Grand stele

A grand stele is a purely decorative Miscellaneous structure. A stele provides less beauty than most sculptures and require more resources, but have no quality.

Acquisition

Constructing a grand stele requires Complex Furniture to be researched and 125 of any one type of stone and 16,000 ticks (4.44 mins) of work to construct.

They can also be found in ruins.

Summary

Grand steles add beauty to its surroundings. The beauty rating is added to the single, bottom-left-most tile a pawn can see. They are the larger, more beautiful version of the large stele.

Despite their size, they do not count as a wall.

Analysis

Steles are less beautiful when compared to sculptures, even of the same material, with the only redeeming aspect being their higher HP and lack of quality.

For the same cost as a single grand stele, you can construct 5 small sculptures. Small sculptures have 25 beauty at Poor quality, and even a Skill 0 artist will average 1.8 Poor quality or better sculptures with the same resource investment. At even modest Art levels, you'll be more efficient (in time, stone blocks, and space) by making sculptures.

Compared to large steles, grand steles provide twice the amount of beauty and health, for twice the material and work. The grand stele is slightly less efficient than large steles for space, as it takes up 9 tiles instead of 8.

As a construction

Steles have some merit in training the construction skill. Have a pawn work on the stele, and right before it finishes, cancel the construction. You will get 75% of the resources back, and your pawn will have spent a lot of time constructing. In order to maximize building speed, slow your pawn as much as possible, by putting them in darkness.

You may need to build steles for a Momument quest, in which they act as a time and resource sink.

Steles may be found in ruins throughout the map, where they can be used for a slight beauty bonus, or for meditation.

Stats table

Grand stele	Beauty	Work to Build	HP	Flammability	Market Value
Material	Beauty	Work to Build	HP	Flammability	Market Value
Granite blocks	30	096,140 ticks (26.71 mins)	680	0%	570
Limestone blocks	30	096,140 ticks (26.71 mins)	620	0%	570
Marble blocks	41	088,140 ticks (24.48 mins)	480	0%	540
Sandstone blocks	33	080,140 ticks (22.26 mins)	560	0%	515
Slate blocks	33	096,140 ticks (26.71 mins)	520	0%	570
Jade	85	080,000 ticks (22.22 mins)	200	0%	1,540