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6.1.4: Castles

Castles are the foundation of land ownership. A castle is the symbol of strength that peasants recognize in a ruler. A noble backed by a castle may garrison land and collect taxes.

A province may contain only one castle. The castle must be built in the outer province or in a city, if the province has one. Castles may not be built inside other sublocations.

A castle alone is not sufficient to rule a province. A garrison must be stationed outside the castle in the province to protect it.

The castle owner gains status from the number of provinces under control:

provinces       rank
---------       ----
   1-3          lord
   4-7          knight
   8-11         baron
  12-15         count
  16-19         earl
  20-22         marquess
   23+          duke
  region        king     (region must have at least 15 provinces)

A noble may pledge to another noble, granting status and control of owned provinces. The status of a noble who pledges is the smaller of the original status or one below the rank of the pledge target:

new status = min(original status, one below rank of pledge target)

Control of a province allows one to change its name or the name of any of its sublocations, take items from the garrison, issue decrees to watch for certain units, have the garrison attack specified units on sight, control the borders, and establish entrance fees (see Control of Locations).

Every noble in the pledge chain shares control of the garrisoned provinces. In other words, a castle owner may pledge to a noble, who in turn may pledge to a third noble, etc. Thus a province may have any number of rulers.

Visitors to a province are informed of the castle to which the garrison is bound, and the top-most ruler in the pledge chain (which may simply be the owner of the castle):

Province controlled by Amber Keep [cy09], castle, in Forest [cj12]
Ruled by Erekosse [5210], baron
...
Seen here:
  Garrison [780], garrison, on guard, with ten soldiers