Gold & the Treasury
Gold (◉) is the realm’s coin. Your house earns it as tribute from the land you hold and banks it in your Treasury (your coffers). Gold is earned only — there is no way to buy it with real money; the only purchase in Ashenmarch is your membership.How holdings earn tribute
Each protected holding pays tribute over time, driven by its House Subjects — the populace of the land. A holding earns more when it covers denser, more-populated ground, and it scales with the holding’s area and tier. Only protected land pays: a holding that has decayed to Unprotected, or one currently under siege, produces nothing until you restore it. Why is my dense, city-centre holding worth more than a big rural one? Because tribute follows people, not just acreage. A compact holding over a busy district has more House Subjects than a sprawling one over open country — so it pays more. Valuable land is also more contested, which is rather the point: the richest ground is worth fighting over. House Subjects vs. a Vassal: House Subjects are the populace of a holding — they generate your house’s income. A Vassal is a real player who has sworn to your court.If a rival takes my holding, do I lose my Gold?
Your banked coffers are always safe — a conqueror can never touch the Gold already in your Treasury. When a holding is captured, the attacker only loots the uncollected tribute that had piled up on that territory since it was last collected (up to a cap), and its future tribute then flows to them. A cooldown stops a territory being looted back and forth. So collect often if a holding is at risk — but nothing in your vault is ever at stake.Collecting
Tribute accrues automatically on your holdings; you gather it into your Treasury. Uncollected tribute builds up to a cap and then simply pauses — nothing is ever wasted, but collecting frees a holding to keep earning and moves that Gold to safety in your coffers.Worked example: you hold a compact Keep over a dense city district and a sprawling rural Village. The Keep out-earns the Village despite being a fraction of the size — its House Subjects (population) drive the rate, multiplied by tier. If the Keep comes under siege, its tribute stops entirely until you break the siege — and whatever sat uncollected on it is what an attacker could loot on capture.