First of all, why are the province levels so low? It only takes one domain action (1 month) and some gold/regency to rule a province up. The Empire of Anuire existed for hundreds of years and was relatively stable before the death of Michael Roele, but even on the south coast, most provinces are level 2 or 3. Im sure war and plague have decreased province levels, but it just seems oddly low to me given the relative ease of ruling a province.

Secondly, province taxation doesnt seem very balanced. Tax wise, the optimal setting seems to be at least half law holdings in the province + severe taxes, or moderate if you are worried that something else will impose a loyalty change. It takes a lot of regency and domain actions to go from half law holdings in each province to full law holdings just to make severe taxation safer, and the difference between moderate and severe taxation is not much except for very high province levels...for a level 4 province, the difference is basically 1 GB on average.

Law claims are also surprisingly ineffective. Assuming law holding = guild/temple level, most of the time you are claiming 0 GB. This doesnt make sense for what should be things like duties, tariffs, etc...and claiming from multiple holdings actually nets you more than one big holding.

Holding taxation stops making sense after level 6 as well, a level 6 holding and a level 4 holding in a level 10 province generates more gold than a level 10 holding in a level 10 province, because a level 10 holding generates the same gold as a level 6 holding.

Scarcity of gold also seems to be balanced on the regent only controlling one type of money making holding (guild, temple or province). If a regent controls two or more, they get very rich. As an example, Talinie generates almost as much income as Boeruine due to having 7 provinces + lots of temple holdings, even though Talinie is a recommended PC realm and is not described as some kind of power house.

Another example is Diemed vs Medoere. Diemed generates 16 GB income on average, Medoere despite having way fewer province levels generates 15.5 GB income on average due to controlling the temples...despite being less than half the size of Diemed. If Medoere spends one action casting Bless Land, they generate more money than Diemed on average.

Trade routes are also far too powerful as described in the rules. It only takes two actions to create a trade route (assuming diplomacy is not required). It costs only 1 GB and 1 RP base. You only need a level 0 guild holding. It gives you a fixed amount of gold that cannot be taxed via law claims. A level 4 province with a trade route to another level 4 province generates a fixed 4 GB per turn...almost as much as a level 4 province on severe taxation. I'm not sure if trade routes are one way either...for example, if i can link province A to B, can I also link B to A for a second trade route?

And despite how powerful trade routes are, Anuire does not appear to have any trade routes defined. Every regent should be scrambling to make trade routes given how much money they bring in for minimal investment. A realm can easily double their income if they had a single trade route from each province....and level 4-6 provinces can support two trade routes.