Politics

Settlement Establishment

Politics is only available after a town hall has been built at a location. The town menu, which has all the available information and options for everyone interested in the inter-workings of the town itself, is enabled once a town hall, and a leader, has been established. A lot of other buildings in the game require this building be created first. Towns are initially always established as a Monarchy. You cannot establish towns on map tiles adjacent to other towns.

The only way to forcibly take leadership from a monarchy (since you cannot vote) is to either kill the head, or destroy and rebuild the town hall.

Settlement Status

Settlement status can be seen at the top of a town sign. Any type of settlement without a town sign is considered to be rural without direct influence of a government's functionality, such as taxes, and without access to services that can be built within established areas. These include hermits, personal homes and farmsteads, camps, and any other small or unorganised groups of people. The requirements for each settlement status level include the requirements for all preceding levels. Only cities can mint coins.

Village

• Has town hall

A village is a low population area mainly consisting of just a family or two, or a few homesteading individuals that have made their settlement official with a town sign to establish a basic government. It has no extra services, defenses, or attractions.

Town

• Has town hall
• Has a watchtower
• Has a guard barracks
• Has at least three other additional facilities that provide benefits beyond the town hall, barracks, and watchtower.
• Has at least 7 living citizens

A town is a settlement with some basic defenses and amenities, which may include factories and other ability expanding facilities that give their citizens and/or visitors benefits to being there.

City

• Has town hall
• Has a watchtower
• Has a castle
• Has a guard barracks with at least one guard.
• Has at least five other additional facilities that provide benefits beyond the town hall, barracks, watchtower, and castle.
• Has at least 15 living citizens

A city is a densely populated location with a high number of citizens, a wide array of services/amenities, and is capable of being well fortified. It is capable of producing its own coins if it has a mint.

Citizenship

To become a citizen you must apply for citizenship through the Town Sign, which the leadership can approve or reject with the chosen system they use for governing. The benefits afforded to you as a citizen of a town are dependent on leadership. Citizens may have access to special functionality from a public building, they may have lower taxes, or other perks. Citizens are also protected vigilantly by town guards, if they are available. Citizens are also available to become potential heirs and leaders of the town in the future. It is up to leadership to decide how to mold the purpose of citizenship status through town settings. Citizenship can be renounced by the citizen or revoked by the leader, and the leader can step down, at any time through the town sign. Currently citizenship is limited to one town. You do not have to renounce or have your citizenship revoked to apply elsewhere. Handy town sprites will clean up the previous town sign indicating you are no longer a citizen.

If the town's leader/head is in hibernation at any point in time, a town's diplomatic/diplomacy leader can accept any citizenship requests in their stead.

Government

Information about the area's government and practice can be found on the Town Sign under Actions. Everyone will be able to see basic information about the town, but will have little ability to manipulate it other than to apply for citizenship. The basic information includes the town description, government type, succession type, leadership, taxes, laws, and a list of current citizens and alliances. You can only be a leader in one town at a time. All leadership has access to view the government, council, and citizen information. To see what the menus look like, see below. Leaders can retire at any time, leading to succession.

Types

Monarchy: The town is run primarily by one individual with absolute power. Though they may have honorary council members who advise them, they do not have any true power. They have access to viewing information, but cannot change it except for what the town is called and its description.

Parliament: The town is run by an elected council with separate powers that was voted in by other councilors. Council members all have their own sections of power with the main leader having access to all.

Democracy: The town is run by an elected council with separate powers that was voted in by the citizenry. Council members all have their own sections of power with the main leader having access to all.

Voting

For a non-monarchy, voting will initialize when any changes whatsoever are made in the town menu by a leader. Voting initiates a project, only valid voters (depending on government) can set a single vote and are able to join the project. Depending on what type of government you have, the total allowed number of votes will either be 1. the number of filled leadership positions or 2. the total number of citizens. Eligible voters are also separated by leadership and citizens depending on government type. The proposed change will be made at the end of the voting project if a majority of the required voters (greater than 50%) have put in their vote, it is passed automatically and immediately once the vote reaches a majority. It is the only type of project that is not tick-based.

Monarchy: There is no voting in a monarchy.

Parliament: Only leadership, which is composed of councilors, can vote.

Democracy: All citizens can vote.

Council

Head: The head is the leader of domestic issues, and is the main leader. They deal primarily with civil disputes, building ownership, and laws to do with the well being of the citizenry, but they always have access to everything. They decide who gets nominated for leadership positions (if election is the succession).
Trade: The trade leader is the head of economic issues, business, trade, and taxes. They represent the financial interest of a town, and also usually decide or advise where treasury funds are applied. They have access to taxes and treasury.
Diplomacy: The diplomacy leader is the head of foreign affairs. Their job is usually to represent or advise the town in official meetings with other town representatives, and to decide when and how friendly alliances are made, and with who. Diplomatic leaders can also accept citizenship requests if the Head is in hibernation.They have access to alliances.
Defense: The leader of defense is the head of violent affairs. They usually advise or lead the use of town guards, and tend to be the primary candidate for leading any military groups created for the intentions of a town. They have access to Guards.

Succession

Natural Succession
Succession can be based upon seniority, favoritism, or election with the pool of candidates based on bloodline, the council, or the general public of citizens (depending on the type of government). Council is allowed to select a new leader (for voting) if the government isn't a monarchy, but only the interior is allowed to select (without voting) if it is a monarchy. This only an option in a monarchy if there is no heir for the other titles. Council cannot set their Head/Interior leader as their heir. Candidates for an heir must not have them set as an heir somewhere else, and must not already hold a position within the government or hold a position of power.

Monarchy: Can set heirs. Has access to seniority and favoritism types of succession with the pool of candidates based on bloodline, the council, or the general public of citizens.

Parliament: Cannot set heirs, head can nominate councilors with councillors voting, succession is through election.

Democracy: Cannot set heirs, citizens can nominate themselves or vote for others, succession is through election.

Rogue Succession
There are several circumstances where other people can claim head leadership:

• If it's a monarchy, and you have no monarch and no councilors, anyone can claim leadership.

• If it's a monarchy and you have councilors, only councilors can claim leadership.

• If it's a parliament, and there's no head, and there's only one councilor, the councilor can claim leadership without a vote.

• If it's a parliament, and there's no head, but there are multiple councilors, any of them can campaign but it requires a vote (that only councilors can vote on).

• If it's a parliament, and there's no head and there are no councilors, anyone can claim leadership without a vote.

• If it's a democracy, and if there's no head, applying for leadership by anyone will require a vote.

Laws

Laws serve two purposes: they set the automatic behavior of guards and they outline behavior expected from others. Beware that there are warning messages that will appear in any town or settlement that has an action that isn't allowed by law. Also note that children under the age of 14 are exempt from automatic law enforcement except in the case of theft.

1. Violence (Allowed, None, Citizens Only) (Only enforced upon initiation, not counter attacks, and only within visibility of a guard)
2. Eavesdropping (Allowed, None, Citizens Only)
3. Forced Entry (Allowed, None, Citizens Only)
4. Theft (Allowed, None Allowed, Only Incapability Allowed, Only Pickpocketing Allowed)
5. Dragging (Allowed, None, Citizens Only)
6. Vandalism (Allowed, None, Citizens Only)
7. Personal Inheritance (Allowed, Town Inherits Assets)
8. Custom (Description based laws enforced by players)

Taxes

Taxes are collected automatically from onhand coins. If money cannot be collected, the monarch/head and trade councilor (if one exists) will be notified. Taxes begin automatically collecting at age 16. To be collected, the characters must be on the tile, but can be in any room on that tile.

Alliances

Alliances can be offered if a diplomatic or head leader of one town, heads another where they can be accepted, dismissed, or broken. Citizens of allied towns can send and receive mail from other allied towns via animals, see Carriers for more information. Citizens can also see which alliances their town has on the town sign.