There are a few ways to gain Karma. Most people worship daily to get Karma. They are thinking it is going up rapidly, because every 3rd time they worship it says "Your Karma has risen." I have monitored this quite closely and it takes 30 worships to gain 1 full karma point. Each day you can take a gold acorn and go to your temple, dictated by the color of your totem. (The little colored circle above your gold city name circle).
Each 3 days it tells you that your karma has risen if you have worshipped every day, but this is NOT a full karma point, it is about 1/10th of a point of karma, so don't waste your time getting your karma read every time it says so.
Another way to get karma, about once every week or so you can go to your guild and say "Wisdom" and take the wisdom test. This appears to be about 1/5th point of karma.
You can get the mentor spell and mentor new players. Providing they register you will get 1 full point of karma when they reach level 15. To mentor, cast the mentor spell, walk away 1 step and come back. Type their name in the box. If they click the agree button they are your mentoree. Now, you must get them to level 15. At level 15 you cast the mentor spell again, walk away 1 step and back. Now you get a point of karma.
Another way to get Karma are things like poetry and story contests and other events that allow for karma gain. The points in this are determined by the contest holder.
If you are in a subpath, some of the elders can give you karma points. These are usually reserved for guides that are making new walkers. The elders can usually get karma by being "ascended".
Karma is used for many things in the game. In subpaths it is used by the guides and/or elder to bring new people into the subpath. If you are not in a subpath it can be used for getting a faerie light once you hit the top possible karma, which is like 60 points. (Yes, there are only like 12 levels of karma, but at the 3rd step and higher each karma level takes more and more points to get to the next. I am not sure of the exact number of karma to hit the top but have been told by those that have gotten there its about 60.)
There are other things that require karma also, getting brands removed, leaving the mutt subpath, certain quests like star, moon, sun, some other things you simply cannot do without the right amount of karma.
I hope this answers any questions you have about gaining karma.
DDarkstorm
Grey Diviner Guide in the way of the Balance of the Tao
Sunmoon Celestial
