> ## 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.
# Kingdom Regions
> Provinces and the larger map — how courts win, hold, and lose the named regions of the realm.
The map has two scales. Up close, it's a patchwork of **holdings** — the individual parcels you claim and defend one campaign at a time (see [Conquering Land](/en/conquering-land)). Pull back, and the land resolves into **Kingdom Regions**: large, named provinces that whole [courts](/en/house-and-court#court) compete to rule. This page is about that larger scale — what a province is, how a court comes to fly its banner over one, and how a province changes hands.
## What a Kingdom Region is
A **Kingdom Region** is a **province** — a fixed, named area of the real-world map, sitting *above* the level of any single holding. Each one is drawn from a real district or neighbourhood and given a feudal name, so *Riverside* becomes something like **Rossford March** on your war map.
Two things are true of every province, and they're the key to the whole system:
* **It never moves or changes shape.** A province is a stable polygon on the map, exactly like a territory — a fixed arena with permanent borders.
* **What changes is who controls it.** The borders hold still; the banner flying over them does not.
Provinces exist whether or not anyone rules them. An **unclaimed** province is simply named on the map, waiting for a court to plant its ground inside and take control. You don't create a province by running there — you *win* one that's already on the map.
## How a court controls a province
A court controls a province the same plain way it earns anything in Ashenmarch: by **holding the most ground**.
Specifically — whichever court's members together own the **largest share of protected, defended land inside the province's borders controls it**. Only real, held ground counts: [ghosted](/en/conquering-land) and undefended land does not. Add up every member's protected holdings that fall inside the boundary, compare courts, and the biggest share rules.
It's a **plurality**, not a majority — you need only *more than any other single court*, not more than everyone combined. And it takes just **two court-mates** with holdings inside the borders to claim control, so a small, local court can absolutely rule its home ground. (The exact member floor is a tuned value — see the [reference](/en/reference).)
Notice what this is **not**: there is **no separate province battle**, no siege timer, no "attack the region" button. A province is won purely by the **aggregate of ground held inside it**. You take a province by out-claiming and out-defending your rivals across its streets — the same running you already do — and the province follows.
## The province fortification field
Controlling a province isn't just a badge. It hands the ruling court a real, standing advantage: a **province-wide fortification field**.
Normally your campaigns only reinforce the specific holdings you run through. But once your court controls a province, that expands: a member's campaign **anywhere inside the province's borders reinforces your court's land throughout it** — not just the parcels directly underfoot. It's **presence-based**, with no button to press. Simply marching within the province you rule strengthens your court's grip on it.
This is why courts pool their dominion (see [House & Court](/en/house-and-court#court)): every member running inside a province the court holds is defending all of it at once.
The **Court Seal** item temporarily boosts this field, so a province your court controls reinforces even harder while the Seal is active. It's the one item that acts at province scale — see the [Armoury](/en/house-and-court#the-armoury-items--achievements).
## When a province is contested — and when it flips
Because control is just "who holds the most," it can change hands the moment the ledger tips.
* **Contested** means two courts are neck-and-neck — the leader's share is only narrowly ahead, one good week of claims from changing hands. On the map, a contested province wears a distinct, unsettled treatment instead of a single court's colour. (The margin that counts as "narrow" is a tuned value; think **roughly a tenth of the province** as an illustration — the live figure lives in the [reference](/en/reference).)
* **Control flips** the instant a rival court overtakes the leading share. There's no capture ceremony to defend and no timer to run out — out-hold the current ruler, and the province is yours.
When control does change, the **Herald sends a dispatch to both courts** — the one that took the province and the one that lost it. It's a genuine capture moment, and a shareable one.
**Worked example — taking a province.** *Thornfield March* holds 90,000 m² of protected player land. House Draven's court owns 40,000 m² of it; your two-member court owns 35,000 m². You're **contested** — close behind, and the map shows it. One strong week of claims inside the borders pushes your court to 45,000 m², and control **flips** without a single siege: the province washes into your court's colour, and both Heralds carry the news. From that moment, any member's campaign anywhere inside Thornfield March fortifies your court's land there.
*(Figures illustrative — authoritative values are in the [reference](/en/reference).)*
## Whose banner flies — the on-map region label
When you pull the map back to frame a whole province, it should answer one question at a glance: *whose is this?* So a controlled province flies its ruler's banner at its heart:
* **Controlled** — the province's ground washes faintly in the **ruling court's colour**, its border drawn in that same colour, with the **ruling house's name and colour chip** set at the province centre, beneath the province name. That's your at-a-glance "ruled by."
* **Contested** — no single ruler, so no house line: the centre reads **"⚔ Contested"** and the border is drawn unsettled. Two courts are fighting over it.
* **Unclaimed** — just the province's name, quietly. Nobody rules it yet.
This ownership label belongs to the **region-framing view**. As you zoom down into the streets, it **fades away** so your own crests and your rivals' hold the map — down among individual parcels, per-holding ownership carries the story and a big province banner would only clutter it. Zoom back out, and the banner returns.
## Where this sits
Kingdom Regions are the **macro layer** of the map. Everything else stacks beneath them:
Your personal holdings — the claimed, defended ground that adds up, parcel by parcel, into a court's share of a province.
Courts are what *hold* provinces. Band together, pool your dominion, and climb the court leaderboard.
**The court leaderboard is ranked by provinces controlled first** — conquest is the headline, so the court flying the most banners leads the ladder. Combined territory area is only the tiebreaker. Raw acreage is nice; **ruling the realm's provinces is the scoreboard.** You'll find the court board on the **Leaderboard** screen, alongside your personal [city board](/en/house-and-court#rank).
A province is won by **aggregate held ground**, never by a separate fight. If you and your court-mates simply keep claiming and defending inside a province's borders — the ordinary work of the game — the region tips your way on its own. Conquest at the largest scale is the sum of your smallest runs.
***
*Question not answered here? Ask on [Discord](https://discord.gg/FUSCymEVjT) or email **[support@ashenmarch.com](mailto:support@ashenmarch.com)**.*
*Game values in this guide (margins, member floors, timers) reflect current live settings and may be tuned over time — the [Game Reference](/en/reference) is refreshed when they change.*