Dynasties

Dynasties can be lore based, if your character is present in the lore. Every dynasty is split in different noble houses, one for each kingdom (So, if the player has a character called Aragorn and he's the king of gondor, of the line of Isildur, their dynasty, their house is "House of Telcontar", while there's another player playing as Eldarion, Aragorn's son, but he's king of Arnor, his dynasty is the same of Aragorn, but his House is not the same).

Houses
A noble House becomes one only when a player belonging to a dynasty recieves a title (count - duke - king). Orcs and evil men in orcish factions don't create noble houses, but they retain the ability to have a lineage (see the next section).

Managing your House
Any time you build a settlement, claim in your name and have your overlord granting you the rank of vassal, you start playing the game. What game? The game of thrones. And in the game of thrones you win or you... probably do something else, like growing flowers. As fertilizer.

When you will be able to create your noble house you will gain "an account", let's say. You will have people under your rule, an income, part of it going to your faction. You can use the income to raise armies, build more settlements, let your fief prosper. Basically noble houses work similarly to kingdoms inside kingdoms.

Artifacts
When a player of a noble house will become renown for certain actions (for example, killing many enemies in a battle), he will gain a weapon linked to his noble house. That weapon will be repaired for free while held from a player of the same noble house, but he can still lose it (being killed by another player, for example). The weapon can't pass from a noble house to another peacefully and it will be lost if the last character of that noble house dies/is missing for too much time. Such lost weapons can be hidden by the staff in secret locations and if retrieved by a player can be used as if it was their weapon.

Civil wars and such pleasant activities
Once a noble house is created and a fief is given, the king loses almost all power on those lands. He still get part of the revenue as taxes and can raise an army in the fief, but dukes can raise an army indipendently without the consent of the king (and pay the price for it). As you can see, dukes can hold quite a lot of power, especially if a noble house holds a large amount of settlements.

If a duke feels like he wants to go to war with his liege, he can rally his vassals (the counts and the other members of his house) and go to war. A king can remove a vassal by declaring war on him.

Note: Both when a duke and a king declare a civil war vassals pick sides indipendently, yes even counts.

Lineages
You are an orc, do you care about money? No! You only care about the pile of skulls that raises your throne. So shiny gold is nothing for you, only fame. The worst it is, the better you are.

Gaining a lineage
You will create a lineage when you do something amazing, like killing people, raiding a province for days and defeating armies. As soon as you create the lineage you can:


 * Choose a weapon, similar to how noble houses have one
 * Compete for the title of king.

Doesn't matter how large your properties are. Nothing? A village? A huge city? Only thing that matters is fame, fame and blood. The blood of your enemies. Kill them, make yourself known and backstab the little maggot that calls himself king. Who needs a king? You don't of course. The other yes, and they need you.

Well, this... this doesn't work with the nazgul.

Whenever sauron places a nazgul at the head of the faction, you and your allies in the civil war have to control more than half of the land of the faction in order to start one. The eye is all seeing and you cannot defeat him easily.