Factions and power

Lords, towns and courts

Kuttenberg's lands are no longer a scatter of prizes. Its towns belong to three great Lordships, each ruled from its castle by a Lord, and every town has a court of its own: a Bailiff and the officers who keep its houses, its money, its justice and its watch.

The three Lordships and the Crown lands

Which lordship a town belongs to can change: the staff may move a village to another lordship, to the Crown lands or out of any lordship (a castle never moves, nor Kuttenberg). The move is written in the town's register, and its old Lord, its new Lord and its head are told.

The live map draws the three Lordships in their colours - Raborsch in blue, Suchdol in red, Maleshov in green, the Crown lands in tan - with a banner over each and its castle marked. Click a lordship for its card: its Lord, its towns, who holds each and its Bailiff, its citizens and what is for sale.

The Lords

Each Lordship has one Lord, named by the staff from the realm's finest roleplayers - the three most powerful people on the server. A Lord:

• is the head of every town of their lordship, above the villages' Bailiffs: every right of a town's head, in every town (the purchases, the properties, evictions and upkeep, the treasury, the justice, the officers - a village's Bailiff and court included) and may overrule any act of their courts;
• gives each village to a faction (or to none), from the Lordship tab: a town given cannot be given again by the Lord for 7 days (the staff are not bound); the castle town itself is never given - its holder is won by influence, as before;
• sees the whole lordship side by side: each town's holder and Bailiff, its citizens (and how many were active this week), the toll its holder took this week and over four weeks, its treasury and the upkeep it took in, its properties (owned, for sale, overdue), its open and expired requests - and answers every request of the lordship from one list.

Without a Lord, a castle town's head is named by its holding faction, as a village's is.

Dissident towns

A village may renounce its Lord. Its head (the Bailiff), or the leader of the faction that holds it, declares the town dissident - from the court's window (The court tab), F2 > Town court or the account site - giving a reason, and confirming it. From then on:

• the Lord has no part in the town: no right in its court, its requests leave the Lord's list, the Lord can no longer give it to a faction, nor name or dismiss its officers; the Lord sees only its name, its holder and that it is dissident;
• the town's own court runs alone, as any court does;
• the Lordship tab and the account site show it in red, and the live map rings it in a red dashed line, its card saying Dissident;
• the staff are told at once.

The town ends its dissidence itself (its head or its holder's leader, the same way), or the staff end it; a change of holder or a move to another lordship ends it too. Every step goes into the town's register, and the Lord and the town's head are told. A castle cannot be dissident: it is the Lord's own seat. A dissident town is still a town of the lordship: it cannot be challenged or besieged.

A held town of a lordship answers to its Lord (its castle included): only the Lord or the staff change its holder - no challenge, no siege, and no loss to a rival's influence. A town nobody holds is claimed at its town hall as before; its claimant then has 48 hours to name its head, and the Lord may give it to another faction 7 days after the claim. Sigismund's camp and Devil's Den, outside the lordships, keep the old rules; Kuttenberg stays held ward by ward.

A court in every town

1. A town given to a faction

   However it 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). Its leader (or a rank given the faction's "town court" right) names them - themselves or anyone. The leader is told at once and again 12 hours before the end; with no head named in time, the faction loses the town, which goes back to no holder (and the Lord may give it again at once).

2. The court is raised

   The head invites the officers. Anyone can be called to serve: you need not belong to the ruling faction, or to any. The invited accept or decline from their own menu (F2) or on the account site. One office per character in a town; one may serve in several towns.

3. The old court

   When a town changes hands, its old court keeps its seats 48 hours; then each officer must have been confirmed by the new head, or loses the seat. Nothing an officer did is undone.

4. A town nobody holds

   is fully automatic, as before: the town hall's clerk sells every free property at its price, no court, no requests - until a faction holds it and names its head. The staff may also set any town to Automatic.

The offices

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.

Buying a house, a stall, a shop or a tavern

1. Ask the court

   In a town whose court sits, buying a free property - at its door, its keeper, the town clerk's list or the market window - is a request to the court. Add a word for them if you like. The price is held from your purse (or your account at the moneylender; a faction's purchase from its coffers).

2. The court is told

   The head, the Castellan and the Stewards (and the Lord) hear of it at once: a notice in game, the count on F2 > Town court, and on the account site. They see the buyer whole: citizenship rank, faction, hours played, properties held, past evictions.

3. The answer

   Approved: the property is yours at once, its price gone to the town hall as before. Declined, with a reason you read: the money comes back. You are told in game, or by letter if you were away.

4. No answer

   After 48 hours the request expires: the money comes back and you are told. A town whose requests keep expiring (five of them) is shown to the staff, who look at whether its court is still alive.

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 paid goes into the town's treasury (the other half leaves the economy, as before). The court may set a property's own upkeep from -25% to +50%.

The town's treasury

Every town with a court keeps its own money, apart from the faction's coffers. In: half of every upkeep paid in the town, and the court's fines. Out: the officers' and the watch's weekly wages (set by the head, paid each Monday to those who played at least an hour the week before - an empty treasury pays nothing that week), the properties granted, and what the head - or the Castellan and the Treasurer, within the head's weekly cap - spends for the town or pays to someone. The toll still goes to the holding faction's coffers.

The faction petitions the town: its leader (or a rank that draws on the coffers) asks for a sum with a reason; the head, the Castellan or the Treasurer pays it into the coffers or declines; unanswered, it expires in 48 hours. Every coin is in the treasury's ledger.

Justice and the watch

The Reeve judges the town's small matters under the realm's law: a fine of up to 200 groschen into the town's treasury (offered to one standing beside them), the town's cell - the pillory's stocks - for up to an hour (the one sentenced must be bound), a banishment of up to 7 days (whoever is banished and rides into the town is warned, and the court and its watch hear of it and see where - nobody is carried off), a pardon, a citizenship suspended for up to 14 days (no house bought, no lighter upkeep, no standing earned meanwhile) or a newcomer raised to Burgher. The Captain and the Watchmen bind at once in their town and lead the bound (/escort), keep the town's own wanted list (apart from the Guard's board) and work its gates and city 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 moves and the faction's petitions - is written in the town's register: readable by anyone at the town hall (talk to the clerk), by the court in its window, and on the account site. The head (or the Castellan, or the Lord) writes the town's message: a short notice, a link allowed, that its citizens read as they arrive in the realm, that anyone riding into the town reads once a day, and that shows on the live map's card.

Letters to many

In the letters window (F2 > Letters), the recipient field offers groups to those who may write to them: a Lord writes to all the Bailiffs of the lordship, a town's head (and its Castellan) to all the citizens of the town. Each one gets the letter in their inbox, under the writer's wax and headed with the group; the courier's price is paid for each, two such letters a day per group at most. 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 hold in the town and when they were last seen - filtered by the active, the away (14 days and more) and each rank. Ranks still come from the points, with nothing to renew; the Reeve only handles the exceptions.

When the court is away

Titles

A town's head bears their title before their name wherever others see it - over their head, in the chat, in the players' list, on their letters: Lord for a castle town's head, Bailiff for a village's - 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 stay allowed.

Where to find it

What changes for regular players?

Being a citizen now means something: you are part of the town, and you can be called to its court. Towns have authorities: you ask the court to buy a house or a shop there. The town's Reeve can fine you or put you in the cell, and is responsible for the town's watch and safety. The realm's politics are open to all: anyone may serve. Each town court can write to all its citizens, and each Lord to all their towns at once. And the Chronicle, the lore book in your F2 menu (/chronicle), tells what happens on the server.

What happens to factions already holding a town?

Nothing changes: the faction keeps its town and its toll. Name your Bailiff to raise its court (until then the town's clerk sells as before), and reach the Lord of your lordship to align your roleplay: it is now their decision whether a town changes its ruler - and yours to challenge it. A held town of a lordship is no longer challenged, besieged or lost to a rival's influence: only its Lord (or the staff) gives it to another faction - a free town is still claimed as before. A siege declared on a held town of a lordship before the change was called off and its price paid back.

On the Adventure server

The Adventure server runs without staff to settle the realm's politics, so its lordships are open:

• its towns keep the open rules everywhere, the lordships' towns included: they are claimed, challenged, besieged and lost to a rival's influence as before;
• a Lord there only watches over the lordship - the Lordship tab's overview of its towns, their holders, Bailiffs, citizens, toll and properties - and rules nothing: no requests answered, no town given, no officer named, no act overruled;
• a castle's head is named by the faction that holds it, as a village's is (it bears the title of Lord); the staff may still name a Lord, but nothing waits on it;
• there are no dissident towns;
• everything else works the same - the town courts, the purchase requests, the treasuries, the registers - with the 48 hours to name a head: a town left without one goes back to no holder and can be claimed again, so nothing stays stuck.