Loyalty bonds
=============

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 character's loyalty could be
oath-1, contract-500, or fear-50.

A player's initial character 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.

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

Nobles serving through contract or fear are susceptible to bribes,
which may induce them to renounce loyalty to their lord, and pledge
their service to the bribing faction.  See the BRIBE order for details
on bribing characters.

Oath-1 nobles ignore all bribes.  There is a persuasion skill which may
cause an oath-1 noble to defect, although its use is difficult and rarely
succeeds.  Oath-1 nobles may reveal their factional affiliation if tortured.

Oath-2 nobles will not renounce loyalty to their lord under any
circumstances, nor can they be forced to reveal any information about
themselves.

Units may be given to other players with the SWEAR order.  The loyalty
of sworn units does not change when they are transferred.  A player
may only swear one unit per turn, however.


Summary:

	loyalty		rating
	-------		------
	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 NP's may be invested in an oath bond
			Does not decay


Commands dealing with loyalty bonds:

        BRIBE
        HONOR
        OATH
        SWEAR
        TERRORIZE