Design your own estate.

[riadach]

Personally, I think the new estates are a brilliant idea, however the trichotomy of church, nobles and burghers will not suit every faction.

So here is an opportunity to pick of faction or a culture and choose which estates you think would best represent the historical divisions of power within that faction/culture, and what bonuses you would assign them.

I'd go first with Irish Gaelic factions. There were certainly nobles and the church had a lot of power to boot, but the mainly rural nature of Gaelic society would not give burghers much power. One group that did have overwhelming influence were the learned classes, i.e. bodies of hereditary learned dependent upon the kings patronage, be they poets, judges, historians or doctors who had special immunities within society. Keeping these on side lead to better social cohesion and social order, stronger prestige, as well as granting some technological benefit.

What estate would you add to the game?

 

[andristan]

i would like to split the nobility faction into magnates and knights, it fits different countries better, like P-L(szlachta), and France, the hre had them as a separate class(Reichsritters) in the hoftages and it would allow better differentation between the goals of the magnates, pushing expansion for more territory for them and the knights wanting the central gov to protect them from the great nobles so technically less LA

 

[Castrolol]

 

[aragonFTW]

I know expecting a 1776 start to be changed now is a distant memory, but it'd be cool if you could get Monarchists, Federalists, and Democratic Republicans in the USA, with balancing them out replacing the current 2 way government change into a 3 way one. The process of forming a government as they did makes more sense with Estates rather than Factions.

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Civ 2 represent! I would also add animated advisors, particularly sunglasses-wearing artists.

 

[neondt]

Literati/Scholars for Korea and possibly other non-Ming Confucians, instead of Clergy.

Sangha instead of Clergy for Buddhists, but that's probably just a name change.

 

[gustavotoniato]

In Portugal it would be interesting to the creation of the estate of bureaucrats to represent the Fidalgos.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fidalgo

 

[migalhone]

In Portugal it would be interesting to the creation of the estate of bureaucrats to represent the Fidalgos.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fidalgo

Do you mean "Fidalgos" as a 4th state? "Fidalgo" is "Nobility" more than anything else.

If most of the administration jobs were occupied by "Fidalgos", i would blame that on the lack of a meritocratic culture in Portugal (really, this is a centuries old issue).

Those bureaucrats jobs were used as a way paying favors to noble families, or to family members of important members of the higher clergy.

The burghers did got opportunities to break the glass ceiling, such as that one merchant who got trade rights on the western african coast (in a way, the first Portuguese Trade Company?).

But those were, well, uncommon situations. And for those who may say "But John I of Aviz came from the Burghers!". John I of Aviz was a bastard, as such he had royal blood, although Burghers definitely influenced his rise to power and provided significant support to his cause.

Another historical situation that justifies the Estates mechanic: The beginning of the Age of Discovery in Portugal.

We could not expand in Europe, so we had to go overseas. Our rulers had support from all the estates:
- Nobility: They wanted war, to expand their own lands, to boast their military prowess.
-Clergy: They wanted to convert more souls to Christianity, sorry Catholicism.
- Burghers: "More control over subsaharan trade? Yes please!"
- Rest of the populace: "Perhaps we'll have a chance of having a less shitty life?"

I'm afraid that at the time, Portuguese society just wasn't that different from Spanish and French societies; which doesn't give any reason for a special Portuguese estate, if that was your intention.

I'm not sure which point i was trying to make, sorry. Got lost in my own explanation.