Kingdom Principles: Setup & Effects

What the Noble Fates Principles System Actually Controls

Every run of this fantasy city-builder opens with a contract you write yourself. The Noble Fates principles you pick decide who is allowed to live in your kingdom, which race you favor, what your people eat, whether they drink, and how good or evil your realm becomes. Choose them badly and your ideal roster never shows up; choose them well and recruitment, food production, and raider policy all fall into place before your first building goes down.

You set up to six principles each run, and you must confirm them before the game generates your first settlers. That order is the point: principles are a filter, not a late-game toggle. Treat the screen as the real character creator for your kingdom.

That list covers the main dials, not all of them — the principle screen goes beyond alignment, race rules, diet, and alcohol. The practical takeaway is that every choice you make here narrows your recruiting pool in exchange for a tighter, more thematic realm.

How to Choose Principles Before Your Settlers Appear

The first decision after setup is your starting group: four randomly generated adventurers drawn to a cave where a crown waits. Whoever wears that crown rules, and the other three decide whether they want to serve under them. Principles sit upstream of all of it.

Avoid the contradictions the game blocks

Some combinations simply cancel out. Build a kingdom that openly despises dwarves and your opening group will contain no dwarves at all, which rules out a dwarf-only realm from the outset. Those hard stops are narrow, though. A dwarf kingdom that forbids alcohol is fine, and a realm of elves who do not revere nature is allowed too. The restrictions exist to stop setups that would be logically impossible, not to stop you from experimenting.

Reroll both layers until the group fits

Nothing is committed until you accept it. You can reroll the starting mortals and revisit your principles as many times as you like during setup. Use that freedom aggressively, because each mortal carries individual opinions, including how strongly they like or dislike the principles you chose. You will likely be unable to recruit all four settlers, and at least one may refuse to join purely because of the ruler you crowned.

Tune the difficulty on the same screen

Challenge level is part of the same preparation. Four fully customizable difficulty settings each display their differences when you hover over them, and if none of the presets suit you, you can customize virtually everything afterward. This is why a quiet building run and a punishing survival run can both start from the same principle list.

Alignment Changes How You Handle Raiders

Of all the Noble Fates principles, alignment has the loudest consequences. It governs how your kingdom may deal with bandits and invaders, and it can push settlers out of your realm if you act against your own declared values. Decide your alignment first, then build a raider policy that matches it instead of the other way around.

The alignment decisions around captured raiders and prisoners ripple into mood, retention, and how much labor you can squeeze out of a war. If you are unsure, pause before confirming an order — the option prompts show how each settler feels and how strongly. That preview is cheaper than losing a skilled cook over a corpse.

Raider burial is a non-issue. Giving invaders a proper grave generates no meaningful reaction, so looting and selling the bodies is the practical route. Butchering them for food is only viable in an evil kingdom.

Early Build Order That Pays Off Fastest

Once the crown is on and your settlers are moving, the priority list is short and unglamorous. Prestige, coin, and food come first; weapons come right behind them.

Two numbers to keep in mind. Aim for at least eight people, since settlers are not hard to attract, but check each recruit against your alignment before you celebrate. And do not delay an equipment producer: the gap between a well-kitted kingdom and one swinging stone hammers is enormous when invaders arrive. Armor for dedicated guards is worth it, though equipping heavy gear carries speed trade-offs you should plan around.

Putting Your Noble Fates Principles Into Practice

Abstract toggles become real kingdoms quickly. These sample setups show how a principle list translates into a working economy.

Each of these depends on one habit: read the mood previews before you confirm anything irreversible. Detaining a settler who wants to leave, sending them off with supplies, sending them off empty-handed, or ordering an execution all produce different reactions across your population. The same logic applies to every raider you capture.

If you want a run where you control the ruler directly rather than issuing orders from above, you can possess your crowned character at any time and pan to any subject. Principles still apply — you are just watching the consequences from eye level.

FAQ

How many Noble Fates principles can I set in one run? Up to six, and they must be confirmed before the game generates your first settlers. If a combination would be logically impossible — such as a dwarf-only kingdom built on anti-dwarf principles — the game quietly prevents it by never offering you those settlers.

Can I change my principles after the run starts? The setup phase is where you adjust them. You can reroll principles and starting mortals until you are satisfied, but once you commit to a group and a ruler, the realm you built is the realm you play.

Should I imprison raiders or kill them in a neutral kingdom? Taking prisoners and serfs fits a neutral alignment. Butchering corpses does not — that is an evil-kingdom behavior, and other settlers will react badly. Looting and selling bodies avoids the issue entirely.

Do my chosen principles affect who joins later? Yes. Race permissions, favored race, and alignment all shape recruitment, and mismatched values can drive existing settlers away. Build the principle list around the population you actually want, then let the settlers follow.