Council
Advisors are lenses for the king. They interpret the realm, expose tradeoffs, and react to decisions, but they do not command the player.
Council Purpose
The council exists to make decisions more legible. Advisors should help the player understand what kind of risk each choice creates.
They are not meant to be a second action menu. A healthy council view answers:
- who is advising the crown
- what each advisor cares about
- which advisor is relevant to the current problem
- what counsel they offer
- how their relationship with the crown is changing
- whether any seat is vacant or compromised
Advisor Roles
Advisor roles map to systems in the realm. The exact roster can evolve, but the design intent is that each role has a viewpoint:
- military advisors care about security, readiness, and deterrence
- diplomatic advisors care about alliances, reputation, and concessions
- economic advisors care about treasury, routes, and taxes
- religious advisors care about piety, church sanctions, and legitimacy
- intrigue advisors care about secrets, plots, and covert threats
Relationship
Council relationship values can rise or fall after player choices. Advisors can approve of a choice, resent it, withhold useful counsel, resign, or become a risk.
Relationship is not simple obedience. A good advisor may dislike a move because it damages the system they represent.
Counsel Quality
Counsel should be read as perspective, not truth. A military advisor may overvalue force. A treasurer may overvalue solvency. A religious advisor may overvalue pious legitimacy.
The player should compare counsel against the campaign state.
Vacancies And Replacement
Vacant or compromised seats should become meaningful. Replacement candidates need:
- name
- personality
- specialty
- expected relationship
- likely risk
The UI can show a lightweight council tab now and expand later into a richer political system.
What The Council Is Not
The council is not:
- a substitute for the docket
- a hidden auto-resolver
- a reason to hide state from the player
- an executor for MCP Advisor mode
Even an external LLM advisor should submit proposals for human review rather than execute choices by default.