Hello! This is our first post about features and design process of Sovereign’s Will. We shall endeavour to post biweekly in the future.
In short, Sovereign’s Will is a turn-based strategy game, in which the player takes the role of medieval lord to participate in political intrigues, manage his lands and make choices that would influence both his own fate and fate of the realm. Game takes place in a massive empire that engulfs whole of known world and is ruled by the immortal Sovereign.
Right now we’re going to cover essential game elements, and in following posts we’re going to look at them more closely.
Political intrigues
Protagonist is a young monarch, who has returned to his lands after long education in the distant capital and immediately got involved in the world of politics and court intrigues.
You’ll need to find approaches to powerful people: feudals, church officials, merchants, who may become both loyal allies and dangerous enemies. Each of them has goals and character traits which must be taken into account for one to not become a victim of intrigues - political struggles often are no less cruel than open battles.
These men and women aren’t unified, though: they’re organised into factions, which struggle among themselves for power and wealth. You can use bribes, persuasion, spies and lobby for beneficial decisions to undermine some factions and to empower the others; However, you can crush all of them and establish uncontested rule of your own, if you fancy such an outcome - it isn’t easy, but very much possible.
Decisions and consequences
Life abounds in your lands: in a remote village peasants got accustomed to blood sacrifices, two nobles are unable to divide contested lands, and citizens are rebelling against increased taxes. You are a ruler of these lands, therefore they’re going to come to you with all their grievances, pleas and demands. You shouldn't forget about private matters either: your old friend from university asks you to accompany him on a pub crawl “just like old times”, a rich magnate asks for the hand of your sister, servants need supervision as well…
You have to make decisions, and then accept the consequences. If you’re not going to invite a friend to the coronation, he would feel snubbed, yet who knows what he could pull off during the ceremony?
Besides, both factions and individual characters take note of your actions. Decisions that you feel to be right could be harshly rebuked by others. Thus you have to keep in mind not only correctness and expedience of your actions, but also how they’re going to be seen by your vassals, trade partners, nobles and the people. Maybe you’re sure that the arrested peasant is innocent, but is he worthy of squabbling with Inquisition? And which of the vassals should you support - one who’s in the right by law, or one who can offer you a better deal?
Governance
The whole march is under your purview, and it’s up to you what it will become in the future. A small part of these lands - your Domain - is under your direct control. Indeed it lost luster during last decades, but should enough effort be applied, Demesne’s capital could find a worthy competitor in these lands.
Your influence is not constrained by your Domain, though; as a margrave, you can issue edicts to be followed by everyone in the march. Through these edicts reform could be carried out - or your rule, strengthened. According to traditions, though, edicts have to be ratified by factions… Not a problem if you’re strong enough - then nobody would dare cross you, even if their opinions are different.
The ways in which you solve disputes and deal with factions influence developments of the march, expressed in parameters such as significance in trade, power of religion, popularity of local traditions and others (we will cover them in more details in later posts). Ports will accumulate wealth and the march will become a trade hub hosting traders from all over Demesne, if you support trade guilds; On the other hand, it would empower these same guilds and traders controlling them, to the point of threatening traditional nobility or even your own rule.
Story
Protagonist’s father has disappeared, having launched a mysterious expedition. It certainly was important to him if he left ancestral lands before his son could return. Or, maybe, it’s a result of conspiracy? Either way, his disappearance should be investigated - even if just for you to avoid the same fate.
You will have to investigate particulars of that disappearance, and to get information from people of interests themselves - or from spies assigned to them. Not everyone is going to help voluntarily - many of them have their own secrets: Someone supports heretics, another runs from their past… Through learning these secrets you could get a lot of power - and dangerous enemies.
Maybe current events are connected to countless rumours that another Dark Decade is awaiting Demesne: There are talks that in the east for every suppressed rebellion two more take its place, entire towns disappear without trace in sandstorms of the south, and that even capital is no longer safe. You should pay attention to talks of your own march, though - barbarian tribes to the north, long thought toothless, are uniting under the banners of unknown leader…
Storyline is divided into several acts. In each of them you will have to make decisions that would influence its resolution and conditions in which the next is going to start. We’re striving to create a non-linear plot, thus many choices would significantly alter it as opposed to altering small details of the story.
We’ve tried to describe basics of the game in this post, and we’ll cover them in more detail in later posts. Stay tuned!