Roman noble families

[Lucius Sulla]

I guess this game will be centered in land-holding and land-centered christian noble families across Europe. But, there were some families that centered more around cities they did not control all the time, that had clearly more power, money and influence over Europe than most European dinasties, even some royal ones.

I am speaking, as readers of my other posts in the papacy thread will guess, about the roman families, the Colonna and the Orsini.

These eternal enemies could be said as the two main families 'native' to the city of Rome. That city, obviously was not controlled in a dinastic way by them, as it was an elected theocracy. But, both families has extensive lands, power (they always had at least a cardinal, one of the most influential in the church, at any time among their rank), and very good possibilities of having their cardinals elected as Pope.

While the Colonna have more possibilities of going into a suitable definition for the possible definition of dinasties, because they were based in the city of Palestrina, the Orsini, even when having extense vasts holdings, were quite more centered around the same Rome (if my sources are true).

So, my question would be, would the dinasties vassal to the Pope himself have to be included in the game as playable?

 

[Xoxxon]

As far as I know, the game revolves around not only the owning of land, but the management of feudal relationships. Did the Colonna and the Orsini families cap a network of vassals who pledged their fealty to them in the same way that, say, the vassals of France would have with respect to the French king? Or did these families own and administer all their land directly, without the intervention of vassals (the game equivalent of demesne land, I guess)? If these famlies led a feudal network of vassals, then I'd say that they'd fit the mold of the game perfectly.

And if they do indeed fit the mold, it'd be intriguing to see how they'd relate to Rome and the free cities of Italy and the Empire. I wonder how those will be modelled?

 

[Lucius Sulla]

Well, I must say I don't have any information about the economy and feudal links bellow the Colonna and the Orsini families, but... I guess the answer is that they used to manage their lands and applicate their policy directly.

I think that, richer than most of the other dinastic families of the game, they still will not cut the mold, as you say, since they can really be considered as the 'vassals of the pope'. And not having vassals of importance themselves.

Well, I could hope...