v1.58: Friends, faith, and another age

July 25, 2026 · Fallowborn devlog

Versions 1.54.2 through 1.58.0 give a campaign two authored ages to begin in, make personal relationships intentional, and gather the household’s many ties into one Network. Religious leadership is now part of the changing political world too. The Pope and Caliph hold offices that can outlive one ruler, fall vacant with a destroyed realm, and return through conquest, sacrifice, and legitimacy.

Choose the age before the life

New Game now begins with a choice between Spring 867 and Spring 1066. A bookmark is a complete world rather than a date pasted over the same map: it sets the calendar, county ownership, realm hierarchy, rulers, development, religious heads, and scripted history before the scenario and birthplace are chosen.

Spring 867 remains the long climb from the early medieval world. Spring 1066 begins after Harold Godwinson’s coronation and before the Norwegian and Norman invasions, with a political map written for that moment. William the Bastard rules Normandy, Harald Hardrada rules Norway, the sons of Ferdinand divide León, Castile, and Galicia, the Seljuks dominate Persia, and named rulers lead the other crowns and regional powers across the map. The invasion chains themselves are not yet scripted, so what follows belongs to the simulation.

The chosen age follows the entire campaign. Observe mode begins in the selected world, saves restore the correct bookmark before rebuilding state, and the six-part share code now carries the bookmark alongside the seed, scenario, province, sex, and name. Old five-part codes still open in 867. A world mod can also provide its own complete bookmark rather than trying to patch a date onto incompatible realms.

Give one person your attention

Living character sheets now offer Cultivate relationship. Assigning it gives one named person the household head’s single personal-attention slot. Their existing Regard rises by 0.2 each ordinary day while the usual work, study, war, or household focus continues. The assignment costs no day to start or stop. It pauses during travel, and an active courtship holds the slot until the suit ends.

At +40 Regard, the relationship becomes ready for an explicit choice. An eligible contact can be named as the protagonist’s friend, while a suitor can receive a marriage proposal whose result still depends on standing, prestige, traits, and Regard. Friendship no longer appears because a story happened to need a friend, and cultivating somebody new does not silently replace an existing one. These are personal bonds: friendship and attention end with succession or a permanent move rather than passing to the heir.

Gifts now support that same slower arc. Cash gives +4 Regard, while an item gives +4, +8, or +12 according to its quality. Cash and item gifts share one 90-day cooldown for each recipient, so a courtship or friendship is built over time rather than completed by emptying the armory in an afternoon. Character sheets and Network both show the current assignment, rate, threshold, and cooldown.

See the whole household Network

The new Network tab answers a question that had become hard to read elsewhere: who is tied to this household, and what does that tie do? Household lists resident family, their occupations and work, seasonal costs, and paid service. Connections gathers the chosen friend, cultivated contacts, rival, suitor, priest, and lord. Trade & Guild shows careers, standing, enterprises, partnerships, positions, and their exact benefits. Realm collects the liege, vassals, foreign ties, council offices, and military obligations.

Established households can now hire named retainers. A steward, factor, captain, or tutor keeps their own occupation and personality while holding a separate household office. They can wear family equipment, staff enterprises, or teach children where appropriate, and their office supplies a visible economic, commercial, military, or educational benefit. Capacity rises with station, pay is due every season, and two unpaid seasons or deeply hostile Regard ends the service.

Retainer contracts can pass to an heir, though the new head begins with less of the servant’s trust. Earned offices such as councilman or sergeant also keep useful effects after the event that granted them. Guild members can spend standing on yearly commissions, vassal favor can temporarily raise a contribution, and the Realm section now explains the levy county by county and source by source. The displayed total and the army calculation use the same ledger.

Faith has a living head

Catholicism and Sunni Islam now have centralized religious offices. The ruler of the active Papacy is styled Pope, and the ruler holding the Sunni office is styled Caliph. The office belongs to a living realm rather than to a permanent name. Losing part of that realm changes nothing, but destroying it leaves a dated vacancy that appears on the character sheet and in the chronicle.

A Catholic ruler may still wage a lawful territorial war against the active Papacy, but the game marks it as sacrilege and asks for a second confirmation. Going through with it empties the ruler’s piety, costs 40 opinion with every living Catholic realm, and brings excommunication. Excommunication blocks blessings. Once at peace with a living Pope, the ruler can spend 100 gold and 100 piety on absolution, recovering part of the lost Catholic standing.

If the Papacy is destroyed, a Catholic sovereign who personally holds Roma and at least one other county can grant Roma to a new independent Pope. Restoration brings piety, prestige, and Catholic goodwill, and it clears the restorer’s excommunication. A sovereign Sunni king or emperor can instead claim a vacant Caliphate by controlling Baghdad, or both Mecca and Medina, while holding 500 prestige and spending 300 piety. The Caliphate attaches to the existing realm without transferring land.

The world can repair these offices without the player. After a vacancy lasts one year, a qualified Catholic sovereign may restore the Papacy, while the strongest eligible independent Sunni realm may claim the Caliphate. If nobody qualifies, the vacancy remains and history keeps moving.

Patch notes

• Starting balance: County development in 867 now gives more weight to the Abbasid and Nile heartlands and less to western cities whose greatest prominence came later.
• Skills and geography: Skills can rise beyond 40, with sharply diminishing chances after mastery. Island counties now stay on their own landmasses, restoring Man and removing disconnected coastal fragments.
• Mobile navigation: Browser Back now unwinds drawers, dialogs, travel selection, and equipment views one layer at a time without undoing game decisions. Embedded phone play also shows an in-game Back control so itch fullscreen stays active.
• Interface cleanup: Equipment figures align boots and hands more naturally, slot changes apply immediately, title and Self screens fit smaller views, desktop scrollbars use bronze styling, and the guild ladder now distinguishes Master from Guildmaster.

Bugs & ideas: GitHub issues · argue about balance: Discord · keep the barley free: Ko-fi