New Domain Action Idea: Create Urban Province

[ericthecleric]

As far as I know, the only such province is the Imperial City of Anuire. On page 89 of the BRCS, there is a two-paragraph note about “Urban Provinces”. This is an interesting idea, so over the last few days I’ve been thinking about the following new Domain Action idea, that of Create Urban Province.
In medieval times, it was not uncommon for nobles to found cities as speculative ventures; for example, there are many market towns throughout England that are still extant examples of such ventures.
Using such an action not only helps increase the maximum potential population of a realm. Such an action may also be beneficial for a realm’s Court Wizard, because the urbanisation of a province increases the mebhaighl in the surrounding province.

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Create Urban Province [Standard; Administrate; ? GB]
Some regents may wish to increase the size of an urban area in a province such that a new “urban province” is created; an example of of an urban province is the Imperial City of Anuire. This may be done in two ways: Planned Migration, and Province Splitting. Note that this action is only available to regents who own provinces. It may not be used in a province that already has an urban province (the only province in which this is the case is Anuire province). New urban provinces are always called “City of x” province, where x is the name of the province in which the urban province is established, or of the major town in that province; for example, using this action in Ciliene (Diemed) would result in Cilience province and City of Ciliene province, while in Caercas (Roesone), this action would result in Caercas province and the City of Proudglaive province. Regardless of which method is used to create the urban province, the maximum level of the urban province is equal to the maximum level of the old province, while the old province’s maximum level remains the same.
When a new urban province is created, the requirement that an urban province requires at least one active trade route (BRCS, p. 89) is suspended until either two domain turns have passed, or if the urban province has is ruled before that time. This it is because it is assumed that the regent is dedicating resources to ensuring that the new urban province is successful. For example, if this action is used in Domain Turn 6, then the urban province must have at least one active trade route by Domain Turn 8 (including that turn), or its level will drop; if the urban province was successfully ruled in Turn 7, then it must have an active trade route in that turn.
This action generally requires the regent to name the largest town/city within a province as the new urban province.
The maximum source level of all urban provinces is 0.

Province Splitting: With this method, the regent splits one province into two provinces, the original province, and the new urban province. When using this action, the regent may split the province as he likes, but the urban province must have a level higher than or equal to the new level of the old province.
For example, if this action was used in Cieliene (6), the new urban province would range between level 3-6, with the new level of the old province correspondingly ranging between 3-0.
When using this action, the regent may decide how to split existing Law, Temple, and Guild holdings amongst the two provinces; he cannot split Source holdings. For example, if Hierl Diem uses this action in Ciliene, to create City of Ciliene (3) and Ciliene (3), he may decide to split the Law holdings such that the two provinces look like this:
Law Temple Guild Source
Ciliene (3/2) HD (1) OIT (3) GK (3) -
DA (2)
City of Ciliene (3/0) HD (3) OIT (3) EH (3) -

Planned Migration: With this method, the regent moves the people from one province to create an urban province in another province. Such action takes a lot of planning, and moves all people from the affected province such that it becomes level (0). Such an action might be used, for example, to allow a Court Wizard to develop a stronger source, or to clear a province of a particular race.
For example, Aeric Boeruine might migrate the population of Calant (3) to Seasedge, creating the City of Seasedge (3) province. This would leave Calant province as (0/7), which would allow Arlen Innes to develop a Source up to level 7, so that he could use the Transport realm spell, for instance.
As another example, Thurazor, Cariele, and Mhoried might strike a deal such that the three realms have a non-aggression agreement and will work together to gain The Gorge and Floodspaeth provinces for Thurazor, and Puinol for Cariele. In an additional clause, once the provinces are gained, Thurazor migrates the goblins of Doom’s Peak to create the City of Mergarrote (2), leaving Doom’s Peak a level (0) province, which he then gives to Cariele so that Doom’s Peak can now be developed as a human province.
Unlike with province splitting, an urban province created using this method has no Law, Temple, or Guild holdings when created (or Source holding either, but that is the same as for province splitting), meaning that the old holdings no longer exist.

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Any comments, people?

Several issues remain, such as DC and cost; I’ve got no idea, but the DC for planned migration should be easier than for province splitting. Alternatively, DCs should stay the same, but perhaps affected regents may ). Also:
* Once an urban province is established, should the original province have a lowered maximum level (eg. by 0, -1, or -2)?
* What should happen if a castle exists in the province. Should it be part of the urban province or the old province?
* What happens if an urban province is in the middle of a province?
I’m sure there are other issues people can think of, but it’s now late and the post is long enough! 