If you lose your Herdstone, will you lose ruination you gained from its ritual?

[Cuthalion]

I am about to move forward after completing a ritual. However, on the other side of blood grounds there are 2 factions still alive whose settlements I destroyed. So I have to questions please:
1) If I am far away, and they destroy my settlement, will I lose ruination?
2) Regardless of the answer, does it make sense to spend time on eliminating those factions and trying to keep the Herdstone, and build it up, even though I will be leagues away from that place at a certain point, and others may come and destroy it? The garrison looks quite good, so it will not be easy for them.

[Wh♂♂par]

Nothing is lost.

[Aluminum Elite Master]

Originally posted by Wh♂♂par:

Nothing is lost.

Yeah, if you complete the ritual, then you don't lose any ruination.

To further expand, though: I usually don't bother protecting herdstones. Keeping herdstones up is pretty much for just local bonuses in that bloodground, and as long as it is up and the ritual is complete, you can't even gain ruination there anyways.

If anything, I often leave my initial herdstones at lvl 1 (no upgrades), hoping it will fall after a while so I can re-kill in the same area for ruination.

TL;DR = Once a ritual is complete, ruination isn't lost even if the herdstone there goes down. And beyond that, herdstones provide almost exclusively local benefits... if you are a long ways off, the herdstone in that area isn't helping anyways so no big deal if it goes down.

[Wh♂♂par]

You can demolish your herdstones, if you want to reconquer the area.

[Cuthalion]

Thank you.

[Xaphnir]

Originally posted by Aluminum Elite Master:

Originally posted by Wh♂♂par:

Nothing is lost.

Yeah, if you complete the ritual, then you don't lose any ruination.

To further expand, though: I usually don't bother protecting herdstones. Keeping herdstones up is pretty much for just local bonuses in that bloodground, and as long as it is up and the ritual is complete, you can't even gain ruination there anyways.

If anything, I often leave my initial herdstones at lvl 1 (no upgrades), hoping it will fall after a while so I can re-kill in the same area for ruination.

TL;DR = Once a ritual is complete, ruination isn't lost even if the herdstone there goes down. And beyond that, herdstones provide almost exclusively local benefits... if you are a long ways off, the herdstone in that area isn't helping anyways so no big deal if it goes down.

It does provide the benefit that no one can settle there and in the surrounding bloodgrounds, which helps prevent ruin dwelling to stamp out your enemies.