Appointment
From BattleMaster Wiki
One of the beauties of the Medieval society is the hierarchic system which extends from the military to the government to the feudal system. Almost every noble has an equal chance to own a title as long as he works hard to earn it, be it through politics, prestige or threats.
However, the feudal system cannot be expected to be that simple as we would all wish it to be. Moreover, there are several rules to the hierarchy and how it is established and enlarged. Many nobles are confused when they realize that they cannot be appointed to a certain title because of these rules, no matter what their work to obtain it. Also rulers sometimes cannot see why their candidate is not available for the title. Reading through this parchment could prevent a lot of worries, irritation and imaginary insects (OOC: falsely reported bugs).
These rules apply only or mostly to regions. Take note that they are not guidelines (except the first and the last), but factual rules that are enforced by the game mechanics. You will not be able to do the things that would break the rules below. So if you can't appoint a noble for some reason in the game, the explanation is somewhere right below.
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Rule#1, Claims
First of all, and most important, are claims. The first rule is of course a rule of conduct, not of game mechanics!
Claims do not interfere much in the process of an appointment and barely matter in the eyes of many. You can just appoint anyone you like, even if someone else has a stronger claim. There appear, at first, to be no really damaging side-effects of appointing someone with a weaker claim than another available nobleman. So why bother even taking note claims?
Because they do matter! Too many times I have seen people hopping around whenever a region becomes free and they ask to be lord. I have seen some nobles soliciting for even three different regions at the same time. It's -honestly- disgusting. Except in a republic or democracy, of course. There regions are (OOC: will be) in fact soliticable and voted upon.
(OOC: Too many people should begin to realize that an open title is not a solicitable job-opportunity. Jump off that idea! It's modern concept and not even close to the Medieval reality.)
So the simple rule of conduct for nobles is to act as a noble.
But more importantly, the rule of conduct for the ruler and Dukes; Take note of claims! Don't just appoint anyone who comes to mind or happens to be shouting the hardest for attention. See who's claim is the strongest by checking in the region. Also take note of how hard they've earned it, of course.
This rule is starting to become enforced by the game as appointing a noble with less claim than other available nobles does initially hurt the moral and control of the region, but it is most importantly just a matter of respect for the game and roleplay.
Rule#2, Imperial Regions
In the Medieval society the rulers were the summum of power, but they hardly ever had anything effective to say about the affairs of Dukes. The Dukes gave the rulers money, and that's all. You don't meddle into the affairs of your own sponsors, now do you? And duchy regions are the affairs of Dukes, not rulers. A ruler may give advice, or even threaten the Duke to follow his wishes, but he cannot appoint a lord to a region of a duchy himself.
Rulers can only appoint lords to imperial regions.
This are the regions that no Duke can call his own, such as freshly taken over regions, joined regions or exchanged regions. It are simple game mechanics that a ruler can't appoint nobles to other regions than these. Too bad, but that's the way it is.
Rule#3, Cities and Strongholds
Well of course, a city or stronghold isn't an imperial region either, but no one else than the ruler himself can appoint a Duke or Duchess. This is a bit of an exception to the Rule#2, where the ruler now can appoint a noble to a duchy region.
The main rule here is that the ruler can only appoint a noble who has a standing oath.
Unaligned nobles can't be appointed to a city or stronghold. That are the game mechanics. Make sure to take note of the Rule#1. Most rational is to appoint someone who was already knighted to that duchy or best even that city or stronghold.
Rule#4, Duchy Regions
Unfortunately, also this part of the appointment system has a rule. But it is very simple and logical!
A Duke can only appoint a noble who is knight of his own duchy.
Other nobles are simply not available for appointment by that Duke to his own regions. They have no claim and moreover, they don't fall under the Duke's authority, thus they can't be appointed.
Rule#5, Circumventing the Game Mechanics
No, I'm not going to give you tips or reveal loopholes in the system. The human mind is already witted enough to come up with solutions to overcome the above rules. This is a merely informative rule.
The above rules can of course easily be circumvented by exchanging oaths to fill the game's requirements. It does however not mean that by doing this, by having the option to circumvent these rules, that it is good. It's still frowned upon. If you see a knight, Duke or ruler going through the trouble to circumvent the game's rules, they are technically allowed to do so, but it is seen from an OOC point of view a bit disrespectful to the concept and roleplay of the game and from an IC point of view outrageous that such a person, who was in fact not a valid candidate to begin with, gets appointed instead of someone who was a valid candidate.
More than likely, in the near future, game mechanics will be implemented so it will become harder to change oaths whenever you feel like it and take titles you don't really have any claim for at all, or a weaker claim than someone else. Currently, a moral drop and control drop is frequent when someone with a weak claim is appointed instead of someone with a strong one.
