Ancestral Fiefs

The ancestral owner of a fief is the noble who owns the fief at the beginning of the game. These owners have held these lands for generations and have built many deep and ancient relationships with the people and prominent families in the fief. This leads to two special rules in HYW. First, ancestral fiefs cannot be transferred by their ancestral owners. This was simply not done. Secondly, ancestral owners can perform Ancestral Rebellions in their ancestral fiefs if they are owned by someone else.

The fief(s) each player begins the game with are their "Ancestral Fiefs." These will also be called "Original Fiefs." These are the lands that have often been in the family for a while (often for centuries) and that player has extraordinary legal and emotional claims upon them.

The original fiefs may never be transferred by the original owner. This includes the kings and their fiefs. Anyone who conquers them may trade them freely, but once returned to the possession of their ancestral owner, he may not bestow them upon another.

The ban on voluntary transfer also applies to Ancestral Titles.

The original owner always has the option of entering one of his fiefs and sending the fief into rebellion against its current owner. This would be done via a "Start Rebellion in Current Fief" option in the Fief Management menu. The probability of a successful rebellion would depend upon the current stature of the ancestral owner (1=10% chance...9=90% chance). Each attempt takes 30 days. It is important to note that an ancestral rebellion may be quelled by anyone, so it behooves the owner to quell the fief himself, or to have another friendly player on hand to help him. The fief will become the property of whomever quells the ancestral rebellion.

One side effect of adding this feature is that you don't have to go to the fief management menu to quell a rebellion, it can also be quelled from the dirty deeds menu. If you quell an ancestral rebellion in a fief that you don't own that fief will be transferred to you. The examine fief screen from the travel menu now shows rebellion status.