Domain and economy

The holdings you keep

The domain is every holding you hold in person. A county is a group of baronies, and each barony is one holding. A vassal's holding is not in your domain. On the map, Selecting Holdings is the mode that lets you click one.

Castle, city, temple, and tribe are the holding types in the early bookmarks. Any government except nomadic can hold a castle directly. A city is held directly by a republic, a holy order, or by administrative, celestial, meritocratic, meritocratic khanate, and Ritsuryo rulers. Who holds a temple depends on the faith's clerical tradition. Under the theocratic tradition, ecclesiastical and theocratic rulers hold temples directly. A tribe holding is for tribal and wanua rulers, and it is not built from an empty barony.

When a county is missing a castle, a city, or a temple, that missing type is the one you construct first. The build button prints the gold and the time. New holdings are not constructed in the Sahara.

Your government is on the realm screen. Feudal, clan, and tribal is where contracts, tax jurisdictions, and tribal prestige are set out.

• Feudal, clan, and tribal

What the domain limit adds up from

Open the domain view. It lists the holdings that count and the limit for this ruler. Your highest title rank adds to that limit. A higher rank replaces the lower one. A count and a duke use the same step.

Hegemon sits above emperor. All Under Heaven, released Oct 28, 2025, adds that rank. In the start dates, China is the hegemony that exists. Uniting India or restoring Rome can create another. There is no generic button that mints one.

An education trait moves the limit by its level, whichever education it is. Level 1 subtracts 1. Level 2 adds 0. Levels 3, 4, and 5 add 1, 2, and 3. Theologian, and Patriarch or Matriarch, each add a further 1. Four lifestyle perks add 1 each once you have taken them: Absolute Control, Divided Attention, Fear Tax, and Personal Touch. The innovations Gavelkind and Court Officials each add 1. A finished Law dynasty legacy adds 1. The Crown of Justinian can add domain limit when its requirements are met. The domain view is where those lines are already summed.

Stewardship skill raises domain taxes. The percentage is on the skill tooltip. Domain limit moves with the education level, the rank table, and the perks and innovations named here.

Feudal, clan, tribal, ecclesiastical, theocratic, administrative, celestial, meritocratic, and meritocratic khanate rulers use the rank table. Nomadic rulers, and mandala, wanua, Ritsuryo, and Soryo rulers, use a stricter limit. The domain view names the rule you are under. Administrative government is part of Roads to Power. Nomadic government is part of Khans of the Steppe.

When you hold more holdings than the limit, the domain view shows the tax and the levy you are actually receiving. Hand the extra holding to a vassal, or raise the limit, before you treat that income as permanent. Survive a partition is the grant that keeps the capital duchy with your heir. A Domain Limit game rule can shift the number. The rule screen prints the step for that campaign.

The six hegemony titles, and the decision that creates each one, are listed in the hegemony guide.

• Survive a partition
• Crown of Justinian
• Traits
• Dynasty and renown

Education level

The education trait is the other large step. Read the level on the trait. The domain view then adds the rank from the table above.

Since update 1.19, every education trait grants domain limit by tier, from -1 at tier 1 to +3 at tier 5, and Stewardship no longer adds it directly. What changed in 1.19 lists the rest of that change.

• Education and guardians

Buildings that change the holding

Buildings sit in a holding. Military buildings can go in a castle, a city, or a temple when the terrain allows. They raise levies, they strengthen a regiment you station there, or they do both. Barracks lines name heavy infantry and spearmen. Stable lines name cavalry. The building tooltip is the list for the level in front of you.

Economic lines are the ones whose tooltip says tax or development growth. Guild halls and tradeports are the common development lines. The gold cost and the build time are on the button.

Duchy buildings are a separate list from the buildings in an ordinary holding. The holding screen shows which list is open. A castle also carries a stationed-regiment bonus that changes when you upgrade the castle. The holding tooltip prints that bonus.

• When to raise men-at-arms

Station the regiment on a holding you keep

Station a men-at-arms regiment in a holding you keep inside the domain. The buildings in that holding are what the regiment card uses. Put the regiment where the building names its type, then read the bonus on the card. A holding you are about to grant away takes the bonus with it.

When to raise men-at-arms is the raise, the higher upkeep while the regiment is raised, and disbanding when the peace screen closes the war. Warfare basics is the casus belli and the three peace buttons.

• When to raise men-at-arms
• Warfare basics

Development in the county you hold

Development on a county you hold raises what that county contributes. The county tooltip prints the tax, levy, and supply change. The steward's Increase Development in County task is the council job that pushes one county. Leave it on the capital when you are not at war. That is the same pacing as the first century.

The task slows as the county's development rises. Later civic innovations raise the point where that slowdown reaches its cap, and the steward's culture is the culture that has to know them. The task tooltip shows the time for this county.

Development also spreads between neighboring counties that share a land route. Buildings whose tooltip says development growth, including guild halls and tradeports, sit on top of the steward's work. The building tooltip prints the growth for the level you are looking at.

The free update with Silk and Silver, due 17 Nov 2026, splits development into Settlement Size and Prosperity and replaces regular buildings with districts. The Silk and Silver guide lists what the dev diaries confirm.

• The first 100 years
• Beginner start