Holds & Factions

Held to Bruma

For the alpha, everyone plays in the County of Bruma. Every hold, stronghold and faction on this page exists, but only Bruma's halls, houses and offices can be reached until the rest of the land opens. A guildhall outside Bruma is listed as not reachable yet.

The Realm map

The Realm view on your journal's Faction tab (F3) maps the County of Bruma: the city of Bruma, which is its capital, the towns of Applewatch and Aleswell, the village of Greenwood, and the forts of Pale Pass and Fort Caractacus. The Imperial Legion holds the two forts; the County holds the rest.

Strongholds stand apart

Inside an Orc stronghold only its own officials manage property, locks and notices. A hold's officials have no say there, and a stronghold's have none outside it.

Your journal

Press F3 to open your journal. Its Faction tab shows your factions, their members, who is online right now and any invites waiting for you, with the Realm map, the War tab and, for leaders and a hold's Stewards, the Treasury. A hold's or a stronghold's household and its offices are on the Court tab instead. The Faction tab shows once you belong to a faction, and the Court tab once you hold an office or a household rank, or are offered a post.

Renaming ranks

A faction's leader can rename its rank titles on the Faction tab, so the titles you meet in the game may differ from the ones listed below. The household ranks that a court office gives, such as Steward, keep their names.

Joining

Factions grow by invitation. Look at a player and press X: the menu lists Invite to … for every faction where your rank lets you invite. An invite expires after 2 minutes, and you join at the lowest rank. Server staff name a faction's first leader; after that the leader runs it.

Chat commands

• /faction menu open your factions
• /faction list list the factions
• /faction accept accept an invite
• /faction invite invite a player
• /faction hall where a faction has its seat
• /faction storage leaders: record where the faction keeps its things

Seats in Bruma

Castle Bruma is the seat of the County, and the Imperial Legion, the Imperial Civil Commission, the Penitus Oculatus and the Thalmor keep their offices there too. The Synod meets in the Bruma Synod Conclave, the College of Whispers in Frostcrag Spire above the city, the Great Faiths in the Cathedral of St Martin, and the Fighters Guild in its Bruma hall.

Faction storage

A leader can record a house or container they own as the faction's storage, so members can find it with /faction hall. It grants no access by itself: lock it and cut keys for whoever should reach it.

Leaders are not Jarls

A faction leader runs a player faction. Jarls, Counts and Chieftains hold hold offices, a separate system described below. A faction rank called Jarl or Guard carries none of an office's powers. One link runs the other way: a Jarl or Count also speaks for their hold's faction in matters of the realm, such as its capital, peace treaties, its tax and its wages.

Draw up a charter

While charters are open, the Faction panel (/faction menu, or the Faction tab of your journal) has a Found a faction button. It opens /charter in the command panel (U), where you pick each step and fill it in. The chat commands work too:

• /charter found <name> start a faction you will lead
• /charter cult <name> start a cult instead
• /charter pitch <text> its purpose, or a lore pitch
• /charter seat here optional: a property a founding member owns, where you stand
• /charter your charter and what to do next

Gather your co-founders

Ask them with /charter invite <player> [role], and they confirm with /charter confirm <number>. A charter needs a Founder (you, its leader), an Officer and a Sergeant, three different players, and it can have up to 5 founders. It must be sent within 48 hours of the draft.

A GM decides

/charter submit sends it to the GMs. Once approved, the faction is live at once, with its own treasury, and its ranks are the seven roles below. There is no fee for now. The lore's own factions cannot be founded, and a Daedric Prince's name belongs only in a cult's. A chartered faction is disbanded only with a GM's approval (/charter disband <reason>), and its treasury then goes to its Founder.

One allegiance

A hold's court, the County of Bruma's court, the Imperial Legion, the Stormcloaks, the Thalmor, or a Great House (Hlaalu, Redoran, Telvanni, Indoril, Dres or Sadras). Living in a hold as a Citizen or a Guard does not count: a Legion soldier may be a citizen of Bruma, but not sit in its court. Any office or household rank above Guard does count.

One guild

The Companions, the Fighters Guild, the College of Winterhold, the College of Whispers, the Bards College, the Synod, the Vigil of Stendarr, the Dawnguard, the Imperial Cult or the Great Faiths.

One secret society or cult

The Thieves Guild, the Dark Brotherhood, or any one of the 15 Daedric cults.

Loyalties that never mix

• The Imperial Legion and the Stormcloaks
• The Dawnguard and the vampire clans (Clan Volkihar, the Cyrodiil Vampyrum Order, the Crimson Scars and the Bloodmist Clan); nor will the Dawnguard take a vampire
• The Vigil of Stendarr, the Imperial Cult or the Great Faiths, and the Daedric cults
• The Synod and the College of Whispers

Not counted

The Orc strongholds' clans, the Silver Hand, the vampire clans, the werewolf packs, the Imperial Civil Commission, the Penitus Oculatus and factions founded by charter take no place, so they sit beside any of the above.

If you are refused

You are told which faction to leave first. Nobody loses a membership they already held. If the reason is a secret membership, whoever invited you is not told: the refusal comes to you when you accept.

Appointments are offers

When a ruler or another official appoints someone, the post is offered. The person accepts or declines it on their journal's Court tab, or with /court accept or /court decline (/court offers lists them). An offer lapses after 24 hours. Server staff still appoint outright.

Office and household

Holding an office gives you its rank in the household, and losing it takes the rank away. Holds and the County of Bruma have a Steward rank right under the Jarl or Count, and strongholds a Bane rank right under the Chief. A Court Mage becomes the household's Court Wizard (in Bruma, its Battlemage), a Shaman or Wise-Woman its Clan Mystic. The ranks that offices give cannot be renamed.

Who may restrain and arrest

• Every official except a Court Mage, Shaman or Wise-Woman
• In a hold's or Bruma's household: every Guard, Guard Sergeant and Guard Captain
• The leaders, officers and sergeants of the Imperial Legion, the Imperial Civil Commission, the Penitus Oculatus, the Stormcloaks and the Great Houses
• The Thalmor's First Emissary, Justiciars and Inquisitors, in Cyrodiil only

Keeping the peace

Anyone of those ranks can restrain a player from the X menu without asking, and at a jail's cell door lock them in for 5 minutes to 2 hours. A plain member or a Citizen cannot. Arrests and sentences are explained in Law and the Concordat.

Property

The ruler and the Stewards (in a stronghold, the Chieftain and the Banes) grant houses, shops and containers, take them back, rename them and change their locks. They also let empty houses out for rent and, in a hold, sell them; the rent or the price goes to the hold's treasury. A Baron or Baroness does the same in their own town (below). See Homes and Property.

Notice boards

Officials post Hold Notices for free and may take any notice down from their hold's boards. They can post hunting contracts, paid from the hold's treasury, and a disputed commission goes before them to settle.

The hold's tax

One rate covers the whole hold: its share of every inn bed rented in it, the weekly property tax on every house, shop and storage building on its land, and its tax on what a ledger sells there. The Jarl or Count and the Stewards set it, from 0 to 30%, with /tax <percent>, on the Court tab or on the Treasury tab of the faction panel (F3); /tax on its own shows it. Bruma's rate is up to its officials: it stays at 0% until they set another.

The Court tab

Since 12 October the Court tab (F3) shows the hold's tax rate and each office's weekly wage. The Jarl or Count and the Stewards set the tax there, and the ruler or a Steward sets each office's wage. The ruler's own office has no wage. How wages are paid is under The treasury.

Three titles

• Baron or Baroness: holds a fief, one of the four settlements
• Lord or Lady: holds an estate, named by the ruler, with no town
• Knight or Dame: an honour, with no land

A title belongs to one character. A character holds one title in a hold, and a fief has one holder at a time; a new title replaces the old one. No ruler grants a title to a character of their own. Skyrim's Holds will have titles of their own under their Jarls once they open.

By decree

Every title the Count or Countess grants or takes back is proclaimed to all as their decree. A title lapses if its character is deleted.

A Baron's town

A Baron or Baroness looks after the houses of their own town as a Steward does: granting a house and taking it back, assigning its rooms and chests, and letting empty houses out for rent or selling them. The rent and the price still go to the County's treasury. Their own houses in their town do not count against the one-home limit. Outside their town they have no say, and they have no seat at the court: they set no tax or wages, arrest no one and give out no posts.

The fief's treasury

A quarter of the weekly property tax on the houses of a fief goes into that fief's own treasury, which nobody can take gold out of. The rest goes to the County as before. Only the Count or Countess and the fief's Baron or Baroness see what it holds.

The Nobility tab

Your journal (F3) has a Nobility tab. Everyone sees the County's roll of nobles and its fiefs, with who holds each. A noble also sees their own title and, for a fief, its houses and its treasury. The Count or Countess grants and revokes titles there. /nobility opens it, or shows the roll in chat.

The Imperial Civil Commission

The Elder Council's civil arm in the province: Imperial justice, charters and licences, and audits of the holds. It rules no county, and the Count keeps the county's own justice.

Civil Commissioner, Praetor, Magistrate, Agent-Inspector, Clerk

The Penitus Oculatus

The eyes, the sword and the shield of the Mede dynasty: the Emperor's own agents, who answer to him alone and not to the Civil Commission. A Magistrate may ask for their help but never order it. They wear their own armour beside the Legion, and the Penitus Oculatus Sword is made by their smiths or the Legion's.

Commander, Inspector, Agent, Recruit

Hlaalu, Redoran and Telvanni

They keep the ranks a member could hold in Morrowind, from Hireling up to the head of the House: the Grandmaster of Hlaalu, the Archmaster of Redoran and the Archmagister of Telvanni.

Indoril, Dres and Sadras

With no ranks of their own handed down from the games, they take the Great Houses' shared ladder, and each head is styled Grandmaster.

Armorers and Clothiers

Every House has an Armorer and a Clothier. A House's own sets are made only by its Armorer or Clothier, or its head, so they can be made once someone has claimed the House. See Crafting and Trades.

An allegiance

A Great House is an allegiance: you cannot serve one together with a hold's court, the Legion, the Stormcloaks, the Thalmor or another House. Its leaders, officers and sergeants may restrain and arrest.

The Concordat

In Cyrodiil a First Emissary, Justiciar or Inquisitor may arrest a follower of Talos, and only the Thalmor may cut that sentence short. How the arrest and the sentence work is explained in Law and the Concordat.

No power in Skyrim

Skyrim's Holds rule themselves, and the Concordat binds only the Empire. North of the Jerall Mountains a Thalmor rank gives no power to restrain or jail anyone; it works again on returning to Cyrodiil.

Informants and dossiers

When anyone kneels at a shrine of Talos in Cyrodiil, the First Emissary, Justiciars and Inquisitors who are online hear which shrine, where and when, but never who. The Thalmor also keep dossiers, notes on named characters written by the First Emissary and Justiciars and read by Inquisitors too. Both are in the journal's Thalmor tab (F3), which only those ranks see.

The Dominion's stipend

The Aldmeri Dominion pays its Thalmor in the Empire 300 gold into the Thalmor treasury at every weekly reckoning.

Who may serve

Only the peoples of the Aldmeri Dominion join the Thalmor: High Elves, Wood Elves and Khajiit, vampires among them. Only a High Elf may be First Emissary or a Justiciar. The Maormer, the Dominion's enemies, are refused. Nobody already in the Thalmor is removed.

Gold comes in

• Half of every paid post on the hold's notice boards
• Half of every offering made at a shrine in the hold
• Rent on houses the hold lets out, and the deposit of a tenant who is evicted
• The price of the houses it sells (see Buying a house)
• The hold's share of inn bed rent, and all of it at an inn nobody owns
• The weekly property tax on its land, at the hold's rate, less a fief's quarter
• The fee and duty on commissions posted at its boards
• Postage on pigeons sent from the hold, and a tenth of any gold they carry
• The posting fee on supply orders: a tenth of the reward, at least 10 gold
• The posting fee on courier jobs posted at its boards, a tenth of the courier's pay and at least 10 gold, and the premium on an insured parcel, a tenth of the value insured
• The hold's tax on what ledgers sell in it

Gold goes out

Hunting contracts: each hunter's reward is set aside from the hold's treasury and goes back if the work is not done in time. A board never posts or hands out more bounties than the treasury can spare: it always keeps back at least 200 gold, or a quarter of what it holds if that is more, so contracts never empty a treasury. Wages: paid every week to a hold's officials, and to the ranks a faction's leader chooses (below). Courier insurance: when an insured parcel posted at its boards is robbed, the hold pays the sender up to the value insured, as far as its treasury allows. The Imperial tithe, on land in Cyrodiil (below).

Faction treasuries

A hold's faction shares its hold's treasury. Every other faction has one of its own, which its leader can pay into at a bank. It takes the property tax on land the faction holds, and the takings of a ledger in its hall: when a ledger sells a spell tome, the hold takes its tax, a tenth of the price leaves the world to keep gold from piling up, and the rest goes to the faction whose hall the ledger stands in, so tomes bought at the Synod's ledger pay the Synod. The Imperial Legion also receives the Imperial tithe, and the Thalmor the Dominion's stipend.

The weekly reckoning

Every Sunday at 00:00 UTC the realm settles its accounts. Each claimed house pays its tax to the faction that owns the land it stands on (a quarter of it to the fief, for a house in one), the Imperial tithe and the Dominion's stipend are paid, and wages go into members' bank accounts, so nobody needs to be online. Each faction's last reckoning is shown on the Treasury tab.

The Imperial tithe

Bruma is a county of the Empire, and the Empire takes its due. At each reckoning, a tenth of the property tax a faction kept from its land in Cyrodiil (a fief's quarter is not counted) goes into the Imperial Legion's treasury. It is reckoned on that week's tax, not on the treasury's savings, so a county that taxes nothing owes no tithe. What a treasury cannot pay is owed and taken first the next week. The Legion pays none on its own forts, and Skyrim's Holds, independent since the Legion withdrew, pay nothing.

Property tax

A hold's land pays the hold's one rate (The hold's tax). Any other faction's leader sets the rate on its own land on the Treasury tab of the faction panel (F3). Either way it is 0 to 30% of a property's value each week. A property is valued at 2,000 gold, and a house bought from the hold at its price, though a sale never takes the value below half of what it was. A house pays once, however many doors it has, and a chest granted on its own pays nothing. The tax comes out of the owner's bank account. Unpaid tax falls overdue and the owner is told.

Wages

A hold pays its officials by office; any other faction pays its members by rank, at the weekly wage its leader sets on the Treasury tab. Until the ruler or a Steward sets other wages, on the Court tab or the Treasury tab, a hold's offices are paid each week: Guard 50 gold, Guard Captain, Court Mage and Hold Commander 100, Steward 150. Wages go into each holder's bank account every Sunday, so nobody needs to be online. No one is paid from a treasury their own account controls, so a ruler is never paid, and no one sets the wage of their own rank. Each week's wages may spend up to three quarters of what came into the treasury since the last reckoning, but no more than a quarter of all it holds, and on top of that up to a quarter of the savings it held before; never more than the treasury holds. What cannot be paid is owed and paid first the next week, and a wage owed to someone who has since lost the rank is dropped.

One home per character

Property is never simply taken: walking up to an empty house does not make it yours. A home you get from 11 October belongs to that character alone. Each character can own one home, and each account up to two. Property owned before 11 October was given to one of the account's characters on 13 October.

A faction's hall

A faction's hall follows the faction's current leader, whoever owns the building: the leader holds the owner's say over it, and a new leader takes it over at once. Its members share it: they sleep in its beds and open, lock and use its chests and doors, but they cannot name it, cut its keys, hand it over or give it up.

Capital

A hold chooses one of its own territories as its capital. Any other faction chooses a territory it holds, or makes the spot where its leader stands its seat, such as a guildhall. A capital can move once a week, and not during a war.

Peace treaties

Two leaders who are not at war can swear peace for 1 to 8 weeks: one offers from the War tab, the other accepts. While the treaty holds, neither side can declare war on the other.

War Not open yet

The rules of war and of raids on another faction's land are built, but both stay closed during the alpha while the holds and factions are set up. The War tab says so.

Party

Up to 6 players. /party invite, /party accept, /party leave.

Raid

7 to 12 players. Skill gain is halved for everyone while the raid lasts, except inside a raid ruin.

Leader

The leader removes members from the X menu on a player, or with /party kick.