Lasanar/Mentor Lessons/Kestrelle/Lesson 7

Lesson Seven: Regions and Lordship

Congratulations! You've made it to the final lesson. So far I have explained what you need to know as a regular troopleader, but hopefully your career will expand toward gaining status as a landed noble. With that status comes extra responsibilities. This is some of what you will have to know.

Regions

There are several types of region:

• City
• Stronghold
• Townsland
• Mountains
• Woodland
• Rural
• Badlands

Cities mean wealth and population. They are commanded by a Duke or Duchess and are the central building block that forms a duchy, which in this game is like a mini-realm. A duchy has a city or stronghold as its capital (e.g., the Duchy of Ozrat), and the regions bordering it are usually also part of that duchy. The Duke or Duchess may appoint region lords in the duchy, much like a King or Prime Minister can throughout the entire realm. Cities generally have good defensive abilities through fortifications (which can go up to Level Five), and the Duke has the ability to recruit directly from the peasantry to defend the duchy when required. All cities have banks, and most have workshops; however, they cannot have scout guilds.

Strongholds have the toughest of all defenses (up to Level Six walls, which come by default until they are reduced through battle), but have a low gold income in comparison to a city. They can also form duchies. However, strongholds cannot build banks or have scouts.

Townsland regions usually border cities and/or rivers. They are called so because they have enough of a population to support towns and villages. They have a reasonably high gold income, and can have some minor fortifications built inside their borders (up to Level Two).

Mountain regions can have more wealth than other regions, due to mining.

Woodlands produce a modest amount of gold and some food through hunting and gathering. These regions are where you find scouts.

Rural regions are the most common type. They do not produce much gold, but are instead the “breadbasket” regions, producing enough food for most of the inhabitants of the realm.

Badlands are inhospitable regions, such as deserts, swamps or tundra. Badlands are generally uninhabited but some of them offer valuable resources such as furs, while others are locations of strategic importance.

Fortifications cannot be built in mountains, woodlands, rural or badlands regions. Occasionally you will still see a fortification in these sorts of regions, but they were placed prior to this game restriction, and once they are destroyed they cannot be rebuilt.

Region lords are expected to keep their fortifications in good shape. This means spending gold to repair or upgrade their walls on a fairly regular basis.

As a region lord, you should also consider building recruitment centres and paraphenalia if you have the gold. Check first with the Duke or Ruler before building. If you require extra gold, talk to the Banker.

Region Stats

• Production
• Morale
• Loyalty
• Control

Production is what the region produces and at what capacity, usually given by a percentage. The goal of a good region lord is to get production up to 100%. If you do significant damage to a region through battle, it is quite possible to eliminate a region's production and turn it into a relative wasteland. If that happens to be their primary gold or food region, you can bankrupt or starve a realm. (Production is also affected by morale and loyalty, for if the people don't like you or are depressed then they won't work.)

Morale is how happy the people are in that region. High morale increases production and loyalty, while low morale can have negative effects. Low morale can also increase resistance to the region lord and foster unrest.

Loyalty is the loyalty to the realm. High loyalty makes it hard for an enemy to take over the region in a war. Low loyalty makes it harder to hold court, increases subversive elements, and decreases control.

Control is the level of control your realm has over the region: 'Core', 'Main', 'Province' and 'Occupied', from highest to lowest. The lower control is, the more likely you will have revolts and resistance movements, and your tax gold will be stolen. In the worst case, your region could split off entirely from the realm and become rogue.

Region lords must keep an eye on all these statistics to keep their land productive. Looting is the one thing that can make a productive region into a wasteland in a very short time. While this can be a very effective tactic against an enemy, looting means that the looting army will have a harder time taking over the region as it creates hatred for your realm among the peasants living there. Peasants don't generally want to work for the rat-bastards who raped their women, killed their children and burned their crops to the ground.

That is why looting is illegal in Lasanar – not only is it unethical, it's also impractical.

Holding Court

From time to time when control is slipping, a region lord must hold court. There are three types of court:

• Merciful
• Just
• Harsh

Merciful court raises morale and loyalty, but some people in your region might take you for a wuss who doesn't have the guts to deal out well-deserved punishments. Because of this, sometimes merciful court results in increased unrest and resistance.

Just court raises loyalty but can decrease morale. However, resistance movements will be nipped in the bud as long as they haven't gotten out of hand.

Harsh court decreases morale the most and can decrease loyalty. However, this is the best thing to do if your region control has slipped significantly as it will almost always result in a sharp increase in control. This is the type of court you hold if you have recently taken over an enemy region – you have to prove you mean business.

And that's just what a region lord has to worry about. Higher positions such as Duke, Banker, Judge, General, etc. require even more knowledge and responsibility, but also greater fame and wealth. Perhaps someday you will rise to such a position!

You have now completed your formal training, but you will always continue to learn new things all the time.

Good luck, have fun and play smart!