Factions and politics
The town court
How a town's court is formed and run: its head and officers, their rights, justice and the watch, the town register, charters, letters to the citizens, and what happens when officers go idle. For officers, and for citizens who deal with them.
A court in every town
- A town given to a faction
However the town changed hands - the Lord, the staff, a claim, a challenge, a siege - its new holder has 48 hours to name the town's head: the Bailiff (the Lord, in a castle town). The faction's leader (or a rank given the faction's "town court" right) names them - themselves or anyone else. The leader is told at once and again 12 hours before the deadline. If no head is named in time, the faction loses the town: it goes back to having no holder (and the Lord may give it again at once).
- The court is formed
The head invites the officers. Anyone can be called to serve: you do not need to belong to the ruling faction, or to any faction. The people invited accept or decline from their own menu (F2) or on the account site. A character holds one office per town, but may serve in several towns.
- The old court
When a town changes hands, its old court keeps its seats for 48 hours. After that, each officer must have been confirmed by the new head, or loses the seat. Nothing an officer did is undone.
- The head's faction holds the town
The town belongs to the faction of its head. When the Lord (or a court) seats a head from another faction, the town and its toll go to that faction at once, and the court keeps its seats as they are. A head of no faction gives the town to the faction of the town's Lord.
- A town nobody holds
runs automatically, as before: the town hall's clerk sells every free property at its price, with no court and no requests, until a faction holds the town and names its head. The staff may also set any town to Automatic.
The offices
| Office | Seats | What they do |
|---|---|---|
| Lord (a castle town) · Bailiff (a village) | 1 | every right of the court; the only one who appoints or dismisses the Castellan and sets the Treasurer's weekly cap; sets the officers' wages; may overrule any officer's act |
| Castellan | 1 | the head's right hand: acts as the head in everything except the Castellan's own seat and the cap, and takes the head's place when the head is away |
| Steward | 2 | the town's houses, stalls and taverns: answers purchase requests, reserves a free property (7 days), grants one with the head's consent, sets a property's upkeep, evicts, works the gates and town doors |
| Treasurer | 1 | the town's treasury and its ledger: spends within the head's weekly cap, pays the wages, answers the faction's requests for money |
| Reeve | 1 | the town's judge, below the City Guard (the realm's bounties, wanted notices and trials stay with the Guard and the lordship's Constables): fines, the town's cell, banishment, pardon, citizenship |
| Captain of the Watch | 1 | the town's watch: recruits and dismisses the Watchmen, keeps the town's wanted list, fines (up to 100 gr.) and puts people in the town's cell (up to 30 minutes), works the gates |
| Watchman | 8 | keeps the peace in the town with every law tool: binds and escorts, fines (up to 50 gr.), the town's cell (up to 15 minutes), the town's wanted list, impounds horses and carts, hears of the crimes committed there, works the gates. In their town, /fine, /pillory and /wanted act as the town's own |
| Auctioneer (only in a town with an auction house) | 3 | the face of the town's auction house, which sells at the counter on its own since 16 October 2026 (no opening, no requests to answer). Of any faction or none. Appointed by the head or the Castellan, with a wage like the others; the office is not offered where the town has no auction house |
Every right, by office
✓ the office has it · a figure is its limit · - it does not. The Lord holds every right of the head in every town of the lordship.
| Right | Head | Castellan | Steward | Treasurer | Reeve | Captain | Watchman |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| See every property of the town | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | - | - |
| Answer purchase requests | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | - | - | - | - |
| Reserve a free property (7 days) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | - | - | - | - |
| Grant a property free (the treasury pays the clerk half his price), offer it to someone at a price, or put it up at the court's own price | ✓ | ✓ | head's consent | - | - | - | - |
| Set a property's weekly upkeep | -25% … +50% | -25% … +50% | -25% … +50% | - | - | - | - |
| Evict (48 hours' notice; at once if overdue) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | - | consents for a Patrician | - | - |
| Work the town's gates and doors | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | - | - | ✓ | ✓ |
| See the treasury and its ledger | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | - | - | - |
| Spend from the treasury | ✓ | weekly cap | - | weekly cap | - | - | - |
| Answer the faction's requests for money | ✓ | ✓ | - | ✓ | - | - | - |
| Set the wages / the Treasurer's cap | both | wages | - | - | - | - | - |
| Fine | 200 gr. | 200 gr. | - | - | 200 gr. | 100 gr. | 50 gr. |
| The town's cell | 1 hour | 1 hour | - | - | 1 hour | 30 min | 15 min |
| Banish from the town | 7 days | 7 days | - | - | 7 days | - | - |
| Pardon (a fine, the cell, a banishment) | ✓ | ✓ | - | - | ✓ | - | - |
| Bind and escort | ✓ | ✓ | - | - | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| The town's wanted list | ✓ | ✓ | - | - | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Suspend a citizenship (14 days) / raise a newcomer to Burgher | ✓ | ✓ | - | - | ✓ | - | - |
| See the town's citizens and their activity | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | - |
| Appoint and dismiss officers | all | all but the Castellan | - | - | - | Watchmen | - |
| The town's message | ✓ | ✓ | - | - | - | - | - |
| Issue and revoke official documents (charters, orders); read their registry | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | - | - | - | - |
| Run the town's auction house | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
The Auctioneer (a town with an auction house) holds one right: running the town's auction house. Like every officer, they read the town's register.
Justice and the watch
The Reeve judges the town's minor matters under the realm's law:
- a fine of up to 200 groschen, paid into the town's treasury (offered to someone standing next to the Reeve);
- the town's cell - the stocks at the pillory - for up to an hour (the person sentenced must be bound);
- a banishment of up to 7 days. If the banished person rides into the town, they are warned, and the court and its watch are told and see where they are; nobody is moved by force. Where the lordship has sworn Constables, they are told too and may bind the trespasser on sight;
- a pardon;
- a citizenship suspended for up to 14 days (meanwhile no house can be bought, the upkeep is not reduced and no standing is earned), or a newcomer raised to Burgher.
The Captain and the Watchmen can bind at once in their town and lead the bound (/escort). They keep the town's own wanted list (separate from the Guard's board) and work its gates and doors. The commands: /tfine /tcell /tbanish /twanted, or F2 > a person > The court of the town.
The town register and the town's message
Every act of a court - appointments, approvals and refusals, expiries, evictions, fines, banishments, suspensions, the treasury's movements and the faction's petitions - is written in the town's register. Anyone can read it at the town hall (talk to the clerk); the court reads it in its window, and it is also on the account site. The head (or the Castellan, or the Lord) writes the town's message: a short notice, a link allowed. Citizens read it when they arrive in the realm, anyone riding into the town reads it once a day, and it shows on the town's card on the live map.
Charters and official orders
A town's head (its Bailiff, or the Lord), its Castellan and its Stewards issue the town's official documents: a charter - an appointment, a permit, a confirmation of authority, a grant - or an official order. In the court window's Charters tab (F2 > Town court, or /charter), choose the type, a template or your own words, the recipient (any character, by first and last name), a short title, the full text, how long it is valid (a number of days, or indefinitely) and on whose behalf it is issued: the Court of the town, its head by name, or yourself. The date, the number, the issuer and their office are filled in for you.
| A real paper | The document goes into the issuer's pack as an item, its number, type, title, issuer, recipient, dates and the start of its text in its tooltip. Hand it to its recipient (the pack, B: pick it and choose a person, or a trade). It goes wherever an item goes: into a chest or a house's storage and back out, robbed, looted off a body, dropped and picked up again (drop it from the game's own inventory, I). It is always the one paper, never a copy. |
| Read it, show it | Read it from the pack (B: Read it, or a double click) or the game's own inventory (I: Read). Show it to those around (the pack, or /charter show 12): everyone within a few metres reads it - title, issuer, recipient, dates, validity, status and full text - and it stays yours. |
| Never changed | Its contents cannot be edited. A correction is a new document (and the old one revoked). |
| Valid, Expired, Revoked | A document with an end date is Expired after it. The head, the Castellan or a Steward can revoke it with a reason (/charter revoke 12 reason, or the document's card in the Charters tab): it becomes Revoked. Either way the paper stays where it is and can still be read, marked invalid - in its name and on the parchment. |
| The registry | Every document stays in the town's registry, even if the paper is lost, stolen or thrown away: its full text, who issued it and on whose behalf, the recipient, its dates, its status, who revoked it, when and why, who held it last, and its history - issued, handed over, stored, taken, stolen, dropped, picked up. Only the officials who issue documents and the staff read it: the Charters tab (searched by number, name or title) or /charter history (/charter history 12 for one document and its history, or a name). Issuing and revoking are also written in the town's register. |
Letters to many
In the letters window (F2 > Letters), the recipient field offers groups to those allowed to write to them: a Lord can write to all the Bailiffs of the lordship, and a town's head (and its Castellan) to all the citizens of the town. Each recipient gets the letter in their inbox, under the writer's seal and headed with the group's name. The courier's price is paid for each letter, and you can send at most two such letters a day per group. You can do the same from the account site's Town court page.
Citizens and their points
The court sees its town's citizens: their rank, their points this week (what they did for the town), their hours in the realm this week, what they own in the town and when they were last seen. The list can be filtered by active citizens, those away (14 days or more) and rank. Ranks still come from the points, with nothing to renew; the Reeve only handles the exceptions.
When the court is absent
| An idle officer | After 14 days without playing on that server, the seat falls empty and the head is told. |
| Rights move up | An empty office's rights pass to the Castellan, then to the head, then to the holding faction's leader. |
| An idle head | After 21 days without playing, the Castellan acts as head and the faction's leader is told (the staff, for a Lord). |
Titles
A town's head carries their title before their name wherever others see it - over their head, in the chat, in the players' list and on their letters: Lord for the head of a castle town, Bailiff for the head of a village - for as long as they hold the seat. Titles are earned in the realm, not taken: a character's first name may not begin with a ruling title (Lord, Lady, Baron, Count, Duke, King, Prince, Bailiff, Castellan, Reeve, Steward and the like). A family name may be anything, and Sir and Knight are still allowed.