Titles

Titles are a mechanic introduced in the Royalty DLC, representing power and prestige from the Empire.

Summary

Titles are obtained from gaining Honor, the currency of the Royalty system. Honor is offered as a quest reward, or can be purchased from Royal Tribute Collector caravans in exchange for either gold or prisoners.

Titles come with demands. From the title of Acolyte onwards, the title holder will start to demand certain apparel, a proper throne room, and more prestigious bedrooms. There are also limits on recreation. Empire guests and colonists with certain traits will be conceited and have more demands. In exchange, the empire will grant increasing levels of Psylink, and give you access to Permits.

Titles are retained if you become hostile to the empire faction, though permits are lost until relations are restored. Titles can be renounced at a comms console.

Special Traits:

• Ascetics do not have royal demands, overriding the clothing and bedroom needs entirely. They need a throne in an enclosed room, but have no actual requirements. However, their throne room's Impressiveness will affect their mood, positively or negatively. Note that mediation effectiveness of the throne remains improved by meeting the title requirements.
• Nudist and Cannibal pawns prefer being nude or eating human meat over their title requirements.
• Slaves can be given Honor, and will rank up as usual, with the same clothing and room requirements. However, they are unable to use permits, and slavery overrides concieted pawns' inability to work. There is a bug where slaves in a caravan can use their permits.^{[Check for 1.4]}

Conceited pawns

Guests from the empire faction, and colonists with the Greedy, Jealous, or Abrasive traits, are Conceited, and will have greater royal demands. They will refuse to do work of certain types, will only eat certain types of food. Barons or Counts (and higher) will replace their regular expectation moodlets with a -6 and -12 penalty, respectively.

The game will show a popup warning if you attempt to give a conceited pawn royal honor.

Honor

Honor is a direct reward for empire quests. Selling gold or prisoners (but not when actually enslaved) to a Royal Tribute Collector also gives Honor. The pawn that does the selling gets the honor. Social skill or other social factors do not affect honor gain.

• Selling prisoners gives 3 honor per pawn. They must be able to walk while being sold, but no other qualities matter. This gives the regular penalties for selling humans.
  • It is possible to use the pain block psycast to temporarialy make a pawn motile, then rescue the now-Empire pawn for a goodwill boost.
• Gold gives 0.015 point of Honor per gold item, rounded down. Therefore, the amount of gold per honor:

Gold Spent	Honor	Equiv. Market Value
67	1	670
134	2	1340
200	3	2000

Bestowing Ceremony

See also: Quests

A colonist with enough honor for a new title can accept the received quest to invoke the bestower, a ceremonial priest-like figure who arrives by shuttle with a retinue of guards. He goes to the colonist's throne room, confirming that it satisfies the title requirements, and does the bestowing ceremony there. The ceremony itself gives the psylink upgrade and title. The bestower carries 2 psylink neuroformers; if you wish, you may arrest or kill the bestower to steal them.

If you recieve enough honor to qualify for a higher title, then the lower title's bestowing ceremony will be skipped entirely.

• 

  A bestower granting the countess rank to a pawn.

• 

  Bestower and guards leaving on shuttle after granting a title.

Inheritance

Titles from Acolyte onwards are able to be inherited. Heirs are automatically assigned, with additional weight towards spouses. They can be changed from a comms console; in order for heirs to actually change, you must complete a monument quest. Failure to complete the quest in time gives a goodwill penalty and causes no change.

When a noble dies, the heir will automatically gain the Freeholder title, if they didn't already have honor. They must begin a bestowing ceremony to obtain their proper rank. Should the noble be resurrected, the title is lost, even if the bestowing ceremony hasn't begun yet.

Titles

For a full list of titles and their requirements, see #Table of Requirements.

• Freeholder (1 honor): The Imperial title of freeholder is used by the Empire to signifies a fully-respected individual. Most Imperial citizens earn it while young through volunteer work or military service. The title is also offered to outsiders who act with honor in the eyes of the Empire.
• Yeoman (7 honor): The Imperial title of yeoman is held by those who serve a noble lord in an important, specific way. While it is not a noble title, it does give the holder the right to use low-level psychic abilities. This title is often held by senior soldiers, warskiff pilots, spies, advisors, diplomats, intrusion operatives, and other key individuals. Many important people spend their entire lives as yeomen, seeking success outside the strictures of nobility.
• Acolyte (13 honor): The title of acolyte is the first title of noble duty, an encompasses a wide range of practical positions. Some acolytes are purely students, learning to lead troops, manage societies, or use psycasts in specialized schools. Others come from wealthy families and might own city buildings or farm complexes. During wartime, an acolyte might lead a platoon of troops, captain a small frigate, or serve their lord as an advisor. Their low rank within the nobility makes them paradoxically less useful as diplomats than yeomen. Sending a low-ranked acolyte to a negotiation can itself be seen as an insult, whereas a non-noble yeoman negotiator is seen only as the mouthpiece of his lord.
• Knight/Dame (21 honor): The title of knight is held by nobles who have largely passed their training, but who have not ascended to higher leadership roles. Many knights never advance further, and spend their lives as respected managers, advisors, or warriors. Most knights have some wealth, but a few remain quite poor while others may be very rich. In peacetime, a knight may manage a factory complex, commercial district, or small farming region. In war, some knights lead troop companies and assault squadrons, while psychic-focused knights engage in espionage, sabotage, and battlefield psychic combat.
• Praetor (31 honor): The title of praetor is a bridge between the service-oriented lower titles below and the power-holding nobility above. During peacetime, a praetor will usually manage a city district, asteroid sector, or agricultural region. During war, they take authority over the smallest combat units that fight independently - terrestrial troop cohorts, or space-borne destroyers or combat groups.
• Baron/Baroness (45 honor): The title of baron is the lowest of the middle nobility. While lower titles focus on personal service at war or commerce under a lord, barons hold title as semi-independent rulers. Each baron is subordinate to his liege lord, but his obligations are mostly in supplying wealth and troops, and not in personal service. In the Empire, a baron will typically own a city sector, mining colony, or similar outfit. At wartime, a baron may captain a capital ship in name, or control a regiment of troops.
• Count/Countess (61 honor): The title of count is the middle rank of middle nobility. In peacetime, counts hold title to a city or colony, and might have a small personal fleet, possibly including capital ships.

Unobtainable

• Duke/Duchess: The Imperial title of duke is the highest of the middle nobility. In the Empire, dukes control provinces, mega-cities, or moons. At war, a duke can field a division-level force, or a fleet with capital ships and dozens of support craft.
• Consul: The Imperial title of consul is a lower level of high nobility. In the Empire, consuls control planets. At war, a consul can usually field an army-sized force of multiple divisions, supported by several fleets. Some command from a super-capital ship or control space-based megastructures.
• Stellarch: The Imperial title of stellarch represents dominion over an entire star system. In the Empire, since interstellar travel times are years long, stellarchs rule their systems with a great degree of independence. They each swear fealty to the Emperor, but since the Emperor may be many light-years away, a stellarch may go years or decades without interacting with him.
• Emperor/Empress: The Imperial title of emperor indicates sovereign dominion over the entire Empire, all its peoples, planets, and fleets. All other lords swear fealty to a high lord, while the Emperor swears fealty to no one. However, even the Emperor depends on the support of lower nobles to remain in power. The emperor is never seen in the normal game.

Requirements

Thrones and Bedrooms

Titles of Acolyte and above require a throne room and seperate bedrooms. Both rooms must be fully floored, and higher ranks will require all fine floors. Couples can share a bedroom, regardless of nobility. Any number of nobles can share a throne room, though they need individual thrones. A Circadian half-cycler does not negate the desire for a bedroom, though pawns won't sleep in it.

As the titles increase in honor, so does the minimum requirement. Greater titles have an increasing minimum # of floor tiles, Impressiveness, and require specific furnature.

Throne rooms cannot have workstations, ritual buildings from Ideology, or any building from Biotech . However, they can function as Impressive recreation and dining rooms, giving your entire colony a mood buff. The meditation throne itself also functions as a chair, but the grand meditation throne can only be used for meditation and television watching.

Ascetic pawns do not have throne room/bedroom requirements, other than having a throne in a room at all.

Clothing requirements

Nobles of a rank that desire clothing will experience a −4 "Want <TITLE>-specific apparel" thought to their mood if any of their requirements are not met. For ranks that require a specific quality, a separate stacking a −4 "Want <TITLE>-quality apparel" thought is applied if the items worn are not of the required quality.

The Nudist trait overrides the clothing requirement, and Ascetic pawns ignore it.

Food requirements

Conceited nobles will refuse to eat certain foods, with fewer items being acceptable as the ranks increase. In general, all conceited nobles can eat lavish meals, milk, and other delicacies like insect jelly and chocolate. Ranks lower than Baron can eat fine meals normally. Non-conceited nobles have no such restrictions.

Conceited cannibal nobles can eat human meat without penalty, and gain the normal positive moodlets from doing so. It is currently unknown if Simple Meals with Human Meat are allowed. Sanguophages and other Hemogenic nobles can Blood feed, but can't consume hemogen packs.

Work restrictions

Conceited nobles will refuse to do certain work types; the restriction increases with each title. Conceited pawns up to Count will continue to do Doctor, Warden, Art, and Research work, but higher ranks can't do anything outside of combat. Non-conceited nobles have no such restrictions, as are nobles who are enslaved.

Perks

Psylink

Main article: Psycasts

Every title, from Yeoman onward grant, an increase of 1 Psylink level. If a pawn already matches their title's respective level (from psylink neuroformers or anima tree linking), then no new levels will be given.

The bestower will implant a psylink neuroformer during the noble's bestowing ceremony, but they come with two. It is possible to arrest/down the bestower for an extra level, but this makes the empire faction hostile to you.

Permits

Nobles that have reached Acolyte or higher will gain access to Permits. One permit is awarded for every title from Acolyte onwards, for a maximum of five permits for Counts/Countesses. Higher titles will give access to stronger permits. These can include item drops, immediate support, or even direct bombardments. Permits have a cooldown; if used during it, there is an Honor cost. A pawn can't demote themselves to use a permit again.

Once picked, permits stay with your pawn, and can't be freely changed. You can return all permits and re-assign them again; this costs 8 honor and the costs of any permit currenlty in cooldown. New permits won't have a cooldown, as the cost has been paid.

You can't use permits if the empire faction is hostile from you. Enslaved nobles and guests from the Empire are also unable to use permits. If an NPC noble is captured, they will come with randomly assigned permits.

Permit Name	Prerequisite	Cooldown (Days)	Honor Cost (to ignore cooldown)	Description	Equiv. Value
Call transport shuttle	Knight/Dame	40	8	Call a one-way shuttle for your own use, which will transport colonists, items, and animals up to 70 tiles away. The shuttle can hold a total of 1000kg on a loaded map, but as of 1.2.2900 it ignored this weight limit for caravans.	N/A
Call laborer team	Acolyte	60	4	Call a group of 4 laborers to assist you for 4 days. They are controllable, but you are required to keep them safe.	N/A
Call laborer gang	Count Laborer Team	60	8	Call a group of 8 laborers to assist you for 4 days. They are controllable, but you are required to keep them safe.	N/A
Call aerodrone strike	Knight/Dame	45	6	Call a single-impact aerodrone strike at a target position. 45 tile range, 3 tile miss radius, 8 tile explosion radius, 50 Bomb damage, 120 ticks (2 secs) warmup time.	1,000
Call aerodrone salvo	Praetor Aerodrone Strike	60	8	Call an extended salvo of aerodrone strikes around a target position. 45 tile range, 8 tile miss radius, 6 tile explosion radius, 50 Bomb damage, 120 ticks (2 secs) warmup time. 6 rounds with 60 ticks (1 sec) between them.	1,200
Call trooper squad	Acolyte	40	4	Call a group of 4 light troopers to aid you in battle, who can't be controlled. They will refuse to attack pawns that are not enemies to the Empire.	N/A
Call janissary squad	Praetor	50	6	Call a group of 4 professional janissaries to aid you in battle. As troopers otherwise.	N/A
Call cataphract squad	Count/Countess Janissaries	60	8	Call a group of 4 heavy cataphracts to aid you in battle. As troopers otherwise.	N/A
Steel drop	Acolyte	45	4	Call for a drop of 250 steel.	475
Glitterworld medicine drop	Baron/Baroness	45	8	Call for a drop of 5 glitterworld medicine.	250
Silver drop	Knight/Dame	45	6	Call for a drop of 500 silver.	500
Food drop	Acolyte	45	4	Call for a drop of 20 packaged survival meals.	480

^* Roughly equivalent to a Doomsday rocket launcher

^* Inferior, but most closely equivalent, to an Orbital bombardment targeter

Speeches

Initiate a speech from the throne. <PAWN NAME> will go to <PAWN POSSESSIVE> throne and call all colonists to listen to a speech there. If all goes well, listeners will feel inspired, and gain respect for <PAWN NAME>. If it goes poorly, the speech will do social damage. The outcome depends on <PAWN NAME>'s social abilities.

— In-Game Description

At Praetor rank, Nobles gain the ability to give speeches. This ability is manually triggered by the player. These speeches have a cool down, require an assigned throne, and cannot happen while another gathering is happening. Speeches last 10,000 ticks (2.78 mins) or 4 in-game hours.

A speech grants attendees a moodlet and changes the listener's opinion of the speaker, both proportional to the success of the speech:

• A "Terrible Speech" will grant a -12 negative mood to attendees and a -30 opinion of the speaker.
• An "Uninspiring Speech" will grant a -4 negative mood to attendees and a -15 opinion of the speaker.
• An "Encouraging Speech" will grant a +4 positive mood and a +20 opinion of the speaker.
• An "Inspirational Speech" grants a +8 to mood and a massive +40 opinion of the speaker. Each listener has a 5% chance of getting an inspiration.

Both Social skill and Social Impact can greatly improve success, but the exact relationship is unknown. Wear top hats, coronets, and other royal items that increase social impact.

The cooldown between uses of the speech ability varies by rank. At Praetor rank this cooldown is 1,200,000 ticks (333.33 mins) or 20 in-game days. At Baron rank this cooldown is 900,000 ticks (250 mins) or 15 in-game days. At Count rank or higher, this cooldown is 600,000 ticks (166.67 mins) or 10 in-game days.

Decrees

Main article: Decree

Nobles will sometimes issue quests with no reward except for a positive moodlet of +6 to the noble when fulfilled under ?? conditions. The noble that issued the decree  will experience an increasingly negative moodlet if the quest remains unfulfilled, starting at -?? and increasing by ?? after ??. Conversely, they will experience a positive moodlet of +6 if fulfilled. Decrees demand things such as producing, harvesting, or killing a certain amount of things. Dying, being kidnapped, or renouncing a title ends any current decrees as of 1.1.2579.

Table of Requirements

Obtainable Titles	Royal Honor Required (total)	Psylink Level	Incapable of Only if Noble is Conceited (New this tier in Bold)	Capable of non-exclusive	Throne Room Requirements (New this tier in Bold)	Bedroom Requirement (New this tier in Bold)	Food Requirements Only if Noble is Conceited (Lost next tier in italic)	Clothing Requirement (New this tier in Bold) (Lost next tier in italic)	New Abilities with this Rank
Freeholder	1	0	None	Any	None	None	Any	Any	None
Yeoman	6 (7)	1	None	Any	None	None	Any	Any	None
Acolyte	6 (13)	2	Cleaning	--	Area 24, Throne, all floored, Brazier x2 All braziers must be lit Room must be roofed	Area 16, all floored, Double bed	Fine meal, Packaged survival meal, Simple meal, Pemmican, Lavish meal, insect jelly, milk, berries, ambrosia, chocolate, beer	One of: Top hat/Ladies hat, Eltex helmet, Eltex skullcap, Prestige helmet, Mechlord helmet; AND One of: Formal shirt, Cape, Eltex shirt, Eltex vest, Eltex robe, Prestige armor, Mechlord suit	1 Permit Point
Knight/Dame	8 (21)	3	Cleaning, Haul	--	Area 30, Impressiveness 60, Throne, all floored, Brazier x2, Column x2, Harp All braziers must be lit Room must be roofed	Area 24, Impressiveness 40, all floored, Double bed, End table, Dresser	Fine meal, Lavish meal, insect jelly, milk, berries, ambrosia, chocolate, beer	One of: Top hat/Ladies hat, Eltex helmet, Eltex skullcap, Prestige helmet, Mechlord helmet; AND One of: Formal shirt, Cape, Eltex shirt, Eltex vest, Eltex robe, Prestige armor, Mechlord suit	1 Permit Point Trade with Empire Caravan/Settlements
Praetor	10 (31)	4	Cleaning, Haul, Plant cut, Grow, Mining	Cook, Construct, Smith, Handle, Tailor, Craft, Doctor, Warden, Hunt, Art, Research	Area 40, Impressiveness 90, Throne, all floored, Brazier x2, Column x4, Harp All braziers must be lit Room must be roofed	Area 24, Impressiveness 50, all floored, Double bed, End table, Dresser	Fine meal, Lavish meal, insect jelly, milk, berries, ambrosia, chocolate, beer	One of: Top hat/Ladies hat, Eltex helmet, Eltex skullcap, Prestige helmet, Mechlord helmet; AND One of: Formal shirt, Cape, Eltex shirt, Eltex vest, Eltex robe, Prestige armor, Mechlord suit (All apparel must be at least Normal quality)	1 Permit Point Give speech once per 20 days
Baron/Baroness	14 (45)	5	Cleaning, Haul, Plant cut, Grow, Mining, Cook, Construct, Smith, Handle, Tailor, Craft	Doctor, Warden, Hunt, Art, Research	Area 60, Impressiveness 120, Grand Throne, all fine floored, Brazier x2, Column x4, Drape x2, Harpsichord All braziers must be lit Room must be roofed	Area 30, Impressiveness 70, all floored, Royal bed, End table, Dresser, Drape	Lavish meal, insect jelly, milk, berries, ambrosia, chocolate, beer	One of: Coronet, Eltex helmet, Eltex skullcap, Prestige helmet, Mechlord helmet; AND EITHER Two of: Formal shirt, Formal vest/Corset; OR One of: Cape, Eltex shirt, Eltex vest, Eltex robe, Prestige armor, Mechlord suit. (All apparel must be at least Normal quality)	1 Permit Point Trade with Imperial orbital traders Speech cooldown reduced to 15 days Expectations replaced with Noble Expectations if Conceited
Count/Countess	20 (65)	6	Cleaning, Haul, Plant cut, Grow, Mining, Cook, Construct, Smith, Handle, Tailor, Craft	Doctor, Warden, Hunt, Art, Research	Room area 80, Room impressiveness 160, Grand throne, all fine floored, Brazier x2, Column x6, Drape x2, Piano All braziers must be lit Room must be roofed	Area 30, Impressiveness 80, All fine floored, Royal bed, End table, Dresser, Drape	Lavish meal, insect jelly, milk, berries, ambrosia, chocolate, beer	One of: Coronet, Eltex helmet, Eltex skullcap, Prestige helmet, Mechlord helmet; AND EITHER All of: Formal shirt, Formal vest/Corset, Prestige robe; OR One of: Cape, Eltex shirt, Eltex vest, Eltex robe, Prestige armor, Mechlord suit. (All apparel must be at least Normal quality)	1 Permit Point Speech cooldown reduced to 10 days Expectations replaced with Royal Expectations if Conceited

NPC Titles	Psylink Level	Incapable of	Throne Room Requirements	Bedroom Requirements	Food Requirements	Clothing Requirement
Duke/Duchess Consul Stellarch Emperor/Empres	6	Cleaning, Haul, Plant cut, Grow, Mining, Cook, Construct, Smith, Handle, Tailor, Craft, Art, Research, Basic, Doctor, Firefight	Area 80, Impressiveness 160, Grand throne, all fine floored, Brazier x2, Column x6, Piano All braziers must be lit Room must be roofed	Area 30, Impressiveness 80, all fine floored, Royal bed, End table, Dresser, Drape	Lavish meal, insect jelly, milk, berries, ambrosia, chocolate, beer	One of: Stellic crown, Eltex helmet, Eltex skullcap, Prestige helmet; AND EITHER All of: Formal shirt, Formal vest/Corset, Prestige robe; OR One of: Eltex shirt, Eltex vest, Eltex robe, Prestige armor. (All apparel must be at least Normal quality)

Trivia

The royal favor icon is reminiscent of the head of the eltex staff carried by the Bestower. This is fitting, since the bestower grants the received titles to the pawn.

Gallery

These are only provided as easily comparable examples - they are not considered ideal or efficient.

• 

  Acolyte Example Throne Room

• 

  Knight Example Throne Room

• 

  Praetor Example Throne Room

• 

  Baron Example Throne Room

• 

  Count Example Throne Room

• 

  Acolyte Example Bedroom

• 

  Knight Example Bedroom

• 

  Praetor Example Bedroom

• 

  Baron Example Bedroom

• 

  Count Example Bedroom

Version history

• Royalty DLC Release - Added.
• 1.1.2571 - Baron can now do Animals, Count can now do commoner work and instead is now only unable to do same as Baron, plus Animals.
• 1.1.2575 - added the ability to renounce the title from the bio tab.
• 1.1.2579 - mechanics were changed from all Nobles having hard restrictions, to only some. Dying, being kidnapped, or renouncing a title now ends decrees.
• 1.1.2654 - rename esquire to acolyte. Adjust some title descriptions.
• 1.2.2719 - added permits system, previous ally summon abilities subsumed into it with new abilities added. Speech duration: 5hrs -> 4hrs. Inspiring Speeches have 5% chance to inspire each attendee. Titles no longer gained instantly nor neuroformers drop podded in - both replaced with Bestower and Bestowal Ceremony.
• 1.2.2753 - Added new permits: Steel drop, Glitterworld medicine drop, Silver drop, Food drop. Renamed Orbital Strike and Orbital Salvo permits to Aerodrone Strike and Aerodrone Salvo (for fiction coherence reasons). Increased warmup time for aerodrone permits by 1 second. Titles no longer instantly transferred to heirs upon death of noble - now triggers bestower quest for the heir. Added new noble compatible clothing: Beret, Cape, Eltex Skullcap, and Stellic Crown. Stellarch and other non-rewardable title holding pawns now get any permits. NPC nobles now purchase random permits on generation.