Mount&Blade/Fiefs

The properties spread around the map are collectively referred to as fiefs. A fief can be a castle, town, or village. Each is owned by someone, and they can change hands over time.

Acquisition
In order for you to acquire a fief, a ruler must offer it to you. There are two ways to be offered one:

Reward for allegiance
Once you reach 160 Renown, kings will start randomly asking you to pledge your allegiance, offering you a village to sweeten the deal (if your status with a king and/or his faction has dropped below 0 he will not make you an offer). If you refuse a random property offer you will lower your relations with the leader offering it (making him less likely to make a future offer) and once his opinion of you is a negative value he will stop asking you.

If you ask the king yourself, certain calculations are involved to determine whether you are worthy of becoming a vassal. The game checks your relation with the faction to make sure it is not below zero, and also checks that your standing with the king is no lower than -5. Your standing with the king is then multiplied by five and added to your Renown. If the combined total is over 160 and you passed all the previous checks you'll be allowed into the faction. If you fail the test the king will tell you that you need to see some more combat first.

Regardless of the method in which you joined the faction, the king will reward you with the poorest village his faction currently possesses.

Handout from sieges
Armies frequently besiege towns and castles in addition to fighting each other directly; once you have joined a faction you can besiege locations yourself (see siege for details). When a location is captured it becomes the property of the victorious faction; if there is a village very close that will also become that faction's property.

Every time a castle or town is conquered the king will give it to one of his vassals, and the village(s) to a different vassal; if you are a member of that faction there is a chance that you will receive one of one of these new assets, especially if you were the one who besieged it. If you captured it yourself you can specifically ask for that town or castle from the location menu to increase your chance of getting it, but there is also a chance that the king will give it to you without you asking.

If you are offered a fief you have the choice of accepting or refusing; if you refuse it will got to another vassal instead. The calculations used to determine which vassal gets a property are partly based on renown and partly based on luck, so there is no easy way of determining whether you'll be offered a fief after you capture a town or castle.

When you are granted a town or castle your banner will fly above it on the world map, clearly identifying it as your property (villages do not display a banner). You also get the right to collect taxes from it.

Taxes
Regardless of how you acquire a fief, doing so allows you to collect taxes from the populace on a weekly basis (these taxes accumulate, so you don't have to visit every week if you don't want to). Generally speaking, towns will earn the most taxes, castles second, and villages last, but the individual prosperity of each location also plays a role.

You can raise the prosperity of a town by ensuring its caravans reach their destinations, and by getting quests from the Guild Master. For villages, ensure it is not raided, kill bandits if they invade it, build improvements, or get quests from the Village Elder.

Reputation
Once a village belongs to you or to your faction you can no longer burn it, although you can still force the peasants to give you supplies. If you have previously burned a village that becomes your fief the townsfolk will remember and hate you, but you can still collect your taxes as usual. You will however be unable to get Recruits from this village (see Recruiting). You can see your reputation in the description at the top along with a word describing how much they like or hate you ("acceptive", "resentful", "hate you with a passion", etc.)

As a general rule, if you intend to take part in sieges to earn further fiefs for yourself you may want to avoid raiding nearby villages belonging to that same faction so that they will still like you. Burning villages decreases their prosperity (which affects the taxes and recruits you can collect), so it is in your best interest to ensure any villages you may come to inherit are in as good a condition as possible.

Getting supplies
You can buy food from the villagers or force them to give you goods; forcing them to give you goods will lower their reputation towards you (buying the goods from them will not affect their opinion of you). The reputation only lowers when you actually enter the loot screen, so if you accidentally choose the wrong option you can pick "Forget it" and avoid the reputation penalty.

Recruiting
Unless the villagers dislike you (see Reputation), you can recruit peasants to your army, either with the "Recruit volunteers" option or by talking to the Village Elder; unlike the villages your faction owned from the beginning, captured villages will offer you Recruits of whatever faction the village originally belonged to. Each recruit requires a small joining fee. The higher your reputation, the more recruits you will receive. If you have low Renown or a village is very poor the recruitment options will function but you will be told no-one was willing to join you.

Unlike towns and castles, villages cannot hold a garrison. If the village is attacked, only the Farmers are there to defend it. Building a watchtower (see Village management) will lengthen the time it takes for a village to fall, thus allowing you to come to their rescue.

Raids
From time to time enemies will try to raid your villages or besiege your castles; when this occurs you can head there and drive off the attackers. If it's a village being raided the Farmers will fight alongside you. If you do not deal with the attackers the village's prosperity will be significantly affected.

Prosperity
In the village you will find a Village Elder (he is the only villager who is stationary). From time to time he will offer village quests. Completing these will make the village like you more and will also improve its prosperity. Village prosperity has some amount of variation, so you may have to do quests now and then to keep its prosperity high.

Another factor of village prosperity is that villagers travelling to or from a town in order to trade need to reach their destination safely. Their parties are small and weak, so enemy parties are a real threat to them.

Village management
The "Manage this village" menu option lets you build several improvements to enhance your village's prosperity or productiveness. Note that these improvements are not visible when walking around the village; you need to use the management menu to see what improvements have been built. The cost and construction time will be decreased if you or your companions have the Engineer skill.
 * Digging a fish pond will greatly improve prosperity. This takes time but is well worth it.
 * Building a school will improve the recruits on offer and will also boost your reputation with the village. The village's prosperity and their opinion of you have a significant effect on how many men offer to join you.
 * Build a watchtower if you have problems with parties raiding the village. It lengthens the time it takes for the village to be looted, giving you a longer amount of time to get there and drive off the raiders. If you successfully interrupt a raid the damage it normally causes to the village's prosperity will not apply.
 * Building a manor allows you to rest at the village like you can at a town, and if you are resting there during pay day your men will only get half wages because they are not on active duty. Your party will draw food from the village during this time.

Towns
You can rest in town for free. Your men will draw food from the town during this time.

Prosperity
Town prosperity relies on caravans. Ensure that caravans going to or from your town get there safely.

Garrisoning
You can place or modify a garrison by choosing the "Station a garrison" option. You can also drop off or pick up prisoners. Heroes cannot be stationed in the garrison.

Men left in a town are paid only half wages as they are not on active duty, and their wages are automatically deducted (along with those of the men in your party) at the end of each week. If you place your entire party in a town's garrison and then wait until pay day you will end up giving all your men only half the wages they earn for active service.

Declaring independence
Under certain conditions, a town that has just changed hands may declare that it is independent. Despite this the town will be granted to a vassal on the following day. You can still interact with the town normally during this time.

Castles
You can rest at castles you own for free. Your men will draw food from the castle during this time.

Recruiting and garrisoning
Faction troops of varying skill levels will gradually take up residence in your castle to defend it. You can add them to your party by choosing the "Station a garrison" option, and you can also deposit men in your party in the same way. You can also drop off or pick up prisoners. Heroes cannot be stationed in the garrison.

Men left in a castle are paid only half wages as they are not on active duty, and their wages are automatically deducted (along with those of the men in your party) at the end of each week. If you place your entire party in a castle's garrison and then wait until pay day you will end up giving all your men only half the wages they earn for active service.