Castles

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

### 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. As a result, he can control additional men in combat. This benefit is received by all nobles in the castle owner's faction:

      provinces       rank            control
      ---------       ----            -------
         1-3          lord              +4
         4-7          knight            +5
         8-11         baron             +6
        12-15         count             +7
        16-19         earl              +8
        20-22         marquess          +9
         23+          duke             +10
        region        king             +20 (The King only)

If a faction controls multiple castles, the nobles benefit only from the highest rank. If a noble controls a region of at least 25 provinces, then he receives the rank "King" and may control 20 additional soldiers. This King bonus applies only to the noble controlling the castle, and not to the other nobles in his faction.

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

Visitors to a province are informed of the castle to which the garrison is bound, and 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

The ruler of a province may grant certain privileges to other nobles by admitting them to his stack (admit). Every noble on the ruler's admit list (either directly, or because his faction or nation is on the admit list) is given the following privileges: he may take and give items to garrisons, he may stack with garrisons, he is not charged taxes or entrance fees, and he may name the province (name). He is not permitted to turn borders on and off, set taxes or entrance fees, ungarrison, or issue decrees.