Realm Ranks and Polity
This page owns Valenar's polity ladder above the settlement layer.
Ladder
- Settlement
- Banner Network
- Province
- Crown
- late-game reclamation projects operating at realm scale
Role
The polity ladder explains when the game stops being about one site or one settlement and becomes about administration, law, delegation, and large-scale military or civic work.
Current canon does not support one single Realm birth moment. The player-facing polity emerges through a ladder of expanding holdings, routes, obligations, authority, and administration.
Progression Framing
- Act 2 begins the ladder with the first Outpost-tier Settlement.
- Act 3 broadens that foothold into stable settlement-scale play.
- Act 4 turns one holding into a Banner Network.
- Act 5 formalizes Province rule.
- Act 6 reaches Crown-scale rule.
- Later last-act reclamation projects use that Crown-scale capacity.
Design Rules
- Avoid single-trigger "Realm birth" framing unless a stronger trigger is later committed.
- Founding the Core does not create a player-facing Realm.
- The first Outpost is the first settlement rung, not the full polity system.
- Settlement, Banner Network, Province, and Crown are different rungs in the same polity ladder.
- Province and Crown layers should change what kinds of questions the player is answering, not only add bigger numbers.
- Governance must remain grounded in holdings, routes, people, and pressure the map already made real.