Influence and Intrigue at the Court



Intrigue at the Court is a special menu for High Elves where influence can be spent to influence diplomacy between factions.

Influence is a special resource/currency used by the High Elves factions in campaign mode, alongside money.

Influence
Current influence is displayed in the top center of the screen, near money. Influence cannot go into the negative.

Influence is gained in the following ways:


 * Using a Noble to carry out a gather influence action on an enemy settlement.
 * The Court of the Phoenix King landmark provides +1 influence per turn for the controlling player.
 * Many of the High Elves dilemmas have options to increase influence at the cost of something else (usually a reduction in treasury or another negative effect).

Influence can be spent on the following things:


 * Many High Elves dilemmas have options to spend influence in return for a beneficial effect such as increased public order, leadership for armies, or money.
 * Influence can be spent to recruit powerful characters:
 * Some High Elves characters cost only money, however these tend to have negative character traits.
 * Other characters may have beneficial (sometimes very powerful) character traits but cost influence. Usually this is between influence icon.png and influence icon.png influence depending on how powerful their trait is.
 * Alastar the White Lion is a unique High Elves lord who costs influence icon.png influence to recruit.
 * Influence can be spent in the Intrigue at the Court menu. See below.

Intrigue at the Court
Intrigue at the Court is a menu accessed via a button with the influence icon, in the bottom right of UI while viewing the campaign map. This menu gives the player a list of all factions they have discovered so far in this campaign. Additionally, it will show the names of the two factions' leaders, and their current status towards each other (diplomatic relations, and also whether they are at war, in an alliance etc). Players simply select two factions from the drop down menus, and then click the "increase relations" or "decrease relations" button. This will instantly increase or decrease relations between the two factions.

The amount of influence required to raise or lower diplomatic relations depends on how much those factions already like/dislike each other. For instance if two factions at -90 (strong dislike) then raising relations will cost a significant amount of influence. The reverse is also true - lower relations between two trusting friends is very costly.

Each time you increase or decrease relations between two factions, an event with a small story will appear, notifying you of how much relations increased by (typically no more than 10 - 30 either way)

Positive increase events
High Elves factions:
 * A Poem: Our kin take great store in words and verses. Send them a poet so they they may sing a verse, commissioned by us, of the great relations between them and [faction].
 * The Prince's Ward:Taking on a ward or squire from another house is a good way of exerting soft power and strengthening lasting bonds between two houses or kingdoms. And so [faction] has taken a princeling of [faction].
 * Favour of the Phoenix King: The favour of Finubar will do wonders for any great elven house. Ensure that [faction] recieves the favour of the king, and that it was fostered by [faction].
 * Over Wine: Business at the Phoenix Court rarely happens while the king attends and deals with matters of state. It is when the princes and nobles split off into the alcoves and form informal sub-committees that things get done. And so, over a few cups of wine, the binding of [faction] and [faction] can begin.

Other factions:
 * Ambassador, you are Spoiling Us: Our embassies are often thought of as neutral ground to even the most hated of foes. Nothing could be further from the truth, obviously, but we control the environment and manipulate everything from ambiance to the subject of conversation, ensuring that [faction leader] and [faction leader] are more predisposed towards each other.

Negative decrease events

 * Stolen Trinkets: A caravan of precious baubles important to [leader] of [faction] has gone missing. Our agents may have been responsible, but placing a few corpses belonging to [leader] of [faction], should switch blame to them.