Loyalty bonds

Olympia: The Age of Gods PBEM (Oct 4 2000)

## 3.2: Loyalty bonds

              Immortal gods, I crave no pelf;
              I pray for no man but myself;
              Grant I may never prove so fond,
              To trust man on his oath or bond.

            Timon of Athens, William Shakespeare

Nobles are bound to their lords by one of three kinds of loyalty:

contract | The noble is being paid for his service
oath | The noble has taken an oath to serve his master
fear | The noble serves out of fear

The loyalty bond is rated. For example, a noble's loyalty could be oath-1, contract-500, or fear-50.

A player's initial noble has oath-2 loyalty.

Newly hired nobles have loyalty contract-500. Nobles are paid for their service with the `honor` command. A noble who issues ```honor` 50`' will spend 50 gold to raise his own contract loyalty rating by 50 points.

A noble may take an oath of loyalty, pledging one or two Noble Points to secure it. This would yield loyalty oath-1 or oath-2. The `oath` order secures an oath of loyalty for a noble.

Nobles may be terrorized by their masters. The severity of their treatment accumulates in the loyalty rating: fear-10, for instance. Fear loyalty is maintained with the `terrorize` order.

Only one kind of loyalty may be active at a time.

Contract and fear loyalty decay over time. Contract loyalty loses the greater of 50 points or 10% of the current rating each month. Fear loyalty loses 1-2 rating points each month. Oath loyalty does not decay.

A contract noble who is about to fall to contract-0 will automatically honor himself to keep from deserting. He will spend 50 gold from his own inventory (if available) or from claim gold. He will do this even if he is being held prisoner.

Units which fall to contract-0 or fear-0 have a 50% chance of deserting each month.

Summary:

contract | Amount of gold invested in noble Decays by max(50, 10% of current rating) each month
fear | Severity of `terrorize` used on noble Decays 1-2 points each month
oath | 1 or 2 NPs may be invested in an oath bond Does not decay

Commands dealing with loyalty bonds:

- `bribe`
- `honor`
- `oath`
- `terrorize`

- Converting Nobles to a New Faction
- When a Noble Deserts
- When a Noble Dies
- When a Player Quits