How the realm is carved

1. The realm is split into provinces of equal size — one for each ruler, carved differently every match, so no two campaigns open on the same map.
2. You can only take ground that touches your own. Conquest spreads from the frontiers you hold — so carve a corridor through one neighbour and you come to border whoever lies beyond them.
3. A border cannot be carved through the mountains. A ridge is a wall you must go around — or take the ground at its end.
4. Holdings pay tribute. Mines, towers and shrines fund whoever owns the ground beneath them, so certain patches of map are worth far more than their acreage.
5. Every strike lands — the question is what it costs. Bank Resolve each turn and spend it on a bolder strike that claims more but scatters further.
6. Two signature strikes, one throw of each per campaign. One claims ground you do not border; the other carries the border on through the mountains and the realms behind them. Saving for them is the only way to reach where an ordinary strike cannot.
7. Or build instead of striking. Raise a bulwark on your own ground and no border may be carved through it — not theirs, and not yours either. Sappers bring a rival's down for half the price.
8. Squeezed too thin to hold any ground at all and you are driven out — your land is left for whoever reaches it first. You are not finished: an exile keeps their turn and may carve into anyone, having no border left to respect. Retake somewhere you can stand within three turns, or you are out for good.
9. Conquer the realm outright, outlast everyone, or hold the most after 20 rounds. Conquest means growing 35 points of the map beyond the province you began with — 60% in a four-way fight, 85% in a duel — so it is the same climb however many rulers sit down.