Faction Dynamics & Speculation

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Scarf Ace

Sergeant Knight at Arms
It would be really cool to have the factions change over time, have quest lines and stuff that could affect the factions, stuff like that. The lore seems to support these sorts of possibilities. Hell, it already sort of did in Warband, sadly the gameplay didn't represent this.

The Vlandians seem to be almost made for this.
As we know, Vlandia is what the Swadians and Rhodoks were before they split. This means that it would make sense to have this schism represented in the game, perhaps growing over time.
The blog once described them as having transitioned from a tribal to a feudal society. This makes a lot of sense when we look at their descendants in M&B1. The Rhodoks don't even seem to have ever been fully feudalised.
To me, the Vlandian kingdom could be split into three distinct groups:

1. The Highlanders
Rugged people from the mountains. Tough as nails, but perhaps a little behind the times. They stick to old Vlandian traditions, have a fairly flat and loose hierarchy, and rely on old systems like tribal/village assemblies resembling the old Germanic Thing.
In M&B1/Warband, these would be represented by the Rhodok melee units. These people never truly were under proper Calradian rule, although mostly because there's so little going on in the mountains that they were never seen as being worth conquering. Instead, the Empire secured trade routes through the lower lands and mountain passes using forts and other checkpoints, and recruited their oftentimes impetuous young men as auxiliaries.

2. The Lowlanders/Burghers
While culturally close to the highlanders, they developed in a very different direction. Their velvet manufacturing and access to seas towards the west (Balion?) made them far wealthier and urbanised, although in many ways they hung on to their old traditions.
This wealth did not go unnoticed. Eventually, these people came under imperial rule, although it was relatively loose in nature. They did benefit from imperial knowledge and organisation, gaining a penchant of their own for military technology. Their Crossbows especially would become a defining aspect of their fighting men.

3. The "Swadians"
My personal theory is that Swadia is not really Vlandian home territory. As the Empire declined, their control over Vlandia loosened to a point where all the lands were truly independent. However, the Empire had left a major mark on Vlandians.
Now sophisticated in their own right and extremely capable militarily, the Vlandians on campaign (under Imperial Command) had not only excelled on foot, but proven themselves on horseback as well.
With Imperial rule gone, and also fragmenting beyond Vlandian borders, many saw an opportunity to push into the flatlands of Swadia and conquer these territories for the fledgling kingdom of Vlandia.
Their cavalry tactics proved supreme in this more flat region, and they quickly conquered these vulnerable lands.
For the first time, non-Vlandians were under Vlandian rule. Their new lords saw them self in a sense as carrying on the ways of the Empire, seeing the bickering rulers of Calradia as having lost their way. 
They took control over existing structures, "Calradifying" themselves over time - perhaps to the point that the ruling class began to speak the Imperial tongue instead of Vlandian.
Seeing themselves as the new rightful rulers of Calradia, the lords now try to push further inland, while trying to exert their influence over the rest of Vlandia, despite a growing cultural divergence.
The new kingdom, barely established, already seems to be destabilising...


Obviously this is all speculation, but having some added complexity within the factions could add a ton of replay value.
Say for example you want to destroy the Vlandians. You could divide and conquer, splitting up Vlandia into two or three separate factions before taking them on.
Or perhaps you are a filthy kettle-wearing Rhodok (like me), and you want to free your people from the rule of a group that seems increasingly unrelated to you, and demands more control than ever before. If every faction had such things going on, it would be amazing.
 
I would like Clans within a faction as well as minor clans that don't belong to factions. Like an independent Battanian Clan or a Khuzait nomad group that doesn't follow the Khan and wants to stay independent. There could be quests where the Battanian King uses you as a diplomat to try and bring the Tribe into the confederation or the Tribe leader might ask you for assistance in permanently securing their independence. 

Sorry, I went slightly off topic but I wholly agree with you, needs to be more intrigue and dynamics within a faction.
 
Dest45 said:
I would like Clans within a faction as well as minor clans that don't belong to factions. Like an independent Battanian Clan or a Khuzait nomad group that doesn't follow the Khan and wants to stay independent. There could be quests where the Battanian King uses you as a diplomat to try and bring the Tribe into the confederation or the Tribe leader might ask you for assistance in permanently securing their independence. 

That sounds pretty neat, you could also have lords in some factions be part of different clans, and have the clans competing for the throne.

Sorry, I went slightly off topic but I wholly agree with you, needs to be more intrigue and dynamics within a faction.
I don't see how your post is off-topic
 
Dest45 said:
I would like Clans within a faction as well as minor clans that don't belong to factions.

Well to this extent at least, you are in luck. Here is a quote from blog 7: "We do intend to give more flavor to the factions than existed in Warband. They are now divided into clans, who have their own priorities and rivalries"
 
The clans (i.e. subfactions) are a welcome novelty, however I fear they'll amount to a bunch of new relationship numbers and a few flavor dialogs. Maybe a few generic clan quests if we are lucky.
 
MadVader said:
The clans (i.e. subfactions) are a welcome novelty, however I fear they'll amount to a bunch of new relationship numbers and a few flavor dialogs. Maybe a few generic clan quests if we are lucky.
I really hope that (depending on faction) there will be differing agendas for each clan and subgroup. To take my OP's example, the "Rhodoks" probably would have different priorities to the "Swadians".
 
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