At the end of Chapter 1 you’ll gain the promised reward for your victory over the Stag Lord, but such a reward - the title of Baron - comes with responsibilities. More than just mere real estate, your title obliges you to rule effectively; while you can choose to rule with a tyrant’s iron fist or in a more benevolent, enlightened manner, if you fail to keep your barony solvent, the game will be over. You’ll face a myriad of threats to the stability of your kingdom, some foreign, some domestic. Whether the source is monstrous, criminal or political, the longer they persist, the more unrest they’ll cause. Should your citizens lose faith in your ability to rule, your kingdom will fall.

Some of these threats are more mundane than others, and can be dealt with merely by sending one of your Leaders - a representative you assign - to handle the matter themselves. Others require the direct intervention of your baron, whether diplomatically or martially. Most severe threats require more than a bit of both responses, and between these events you’ll probably want to find time for some good, old-fashioned adventuring. Not all quests will work their way to your throne room, after all, and gaining personal power by killing monsters and plundering treasure will leave you more capable of dealing with threats.

You’ll need to balance the management of your kingdom with the desire to explore, and to do that, you’ll need to learn the mechanics of kingdom development, which you’ll find covered in detail below. Before you get into the specifics about how various aspects of kingdom development function, however, a brief overview is in order.

You handle matters of kingdom development via your kingdom map, which you can interact with in two ways. You can either use the table in your throne room, or when you’re viewing the overworld map (the map that’s up when you travel between areas) you can click the castle icon on the bottom right of the screen. Many kingdom activities require your direct presence in the throne room, generally due to quest-giving petitioners desiring an audience with you, and some projects also require your oversight, but the vast majority of tasks - resolving most Event Cards, some projects, and building - can all be done while adventuring.

When you’re on the kingdom map, you’ll find a “Stats” tab on the top left of the screen, while on the right side of the screen you’ll find the “Events”, “Projects”, “Regions” and “Leaders” buttons. To build, you need merely click on the settlement on your map (or the possible settlement location, as the case may be) to enter the building submenu. These features, then, will be the subject of the rest of this section.