Hmm, I've been thinking about the Baronies' hierarchy, and there are two ideas which stand out as the most applicable. Overall, at the time of our Adventure Mode, the Baronies, in some fashion, have to be united, or at least have some mechanism by which they can be united.
I'll talk about my ideas on their structure, before going into how and why they have to unite. Mostly, this is carried on from Tim's electoral ideas, but with my slighty more greed-filled tone.
From their name, 'The Baronies', it suggests the typical split houses pattern, as we've all settled upon. However, the interesting dynamic this presents is their struggle for power. Tim's showed us the chaos in a single family, but match this with 5 major families, with smaller ones in lower bands, and you have a hotbed of scheming, betrayal and power struggle. Game of Thrones, anyone?
In time before the game it is rather certain that each of the houses would have squabbled and fought for land and material. As such, deep-seated feuds will be present, with alliances broken and made for convenience. These pre-game relationships should have significant impact from a lore perspective, and this leads me onto my main meaty idea:
How do the Baronies go to war?
Logically, there is only one path to war, but it's integrity and the steps that lead up to it are in debate. What has to be assumed is that each house, by itself, does not have the military weight to take on another faction in it's full regard. With this mechanism in play, it means that the Baronies have to unite to take on a larger threat than their own bickering. However, the method this is achieved by is critical:
If we play to their Nordic heritage, we can establish a system whereby each Head of House can make a claim onto a throne or overarching Kingship. The stronger the House, the stronger the claim, yet one house itself needs allies, as it is rather probable that the second strongest house + the support of the third strongest house could overthrow the strongest claim. With the route to Kingship established, this must be viewed as a Gengis Khan-esque model. He doesn't have absolute power, but there is an honour code by which he can summon the other Houses to unite their military might to fend off foreign invaders. By this system, war with the Baronies is rather stable, as only civil war itself can destabilise the King. In this scenario it will depend on who is loyal and who sides with the Revolution. Interestingly, in the event of a poor perfomance in the war, a challenge on his claim could be made, which would allow room for political maneuvering. On that note, challenging a King's claim could either be 'My achievements are better than his', 'Everybody supports me', 'He's weakened, look at X evidence', Or, even more interestingly, perhaps a duel to the death? While that last suggestion may be a tad too barbaric for the Baronies, having mechanics such as these make them very interesting.
But, there is potential for the Baronies to go to war without a Kingship mechanic- If the threat is deemed large enough (Yeshan Empire begins a campaign of Total War) The clans may come together and reason that they must fight together. In such a case bribery and deal striking must occur, as I doubt an Eastern Clan will be to fussed by a Western clan's fears of Yesha (See map). Or, on the reverse, a threat from Chaladon would worry some, but it may not be viewed as a full conquest by Western Houses, and so they would let their Eastern cousins be slaughtered, so that they could swoop in and gain supremacy. However, an Alliance, as partial or full as it is, is heavily subject to betrayal and fracture- if a war isn't going well a clan will pull out to reinforce itself and reduce losses, or potentially to initate a first strike scenario against a rival clan. It may also be the case that the losses on the battlefield exceed the value of the deal that was struck, and with no honour code to hold them, the house will simply withdraw its troops.
Up to this point I have been treating the wars as defensive conflicts, as wars such as these present the easiest conditions for unification. However, an offensive war will be much harder to substantiate, especially in the non-Kingship model. I'll get thinking on offensive possibilites, but I'll save talking about it to another long-winded post, I guess.
Hmm. In terms of your electoral idea Tim, I personally feel as if the houses are simply too fractured and distant from one another for everyone to sit down and talk like rational people- also, the claim system establishes a more culturally Nordic system, as election, although very similar, is a modern implementation, suggesting more of a Presidential character.
To all reading, I apologize for all spelling/grammar errors, I'm a lazy proof-reader.
EDIT: I love it when Muse come over and go: 'What the hell are you folks on about? Take those foil hats off and maybe you'll listen to our lore!'
Oh, and I would gladly talk about all the factions with you Tim
Personally, I'm really interested in Chaladon, as it's the faction I know the least about.
