Starter Guide

Defining a new clan

You decide to leave your homeland - torn apart by war and strife - behind you, and set out to Dragon Pass.

Before you can settle, you have to decide on your clan's history.

 

The game gives you a short lesson of the world's history, how things came to be, and the deities, gods and god-like individuals that are important and revered by your people, all the while you make choices that define your clan. For a detailed explanation of what each choice influences, visit the wiki page on Clan Creation.

Keep in mind, many of those choices have an impact on your clan's attitude and reactions to choices you make throughout the game. Going against your ancestral spirits by not tearing elf ass whenever you have the chance, while your clan used to battle elves for as long as they can remember, will result in a negative clan mood and losing  some of your clan's magic resevoir.

Brotip: When asked which deity your god-talkers contacted first, I recommend awakening Uralda, the cow mother. You will start with some knowledge of Uralda, most likely one of her blessings, of which both are very beneficial to both feeding your clan and sustaining a powerful herd.

Starting out in your new home

What you are looking at is Sacred Time. The year is divided in 4 seasons, additionally to Sacred Time, which is used to reflect on your posessions compared to last year's Sacred Time, and preparing your clan's magic to influence the oncoming year.

The annual Forecast is nothing to be ignored. It tells you when raiding will be especially successful, when to save up food stocks and many more things. In the center you can see your level of reputation. The goal of the game is to unite or subdue all clans throughout Dragon Pass and be voted King, eventually. Most importantly, you can decide where you clan should focus its magic rituals, which will influence the entire coming year, on the right.

The Magic set here will influence all things you do and happen to you, both active (Raiding, trade missions) and passive (Wounds in batle, recovery speed of the sick). It's always recommended to invest some Magic into the Crops and Herds - These should increase your food & livestock gain and even help ward bad things from your cattle.

Managment UI

We will go through all menus from left to right.

Farming

Here you have a summary of your Tula (the land your clan owns), its herds, how you use the land and everything food related.

Usually you don't touch the sliders on "Land", unless you happen to acquire so many cows and other livestock, that your hides of pasture can't support feeding them all - Or you gained so many farmers that they are boring themselves. "Cops Planted" will be explained later on, but can usually be left in peace as well.

Relationships

In the center, under "Relation", you can sort all the clans you know by various criteria. In the screenshot, you see all the clans that owe a Favour to your clan. Favours can be obtained or owned to other clans through a variety of events, through trade, or helping out each other. 

By clicking on "Emisssary" can also send a diplomat  for various things.

Trade

You should check here at least once every 1-2 years. It lists your treasures, worth often more than 50 cows each, and clans that you have constant trade with. You can send caravans by clicking on "Mission", which allows you a great number of things - to keep your clan wealthy, well fed or rich in artifacts. Establishing a stable trade route is also very beneficial, and will be discussed later.

War

This menu lists your village's fortifications, able bodied farmers that can aid you in raids and defense, Weaponthanes (full time warriors, think of soldiers instead of militia), patrols and raids conducted by and against you. It's important to keep the weaponthans busy with patrols, it makes them feel like they have a purpose. Additionally, patrols warn your village against incoming raiders, and keep cattle thieves at bay.

Brotip: When deciding to raid another clan, do not send 100% of your weaponthans and able bodied warriors, another clan might take the chance and steal cattle from you. Auxiliaries are mostly women that support your warriors and tend to the wounded. In the screenshot, we are asking another clan (who owes us a favour) to send warriors to support the raid.

Clan

On the left side, you can manage how your clan mates should spend their time. Clicking on Weaponthanes allows you to recruit or dismiss weaponthanes. Clicking on Farmers lets you bolster your clan's numbers, which can be very important when too many of your warriors were wounded and can't tend to the fields and the livestock any more.

You can also give a feast or spoil your clan with gifts to raise the mood.

Magic & Gods

On the left side you have a list of Deities you can worship, on the right side you see which blessings or spells this God can bestow on your clan or your enemies. To learn of new magic, you have to "Sacrifice" to the god. In my case, my clan succeeded and we learned the Woad ritual. Our clan already knows the Rain ritual and has a Shrine to sacrifice to Orlanth to take advantage of it.



We can either de-select rain and select Woad, or we expand the shrine and increase the annual sacrifices to Orlanth to support both blessings.

Hero Quests will be explained later, in the Game Mechanics page.

Map

Here you can see the terrain known to your clan, where other clans are situated, the land claims of Tribes (Clans that bro'd it up) and trade route.
The most interesting thing on here is the "Explore" button, though. You can send one of your nobles with an entourage to scout out your tula, landmarks and other points of interest.
Leaving the yellow cross where it is means you are exploring your own tula for holy sites & special resources.

Brotip: Exploration speed should always be set to "slow" - your exploration party will take its time to scout out everything thoroughly - unless you are sending them far, far away; You might be missing a ring member and some weaponthanes for several seasons.

Lore & Customs

A great resource of your people's history, what makes them tick and to understand their opinions.
Mostly self explanatory, (double-) click through everything that seems interesting to you. Check the borders of the Lorescrolls - The UI design there is not the most obvious one.
Hitting the Space-key lets you see the background art of both the lore-scrolls and events & encounters.

Saga

The last icon brings you to your own clan's saga scroll. You can re-read significant happenings and your God-Talkers' forecasts.