Provinces (game feature)

After the Unraveling the Aegic Valley lies in ruins. Councils of adventurers claim its abandoned provinces and rebuild them, lot by lot, into living settlements. A province is a grid of lots, each with its own ground: forest, hills, marsh, tundra, plains and more. The council clears the ground, raises buildings, keeps the settlers fed and hunts down what threatens the land.

You need not sit on a council to take part. Anyone can work for a settlement, earn its trust, use its inn, forge and shrine, and buy a lot for a home of their own.

Getting started

1. Found a council, anywhere, with council create <name>.
2. Find an unclaimed province's claim stone out in the outworld and type claim beside it (help claim). You receive a Storehouse plan.
3. Type enter, and walk in through the settlement's gates.
4. province map shows your lots. Stand on one and look, or survey, to see its ground and which buildings would do well there.
5. prepare ground clears a wild lot. Carry an axe for forest and a pick for rock.
6. On the cleared lot, build storehouse lays out the building.
7. Carry a hammer and type build to work on it. wanted shows the materials each stage still needs.
8. Once the Storehouse stands, its blueprint loft sells the other plans.

Finding your way

enter from the outworld brings you outside the settlement's timber gates; walk through them to go in, and type leave outside them to go back out. A strip of bare ground rings the lots, and nothing is ever built on it. A signpost just inside the gates points the way to every building: read signpost. The claim stone, the job board and the planning table stand in the central square.

On province map, @ is you, ? is an entrance (the way out, or a mine) and & a moon portal. The legend under the map names the rest.

Who's who

• The council owns the province: up to five players, holding up to three provinces. Members vote on the big decisions and run the treasury, building and repairs (help council).
• Citizens are players the council has granted citizenship. They get better prices and services, but no vote (help citizen).
• Everyone else earns standing by working for the settlement.
• The settlers live in the housing, eat the food and pay the taxes.

What you can do there

A province is a place of work, and most of it is open to anyone. The standing table below shows what needs the settlement's trust first.

Work	Where	Guide
Paid jobs: hauling, deliveries, building, sorting rubble	the job board in the central square	Province missions
Gather wood, stone and clay	wild lots	Gather
Dig ore, coal, stone and crystals	mine	Mining
Smelt ore into metal bars	smeltery	Smelting
Cut gems	the smeltery's cutting room	Gem cutting
Forge arms, armour and tools	workshop	Forge
Work leather, make fishing lures	the workshop's leatherworks	Leatherworking, Craft lure
Mill logs, saw and hew timber, carpentry	sawmill	Logging, Carpentry
Cut stone, dig clay, burn charcoal	quarry, clay pit, charcoal pit	Province buildings
Cook, farm, fish and fill the stores	food hall, farm, pasture, fishery, inn kitchen	Province food
Haul goods by handcart and wagon	storehouse, stables	Wagon
Build and repair	building sites, damaged buildings	Province construction, Repair
Take a blessing	shrine	Province buildings
Eat, rest and keep a locker	inn and its strongroom	Lockers
Buy and sell	storehouse counter, merchants' booths	Shops, Booth
Live there	a lot of your own	Homes

Crafting explains how these crafts fit together and which guilds teach them.

Standing

Each province keeps its own opinion of you. You rise from Stranger through Newcomer, Worker, Known, Trusted, Recognized, Respected, Honored, Esteemed and Champion by doing its work: board missions, deliveries, building, repairs, and kills in its territory. Standing fades while you stay away. mission register makes you a Worker at once, and province reputation lists your standing everywhere.

Standing	Opens
Newcomer	gathering wood, stone and clay
Worker	hammer-work and deliveries at building sites
Known	cooking lessons and the plainer recipe cards
Trusted	repairs, blessings, smelting, leatherwork, strongroom
Recognized	sharpening at an Improved workshop
Respected	a well-rested night upstairs at an Advanced inn
Honored	reinforcing armour at an Advanced workshop

Council members pass every gate. Higher standing also brings more mission slots and better service.

The settlement's health

Three pillars measure a province: Economy (crafting, full stores, regular collecting), Population (housing, food, the inn) and Defence (sound buildings, paths, the watch's arms, and what is slain in its territory). Each kind of building strengthens all three. The pillars sink when neglected. When all three peak together the province Flourishes, and the whole valley hears of it.

A province reaches into the outworld around it. On a tile it holds, a Territory: line names the settlement your kills there count for. While its shrine burns, council members in their own territory feel a faint restorative warmth.

Distant provinces are harder to reach and pay better: stronger shrine blessings, more favour from sacrifice and richer gathering. A province's remoteness is Settled, Borderland, Distant or Frontier; province shows it, and valley lists every claimed province.

The web

Every province has a page: open icesus.org/maps/provinces.html and click it. The page shows the board's jobs, the lots for sale, the booths' wares, the buildings, taxes, council and recent news, but no stock amounts and no treasury. council notice <text> puts up to 300 characters at the top of the page and on the signpost.

More help

Topic	Covers
help province	the province command and its subcommands
help province buildings	every building and what it offers
help province construction	building, upgrades, repair, deliveries
help province food	feeding the settlement, farms, the feast
help province missions	the job board and standing
help council	running a council
help homes	a home of your own on a lot
help wagon	hauling stone, ore and bars
help claim	claiming land
help citizen	citizenship

See also

province, council, mission, build, valley, homes