TOWNS

A town is a claim on the world. It has citizens, a leader, borders that grow on a map, and protections inside its land. Towns can stand alone as Independent Towns, or belong to a nation.

What is a Town?

A town is a claim on the world. It has citizens, a leader, borders that grow on a map, and protections against griefing inside its land. Towns can stand alone, or belong to a nation.

The Town Lectern

Every town is anchored by a Town Lectern. It's the seat of the town: founding, joining, tax, expansion, and member management all flow through it.

The recipe comes from the Duke's quest, Matters of Record. Place the lectern where you want your town centred, then put a chest beside it to hold emeralds for actions that cost them.

Recipe: 4 slabs (any type), 4 emeralds, and 1 bookshelf in the pattern shown.
Place a chest directly adjacent to the lectern. Books that cost emeralds (founding, expansion, tax) draw from this chest.
The same Town Lectern is used whether you're founding solo or under a nation's banner.

Town Types

Once founded, a town is either independent or part of a nation. The type is set by whether its founder belonged to a nation at the time, and it shapes what the town can do afterwards.

Independent Town

Founded by a nationless player. No banner, no diplomacy, no overlord. Land without political commitments.

Can expand, accept nationless members, rename, pay tax, and accept integration offers from nations. Cannot engage in diplomacy or be vassalised. Has a smaller maximum expansion range and appears in a neutral colour on the map.

Nation Town

Founded by a citizen of an existing nation, under that nation's banner. Inherits the nation's map colour and falls under its diplomacy.

Can expand further than an Independent Town, draw on nation-level mechanics through its nation leader, and serve as a building block of empire.

An Independent Town can later join a nation through integration. The nation sends an integrate book, the town leader accepts, and the town merges under that nation's banner.

Forming a Town

Anchor a new town with a Town Lectern, a chest of emeralds, and a signed book.

1You must not already lead a town.
2Place a Town Lectern at least 200 blocks from spawn and away from other towns. If you're part of a nation, it must also fall within your nation's admin range.
3Place a chest adjacent to the lectern with 16 emeralds inside.
4Sign a book titled form town with the town's name on the first line.
5Insert the book into the lectern. The town is created and a small disk of land is claimed around the lectern.

Towns start with a 32-block-radius founding disk around the town lectern. A Steward appears beside it.

Join a Town

1You must be a citizen of the town's nation. If the town is independent, you must be nationless yourself.
2Sign a book titled join.
3Place it into a town lectern within the town's borders.
4The town leader reviews the request via the requests book in any town lectern, then accepts or denies.

The Steward

Every town gets a Steward beside its lectern when it's founded. Claimed land is income: the Steward gathers goods from it whether or not anyone is online.

Every 30 minutes your land produces goods into the Steward's coffers.
More land means more goods. The biomes you hold decide what they are: gold only from badlands, emeralds only from peaks and hills, coral only from warm sea.
Only the town leader can open the coffers, by talking to the Steward. A full coffer stops production, so someone has to empty it.
The Steward can give the leader a writ to move them elsewhere inside the town.

Town Tax

Every town has its own tax deadline, independent of any nation.
View the deadline in the info book at any town lectern.
Pay tax with a pay tax book. Each payment extends the deadline by 7 days. It costs 12 emeralds, plus more the more land you hold. The info book shows the exact figure.
Tax can be paid in advance to secure weeks or months ahead. There is no upper limit.
If the deadline passes, the town goes dormant and loses its protections.
A town is also dormant while it's missing a required lectern (capitals need all three).
With tax unpaid, a nation town is deleted after 4 weeks, an Independent Town after 2.

Town Claims

Each town starts as a 32-block-radius founding disk around its town lectern.
The town leader uses an expand book in a town lectern (with emeralds in an adjacent chest) to start a 12 hour expansion session. Borders creep outward block-by-block.
Speed depends on terrain. Fast over plains, slow over rivers, very slow over mountains and oceans.
Expansion cost scales with town size.
Independent Towns have a much smaller maximum expansion range than nation towns.
Town claims appear on in-game maps with the town's name. Capital towns use a mansion icon, regular towns a village icon.
Nation towns inherit their nation's colour. Independent Towns appear in a neutral colour.
Maps update live wherever they have already been explored. New claims and disbandments appear on any chart that already covers the area.

Common Town Books

The books you'll write most often as a town leader or member. All of them go in the Town Lectern.

Book	Effect
form town	Found a new town.
join	Request town membership.
expand	Begin a 12-hour expansion session.
pay tax	Pay the weekly tax, extend the deadline by 7 days.
info	Show town stats: nation, tax deadline, members.
requests	View pending join and integration requests.
rename town	Rename the town.
kick town	Remove a member.
help	Get the canonical town guide.

Looking for the full plugin reference, including diplomacy and nation books? Visit the book reference on the Nations page.

More Information

The canonical guide for towns lives in the in-game help books. Sign a book titled help and place it in any custom lectern.

Insert a who am i book into any lectern to see your nation and town memberships.

Want to turn your Independent Town into the seat of a new nation? See the Form a Nation guide.