Loyalty bonds

Nobles are bound to their lords by one of three kinds of loyalty:

contract
The noble is being paid for his service
oath
The noble has taken an oath to serve his master
fear
The noble serves out of fear

The loyalty bond is rated. For example, a character's loyalty could be oath-1, contract-500, or fear-50.

A player's initial character has oath-2 loyalty.

Newly hired nobles have loyalty contract-500. Nobles are paid for their service with the honor command. A noble who issues `honor 50' will spend 50 gold to raise his own contract loyalty rating by 50 points.

A noble may take an oath of loyalty, pledging one or two Noble Points to secure it. This would yield loyalty oath-1 or oath-2. The oath order secures an oath of loyalty for a noble.

Nobles may be terrorized by their masters. The severity of their treatment accumulates in the loyalty rating: fear-10, for instance. Fear loyalty is maintained with the terrorize order.

Only one kind of loyalty may be active at a time.

Contract and fear loyalty decay over time. Contract loyalty loses the greater of 50 points or 10% of the current rating each month. Fear loyalty loses 1-2 rating points each month. Oath loyalty does not decay.

Units which fall to contract-0 or fear-0 have a 50% chance of deserting each month.

Nobles serving through contract or fear are susceptible to bribes, which may induce them to renounce loyalty to their lord, and pledge their service to the bribing faction. For details on bribing characters, see the bribe order.

Oath-1 nobles ignore all bribes. There is a persuasion skill which may cause an oath-1 noble to defect, although its use is difficult and rarely succeeds. Oath-1 nobles may reveal their factional affiliation if tortured.

Oath-2 nobles will not renounce loyalty to their lord under any circumstances, nor can they be forced to reveal any information about themselves.

Summary:

contract
Amount of gold invested in noble

Decays by max(50, 10% of current rating) each month

fear
Severity of terrorize used on noble

Decays 1-2 points each month

oath
1 or 2 NPs may be invested in an oath bond

Does not decay

Commands dealing with loyalty bonds: