In the interest of starting a genuine discussion that isn't on someone's deletion thread.

Maran	Acolyte	Scion Mage	Scion Melee
Mantle of the Phoenix	Favor of the Sun	Despoil	Nightfist
Eyes of Flame	Spiritual Link	Divination	Nightwalker
Fiera'Rroga Aegis - mage	Spirit Sight	Nightwalker
Zeal - melee	Altruism	Beckon Druktrar
Lightforge	Succor	Volley
Phoenix Brand		Sight of the Damned
Cry of Deliverance		Forsaken Portal
Blade	Shadow	Divine	Black
Blade of the Codex	Light Into Shadow	Black Channel	Dark Feast
Shove	Eavesdrop	Vengeance	Black Circle
Centurions	Centurions	Centurions	Centurions
Imperial Training	Imperial Spies	Black Shroud	Power of the Damned

First, I excluded leader powers, because they're specifically a bit higher than the "general" powers that the rest of the cabal gets.

Every single skill Maran specifically targets dealing with the people they fight the most. Acolyte skills support the Maran skillset and teamwork is what Fortress *should* be all about. I'd say that Scion powers probably are stronger in comparison, but the tradeoff is that everyone is their enemy. Scion Melee gets kinda screwed huge in this respect. Now, with Empire, the sects really shouldn't be working together as close as they seem to. They seem way too "huggy" lately, but they're also generally played by competent people.

Still, any one vs one melee, Maran clearly have the advantage as far as powers go when dealing directly with their enemy. I just don't see how the argument of "well, Maran powers aren't that good compared to everyone else." Unless you mean, "Maran powers aren't good when compared to the Emperor's powers," in which case, duh. That aside, the thing that holds Fortress back the most is lack of patience to get Maran'd/Acolyted and its newbie-friendly atmosphere. It's a great "beginner" cabal compared to the strictness of just about every other cabal.

On the note of more newbies in Fortress and less in Empire, I think most newbies who start playing the game aren't looking to be evil align. This is because of the benefits of good you get: use of request, people are more likely to be friendly, ranking is easier, people are less-likely to betray you, etc. Also, incompetent evil is easier to punish from an RP perspective. Any newbie who plays in the Empire will probably get demoted quickly or anathema'd or ganked by Fort/Outlander or whatever. All of those will frustrate them and culminate in early deletion. When they roll up a goodie, it's so much easier to be incompetent in the Fortress. You're not going to get berated for accidentally healing the enemy (which I've done, btw), charging in alone and dying to the gank squad (also have done), or wearing Academy leathers until hero.

1. I think the comparison was much broader and was meant to include other cabals, but I could be wrong in this. If you want to talk 1on1 or other such environmentally conditions to see which is better, you could fight berserkers or outlanders or whatever. It's too situational.

2. Squires get the shortest end of the stick of all cabal powers - I'd even say village applicant truesight is better because most people in the Fortress either have protection or detect evil or you can buy it in a ton of places. And it's not uncommon to be a squire for a very long time because the only "goodie" cabal is always overflowing (look at the # of pledges, members, etc in the cabal command).

3. Now getting Maran has always been hit or miss - sometimes you get it purely for RP, sometimes for being a badass, sometimes for pitty, sometimes because you were patient, sometimes because you're a follower of one of the two Gods and kiss ass, sometimes because there were no other marans...you get the idea, it's subjective. On the flip side in Empire, you can get to first tier citizen with no one even around (donate 150gold and ya go from oath to tier1) and it's Immortal AND player decided. Ironically players are way more reliable. I can't think of a single other cabal where it's entirely up to the Immortals to hand you out powers - it's like empowerment (which is a whole other debate).

4. The "badass" pk classes of evil (necro/AP) are drastically better than their counterpart (paladin). When a full a/b/s mummy with 5-6 quaggoth pets comes waltzing in with power of the damned, it's extremely rare that their opponents don't scatter. Same goes for the AP class. I can think of 1 or 2 scary paladins, and usually they had other circumstances (like the honor arena ability). Have ya seen a badass champion or monk? I haven't. I'd also contend that the powers sync better with AP/Necro than Paladin - phoenix brand is probably the only one but it doesn't do much when you're fighting classes who take scratches like that recent a/b/s grizzly bear who did DEMO/DEV. None of them help you actually seal the kill when centurions and black circle sure do. You also already stated that Emperor > All so there's more options later on.

5. Evil will always win because good is dumb - enough said. This can also get explained further by gear distribution. If some other goodie has a piece of gear you want, it's very likely you've got no way to deal with this. Especially if it's a newbie and you're trying to explain why a shapeshifter doesn't need prayer beads. You can't loot their corpse if they die, they'll say they need it, and ya can't kill them for it....just from personal experience it's a whole lot easier to get "the set" as an evil than as a goodie. Goodie "gear lockers" who login once a week are much worse than the evil equivalent because you can't kill them. Even normal gear lockers ya can't kill because they could be neutral or good not in the Fortress.

This is probably start to derail into good sucks and evil is awesome, but I'd say the powers of the Fortress are ok. In the hands of a newbie they're probably more user friendly but in the hands of a true pker..."eh". Don't get me started on the power of insects on a pouncing ranger...

I was able to drive off liches every time with my elf temperance 2h pally, until I ran out of coin (which was quick, since I tried to keep my wealth below 5000 copper). However, not that many used scourge before having to flee.

I'm sure if a lich REALLY wanted to force the paladin off they could, but when it came to just running to the rescue of others, paladin was very effective.

1) Empire Blade powers are really, really excellent. Blade of the codex is very powerful, and not something easily mimiced by preps. Shove is awesome in the right circumstances - but underused. Imperial training is probably the best warrior skill in the game right after deathblow. You also don't mention imperial tactics, which is also extremely good, and of course if you manage to get sigil on a warrior, you will be a monster.

2) Nightwalker is fantastic for a thief. Same with nightfist. Notice, you don't see many scion warriors these days.

3) The PK combos are just so much stronger with Empire than Maran. Black circle and power of the damned can really swing group on group fights, and the synergy is just really good with Empire. When you have a paladin/assassin/healer gang in Maran, you can't help but think "man, wish that healer was a ####ing AP, then we'd roll them."

4) Imperial powers are very well suited to their individual classes - Maran get a blanket set of powers with a little bit of tailoring for mages.

5) Marans just suck right now. Not to be a hater, but there are no good players in the Fortress right now, nobody who can hold a set of equipment for more than a few hours - losing Rhone, who was very strong, and now facing two mummies in different cabals would make anyone look bad. Good in particular benefits the most from the pendulum on their side, because goodies get powering to hero from other goodies and have tons of time to request and ask others for assistance to gain the near perfect set, so when evil starts rebounding they can knock them down again.

Unfortunately, evil's been pretty strong for so long now, it will probably be months until the time that Maran is strong again.

There's more, but I'm hung over.