Mod News - Thenius Marbrand – The Will of the Crown

I've finally finished a massive portion of V2, the Will of the Crown. This role is major and a huge amount of labor and scripting went into creating this role. So what is it?
The Will of the Crown:
The Will of the Crown is the High King’s chief administrator—overseeing the kingdom’s infrastructure, expense management, upgrades, and decrees. He turns the player’s ambitions into reality, handling everything from budget crises to domain improvements, and occasionally advising the king when the only solution is to make hard sacrifices for the greater good.

So who is this new character?
Thenius Marbrand is a grizzled former administrator and quartermaster, once responsible for keeping the Imperial machine running in Skyrim. After years of seeing kingdoms rise and fall due to mismanagement, Thenius trusts only discipline, clear ledgers, and hard-won experience. He’s blunt, principled, and loyal to the realm above all else, determined to keep Skyrim from sliding into chaos—no matter what difficult decisions that may require.

Well how do we get him?
When the next beta releases there is a recruitment quest (just like Hadrian).
Thenius’s recruitment begins with a tip from Surgus who directs you to seek out Thenius at a remote camp in The Pale. Thenius won’t join your court until you’ve proven your commitment to order—by restoring a ruined watchtower overrun by bandits and repairing it in phases. Once the tower stands again, Thenius agrees to serve as Will of the Crown, bringing his talents for administration—and hard truths—to your regime.

So what can he do once he's Will of the Crown?
Dynamic Expense & Infrastructure System:
Weekly kingdom expenses now include guard wages, lighting, water, roads, and castle upkeep—all managed and explained by Thenius.

• Visual Kingdom Decay:
  When the treasury runs dry, visible disrepair appears across Skyrim in escalating tiers—dead trees, trash, sewage, disabled lights, absent guards, and even wolf ambushes if the realm is truly neglected.

• Watchtower Construction:
  Players can commission new watchtowers in the holds, using phased construction and requiring real building materials. Each watchtower built will give a boost to approval ratings in that hold.

• Domain Upgrades:
  Invest in kingdom upgrades like granaries and watertowers for approval boosts and expense reduction.

• Decree System:
  Issue royal decrees with real gameplay effects, including:

  • The Royal Day of Rest

  • Standardized Weights & Measures

  • Censuses

  • Free Market zones

  • Fair Wages Act

  • Research Grants to Skyrim’s colleges

  • Guild Tributes system
    Each decree has pros and cons, affecting kingdom approval, treasury, or both.

• Desperate Measures System:
  If the realm is on the brink of ruin, Thenius will offer increasingly dire solutions—selling off royal art, liquidating assets, or even selling Skyrim's children (with appropriate consequences and optional rescue quests). There is also an MCM setting to disable this option for those who aren't comfortable.

• Expense Report System:
  Thenius can provide a kingdom-wide report on the health of your finances, with unique responses based on the realm’s current situation.

• Upgradeable Councilor:
  The Will of the Crown role can be upgraded for additional cost reductions and domain management options.
  
  So what's next? Where's our next beta release?
  Soon. Very soon. I'm going to go through and squish a bunch of reported bugs that are ready to be squished and add in some optimization for the castle.
  
  Ok? What about after that?
  The next big phase of development will be to get The High Priest of Skyrim built. This will be the last MAJOR piece of the council. The High Priest will be your propaganda arm of the Kingdom, sneakily influencing the people to treat the kingdom and it's ruler as a divine. Boosting your approval will allow you to raise taxes higher, do more dastardly decrees and finally divorce that nasty spouse. The marriage bypass quest will also be moved out of the Become King quest and will be available (and reworked) into the High Priest role. Then we'll also flush out what the Royal Spouse can do (and yes, this role will be big as well so the only Royal Spouses candidates will be Elisif and Ulfric, but I'll sneak in a way too keep your other "spouses" on the side - they just won't have Royal duties.
  
  When is this thing gonna be done?!?!
  I know it seems like it's taking forever but don't forget that 1.5.8 only came out a little over a month and a half ago. I am making massive progress on this project but also working a lot. I had to take a little break while the heat dome made my office unbearable and another is around the corner. I plan on using that time for testing a ton. But the roadmap task are getting whittled down. I just need to add the High Priest, the Minister of Foreign Affairs (diplomacy and trade), and then the other council roles are going to be WAY smaller and easier to implement. Then we'll be adding a new path to the crown (The MOOT....woot?), overhauling our Jarl system and adding a coronation scene. V2 WILL be out before the end of the year and that's be extremely conservative.
  
  Thanks all for reading and all the support.

  WinterishClover