As noted above aboute SPIRES:
If the spires were able to be used to not only make territorys Kami/Kara but also Civ, certain possabilitys would open up with regards to the Out post mechanics as described above.
if in each region there were 2 spires, one controlling Civ, and one controlling Faction, each with their own "pooled HP" it would allow for some VERY interesting global activities.
A Civ Neutral guild could also make a Civ spire into "neutral" state. a faction Neutral Guild could do the same to a Faction Spire.
When a region becomes Neutral, all bonuses/penaltys for OPs in that region "turn off"
Neutral Spires "HP pool" is based on the spire that was taken over. ie a Matis Spire with say 1/4 of the total would turn to a Neutral Spire with the equivalent of 1/4 of a civ pool.
Faction spires are easyer to change than Civ spires. (by what ever factor of HP)
lets say,
Magestic Gardens in Verdant heights, both spires are currently Karavan and Matis.
A bunch of Kami / Zorai fundamentalists come along (who happened to be the guild known as the Whisper of Aria) and make a sudden strike and sucsessfully change the region to Kami/Zorai( HEAVEN FORBID! )
the Out post in the current region belongs to a Matis/Kara guild (for all intents and purposes lets say its the Elders of Atys). who have just so happened to have worked their fame to astonishingly high levels
because of the sudden change in region alingment, EoAs OP is suddenly very vulnerable. (suffering from a very low threshold)
WoA goes and declares (arent they nice?

)
However prior to the battle a group of EoA take it upon them selves to have at the Spires in the region wich have (foolishly) been left undefended by the Kami Zorai fundamentalists
Upon the day of the actual battle, things have returned "normal" for the EoA OP and its threshold has been pumped back up to the magnificent 9 that it once was.
of course all of this could happen totally the opposite way around..
also WoA could have stayed all night and defended the spires, and then gone on to get an easy OP.. but of course it would remain vulnerable if the region became Matis/Kara again..
Of course the time between the attack phase and the defence phase leaves things to open changes aswell.
id suggest that for 2 hours prior to each 2 hour "actual" battle period that the threshold of OPs under attack become fixed.
For anyone thinking "that makes it too easy to get an OP,
not nessecarily, and you can get it back easyer if u think it makes it that much easyer