Villagers
Villagers are the workers and consumers of your civilisation. As the village expands, more villagers will move in through immigration and can be assigned jobs in order to increase production and the variety of goods and resources available.
Overview
The village starts with 8 Serfs who will appear when the player places the Village Center. New villagers coming in via immigration are known as Newcomers until they are accepted by the player, at which point they immediately become Serfs.
Villagers are divided into three types; Villagers, Monastics and Combatants, and can be promoted to different ranks within these types. All villager types and ranks follow the same pattern of work and free-time periods. When the villager is on free time, they will spend their time visiting locations in the town where they can fill their Needs (e.g. Wells, Markets, Churches, Taverns, Houses). These Needs must be filled in order to maintain villager happiness. If they have filled all their Needs and are still on free time, they will return to their houses to relax until they go to work.
Types and Ranks
Villagers
Villagers are residents of your domain that have the "Villager" profile.
| Villager Rank | Essential Needs | Additional Needs | Promotion Cost 
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Serf | Water Rustic Food Tier 1 Quality Housing |
Refined Food Service |
20 |
| Commoner | Water Tier 2 Quality Housing Refined Food (x2)* Service |
Entertainment Goods |
100 |
| Citizen | Water T3 Quality Housing Refined Food (x3*) Service Entertainment |
Goods (x2*) Luxury |
N/A |
*Note: in all cases, x2 and x3 indicates a requirement for different types of the resource, not multiple servings of the same type.
Monastics
Monastics are residents of your domain that have the "Monastic" profile, having devoted themselves to service to the faith.
| Monastic Rank | Essential Needs | Additional Needs | Promotion Cost 
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Novice | Water Rustic Food Dormitory Housing |
Monastic Food Service |
5 |
| Brother or Sister | Water Dormitory Housing Monastic Food Service |
Cloister Monastic Food (+1**) |
50 |
| Prior or Prioress | Water Dormitory Housing Monastic Food (x2*) Service Cloister Access |
Monastic Food (+1**) | N/A |
*Note: in all cases, x2 and x3 indicates a requirement for different types of the resource, not multiple servings of the same type.
**Note: +1 indicates a requirement for 1 additional type of Monastic Food, which must be a different type from the type provided for the Essential Need.
Combatants
Combatants are residents of your domain that have the "Combatant" profile, having enlisted in military service to their liege-lord.
| Combatant Rank | Essential Needs | Additional Needs | Promotion Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Militiaman | Water Rustic Food Barracks Housing |
Refined Food Service Goods |
Free |
| Soldier | Water Rustic Food Barracks Housing Refined Food |
Service Goods Entertainment |
Free |
| Knight | Quarters Housing Water Refined Food (x2*) |
Service Goods Entertainment Luxury |
N/A |
*Note: in all cases, x2 and x3 indicates a requirement for different types of the resource, not multiple servings of the same type.
Promotions
Players promote villagers through the Mandates tab once the Great Hall has been built. The cost of promotion varies according to villager type, and increases for each rank. Before a villager can be promoted their Needs must be satisfied. When a villager is promoted, some Needs which were previously Additional will become Essential, and new Additional Needs will be added. Therefore, although players can promote villagers at will, it is important to prepare for the new Needs that will arise.
Villager types are promoted with a cost of Coins as indicated above.
Monastic types are promoted with a cost of Manuscripts as indicated above. Manuscripts are produced in the Scriptorium sub-building of the Monastery.
Combatants are free to promote. However, Militiamen can only be promoted to Soldiers once they have reached a certain strength level, which depends on their weapons and military experience from campaigns. The same is true of promoting Soldiers to Knights. Additionally, players can only promote 1 Knight for every 5 Soldiers in their army.
Efficiency
Villagers work more efficiently depending on their rank and the job they are assigned to. Different jobs are optimised for different ranks, indicated in the build menu of each production building. For example, although Serfs can work in any production building, a Serf in the role of Butcher will become more efficient if he is promoted to Commoner. Similarly, although Novices can work in any Monastery role, nearly all Monastery roles are optimised for Brothers/Sisters.
Once a villager is at the optimal rank for his job, he is at maximum efficiency and will not work faster if he is promoted above the optimal rank for that job.
Serf Jobs
Jobs optimised for Serfs tend to be those involving manual labour and/or a low level of political importance within the tower.
Commoner Jobs
Jobs optimised for Commoners tend to be those involving skilled crafting work or a middling level of political power in the town.
Citizen Jobs
Jobs optimised for Commoners tend to be those involving more complicated skilled crafting or a high level of political power in the town.
Novice Jobs
Novices can do any job in the Monastery, but there are no Monastery jobs for which Novice is the optimal rank.
Brother/Sister Jobs
Nearly all Monastery jobs are optimised for the rank of Brother/Sister.
Prior/Prioress Jobs
The only job optimised for the Prior/Prioress rank is the one Monastery job involving a level of political power.
Combatant Jobs
Combatant-type villagers do not perform jobs within the town, so there are no jobs optimised for this type of villager.
Visitors
Visitors are villagers who visit your city from elsewhere in the kingdom. They can come at any time, and contribute to your economy by buying products to fill their Needs in the same way as your own villagers. As your town grows, visitors will come in greater numbers and will have more Needs, roughly parallel with the Needs of your villagers as you promote them.
Some Events, such as fairs, cause visitors to arrive in larger numbers for a short period of time.
Some visitors, such as the Seneschal, Abbess and King, will arrive as part of Quest objectives, and have their own unique needs. These visitors are accompanied by retinues of other visitors, and will often give the player Quests which may cause additional visitors to arrive.
See also Visitor Needs
Traders
Traders are villagers that visit from other cities (unlocked in the Trade Routes page of the Royal Book) in order to buy and sell resources. Once a trade route has been opened, traders will start arriving roughly every two weeks. If no tradeable resources of the trader's home city have been marked for import or export, the trader will simply walk across the map from entry to exit. If a resource has been marked for trade, the trader will attempt to visit Warehouses or Granaries that have slots for that resource and buy or sell up to their limit. Traders have no Needs and cannot be controlled by the player.