Integration, Administration, And Treaties
Overview
Integration is one of the major unique features of Axioms. It is a feature mostly of internal politics. The integration system is part of a larger set of systems dealing with relations between rulers and states and populations. In Axioms of Dominion there are no hardcoded countries per se. All provinces controlled by the same direct leader are part of a state. There are three major systems relating to the integration of nations.
Province/Liege Authority
Province Authority is a slowly ticking value representing a direct leader's right to rule over a province. It ticks up while you own it and down when you don't. There is a value for every leader who has ever directly owned the province. There are also some non ticking ways to raise or lower it. Liege authority is similar but for character relationships. The longer you/your family are the overlord of a lineage of leaders/a state the more the population believes you have a right to that position.
I’ve been considering some modifiers. For instance you gain authority faster if the relevant parties have a higher opinion of you. Perhaps the more other characters recognize you through a diplomatic character action the faster you gain authority. There may be some population trait modifiers like race and nationality and so forth that compare to the character who is gaining authority. Religion might be relevant.
Administration/Bureaucracy/Rights/Duties
The administration deals with political/cultural integration of populations. Every leader who controls land has a set of administrative positions which can be restricted to different populations. Leaders who also have underlings have positions for those relationships as well. Populations which are allowed to hold administrative jobs have a better opinion of their leader and fellow populations.
There is some difference here based on ideology. Nationalists, race purists, religious zealots, etc will have a penalty to happiness if groups they don't like are integrated with the administration. Groups with more cosmopolitan ideologies will GAIN happiness if administrations are diverse.
Integration will, as noted in a previous post, increase for populations who have characteristics that qualify them for rights like religious freedom, ability to bear arms, receive subsidies, hold property, gain titles, and so forth.
Additionally if the administration makes allowances for their language that will be helpful as well. Again this can upset groups who dislike these groups.
Groups will be happier not only if they have lower taxation but also if other groups have similar levels of taxation. Treating other groups better will upset populations. Groups will also be happier if other groups in the polity like them. Propaganda is useful here in directly improving opinions as well as reducing ideological differences.
Treaties/Obligations
Unlike other strategy games such as Civilization 6, EU4, CK2, or Warhammer: Total War there is no static "vassal" status. There are simply many treaty options available to mix and match between characters and states and nations. Obligations are basically long running treaty agreements that have gained authority by dint of age. For instance in a treaty where you have reciprocal terms as far as deploying soldiers and defense if this treaty lasts dozens or hundreds of years the cost to breaking it becomes larger and larger. Treaties with term limits will not become obligations.
Map modes will represent polities in different ways. There will be modes for happiness, integration, relationships between ruling characters and so forth.
Non-Noble Leaders
There is plenty of room for methods of polity connection beyond direct lineage based relationships between characters. Populations can be lead by appointed or elected leaders who have various relations to each other though these tend to be more common deep into the timeline rather than in early eras. Polities that would qualift as Federations are possible earlier and would typically be comprised primarily of mutal defense pacts and perhaps trade treaties without an state being superior although tiered systems can exist as well.
A nation managed under a system similar to the HRE or even the Roman Republic is possible only a few thousand years into the game. Of course a talented player can accelerate many things in a way the AI can’t and is in fact designed not to do.
These kinds of states would not be considered to be very integrated. Centralization is not even necessarily central to success in Axioms. It has certain costs to achieve and maintain and in some cases you might want to focus more on other things. Especially for role-playing where you want to do something for reasons beyond min-maxing success.