Q: Do I have to declare an allegiance?
A: No. You may declare un-aligned, in which case you really do not declare at all; simply do nothing. If a land or household has persuaded you to join them, then declare your allegiance with them by adding your character card number to the Allegiance sheet in logistics, so that the land or household benefits.
Q: How do guilds or the church factor in?
A: Guilds and the church do not factor into this system. Guild members of any guild, or religious characters can declare their allegiance to a land or household, and this does not prevent them from serving a guild or their god.
Q: How does the Barony factor in?
A: The five provinces make up the Barony, and therefore “Baronial” positions, such as the Barons knights and the barons small council, guardsmen etc, nobles included… all may declare their specific allegiances to any of the baronies provinces. Because the barony wishes to see all of its provinces flourish, a common tactic of the barony would be waiting to see if one of the lands in particular needed the baronies support, and then asking their officials to back a specific land for the moon to aid them.
Q: What are the benefits and detriments of Households as apposed to Lands?
A: Benefits of a household are first and foremost the freedom of Identity. It allows you to start your own thing as apposed to joining the establishment. Households also have the flexibility of being able to align with any land or choosing to fortify their household’s position. Households however can rise and fall in just months due to attendance and are not as guaranteed as the Lands are. Ten friends can get together and join the game already being a household but if only nine of them return the following month their household has no power within the system and cannot be added to the Allegiance sign up. Lands have a permanent presence, the backing of noble power and have the benefit of added features such as “Land Cards”, “Land Tasks” and the “Influence Chart”.
Q: What about the Land System?
A: The land system may exist independently of this system. The both of them should have the ability to work side by side, both focusing on different aspects of the game world and executed in a much different fashion.
Q: Just for clarification, in this system Allegience is not necessarily synonymous with Vassal, or is it? I am just thinking that while swapping Allegience is being presented as something that can change frequently without it being scandalous, at the same time if someone agreed to take on some important position / duty in a land (General, Captain of the Guard, Minister or whatever kinds of things there are) you wouldn't normally expect that person to change Allegience rapidly? Just trying to get a feel for the "culture"...
A: Here is the reason that it is important for us to express it as acceptable to switch lands/households: This system will encourage lands and households to take in new members for thier lands/households to grow in power. As an example, Bill Smith new player enters town and is immediately approached by a representative of a land encouraging them to join. In a whirlwind of passion the new player gets swept up into the land. A month or two passes and Bill Smith suddenly realizes that the land he just joined isn't that great for him and this other land over here is exactly what he needs to have fun at KR. We absolutely cannot put that new player in a position where he is going to be hated on because of the switch that will allow him to enjoy the game better, and so by adding this part into the system we let new players know that they can safely try out a land without feeling trapped if they find they will fit in better elsewhere. That is why it is important to allow changing your Allegiance to be acceptable both in and out of game. If you are a Knight of a land, thats a different story, but by then you know full well what you are getting into.
Now that may have not fully answered your specific question, but hopefully that allows you to understand more of what is going on here. To answer your specific question, Allegiance is most of the time synonymous with vassal, but not all of the time. For instance if a Knight of the Barony is lending thier Allegiance to a land to help them out, that does not then make them a vassal to that land. Going further in what you asked, a title given by a land is still not a noble position. Each of the lands have thier own titles made up for RP flavor, so just because one of the lands lure you in by saying that you are going to be the "captain of thier guard", dosnt mean that that player should then feel trapped in that land. If they find they would have more fun somewhere else then they should move and not be in fear for thier life and once more the reason that this is more important now then before is because this system will cause lands and households to aggressively recruit.
