How to Build a Kingdom

Synopsis
"Now that undefined's the ruler of {his/her} own land, he's really got {his/her} hands full! I'd like to dedicate a part of my book to the building of Barony . Who knows, one day my work might become a manual for beginning kings and queens."

Appoint an advisor to a public post

 * The Stag Lord didn't leave much of a legacy behind. Just terrified villagers in miserable local settlements, a gang of die-hard rogues in the woods, and an ancient fort that's been turned into the barony's dinky (at least for now) new capital. However, our baron{ess} hit the ground running and began gathering his council to make the Stolen Lands a prosperous place!

Begin construction of a new building in the capital

 * When the baron{ess} was busy with the council, sad news arrived from the capital. The last good barn fell apart. A replacement needs to be constructed quickly, before the neighbors give the settlement the humiliating name of "the Great Ruins."

Occupy eight slots on the capital grid

 * The baron{ess} has finished signing the decrees and orders and addressed the matters of {his/her} own capital's city planning. Judging by the drawings on the table in the throne room, the local subjects should expect a wave of city building!

Found a new village

 * Neighboring residents are attracted by your success. They want to locate to your domain. But where should they settle? In new villages, of course! The baron{ess} will announce the new founding any day now.

Add the Outskirts to the barony

 * As soon as the baron{ess} got all the business in the capital handled, {he/she} focused {his/her} attention on the Outskirts, the nearest unowned land. The locals would feel much better under the leadership of Brevoy's protégé {him/her}self! At least, I should hope so...

Found a new village on the Outskirts

 * The ruler began taking care of {his/her} new subjects immediately after the annexation of the Outskirts. The foundations of a new village with thick-walled, warm houses was announced. Of course, they don't exist yet, but on paper, at least, it's better than the rundown huts with monsters around!

Increase the rank of any barony's stat

 * You can't build a strong nation by neglecting its problems. Even though our ruler keeps facing countless problems, the Stolen Lands get stronger as undefined solves them!

Upgrade your capital to the town

 * Time flies by, and the good old villages just aren't enough for the growing barony. The baron{ess} decides that the capital of the Stolen Lands must grow larger and more respectable. To this effect, it must be upgraded.

Resolve ten events

 * Ruling a barony is [sic] tough job, especially when new troubles arise on a regular basis! Fortunately, a true ruler can rely on their loyal advisers to handle even the most urgent of tasks  be it a bad harvest in one village or a bandit raid in another.''

Unlock any secondary stat of your barony

 * The stronger the barony and more perspicacious its ruler, the more new opportunities he has every day! Consistent and steady commitment to state affairs will inevitably bear fruit, and on top of that, it will create new openings for future Leaders!''

Upgrade another village to a town

 * The experience with the capital was a success! It's time to upgrade another village to a bigger settlement.''

Walkthrough

 * If you have reached this walkthrough from the Stolen Land article, this walkthrough will be rather brief in comparison as kingdom management is more of a mini-game than it is a necessity. The only long term impact that kingdom management has on gameplay is that if the kingdom fails, your game is over. That being said, there are some small boons given by kingdom management activities, such as items gifted by kingdom artisans, or persistent buffs for the player's party while fighting and traveling in claimed regions.
 * Be warned that moving forward from this point time management will become very important, as taking too long to resolve certain quest lines will impact the stability of your barony, as well as the attitudes of your companions if their personal quests aren't handled in a timely manner.
 * If the player would prefer to avoid the tedium of kingdom management, there is a setting in the difficulty option to set the kingdom to manage itself automatically. In that case, the player will want to jump into the article for A Just Reward.

Appoint an advisor to a public post

 * The Stag Lord didn't leave much of a legacy behind. Just terrified villagers in miserable local settlements, a gang of die-hard rogues in the woods, and an ancient fort that's been turned into the barony's dinky (at least for now) new capital. However, our baron{ess} hit the ground running and began gathering his council to make the Stolen Lands a prosperous place!


 * Advisors consist of companions, mercenaries, or certain characters that the player may recruit along the course of their adventures. By the time the player's barony is established, four of the five basic advisor positions can be filled by the player's companions or their envoy, only leaving the Treasurer empty. Mercenaries may also fill any role, but they suffer a -4 penalty to their checks, so they should only be employed if the player is lacking any other options for the position.
 * An Advisor's bonuses are affected by the attribute score associated with each position, Charisma for Regent, Wisdom for Councilor, Strength for General, Intelligence for Treasurer, and Wisdom for High Priest. Companions are preferable for all advisor positions as it is impossible to alter the attribute scores of any envoys or NPCs serving as advisors, whereas companions will receive attribute bonuses for leveling up and for using certain pieces of equipment.
 * An Advisor's bonuses are also affected by factors such as their associated Kingdom Stat Rank, receiving a +2 bonus for each rank from I to X, and also by the Stability of the barony, with the lowest levels of unrest providing a bonus, while the highest levels of unrest will negatively impact an advisor's bonuses.
 * Kingdom Stat Ranks are increased by ranking up the associated Advisor. Rank ups are available at every stat value that is a multiple of 20, up to rank X at 180. Ranking up an advisor takes 14 days, during which kingdom events will fast forward. For that reason it would be a good idea to assign all other advisors to an event or project before ranking up so they aren't doing nothing in that time. It would also be a good idea to save before ranking up an advisor in case any events aren't resolved an a satisfactory manner, or a problem crops up that the player hadn't anticipated.
 * Assigning your first advisor will open up the long term quest Loyal Servants.

Begin construction of a new building in the capital

 * When the baron{ess} was busy with the council, sad news arrived from the capital. The last good barn fell apart. A replacement needs to be constructed quickly, before the neighbors give the settlement the humiliating name of "the Great Ruins."


 * To start the construction process, navigate to the Map section of the kingdom management interface. The Map has an overhead view of all of the regions of the Stolen Lands, wider than the view in any other kingdom management section. Settlements may be interacted with from any of the other sections of the kingdom management interface, but Map gives the broadest view.
 * At this point the player only has one settlement which they can interact with and build upon: Tuskdale. Built upon the remains of the Stag Lord's Fort, Tuskdale is the capital of our newly founded barony, and the seat of its organization.
 * Constructing buildings is an easy task at the core:
 * Selecting a settlement will open a display showing all of that settlement's buildings and the total stat bonuses that the settlement provides.
 * Entering the settlement opens up a new interface where the player may begin to construct buildings. The 'Build' tab has a list of all of the buildings available for construction, with a description for each building, the bonuses provided by each building, and the count of that building type already present in the settlement.
 * The availability of buildings in each settlement is based on the geographic components of that settlement, such as a body of water being required for a pier, as well as buildings which may only be available in certain regions, after certain quest lines have been completed and the manner in which they were completed, or the advancement of the settlement from village to town to city.
 * Constructing buildings requires time and Build points, referred to as BP in-game. Build points are accrued passively each week from a variety of sources listed in a breakdown by hovering over the BP per week stat, but in general the rate of BP income is affected by the level of each kingdom stat rank, the trade agreements the barony has made, the severity of the taxes levied, and by some settlement buildings. BP can be actively acquired by purchasing BP at an 80:1 ratio, where 1 BP costs the player 80 Gold Coins; at most stages of the game the player should be overflowing with wealth, so don't be afraid to throw some money towards BP if doing otherwise means leaving a project unfinished or an Advisor without a task.
 * Every building has a variable amount of time to be constructed, with smaller buildings generally taking a shorter time to construct than larger buildings. For this reason it would be good to have construction projects started before engaging in activities like ranking up and advisor or claiming a region.
 * One final note is that some buildings have interactions when built next to each other, usually providing bonuses, but sometimes limitations. For instance, having a pier and lumberyard in the same settlement will provide a +1 bonus to relations from the settlement, but having a lumberyard will prevent the player from building a sacred grove in that settlement.
 * The specifics of settlement management are non-exhaustive, so for the purposes of this walkthrough we'll be starting small. A longhouse would be a good starter construction project since it provides multiple bonuses to kingdom stats. Placing the longhouse in the center of a settlements 3x3 grid would also be ideal since the longhouse has the most interactions with other buildings, and placing it in the center of the grid opens up the most slots for interactions.
 * A player with a (Lawful) alignment may want to construct a bulletin board as their first building instead. This cheap construction project grants a +2 bonus to resolving events within the region its settlement is in, which is a huge boon for an early game barony.

Add the Outskirts to the barony

 * As soon as the baron{ess} got all the business in the capital handled, {he/she} focused {his/her} attention on the Outskirts, the nearest unowned land. The locals would feel much better under the leadership of Brevoy's protégé {him/her}self! At least, I should hope so...


 * Before going too crazy filling Tuskdale with buildings, it would be a good idea claim the Outskirts region as part of your barony.
 * Claiming a region, like ranking up an advisor, takes 14 days to resolve, and will also fast forward through kingdom events. Since the player only needs 150 BP to start the claim, they may wish to start the construction of more buildings in Tuskdale so that construction will be finished at the end of the process. Just make sure not to go under 150 BP, or the player will need to purchase BP.
 * Projects are another task which will cost the player BP and lock an advisor into an assignment. The player shouldn't have too many projects available at this point in the game, and projects will never disappear, but it's worth looking into each project as well before starting the claim since projects tend to take quite a bit of time and we'll be plowing through 14 days right now.

Found a new village on the Outskirts

 * The ruler began taking care of {his/her} new subjects immediately after the annexation of the Outskirts. The foundations of a new village with thick-walled, warm houses was announced. Of course, they don't exist yet, but on paper, at least, it's better than the rundown huts with monsters around!


 * Claiming the Outskirts will be the catalyst for several events:
 * Harrim will likely want to speak with the player, starting the companion quest Unwanted Legacy.
 * Your Community stat should have risen over 20, meaning that your councilor will approach you with a matter to resolve, after which they will be available to rank up. This holds true for all advisors once they have passed the threshold for their next rank up. A list of all of the possible matters and the effects of their resolution are available in the Throne room events article. Passage of time will also bring up kingdom events which must be resolved by assigning an advisor to them; a list of all of the possible events can be found in the Kingdom events article.
 * Jhod Kavken will approach the baron/baroness and assign the quest The Court Alchemist.
 * Annexation will open up as a long term quest for the player's barony.
 * If this is the first time that the player has exited the kingdom management interface then Jhod and Tristian will approach the player with the quest An Ancient Curse, one of many time based quests the player will be subjected to, though one of the only ones whose timer is given freely in the journal text. See the quest article for more details, as this is just the first part in a much longer chain of nuisances to come in our fledgling barony.
 * Once all of these quests have been assigned to the player, return to the Kingdom Management interface.
 * A couple of Events have probably popped up for the player at this point. Opportunities and Problems are two types assignments for advisors that come with a time limit and will take days or weeks to resolve. Of the two, Problems are more pressing to deal with since they will apply a penalty to Kingdom Stats if the player leaves them unresolved by the date listed at the top of the missive. Opportunities are less pressing than Problems as they may still apply a penalty if left unresolved, but the penalty is generally minimal if any.
 * Both Problems and Opportunities require a d20 roll using the assigned advisor's bonuses against the DC of the event. The interface includes a calculation of the chance of the advisor's success for easier decision making, and if the player feels that the probability of success is too low they may use a Crisis Point to increase the chance of success by adding a +5 bonus on top of the advisor's original bonuses.
 * The player starts out with 5 Crisis Points when the barony is founded, and an additional Crisis Point is awarded to the player each time that a kingdom stat ranks up. This means that the player can accrue up to 95 Crisis points throughout the game (10 advisors x 9 rank ups plus the 5 the player starts with), so while they don't need to be used sparingly, gauge how important you think success is for a given assignment.
 * The results of an event are determined at the time that the event is finished, not when the player opens the Kingdom Management interface. This means that if a player saves before an event is finished they can reload until they achieve favorable results, while saving after the event is finished will always return the same results upon reloading the save.
 * After assigning advisors to the events that have cropped up, the player should navigate to the Outskirts portion of their map to pick the location of their new settlement.
 * Where possible, the player should try to build settlements next to bodies of water to they get an extra build tile for a pier.
 * It may also be preferable to build settlements as close to Tuskdale as possible for when the player needs to visit an artisan at the settlement.
 * Establishing a settlement will cost 50 BP, but the player will be able to start construction in the new village immediately. Any construction from this point on is up to the player, and this walkthrough will only refer to buildings in the future if they offer an outstanding bonus that the player should be on the lookout for.
 * Claiming a new region will follow this same pattern every time; the specifics will change, but new kingdom and throne room events will likely happen every time the player claims a region due to the 14 day skip, and a new settlement may be founded in each region once it is claimed.

Increase the rank of any barony's stat

 * You can't build a strong nation by neglecting its problems. Even though our ruler keeps facing countless problems, the Stolen Lands get stronger as undefined solves them!


 * Before taking the time to increase your first advisor's rank, you'll want to take care of The Court Alchemist by visiting Bokken at Oleg's Trading Post. If you're following this guide this will be the first time the player is leaving the keep, in which case the Guardian of the Bloom will appear in the Capital Square to stop the player. The Guardian would like to express her gratitude towards the player in person now that the Stag Lord's threat to her land has been extinguished. The player will receive the quest A Just Reward and have the Verdant Chambers revealed on their map, and the Guardian will ask the player to come visit her alone. Since that should be setting off some alarm bells, we'll be ignoring her for now.
 * While it may seem counter intuitive, even if the player has selected one of their party members as an advisor and assigned that advisor to an event or project, they will still be able to join the player in person for their adventures. This means that your questing and exploration around the Stolen Lands won't be interrupted by kingdom management unless the state of affairs in the kingdom is bad enough to prompt the player to complete the next leg of the main quest.
 * Talking to Bokken won't require much convincing if they player is following this walkthrough and has already completed Fangberry for Bokken and Moon Radishes for Bokken, and the old alchemist will agree to work for you on the condition that a workshop is built for him in the Outskirts. Constructing the workshop will cost 30 BP and take 10 days, which is why we held off on starting our advisor training so the workshop would be finished at the same time.
 * Once Bokken's laboratory is constructed he will begin to appear at the start of each month to deliver artisan items to the baron/baroness, and will assign the quest An Ancient Formula.
 * By talking with Bokken there is a very good chance that starting training with the advisor now will conflict with the start of Problem events related to An Ancient Curse. Quest related Problems are more severe than regular Problems and demand immediate attention. For every day after the Problem is identified in the kingdom management interface that the problem goes unresolved, the barony will continuously suffer increasing penalties to Kingdom Stats, unlike regular problems which only impact the player once if ignored until their expiration date. This may not be too bad if the player reacts a day or two later than the problem appeared, but if one were to appear on the second day of a 14 day time jump, the damage to the kingdom stats could be severe, especially this early in the game.


 * Waiting until An Ancient Curse starts causing problems for the first time will be the catalyst for several more events which start the main quest line for Chapter II:
 * Once the event Eight-Legged Plague appears in the kingdom management interface the player should immediately assign an advisor to it, and make their way to Bald Hilltop just a few hours away from Tuskdale.
 * This event will also prompt Kesten Garess to request an audience which ends with him assigning the player with the quest Troll Trouble.
 * If you have the DLC Beneath The Stolen Lands installed then the event Tenebrous Dreams will appear as a problem on the kingdom management interface at this point as well, which is not an event which can be solved, but will lead to the quest Beneath the Stolen Lands (Quest).


 * Once the player has taken care of the enemies at Bald Hilltop and completed Eight-Legged Plague with satisfactory results, they may finally train their advisor.

Resolve ten events

 * Ruling a barony is [sic] tough job, especially when new troubles arise on a regular basis! Fortunately, a true ruler can rely on their loyal advisers to handle even the most urgent of tasks  be it a bad harvest in one village or a bandit raid in another.


 * After completing the previous step of training their advisor, there is a good chance that the player will have resolved ten events within their kingdom. If not, there's no rush with this quest and the player will certainly finish this step of How to Build a Kingdom well before the next step is available since it will require claiming at least two more regions.
 * At this point you should pick up with the main quest line walkthrough starting with Troll Trouble. You may choose to do A Just Reward instead, but for the purposes of this walkthrough we'll be going through Troll Trouble for a bit first to pick up some loot and experience that will help the player out with the encounters at the Verdant Chambers.
 * Something to note is that once Troll Trouble is started, troll related Problems will begin appearing, and will increase in number and difficulty the longer the player takes to resolve the quest. This won't be a big issue to start with, but eventually the amount of issues will become more than your advisors can keep up with.

Upgrade your capital to the town

 * Time flies by, and the good old villages just aren't enough for the growing barony. The baron{ess} decides that the capital of the Stolen Lands must grow larger and more respectable. To this effect, it must be upgraded.


 * By the time the player has finished Troll Trouble they should have some downtime before the Season of Bloom begins. There is also a good chance that projects to claim the South Narlmarches and Kamelands have, or soon will become available. Both of these will need to be completed in order to open up the opportunity to upgrade Tuskdale to its next stage of development.
 * When the player claims the South Narlmarches, and assuming that the Outskirts have already been claimed, they will have enough regions under their control to begin the task of upgrading Tuskdale from a village to a town, which will allow the player to add more buildings to the capital.
 * When the player claims the Kamelands they will receive the quest Artisans of the Kamelands, which the player should complete as soon as possible. The player will need to construct a village somewhere in the Kamelands to visit in order to receive the artisans' request.

Unlock any secondary stat of your barony

 * The stronger the barony and more perspicacious its ruler, the more new opportunities he has every day! Consistent and steady commitment to state affairs will inevitably bear fruit, and on top of that, it will create new openings for future Leaders!

Upgrade another village to a town

 * The experience with the capital was a success! It's time to upgrade another village to a bigger settlement.