would generally take the form of repeatable quests or other activities, with the more involved quests probably having a higher weighting. For Influence, this could potentially take the form of missionary expeditions to the outlying settlements, to sing the praises of your faction and/or spout disparagements about the other; contract work for the Golden Saints or Dark Seducers, to defend settlements or defeat monsters in their regions; visiting shops in the appropriate half of New Sheoth to boost their economy, or stealing things in the other half of New Sheoth to damage their economy; and retrieving the Flame of Agnon to light the Great Torch. For Reinforcement, this would continue to include contract work and economic activity, and would also include appropriate cultural activities, like taking part parties of merriment and creativity for Mania, or conspiracies of paranoia and deception for Dementia. (They have to maintain their influence over their people somehow, I guess?) For Undermining, this would continue to include missionary work and criminal acts, and would also include sabotaging cultural events and trying to extinguish the Great Flame.

Progress towards each faction's goal, and the time left in the current cycle, would be displayed in a UI screen similar to the Alliance War. Each faction would have a skill line that is advanced based on your contribution to the activities, similar to how AP advances the Alliance War skill lines. It would be possible to change factions through some sort of short quest or other activity, but this would have a time lockout and could only be done if neither faction was in favour.

What are everyone's thoughts on this as an idea for the main "factions/systems" component of a hypothetical Shivering Isles chapter?