Village Lord

The Village Lord is an NPC that spawns in the castles of Villages. He is the ruler of the province, and as such can bestow and revoke privileges for the faction the town is a part of depending on your reputation with him.

Spawning

The village lord will spawn in the town castle, a bare-bones, fortified structure. The first floor only consists of some chests containing gold, emeralds, and Recruitment Papers, the second floor holds the village lord and his throne, and the rooftop has miniature watchtowers. Guards spawn inside of the castle, but seldom on the roof.

Reputation

The Village Lord is essentially a representative of the faction the town is a part of. You are to interact with him to ask about problems plaguing the land, or to directly curry favor. Interacting with him will also show you your current permissions within the faction's borders.

Permissions

When you reach a certain reputation with a faction, you are granted certain permissions based on your ranking.
- Neutral (-10 to 50 rep): Hire guards for the faction.
- Friendly (50 to 150 rep): Harvest crops legally.
- Honored (150 to 250 rep): Slaughter livestock legally.
- Revered (250 to 500 rep): Place blocks, set fire, and destroy blocks legally.
- Exalted (> 500 rep to ???): Rename the current town using a renamed City Key.
It should be noted that privileges are only granted upon holding the proper ranking or higher, and privileges will be revoked if you fall below the threshold and de-rank.

Gifts

Reputation is a vital resource to keep up if you wish to be a true burgher (townsperson), and the lord is here to help. To directly increase your favor with him and his faction, you can give a variety of items, shown below:
- 1 Emerald will increase rep by 1 point.
- 1 Bandit Mask will increase rep by 5 points.
- 1 Corresponding Artifact will increase rep by 50 points.
There are other items that can increase rep, but the particular values are unknown at this time. It would be appreciated if someone could complete the list.

Quests

Quests are the second way of significantly increasing your reputation with a faction. The types of quests are many, but depend on your current reputation with the village. While the quests often intersect reputation levels (e.g. lower level quests occur at higher levels & vice-versa), the corresponding quests to corresponding reputations are a good portion of what you'll see requested from the village lord.
Upon completion of each of these quests, you will be rewarded with emeralds and a positive boost to reputation. The amount of both items scales with the difficulty of the task at hand. Legendary quests also provide a stat boost (e.g. haste, speed, strength, etc.) depending on the legendary mob trophy brought to the lord.
The list of quests includes:

Neutral & Below

- Plant Crops: The king has asked you to plant x amount of crops within village borders. First off, the crop you use can be from a variety of places: all Vanilla, Harvestcraft, and even Rustic crops apply. It should be noted that harvesting crops in villages reduces your work towards the total if they are vanilla or harvest-craft, but not if it's Rustic. Lastly, the score changes no matter what village you're in - you can accept the quest in Arrowwood and complete it in Claysong (same goes for detracting from the quest).
- Gather Resources: The king has asked you to collect x amount of resources and bring them to him. The resource in question will most likely be stone, dirt, or coal. The extraction of these resources can be done anywhere in the world, but digging them up must happen: simply handing over some surplus or purchased materials is not acceptable. The strictness of what the materials has to be exactly is variable: while coal must be coal and only regular vanilla dirt is acceptable, just about any stone works, not just coade.

Friendly & Honored

- Kill Zombies: The king has asked you to slay x number of zombies. The slaying of said zombies can happen anywhere.
- Kill Bandits: The king has asked you to slay x number of bandits. The slaying of said bandits can happen anywhere, including in "Destroy Encampment" quests. Due to the sheer rarity of bandits to kill, it is recommended to either pair it with another town's "Destroy Encampment" quest, wait until you find a pillaged town, or otherwise either not accept and hope another quest cycles in, or in the worst case fail the quest to keep others coming.
- Breed Livestock: The king has asked you to breed x amount of livestock; that is, to create x new animals in town. This must occur in village boundaries, and transporting in animals does not count: they must specifically be born within city limits. The game does not care what kind of animal it is, as long as it is domesticated.

Revered & Exalted

- Hire Guards: The king has asked you to recruit x amount of guards. Recruitment papers will be provided, which must be used on a bribed bandit to turn into an independent guard, who then must be brought back to town. This quest may be more strict on which towns you can bring in the guards (besides the one w/ the quest, obviously). At the very least, it must be a town of the same faction, if not the exact town itself. Due to the sheer rarity of bandits, skipping may be recommended.
- Capture Fugitives: The king's guard have let several criminals escape, and it is up to you to catch them and return them to the city guard. You will be provided a lead named "Fugitive's Handwraps". The fugitives in question are darker-skinned villagers that do not do any trades whatsoever. Unlike Nitwits, these folk are in beige clothing, akin to the Skyrim prisoner outfit. They will attempt to run away from you when you draw near, but will be forced to follow you once you have attached a lead to them. As of ROTN 3.0.1, this quest is seemingly impossible to complete: not only do the guards not take the prisoner(s) in, the lead is automatically renamed to its vanilla name, so failing this quest also requires paying up 5 emeralds. Try to avoid this quest at all costs.
- Find a Sheep: The king's prized sheep has gone missing! You will be given coordinates and a "Lasso": it is up to you to locate this sheep and bring them in. As of ROTN 3.0.1, this quest seems to fail to spawn in the sheep, making completing this task impossible. Avoid at all costs.
- Destroy Encampment: A bandit encampment has spawned within a day's walk of the castle and the king is enlisting you to take them out. You will be provided with a map that has marked the encampment - going there will find you a black & red lean-to, a campfire, chests, logs, and of course, bandits. Killing the bandits is all that is necessary - the structure does not need to be removed. Do note that this camp will replace the original surroundings, including dirt and trees.

Champion and Above

- Legendary Quests: A evil force has spawned in our world, and it's up to you to take it out! You will be provided with a map to its location, though some are self-evident. Completing this task will grant not only lots of emeralds and rep, but a positive status effect that lasts whilst in the town's borders, similar to a beacon. The effect is dependent on the boss slain.

Death

Upon the death of the Village Lord, a crown will be dropped as an item. This crown can be used to turn another guard of the town into a Village Lord, or it can be used to create a new province by applying the crown to a guard with no faction (e.g. a hired guard). The first option is for when the king dies by accident or to mobs; the second option is for if you want to create a new settlement. As such, it might in the best interest to kill of the king of a ruined town if you wish to create a better one from scratch.

Notes

- Only one village lord spawns in any given village. This, however, does not mean that there is only one king per faction: since multiple villages can fly the same banner, there are multiple lords for any given faction in the world. As a result, reputation carries across villages of the same faction.
- Before ROTN 3.0.1, the castles in which Village Lords spawned in were much more ornate, featuring a dining table, bookshelves, and furnaces. The reason for having a simpler, more spartan look is unknown at this time.
- One can double-dip with quests: for example, if you have two quests to kill zombies, completing the quest with the larger requirement will accomplish both quests.
- With respect to rewards from quests, it seems that smaller quest tasks (e.g. mine 16 coal vs mine 32 coal) give better returns on investment (e.g. more emeralds/rep given per coal mined and handed over).
- If one stumbles upon the "Destroy Encampment" quest, it is ideal to take on quests that would usually be near impossible to practically accomplish, such as "Kill Bandits" or "Recruit Guards". In this case, the reason for doing this is because bandits are rare in ROTN - as of 3.0.1, they only seem to spawn in either pillaged towns or caravan sidequests (which rarely appear by random chance). At the moment, it is unknown if recruiting the bandits at the encampment will prevent the latter quest from completing, or if both can be completed simultaneously.

Bugs

- It is possible to "cheese" the crops quest by quickly planting and uprooting Rustic[1] plants (such as Marsh Mallow and Ginseng) in the village domain.
- As of 3.1.1a, some previously uncompletable quests have been fixed, such as the fugitives quests; however, quests like finding the sheep are impossible, and others like sending letters may become glitched and uncompletable from time to time.
- There are multiple quests that say they must accomplished within the village borders, but can actually be completed within any city limits.