Lords

A lord

Lords are the characters that can be controlled by players and can be ordered to do a variety of actions. Lords are listed on the top of the screen, where they will have a green, yellow or red background depending on their Mood.

All lords have a Loyalty value, which changes slightly every day depending on their mood and opinion of the king. High Loyalty provides a positive thought and allows the lord to use certain risky actions. If Loyalty falls below 25 for too long heirs and formers heirs will raise a rebellion and other lords will decide to move to another king. The king always has 100 Loyalty.

Until the age 21, lords gain double experience from lessons.

Lords can visit each other's cities. Treating them well can lead to them offering to increase skills. Alternatively they may be kidnapped but this has consequences.

If a lord is born outside marriage or from a woman on the throne they will be a bastard. Bastards can still marry and their children will not be considered bastards. Kings are biased against bastards or women on the throne and women on the throne also cannot marry.

Sometimes freelance lords will arrive with the Holy Caravan. Freelance lords can be hired for 10 days for a price of Holy Rings that scales with the hiring lord's Persuasion skill. While hired a freelance lord will function like any other lord.

Lords who are unhappy for long enough may experience a nervous breakdown. Severity of nervous breakdowns vary, from mild forms like depression to severe forms like suicidal tendencies, and is usually affected by how low the lord's Mood was.

Skills

In addition to Combat, which is common to all characters, lords also have 7 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. When trading on the global map, each point of Trade skill difference increases or decreases prices by 3%. It is increased by learning Economy.
• Persuasion determines the effectiveness of actions related to communication and influencing other lords, 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 lord 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.
• Command determines the magnitude of the mood, and thus bravery, bonus for warriors in the commanded army. It is increased by learning Warfare.

Talents

Every lord has a skill as their talent, shown with a yellow star in the skills menu and inherited from their parents. The talent skill levels up faster and if it is raised to level 15 or above the lord will gain a powerful bonus.

Talent	Skill	Effect
Charismatic	Manners	+15 interest from opposite sex lords and can freely visit enemy cities
Combat instructor	Teaching	Training warriors at the Training Ground gives double experience
Defender of the city	Command	Doubles the bravery and pain threshold of the commanded army
Diplomat	Persuasion	Lord can convince enemy kings to forget all grievances and return to normal level of relations
Forecaster	Trade	Every Holy Caravan arrives with a notification about upcoming prices
Head chopper	Combat	Higher chance of decapitating opponents if equipped with a weapon
Poisoner	Intellect	Can use the Poison action
Sharp-tongued	Management	When in charge of the Chancellery, clerks give half of this lord's production bonus to managed buildings

Personality traits

Every lord will have a number of personality traits, which affect how the lord behaves.

Trait	Effects	Reason
Unattractive	-10 Interest from all lords
Attractive	+10 Interest from all lords
Beautiful	+20 Interest from all lords
Anxious	Always wakes up during a home invasion	Experienced a home invasion or captivity
Ascetic	No thoughts from lack or excess of Holy Rings	Long time fanatic
Devout	Always fanatic	Nervous breakdown or someone close passed away
Substance aversion	Hates lords with addiction	Someone close has an addiction

Happy childhood traits

Happy childhood traits can be gained if the lord had high Mood during childhood years.

Trait	Effects
Calm	All nervous breakdowns are light
Courageous	Higher threshold for bravery
Empathetic	Social thoughts are enhanced
Monogamous	Falls in love only once
Strong will	Works when unhappy
Resistance to addictions	Lower chance of developing dependencies

Unhappy childhood traits

Unhappy childhood traits can be gained if the lord had low Mood during childhood years.

Trait	Effects
Cynic	Social thoughts and thoughts about the death of loved ones are weaker
Envious	More prone to feeling envious towards others
Gambling addiction	Gives a bad thought if the lord did not play dice games in a while Thoughts on winning and losing have greater effect on Mood
Lustful	Sex need becomes unfulfilled twice as fast
Nervous	All nervous breakdowns are severe
Tendency to addiction	Higher chance of developing dependencies

Inherited traits

Inherited traits have a chance to be inherited from parents at birth.

Trait	Effects
Difficult childbirth	Increased chance of dying during childbirth
Early balding	High chance of experiencing baldness earlier than usual
High fertility	+30% chance of getting pregnant
Low fertility	-30% chance of getting pregnant
Mental impairment	Has the "Joy of foolishness" thought (+8 Mood) -50% experience from learning

King traits

Kings start with a trait that determines what other kings they will like and dislike.

Trait	Likes	Dislikes
Defender of Order	Kings who destroy bandit camps	Kings who tolerate bandit camps in their provinces and interact with them
Greedy	Kings who have twice more Holy Rings than themselves	Kings who have twice fewer Holy Rings than themselves
Gullible	Kings who are friends of their friends	Kings who are enemies of their friends
Liberator	Kings without slaves	Kings with 50% of population as slaves
Religious	Religious kings	Agnostic kings
Sycophant	Suzerain kings	Vassal kings
Supporter of Power	Kings whose armies are twice bigger	Kings whose armies are twice smaller
Scientist	Kings with higher Intellect skill than themselves

Deep conversations

Deep conversations will happen randomly if two lords are around each other, regardless of what they are doing, and may also be triggered manually via the Spend Time action. Depending on circumstances, the conversation will go in one of eight ways:

• Heartfelt Conversation: Both lords gain a positive thought and improve their relationship. It is more likely to happen if the initiating lord is in a good Mood or the lords are friends.
• Ignoring: The ignored lord receives a negative thought and worsens their relationship with the ignoring lord. It is more likely to happen if the initiating lord is in a bad Mood or the lords are enemies.
• Mockery: The mocked lord receives a negative thought and worsens their relationship with the mocking lord. It is more likely to happen if the initiating lord is in a bad Mood or the lords are enemies.
• Insult: The insulted lord receives a negative thought and worsens their relationship with the insulting lord. It is more likely to happen if the initiating lord is in a bad Mood or the lords are enemies. An insult has a chance to trigger a retaliatory insult or a fight.
• Joke: Both lords gain a positive thought and improve their relationship. It is more likely if the initiating lord has high Interest in the partner and is in a neutral or good Mood.
• Flattery: Both lords improve their relationship. It is more likely if the initiating lord has high Interest in the flattered lord or the flattered lord is a king. The amount of relationship improved depends on the initiating lord's Persuasion skill.
• Intrigue: Both lord worsen their relationship with one of the enemies of the initiating lord. Requires the initiating lord to have an enemy and is more likely if the enemy is a king. The amount of relationship worsened depends on the initiating lord's Persuasion skill.
• Apology: Both lords improve their relationship. Requires the lords to be enemies and the initiating lord to have a relationship above 45 with their enemy. The amount of relationship improved depends on the initiating lord's Persuasion skill.

Prisoners

Prisoners are lords that have been kidnapped. There are three ways to kidnap a lord:

• Guests can be kidnapped via the Capture action.
• You can order the kidnapping of a lord from a neighboring province.
• Unconscious lords in a defeated army will be kidnapped by the victor.

Prisoners start with a loyalty of -100. If loyalty is raised to 0 they will join the city and will no longer be prisoners.

Unhappy prisoners will try to escape. This can be prevented by blinding the prisoner but this will greatly limit their capabilities.

Prisoners can be assigned to any action except military ones.

Prisoners can be returned either by paying a ransom or by defeating the kidnapper.

Relationships

Relationships between lords are measured on a scale from -100 to +100 and can change as a result of social thoughts and deep conversations.

• If relationship is above +25 the lords are considered friends. Friends are inclined to spend time together, visit each other during illness, stand up for each other in a fight, and deep conversations with them are more likely to end well.
• If relationship is below -25 the lords are considered enemies. Enemies have reduced Interest with each other, are the subject of Intrigue deep conversations, and deep conversations with them are more likely to end badly.
• If relationship is below -50 the lords are considered mortal enemies. Mortal enemies may attempt to kill each other. If the bishop makes a mortal enemy he can trigger a religious fanatic rebellion.

Lords who are part of the same family or are lovers have increased relationships with each other, visit each other in case of illness and mourn each other if one of them dies.

The relation between two kings affect diplomatic relations between their cities.

Interest

Lords are drawn to each other with varying degrees of Interest, which is displayed in the Relationships tab. Interest affects the likelihood of telling a joke during a deep conversation and falling in love. At least 50 Interest is required for two lords to be willing to go on a date.

The following factors affect the Interest between two lords:

• Difference in Manners skill level
• Family relation
• Existing relationships
• Age
• Social status
• Alcohol consumption
• Rumors
• Previous interactions
• Unattractive, Attractive and Beautiful personality traits
• Sex need

If a lord has a very high interest with another lord of and their Sex need is unfulfilled enough they may fall in love. A lord who is in love will gain a strong positive thought, will only go on dates their love interest, will gift them Holy Rings when deep conversations result in Flattery and will suffer if rejected. Lords in love will also feel jealousy towards any lord of same gender who is a friend of their love interest or in love with them.

If two lords have went a couple of times on dates or both fall in love with each other they become lovers. Lovers can have sex at any time, they try to spend even more time together, deep conversations that result in Heartfelt Conversation will satisfy the Sex need and their relationship is treated like family. The love relationship will end if either partner's Interest drops below 0.