Lead your noble family in this medieval colony sim, facing off against class conflict, religious struggle, and political treachery. Tend to your people’s needs, uncover the lost knowledge of a fallen empire, and engage in nefarious plots against your enemies.
The Empire has fallen, leaving in its place multiple successor kingdoms. The lords and ladies of these petty kingdoms squabble for control and influence – whether with cloak and dagger or sword and shield, families feud amongst themselves and against each other as greater threats cast a shadow across the land. Famines wreak havoc on the lives of the peasantry, warfare and disunity threaten the social order, noble families fall to decadence and hedonism, and beyond the borders of the old Empire, great armies of pillage and destruction form under the banners of invader-kings.
In these uncertain times, you must lead your small kingdom to greatness – and the members of your noble family to survival – in this medieval colony sim focussed on generating stories of great valor and vile treachery.
Your family rules from on high, working together – or against one another – to take charge of your city, your kingdom, and your political ploys. Each family member has their own strengths, weaknesses, and ambitions that drive them as they build complex relationships amongst themselves and with foreign rulers. Witness blooming friendships, drunken escapades, and brutal assassinations as your nobles dole out orders to your peasants, lead armies into battle, and study ancient texts brimming with knowledge.
- 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…
The common folk of Norland are the backbone of any kingdom, serving their noble lords on the battlefield and around the city with deference and loyalty… until their bellies become empty or the beer runs dry. With different backgrounds, needs, and thoughts of their own, the peasants are difficult to please and easily manipulated into rebellion, crime, and controversy – will you address their complaints as a benevolent lord or answer them with the executioner’s ax?
- 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
