Each god or goddess has their personal preferences when it comes to the element of an item.  Some gods have a serious distaste for an item but will go bananas over another!  Offering an item to an ancient shrine will be reacted to in a Negative, Positive, Neutral, Neutral +, or Neutral - fashion.  For a complete list of a deity's preferences, you can take a peek at the God Elemental Item Preferences chart.  Based on these divine reactions, you can better pick and chose what items to offer to a particular shrine!  Positive reactions equal positive returns, negative reactions will return negative rewards, and neutral reactions may vary depending on what god it is.  
 

* * Please do NOT offer more than 10 Quest Items at any one time!  Otherwise, the shrine will eat up all the offered items and you will get nothing in return! * *

What might you get in return?  Well... that depends!  Positive reactions will usually gift you with an item of the Elemental Alignment that the god prefers or even a blessed/exclusive item specific to that deity.  A negative reaction will likely result in an element that god dislikes or a maybe even a cursed item!  When it comes to shrine returns, you never really know what you are going to get.  Still, the gamble might be worth it to see what you get if you really have no use for an item.

In order to trade an item into a shrine, you must write at least a minimum 350 word literature RP, a Headshot/Partial Body with Detailed BG art RP, or a Full-Body with No/Simple BG art RP of your character visiting a deity's Ancient Shrine and complete the Ancient Shrine Offering form and a staff member will handle the trade as soon as possible.  This means your character must actually visit the Ancient Shrine to tun in an item; therefore, some shrines may be inaccessible to your character!  For example, Elysia's Ancient Shrine (The Mirror Pool) is located in the heart of Fire Bird's Gorge and is only accessible to Saraphs.  However, Roth's Ancient Shrine - while located in the heart of the Saraph Sand Dunes - may be difficult to get to but it can be visited by anyone willing to brave the journey! 

You can possibly circumvent some of these restrictions by forming alliances or striking deals with other characters.  Perhaps your Linx really wants to drop an item off at Elysia's Ancient Shrine and someone else's Saraph really wants to drop something off at a shrine for Actaeos but just doesn't want to try braving such frigidly cold temperatures.  By forging an agreement with each other, the Saraph might just be willing to drop off the item at Elysia's shrine if you drop off their item at Actaeos's shrine.  Beware who you wheel and deal with, though.  If the Saraph character finds that the item Elysia returned was really great, they might not be so inclined toward honesty and keep the item for themselves!