Estates

Estates are the social pillars of your nation. Most commonly, these are the Nobility, Clergy, Burghers, and Commoners. In some cases, there are other unique estates, such as the Dhimmī in Muslim countries. These estates represent the different societal groups within your nation and are directly tied to elements of your population. Each estate has its own agenda, its own money and its own buildings, and keeping them happy grants bonuses like better trade or research.

Yuan Estates in 1337

One of the many privileges you can give to the Dimmī

Neglecting them will lead to penalties, represented by negative modifiers or even rebellions. Unlike previous games, the estates are a fundamental mechanic, which is why their satisfaction levels are always visible at the top bar of the screen.

Estates are always there, watching you...

Estate happiness and power will heavily depend on the privileges you grant them and the laws you have enacted. Some privileges within one Estate may also oppose the power of another. For instance, like we introduced last week, if you grant free movement rights to the Commoners estate, you'll gain its bonuses, but not without annoying the Nobility, who would prefer a strict serfdom.

Nobles are sad that people can move around freely

You can empower estates by granting them privileges, where you'll exchange some of your crown power for a tangible benefit for the estate. In return, you'll gain their loyalty through happiness as well as their political and domestic support. For example, a loyal clergy will improve your nation's research output. But in addition to the power gained from the privilege, it could also influence the societal value as well as the happiness of other estates.

Bonuses scale with the Estate satisfaction

Finally, Estates can hold voting power in parliament, where the importance of their votes depend on their current power and satisfaction. That leads us now to: