FAQ:Parishes

## What is a parish?

The parish consists of a collection of villages, and is the smallest administrative area in the game. The steward of the parish controls the parish capital and sets the tithe rate for all villages within the parish.

## What is a tithe?

A tithe is a tax - the amount of gold paid to the *parish capital* on a daily basis. All players of rank 5 (Serf) or higher are eligible to pay a tithe from each of their villages. This tithe is taken from the amount of gold you have available in your overall gold total. The tithe rate is set by the capital's *steward*, and while it may initially seem annoying to pay a daily tax rate, it is beneficial to **all** players within the parish, allowing the creation of parish capital buildings, parish armies and the ability to build the parish castle.

## What are the benefits of helping my parish?

The parish may benefit the player or village owner in many ways. For example:

~~ The steward and fellow parish players may send reinforcements to help you defend your village, should you come under attack.

~~ Particularly for starting players, if you are prepared to contribute in the future, parish stewards and your neighbours may help by sending you goods.

~~ Capital town buildings benefit the village buildings of **all** players within a parish by increasing their productivity, or adding to the defence capabilities of their castles.

## How can I help my parish?

There are a number of ways in which players may help their parish to grow and thrive:

~~ Ensure there is gold available to pay the daily tithe rate to the capital - not paying the tithe (by not having gold available) *will* be noticed by the steward and other players, and you may not receive help when you need it.

~~ Donate to buildings within the parish capital.

~~ Sell goods to your own parish capital and not others - the capital receives a small amount of gold from each sale.

## What do the flags over the parish capitals mean?

The flags allow the steward to erect buildings in the capital town. One new flag is generated every 18 - 48 hours. Flags may also be stolen from other parishes. Your own parish flags may be stolen by other players. A capital can accumulate more than 100 flags, however, flags stolen for the capital will only be credited up to 100. If the capital has accumulated more than 100 flags and more are stolen, the flag count will be reset to 100. To earn the Flag Raider achievements you must steal the flags using armies from your own villages. Flags stolen by capital armies do not count toward this.

## Do you need to be a certain rank to vote?

Yes. Before you can vote you need to be of at least Rank 4 (Peasant). All village owners receive three (3) votes per day, per village. Two (2) villages owned in the same parish would mean six (6) votes per day in that parish, three (3) villages = nine (9) votes, and so on. To be eligible to become steward, you need to be of at least Rank 6 (Villein).

## How often do you gain votes in the capital?

Each village gains three (3) votes per day.

## Plague.

*Plague* (the green skull) will occasionally spawn in the parish capital, and will worsen over time if left untreated. You will notice this by the increasing number of disease points in the *user interface* when clicking on a capital. Eventually rats will spawn from a diseased capital, and spread the plague to others.

The greater the disease points, the greater the negative effect on **all** villages in the parish. If you have researched **Baptism**, disease points can be removed by sending *monks* to the infected parish capital, and performing a **Restoration** (researched from **Baptism**).

**TIP:** Monks may be sent to any parish with disease, not just the player's own parish. Curing disease generates honour points for the player sending the monks.