World

The world map is divided into regions. Every region has a city and two villages. Hovering over a city's number of books will list what books it possesses.

When two armies meet on the world map a battle icon will appear above them. Clicking on it will display a comparison between the two armies, and in the middle a balance of power bar that shows which army is more powerful and by how much. You can then choose to play out the battle automatically, fight it manually, or retreat.

Certain actions on the world map require either an adult lord or a messenger. Sending a messenger costs 1 Paper.

Independence

Kings can be suzerains, independents or vassals.

• Suzerains are lords that have vassals.
• Independents are lords which are neither vassals nor do not have vassals.
• Vassals are lords that have a suzerain.

Vassals cannot attack cities of other kings or demand tribute from them, cannot raid villages and must pay Gold to the suzerain that scales with the vassal's city population. Anyone who attacks a vassal will severely worsen their relations with the vassal's suzerain. When the suzerain king dies all its vassals become independent.

The player always starts as a vassal.

Villages

Every province has two villages, which will tribute one resource to the province's city every 4-6 days. The tribute must be collected manually with a lord or messenger. The tributed resource is chosen at random.

Independent and suzerain kings can raid a village to capture slaves, regardless of whether the village belongs to them or not. Villages have a number of defenders that will fight back if raided.

The owner of a village's province can pay 400 Gold to double the province's migration for 5 days and 100 Gold to halve the province's migration for 5 days. These actions are started by selecting a village but affect every village in the region.

Bandit camps

Every game will start with a bandit camp south of the city and additional bandit camps can appear if enough peasants leave to join the forest banding. Unless they are destroyed or bribed the forest bandits will periodically attack the city. There are two ways of handling bandit camps:

1. Attack and if victorious the camp will be destroyed and you will gain loot, +5 relationship with neighbors and +7 relationship with the Bishop. If there are prisoners in the camp they will be freed. Hovering over the Attack button will show the possible Gold loot.
2. Bribing costs 60 Gold and prevents attacks on the city and the growth of the bandit camp for a week. This action requires a lord or messenger.

Diplomacy

There are multiple kings you can interact with on the world map by clicking on their cities.

You can interact with specific lords in another city by choosing "Lords" from the action menu.

Dark Deeds are actions that will negatively affect the targeted city. Most of them requires cutthroats to be present in the city. There are 4 Dark Deeds:

• Lord's Assassination requires cutthroats
• Kidnapping a Lord requires cutthroats
• Library Robbery requires books in the city's library
• Hall Robbery requires cutthroats

Politics are actions that will change the diplomatic relationships between two cities.

• Offering to the King requires 10 Holy Rings.
• Peace Treaty requires an army that is not several times smaller than that of the city's king's.
• Withdrawal from vassalage is only available towards the Suzerain lord. If the Suzerain is significantly weaker they will grant independence. Otherwise they will attack the city in a few days. If you defeat their army you will become independent, otherwise you will remain a Vassal.

Send the guest will make the selected lord go to the selected city and interact with the lords present.

Trading with another city is only possible when the desired city makes a trade offer, which will be displayed above the city in question, and also requires positive relationships and a lord or messenger. The prices are always better than those of the Holy Caravan. The prices will be adjusted by a further 3% for every point of Trade skill difference between the two kings. Trading will increase relations by 5.