Factions and politics
Town property and the treasury
Buying a house, a stall, a shop or a tavern in a town with a court, the upkeep the court sets, the town's own treasury and the royal tax. For buyers, owners and the officers who keep the town's money.
Buying a house, a stall, a shop or a tavern
- Ask the court
In a town with a sitting court, buying a free property - at its door, from its keeper, from the town clerk's list or in the market window - sends a request to the court. You can add a note for them. The price is held from your purse (or your account at the moneylender; for a faction's purchase, from its coffers).
- The court is told
The head, the Castellan and the Stewards (and the Lord) are told at once: a notice in game, a count on F2 > Town court, and on the account site. They see the buyer in full: citizenship rank, faction, hours played, properties held and past evictions.
- The answer
Approved: the property is yours at once, and its price goes to the town hall as usual. Declined, with a reason you can read: your money comes back. You are told in game, or by letter if you were away.
- No answer
After 48 hours the request expires: your money comes back and you are told. When a town lets requests expire repeatedly (five of them), the staff are alerted and check whether its court is still active.
| One at a time | One open request per player in a town, and one open request per property (the first one counts). You can withdraw yours: F2 > My belongings > Houses > For sale, the market window, its line in F2, or the account site. |
| Citizens-only houses | A town's houses can still only be bought by its citizens; stalls and taverns are open to everyone. |
| Reserved for you | A property the court reserves for you (7 days) can be bought at its door straight away, without a request; nobody else may buy it. |
| Offered by the court | The court may also choose the buyer. In the grant form (the property's card in the court window, or Grant or sell on the account site), a price above 0 turns a free grant into an offer to that person at that price (a Steward's offer waits for the head's consent, like a grant). The person must be allowed to own it, as for a purchase (a town's houses are for its citizens, two at most; two businesses at most). They see the offer on screen in the realm (or when they next arrive, and by letter), in F2 and on the account site, and can pay in coin or through the moneylender, or decline. The price goes into the town's treasury ("sold to X for N gr." in its ledger), which pays the clerk half his price out of it, as for a grant: an offer below that half needs the treasury to make up the difference. The property is theirs at once, and its upkeep starts as after a purchase. The court may withdraw the offer; if unanswered, it expires after 48 hours. |
| The court's price | Whoever may grant (the head, the Castellan, the Lord) can also put a free property up at a price of the court's own for anyone: the Price field on the property's card in the court window, or Price on the account site. It goes from half the clerk's price (the realm's share) up to 1 000 000 groschen; 0 takes it off. The clerk then asks that price at the door, in the market window, at the keeper and on the shop's sign, and a request to the court holds it. Approved, the town's treasury gets the price less half the clerk's price. The court's price ends when the property is sold or granted, and counts only while the court sits. Its upkeep stays the property's own, from the clerk's price. |
| The clerk's half | Whenever a free property leaves the clerk's hands, the realm keeps half his price and the town's treasury gets the rest: half the price on a plain purchase, the price less that half at the court's price or on an offer, and a grant costs the treasury that half. |
| Selling | Selling back to the town, and giving a house or business to your faction, work as before. |
Properties and upkeep
Upkeep is paid weekly at any town hall, up to four weeks ahead. In a town with a court, half of every upkeep payment goes into the town's treasury (the other half leaves the economy, as before). In a village of a lordship that is the village's own treasury, which its Bailiff and the Lord both keep. A house or business standing just outside a village (up to 150 m beyond its edge) belongs to that village: its court, its upkeep and its treasury. The court may set a property's upkeep anywhere from -25% to +50%.
| Overdue | 7 days of grace, with reminders. After that the court may evict at once; if the court does nothing, the clerk takes the property back himself after 14 days (7 in an automatic town). |
| Evicted with notice | The court may give any owner 48 hours' notice. The town then buys the property back for 60% of its price (nothing if its upkeep was overdue). A Patrician of the town can only be evicted with the Reeve's consent. |
| Away for a while | Declare yourself away on the account site (Town court page) for up to 30 days. Meanwhile your properties are neither evicted nor taken back for overdue upkeep. |
The town's treasury
Every town with a court keeps its own money, separate from the faction's coffers. Money in: half of every upkeep paid in the town, half the price of every house and business bought there (at a price of the court's own: that price less half the clerk's), a tenth of the price paid to anyone who sells a property back to the town (taken from that price), the court's fines, and gifts: anyone may give coin to a town's treasury, from their purse or from their account at the moneylender - in the court window's Treasury tab (Give to the treasury, for everyone who has a part in the court), in the codex, or with /tdeposit 100 and /tdeposit 100 bank standing in the town (/tdeposit all gives the whole purse). Each gift is written in the ledger and the register. Money out: the weekly wages of the officers and the watch (set by the head and paid each Monday to those who played at least an hour the week before - an empty treasury pays nothing that week), half the clerk's price of the properties granted, whatever the head - or the Castellan and the Treasurer, within the head's weekly cap - spends for the town or pays to someone, and the royal tax each Monday (below). The toll still goes to the holding faction's coffers.
The royal tax
Each Monday the crown takes its share of what came in the week before (Monday to Monday, UTC), from every town's treasury and from the coffers of every faction that holds a town or a ward. It is counted on the week's gross income, by brackets:
| Income of the week | Royal tax |
|---|---|
| the first 5 000 gr. | nothing |
| from 5 000 to 20 000 gr. | 10% |
| above 20 000 gr. | 20% |
A town's income is everything that came into its treasury that week except the gifts: its half of the upkeep, the sales and their tax, the fines, the impound fees. A holder's income is its tolls, the city tax, the takings of its businesses' tills and the fines it took - never its members' deposits, the coin drawn from its towns' treasuries (already taxed there), refunds or the sale of a property. A week of 12 000 gr. pays 700, a week of 30 000 pays 3 500. The tax never takes more than the treasury holds: an empty treasury pays nothing. It is written in the ledger (royal tax), and in the town's register; the head (and the Lord) and the faction's members are told. The first week taxed is the one starting on 19 October 2026.
The faction can petition the town: its leader (or a rank that may withdraw from the coffers) asks for a sum, with a reason. The head, the Castellan or the Treasurer pays it into the coffers or declines; if unanswered, the petition expires after 48 hours. Every coin appears in the treasury's ledger.