The factions in mount and blade are amalgamations of cultures than span over huge areas and were, from their perspective, very different from eachother. It's easy fiction and a lot easier to balance to group these folks together, but if you're interested in people, that isn't very interesting or satisfying; Culture is dependent on geography; the land, resources, neighbors. The swadians wouldn't have flat land because they've got the best heavy cavalry, they'd have the best heavy cavalry because they got flat land, the vaegirs need oil and have furs because they're cold, so on and so forth. But it gets a bit simple in an unsatisfing way; First, Cities (and units) are very much the same even if they face different challenges and influences (rivacheg hasn't been altered by the influx of sea raiders, Veluca doesn't have cavalry despite it's geography). Second, If King Ragnar is going to dominate Calradia, he'll still have swadians in the plains, Rhodoks in the highlands, Vaegirs in the tundra and so on (I'm not familiar with the bannerlord terms yet).
- A few minority cultures (gypsies,Travelers, peoples conquered from before the beginning of the game that've yet to be assimilated and so on) would be excellent.
-Make holidays. They were way more common in older times where people didn't have much to do.
-Cities should do more to set themselves apart. Foreigners and their influence (clothing, goods,dances,music and games) should be found near borders or in conquered cities, but that shouldn't be a single bolean value. It should be influenced by time, trade, war and the whims of the city's lord.
-At the least, when a faction's using foreign troops, things like coloured tunics or tabards should change appropriately. Maybe even something more, like a % chance of using a slightly different piece of equipment, based on lord leading the party and who owns where the units were sourced from.
-Each city should have some degree of variation on it's units. Maybe something incredibly small for the attentive, like a different helmet design, or polearm choice, or maybe something big, like a new unit branch based on neighbours and physical geography. Velucan cavalry, Desert and tundra horse archers of the steppes border, less fur-bound Tundra folk on the border...
-Trade good demand changes for a city depending on who's in power. The people of the tundra demand Kvass, The people of the planes aren't interested (sad story behind that)
-Cities acquire and lose craftsmen depending on how wealthy the city is, where it's near and who owns it. A city might have 4 smiths from the highlands, two from the planes and two from the desert, and that'll affect what goods it has. A few invasions later and it might have two smiths from the highlands and two from the desert, meaning less stuff as it gets poorer but a more equal split.
-Shops should sell loot related to any battle fought in a local fief, by a local lord, or by any party who's rested in the town. (personally, I'd really like to see a separation of -looted gear and bulk weapons- shops and -we make this especially for you- smiths.)
-region inspired mercenaries
-Medieval cultures were very fragmented, villagers were far more isolated and would often have thick accents and dialects, so it wasn't almost universally common for nobles to speak something else entirely. Now it's realism at the expense of fun to do the extreme of that, but having varied accents,colloquialisms, slang and so on would make the world a fair bit more interesting.
-If people would change what they wear with the weather, that'd be great. The people of the tundra in their furs trying to invade the desert, and vice versa, really looks mighty strange. Turbans and furs, Turbans and furs.
-peasants,manhunters,bandits and looters should be relevant to the local culture.
-It might be preferable to refer to troops by the land they're from (IE Highlander Sergeant) or city they're attached to (Velucca Sergeant) than faction (Rhodok Sergeant) but I really don't know about that.
Some comments on Warband
- A few minority cultures (gypsies,Travelers, peoples conquered from before the beginning of the game that've yet to be assimilated and so on) would be excellent.
-Make holidays. They were way more common in older times where people didn't have much to do.
-Cities should do more to set themselves apart. Foreigners and their influence (clothing, goods,dances,music and games) should be found near borders or in conquered cities, but that shouldn't be a single bolean value. It should be influenced by time, trade, war and the whims of the city's lord.
-At the least, when a faction's using foreign troops, things like coloured tunics or tabards should change appropriately. Maybe even something more, like a % chance of using a slightly different piece of equipment, based on lord leading the party and who owns where the units were sourced from.
-Each city should have some degree of variation on it's units. Maybe something incredibly small for the attentive, like a different helmet design, or polearm choice, or maybe something big, like a new unit branch based on neighbours and physical geography. Velucan cavalry, Desert and tundra horse archers of the steppes border, less fur-bound Tundra folk on the border...
-Trade good demand changes for a city depending on who's in power. The people of the tundra demand Kvass, The people of the planes aren't interested (sad story behind that)
-Cities acquire and lose craftsmen depending on how wealthy the city is, where it's near and who owns it. A city might have 4 smiths from the highlands, two from the planes and two from the desert, and that'll affect what goods it has. A few invasions later and it might have two smiths from the highlands and two from the desert, meaning less stuff as it gets poorer but a more equal split.
-Shops should sell loot related to any battle fought in a local fief, by a local lord, or by any party who's rested in the town. (personally, I'd really like to see a separation of -looted gear and bulk weapons- shops and -we make this especially for you- smiths.)
-region inspired mercenaries
; Nordlander mercenaries recruitable by the northern coasts, Horsemen from the other parts of the planes... More exotic or exaggerated versions of each faction, perhaps, removed from the relative melting pot of calradia. I don't know if mercenaries would be more homogeneous to work better, or if would just be the same as any other faction's troops without the loyalty... regardless, I loath warband's mercenaries due to how deliberately uninteresting they are. (they're also really meh and the moral isn't worth the price)
-Medieval cultures were very fragmented, villagers were far more isolated and would often have thick accents and dialects, so it wasn't almost universally common for nobles to speak something else entirely. Now it's realism at the expense of fun to do the extreme of that, but having varied accents,colloquialisms, slang and so on would make the world a fair bit more interesting.
It would be good, however, for bannerlord to have the support for different in-game languages and language skills
-peasants,manhunters,bandits and looters should be relevant to the local culture.
-It might be preferable to refer to troops by the land they're from (IE Highlander Sergeant) or city they're attached to (Velucca Sergeant) than faction (Rhodok Sergeant) but I really don't know about that.
Some comments on Warband
I wrote this quite early, so some things might seem like I'm repeating:
The Nords from Nordland didn't, like the viking settlers, adopt any of the local customs. Sure, you can spy blue tunics on the earliest units, mirroring the swadians and rhodoks, but they don't go as far as normans or the groups that invaded the brits. No parrallel to that Norman cavalry adopted from centuries of settlement in flat frank lands.
On a similar note, Rivacheg, with a supply of sea raiders so great that it should have multiple ransom brokers, should've had some influence from them. The Vaegirs, based on a blend of eastern european nations, would've rightly been far more interesting if it'd shown some more of that variety; Imagine Rivacheg as a baltic state and infected with nordic influences, whilst Khudan shows a stronger influence from the khergit (as eastern europe did from the mongols) whilst the more centric curaw is more balanced and has less but equal influences.
The Rhodoks, well, Italy et al's a fine place of influence, given that each city was a state. Some smaller differences to make each city more unique (My vote is for Veluca to have cavalry, given it's location) .
Swadia, meanwhile, as everybody's victim,
I sadly don't know enough about arabs to make an edducated comment beyond this: In the golden age Islam ranged from northern africa to the edges of india, Taking Iberia (spain) too. There's probably enough there for an entire mount&blade game in a different continent.
Dhirm should've been some ultimate mess of culture, given how it's a target for every single faction in the game
The Nords from Nordland didn't, like the viking settlers, adopt any of the local customs. Sure, you can spy blue tunics on the earliest units, mirroring the swadians and rhodoks, but they don't go as far as normans or the groups that invaded the brits. No parrallel to that Norman cavalry adopted from centuries of settlement in flat frank lands.
On a similar note, Rivacheg, with a supply of sea raiders so great that it should have multiple ransom brokers, should've had some influence from them. The Vaegirs, based on a blend of eastern european nations, would've rightly been far more interesting if it'd shown some more of that variety; Imagine Rivacheg as a baltic state and infected with nordic influences, whilst Khudan shows a stronger influence from the khergit (as eastern europe did from the mongols) whilst the more centric curaw is more balanced and has less but equal influences.
The Rhodoks, well, Italy et al's a fine place of influence, given that each city was a state. Some smaller differences to make each city more unique (My vote is for Veluca to have cavalry, given it's location) .
Swadia, meanwhile, as everybody's victim,
I sadly don't know enough about arabs to make an edducated comment beyond this: In the golden age Islam ranged from northern africa to the edges of india, Taking Iberia (spain) too. There's probably enough there for an entire mount&blade game in a different continent.
Dhirm should've been some ultimate mess of culture, given how it's a target for every single faction in the game
More than 80% of the time of common man was spent acquiring the means of survival, as in food, shelter, means of warmth. No internet and no TV doesn't mean they had little to do. 
