> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.ashenmarch.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# House & Court
> Rank, your coat of arms, the Armoury, courts, and Kingdom Regions.
## Rank
Eight noble ranks: **Wayfarer → Freeman → Squire → Knight → Baron → Count → Duke → Sovereign.** Your rank sets how much you can contribute to a court and how many vassals you can hold.
Every campaign earns rank points by the same formula as fortification:
> **points = effort × distance (km)**
Points accumulate **permanently** — they never decay or reset.
* Wayfarer → Freeman: **50 pts** · Freeman → Squire: **150 pts** · Squire → Knight: **400 pts**
* **Baron and above are milestone-gated** — they require specific performance feats, not just points.
On the dashboard ladder, achieved ranks are gold, your current rank is highlighted, the next rank shows your progress, and Baron+ are marked as milestone-gated (earned by deeds, not points).
**Worked example — your first month:** running 15 km a week at average effort earns \~15 points a week. **Freeman** (50) lands inside week four; **Squire** (150) in about ten weeks; a year of that pace passes **Knight** (400). Hard days accelerate everything — the same kilometres at 1.5× effort earn half again as many points. Full thresholds in the [reference](/en/reference#rank-ladder).
**Ranking against other players:** open **Leaderboard**. Your **city board** ranks you against everyone who calls your city home — by total ground held and ground claimed this month. (Courts have their own board, ranked by the provinces they control — see Kingdom Regions below.)
## Your coat of arms
Pick a shield, a charge (the device on it), and your colours (presets or a custom hex). Your crest renders everywhere your house appears. You can edit it any time — and **Cancel** to back out without saving.
**Why can't I choose a certain colour?** Your **self colour** (the outline that marks your own land on the map as *yours*) is reserved, so it stays unmistakably you — it isn't offered in the crest palette.
## The Armoury (items & achievements)
You earn items by beating your **own** personal bests — a new pace record, your longest march, or a high-effort feat. Each item in your Armoury shows **why** you earned it and links to the campaign that earned it. Achievements also appear in your **Herald's Dispatch** and a summary on your **home** page.
*Strategic items (used once):*
* **Fortification Draught** — extra fortification on a route next run
* **War Banner** — boosts your attack for one invasion run
* **Reinforcement Order** — instantly repairs some defence on a route under attack
* **Court Seal** — temporarily boosts your court's **province fortification field**, so a Kingdom Region your court controls reinforces even harder while it's active
*Cosmetic items (permanent):* coat-of-arms elements, border styles, title honorifics.
## Court
A court is a group of players who band together to **win and hold Kingdom Regions** — named provinces on the map that courts compete to control. The leader (Liege) holds vassals, and members pool their dominion: a campaign anywhere inside a province your court controls reinforces your court's land there automatically (**presence-based** — no button to press).
Founding a court needs **Freeman** or above — *or* skip the requirement entirely by accepting an invitation from an existing court first (see below).
Founding your own court also costs a **Charter of Founding**, purchased with Gold from the Market. Gold never bypasses the rank gate — you need both the rank and the Charter.
Choose your court's name. You become its **Liege** — the leader who holds vassals and pools the court's dominion toward Kingdom Regions.
Grow your court with **Summon Vassals** invitations. Anyone who accepts unlocks full court features immediately, rank or Charter notwithstanding.
**I'm a Wayfarer — why don't I see court features?** Court mechanics unlock at **Freeman**, *or* the moment you **accept a court invitation** from an existing member (an invite bypasses the rank requirement and unlocks everything immediately). Wayfarers can be vassals but can't lead a court.
**Two kinds of "summons":**
* **Royal Summons (your profile)** — your personal **invite to the realm**. Share it; when someone joins through it, you both get bonus trial days.
* **Summon Vassals (your court)** — invites existing players to join **your court**.
## Kingdom Regions
A Kingdom Region is a **province** — a fixed, named area of the map (think of a real district or neighbourhood, given a feudal name). Provinces don't move or change shape; what changes is **which court controls one**.
**Taking control:** a court controls a province by holding the **most protected territory inside it**. Whichever court's members own the largest share of defended (non-ghost) land within a province's borders **controls** it. Control **flips** the moment a rival court overtakes that share — a province can change hands without a single battle, just by out-holding the current controller.
**What control gets your court:** a **province-wide fortification field** — once your court controls a province, members fortify **anywhere inside it**, not just on their own holdings. It's also a mark of dominance on the map and the ladder.
**Contested** means two courts are neck-and-neck — the leader's share only narrowly ahead, one good push from changing hands. When control does change, the **Herald sends a dispatch to both courts**.
**Court leaderboard:** ranked by **provinces controlled** first — conquest is the headline. Combined territory area is the tiebreaker.
**Worked example — taking a province:** the province of *Thornfield March* contains 90,000 m² of protected player land. House Draven's court holds 40,000 m² of it; your two-member court holds 35,000 m². You're **contested** — close behind. One good week of claims inside the boundary pushes your court to 45,000 m², and control **flips** without a single siege: the map washes in your court's colour, and both courts' Heralds carry the news. From then on, any member's campaign anywhere inside Thornfield March fortifies your court's land there.
Two members with holdings inside a province is enough to claim control — small courts can absolutely own their home ground. Ground you claim **together** on a shared run is co-held by both of you, and counts once for the court.