Hello! Today I wanted to share my idea about what else could, in my opinion be done with karma feature. Before that, I will share some thoughts about karma in general.

What are my feelings about karma in this game?

When I was a new player, I was really excited for this mechanic. Collecting karma with good deeds, and losing it with bad ones is rather common concept everyone knows, but it's not common in world of games! I used to collect it with passion, and was happy when I got a new title. Although, after discovering all of the titles and all karma encounters I noticed that the perks from being devoted to this mechanic are very little!
Today, at my 3rd year of playing, I don't even pay attention to what option I choose. Sometimes I smile to the fennec, sometimes I kill it and shrug. I am not a kind of competitive player who would want to be in game's karma leaderboards. But I would like to have a point collecting it anyway!

What I do like about karma?

I like when decisions matter! I am trying to always pick the good deed. At the beggining I really paid attention to all my decisions, and I had this little stress when I accidentally did something bad xD That was before I discovered, collecting karma doesn't offer as much as I thought it does.
I like karma backgrounds in explore and I am always smiling when I see "the world is beautiful and respects you" encounter. Literally, that's wholesome.
I like the titles, but it's too easy to collect them!

What I think could be added to the karma system?

1. More encounters that are the result of our decisions, not only encounters that are to gain or lose karma! What if we could meet a lion merchant, wouldn't it be a nice addition to explore? Old, white lion that praise us for being a good lion, and selling colorful gems. On the contrary an angry gray lion that sees us as worthy opponent and offers us black and dark colored gems...

2. My favourite concept, Karma shop!
What If we could spend the karma in some way? The amount of gained karma wouldn't be changed, like, we wouldn't lose it. The "spent" numbers would be locked, but would exist on our karma account anyway.
Example:
I gained 1000 karma, went to the karma shop, spent 500. I still have 1000 and I am a good lion, but I can only spend 500 more. The full amount only changes with my deeds!

Bad lions could have their own shop too, but they would operate on negative numbers.

What could be in a such karma shop?
Some little items, the decor that would be just created to be rather common. Like, we all have pouched rats and crows in explore and our hoards are full of scars and bloodbath backgrounds.
Items on low levels of karma shops could be as popular as them.
It could be nice earrings, claws, jewelry, little animal companions, flowers, bony decors etc...
But the more expensive items, the more unique they are. Body ornaments, rainbows, or scary body paints. Decors that would be on foreground of our lions picture, like mossy stones, but bloody for bad lions and colorfully painted for good ones. I think there can be many, many ideas!
Of course the most expensive items could be the backgrounds. These backgrounds that appear in explore when we gain the certain number of karma. I think it could be a really nice challenge to work for them. I see them as, maybe 2000 or even 5000 karma items!
Maybe the karma shops could contain some items that give some little effects for gameplay.
Grain of Paradise for really dedicated players, or Shadow of Death would fit there perfectly.

Does such karma shop have to be easy accesible?

To make items more unique, it could be something like a flood pit. Appears occasionally, shown to us by a strong shaman NPC or lost angel lion. Maybe it can be the random meeting of Manticora handsome guy?
Maybe the shop would need to have something donated to reroll items, just like boneyard in January's event?

Ideas for a neutral playstyle and Dream Shop concept for neutral players:


Ideas and stories for karma shops will be here too!
Concept for good karma NPC (drawn by me)


Thank You for reading.
I think there are many players that also think Karma is a mechanic with great potential, but it can have more options. If collecting or losing karma would have more sense, we would be more motivated and focused on our decisions. It will also make Protective and Heartless personalities more interesting and wanted! Who knows, maybe karma-only marking/skin applicators could be a thing too? Crafting recipes for good or bad lions?
Please consider my idea and tell me what do You think about it! Support if You find it interesting!

Also, everyone please remember