Norland

A plethora of skills determine which of your family members are best served performing various tasks – who among them are the greatest warriors, the greatest taskmasters, the greatest scribes, and the greatest negotiators? Seek opportunities to further train their strengths, educating children to secure the future of your line while unlocking additional talent in future generations.

Beyond their skills, each family member has traits that determine their personality and capabilities, varied cultural backgrounds that influence how people perceive and treat them, and a wide range of needs and desires to keep an eye on. Dissatisfaction breeds resentment, envy, and disloyalty, and that’s when the daggers come out. Will you seek to calm tensions through gifts and camaraderie, or will you draw first blood to eliminate any threat to your preferred nobles?

Sometimes the blood you draw belongs to your own kin – driven by ambition, greed, and opportunistic thinking, the members of your family will draw blades against each other given the right circumstances. From scorned lovers and power-hungry siblings to family members influenced by foreign kings and queens, trust is in short supply.

Your kingdom’s capabilities are determined by what your nobles know – they will individually study ancient texts to learn new technologies, and should they perish, that knowledge will be lost with them (unless recorded or passed along to their students). Acquire books in different languages and read them to unlock new buildings, tools, and opportunities for your kingdom. Ensure more of your family members can learn their secrets, translating the texts into a language they speak as needed, preventing a sudden loss of knowledge resulting from a stray arrow. But will you hoard such knowledge in your libraries? Or will you transcribe these writings to trade to others in exchange for immense wealth and resources? After all, knowledge is power…

Acting through your nobles, tell your peasants where to work, what to prioritize, and when to fight – though you lack direct control over the lower class of your society, they still have hopes, dreams, and relationships of their own. Managing them carefully is critical for success as they are the ones who maintain the complex production chains of your city and are responsible for building structures, harvesting resources, and producing the very goods that keep them satisfied.

Your average peasant will rely on their accrued wealth to lead a fulfilling life. Manage the wages handed out at the end of each day as well as the cost to purchase basic needs like food and beer at the local market to ensure the people stay motivated. High wages and low costs are also an excellent way to encourage migration, but be careful of who you might welcome to your lands.

Peasants hail from different cultures, often at odds with one another, and having them coexist in your small city can be challenging. You can use this friction to your advantage at times, but if the populace has an issue with your noble family’s heritage, you might find hiring additional guards the key to a long life.

Some peasants are devout adherents to the Church of Saint Sophia, and will care most for a noble’s piety, while loyalist peasants simply need enough money to buy food and beer to remain happy. Other factions and sub-factions have different priorities – as you expand and grow stronger, expect these groups to form shifting alliances where they find common ground. Even when they’re formally on your side, though, their actions and methods might not be to your advantage, and you will never escape the consequences of their separate agendas.

When tensions flair, don’t hesitate to establish a nightly patrol, or to give a few unruly members the literal ax. Sending a clear message will often bring the peasants back in line – but do not imagine yourself invincible, as even a great lord is one angry mob away from becoming a head on a pike.

The Empire ruled over a vast tract of land, and its collapse has left behind many successor kingdoms vying for control. Resources vary from kingdom to kingdom, with each potential starting region providing the player different advantages to harness and challenges to overcome.

Send your appropriately-skilled nobles to seek out alliances through marriage, negotiate lucrative trade deals, plot assassinations and kidnappings, and incite rebellions. Will you attempt to recruit spies and conspirators in foreign kingdoms and bring them down from the inside, or do you prefer to settle your differences through force of arms on the open field of battle? And how will you respond when, inevitably, your enemies infiltrate your ranks or bring their armies to your borders?

Watch history play out as events and calamities put you in difficult circumstances from time to time, further complicating the intricate tale of betrayal and bravery that the countless nobles and peasants of Norland weave. From kidnapped relatives to plague-infested refugees, from blackmail to natural disasters, your family will be put to the test throughout the years.

Do not expect the world to sit idly by – traveling nobles will seek refuge or sow dissent, and just as you can send your family members and envoys out to seek opportunities, so too can the other kingdoms of Norland. Bandits will establish camps in the outskirts of civilization as other kingdoms push for alliances and engage in wars of their own. WIll you join them in their violent endeavors, or work in isolation instead?

Dissent and rebellion will see your peasants raise arms against you, and while a poorly armed riot can be crushed by a well-trained and loyal militia, some groups plotting against you will not be so lightly armed, and a succession crisis or power-mad relative may become your greatest threat. Keep public order in check and stay on guard against enemies hiding in your midst.

Your warriors are the very people that tend to your fields, brew your ale, and cheer on your executioners – war is not to be taken lightly as valuable lives are risked with each battle. Will you avoid bloodshed at all costs, or are the lives of your people a sacrifice you’re willing to make?

The equipment in your warrior’s hands and on their backs must be either imported or manufactured locally, limiting the makeup of your armies based on your economy – plan ahead before declaring war, and before war is declared on you.

Defend your home against foreign invaders or march across the world map and dive into all-out battle commanding the forces you’ve raised and armed – morale, combat skills, and tactical prowess can determine the victor, but no one is safe in the chaos of clashing steel.