Ah, your Noble lineage, your dynasty, your bloodline. Your line lies at the very beating heart of

Kingdom Maker, so it’s very much in your best interest to make your family tree as strong as a

towering oak. That requires breeding, makin’ babies, boinking your little Nobles’ hearts out so

they’re perpetually spent, and perhaps just a little volcanic sacrifice.

If you really want to rev up your reign, you’ll need a big family, and a family of quality. When

your married Nobles boink there’s a chance of producing offspring. If the boink produces a

baby, it will be born at a random quality level, though the higher the quality, the rarer it is.

Each Noble is born into one of six possible qualities:

● Runt

● Normal

● Impressive

● Exceptional

● Legendary

● Mythical

The higher quality of your Nobles, the better they are. Rarer, higher quality Nobles tend to sport a whole list of wonderful traits and bonuses. Low-quality Nobles are more likely to be born with negative traits, which are undesirable, to say the least. It’s best to avoid unmarried boinks, or *gasp* unmarried boinks within the same family altogether. These produce bastards and inbred Nobles, respectively, both of which carry negative traits.

You begin Kingdom Maker with your starting Noble and their spouse, which is an excellent way to start a family. It’s a start, but you’ll want to get higher quality Nobles as fast as you can because higher quality Nobles offer a better chance of high-quality children.

One of the very best ways to accomplish that is the tried and true method of acquiring status and privilege: Marry into it!

Friends of Friends

There’s only one way to find spouses for your starting couple’s Noble children: other players, and their Noble kids. Fortunately, your fellow Kingdom Makers are also making new Nobles, and “active” Noble families produce more offspring than they could ever possibly use. Their excess progeny could make suitable matches for your unmarried nobles. You could get a new, higher-quality family member, and save their Noble from a fiery fate. Win-win! It can’t hurt to reach out to your Alliance and ask if anyone has extra Nobles they’d be willing to send to your Keep. Occasionally, players may even offer their excess Nobles in the global chat of your shard. It pays to keep an eye open for opportunities.

The Proposal

Once an available Noble has been sent to visit your Keep, you can have one of your Nobles try to Charm them. If the Charm is successful, you can attempt to Propose to them, and if the other player accepts your proposal, their Noble will marry into your family and become a permanent member of your Noble lineage. Man or woman, doesn’t matter; whoever does the Proposing gets to keep the Noble who accepts the proposal.

Note that Charming isn’t guaranteed, and several factors can influence its success. Being at a higher level or possessing certain Roles, traits, skills, and equipment can improve your chances.

Once your new spouse is married into the family, you can start breeding better, hopefully, higher-quality offspring. Noble Breeding itself is a big, wonderfully rich topic and worthy of its own discussion, but that’s for another time.

Burn ‘Em, Execute ‘Em, Marry ‘Em Off

Your Keep will get crowded with all these new Nobles running around. Space is limited, both by your total family size, and the Roles your Nobles can fill. You can make more room by Researching both more space in your family and researching new Role slots, but space, alas, remains limited.

The day will arrive, very soon, when you’ll need to make room in your Noble family for spouses and offspring. And by “make room” we mean “throw unwanted Nobles into an actual volcano”.

The Volcano

Yes, a volcano. Just pull your map view out up above the county level until you’ve got a bird’s eye view of all Ardendale. Scroll to the northwest until you see the giant mountain in the blasted wastes of Lytoseau. Zoom in and you’ll find the volcano. Tap the wee platform and you’ll be presented with the option to Sacrifice one of your Nobles. Choose it and confirm, and the selected Noble will cheerfully travel to their imminent doom. Be very, very, VERY sure that you’ve got the right Noble selected, because the process is irreversible.

Marriage

If one of your nobles receives a successful Proposal, and you accept, that Noble will join a different player’s family and be removed from your own. This is a much better way to dispose of Nobles that are otherwise valuable. Perhaps they’re high quality or have useful traits, but simply don’t fit into your own plans? This is the moment to pay it forward and see if any local players, or perhaps players in your Alliance, are looking to make a match.

Execution

Finally, warfare in Kingdom Maker can be dangerous. If your City is invaded, and one of your Nobles is captured, but isn’t rescued or returned, it’s possible that they can be Executed. Successful executions result in a demise just as permanent as that inflicted by the volcano. On the bright side, at least you’ll have room for more Nobles! In all these cases, you needn’t worry about their equipment, because it will always automatically be returned to you.

***

To sum up: marry well, boink often, and feed the volcano voraciously, and spur your progress

toward a storied Noble lineage!