Beginner's Guide

Norland begins with you arriving in a small village with the intention of turning it into the thriving capital of your future kingdom.

Lords can be used for building management or undertaking quests. However they will refuse to undertake quests if their Mood is low. A lord will have a green, yellow or red background depending on their Mood.

Building management

Some buildings require instructions to function and will display an icon above if they do not currently have any. Instructions are given by assigning a lord as a manager. The same lord can be appointed as manager to multiple buildings and will try to visit each building every day. Failing that, the instructions given by them are valid for three days. Each lord gives a production bonus that scales with its Management skill.

Once the workers receive instructions from managers they will begin working. During day they work and after 6 PM they attend their personal matters: receiving salaries, purchasing goods and drinking beer.

Finances

Prices and salaries can be managed from the Finance menu, which will display sales and expenses per day. Every character consumes 1 Food per day, so the amount of Food produced should be at least equal to the population and the Food price per unit should be lower than the workers' salary. People also need alcohol every few days and their mood can be regulated with the quantity and price of the sold alcohol. Markets open after 6 PM.

Needs, thoughts and mood

Every character has a Mood, which ranges from 0 to 100 and is the sum of all thoughts. Thoughts arise from events, desires and needs. If a need is fulfilled it will give a positive thought, while if it is unfulfilled it will give a negative thought. If Mood falls below 25 the character will become unhappy. The average mood of peasants affects the level of migration.

Needs generally decreases over time and they are fulfilled through specific actions character mostly perform on their own. The need for Rest is automatically replenished when not working. There are 5 needs:

• Sleep: If it becomes completely empty, the character will collapse and fall asleep regardless of what is happening. It is satisfied by sleeping.
• Food: If it becomes low it can lead to hunger and eventually starvation. It is satisfied by consuming food such as Flour, Meat or Rutabagas.
• Rest: It is replenished slowly by not working and quickly by consuming alcohol at a Tavern.
• Sex: Is it satisfied during dating.
• Piety: It is satisfied slowly through praying and quicker at Temples or Altars.

Skills

Every character has 8 skills, which determine their effectiveness when undertaking tasks and are increased by training. Children gain more experience from training.

• Manners provides a significant bonus to relations and interest. However, a significant difference in skill level can lead to rejection between lords. It is increased by learning Rhetoric.
• Trade determines the effectiveness of trading goods. It is increased by learning Economy.
• Persuasion determines the effectiveness of actions related to communication and influencing other characters, including certain deep conversations. It also affects the effectiveness of sermons. It is increased by learning Rhetoric.
• Intellect determines the speed of acquiring knowledge, the speed of writing books, the likelihood of insight, and the probability of winning dice games. It is increased by learning Philosophy.
• Management determines the amount of additional production when the character is assigned as manager. It is increased by learning Economy.
• Teaching determines the amount of experience transferred during teaching. It is increased by learning Philosophy.
• Combat determines the probability of evading the enemy's attack based on the difference in skill level. It is increased by learning Warfare.
• Command determines the magnitude of the morale bonus for warriors in the squad. It is increased by learning Warfare.

Personality traits

Every character will have a number of personality traits, which affect how the character behaves:

Trait	Effects	Reason
Attractive	+10 interest from other characters
Defender of Order	Likes kings who destroy bandit camps Dislikes kings who tolerate bandit camps in their provinces and interact with them
Courageous	Higher threshold for bravery	Happy childhood
Low fertility	-30% chance to become pregnant	Inherited
Mental impairment	Has the "Joy of foolishness" thought (+8 Mood) -50% experience from learning	Inherited
Tendency to addiction	Higher chance of developing dependencies	Unhappy childhood
Combat instructor	Training warriors at the Training Ground gives double experience

The "Combat instructor" trait requires a Teaching skill of 15 to function.

Actions

Characters can undertake the following actions:

• Learn
  • Rhetoric: increases Manners and Persuasion skills
  • Economy: increases Trade and Management skills
  • Philosophy: increases Intellect and Teaching skills
  • Rhetoric: increases Combat and Command skills
• Social
  • Communication
    • Spend time: The characters spend time together. There will be 2 deep conversations. The probability of conversations being good or bad depends on both characters' Mood.