Royalty

Royal Status

The definitive word on when you should have Royal status and the benefits it confers comes from Tom (Discussion list, mail @ Tue, 24 Jan 2006 22:22:51 +0100, plus additional information from Thu, 2nd Feb 2006):

• A ruler always becomes a royal, no matter how he became ruler
• There are two ways to lose royal status:
  • leave the realm (or island)
  • step down. Stepping down means you actively decided to give up your royal status. It is also necessary to prevent groups of friends from exploiting the system and making all their characters royal so you can't ban this "clan".

• Local lords keep their title if they lose it involuntarily. It is a land claim. If it weren't too much work, I'd even have the game remember which region, so we can have nice little title fights.
• Stepping down voluntarily, on the other hand, means giving up your claim. It does not mean it was unfounded from the beginning or any such nonsense. But it does mean "I do not claim this land anymore".
• Again, leaving the realm (or island) also means you fall back to noble. I'm not 100% sure about that, it might be nice keeping the land claims, but only if I add that the game remembers which region, so you have a reason to stir your new realm into taking that one over.