Building factions and territory

Start with the important distinction

Davia has no separate faction, country, army, or political-border object. These are game concepts you assemble from the world's four kinds of subject and their stats.

This assembly is useful because each part can change independently. An army can move without moving its country, a capital can fall before every cell changes hands, and a contested cell can keep its geometry while its control changes.

Recipe: build one faction

Decide which actors should be selectable

Every entity appears as a selectable role when a player starts the game. Create a faction, country, government, clan, or organization as an entity only when you want players to choose that political actor directly.

If the country itself should not be a role, you do not need a country entity. Its characters and armies can be entities, its capital can be a landmark, and its territory can share one Allegiance value. Add each leader or mobile force as a separate entity when its location and condition matter independently.

An army that moves independently is an entity, not an entity stat, so it also appears in the role chooser. Army Strength, Morale, or Supply are properties that describe that entity; they do not create the army.

Create a shared allegiance stat

In the Game Stat Table, add a State stat such as Allegiance. Under Who has this value?, select every section that needs to answer the same question:

• Cell for territorial control;
• Entity for people, governments, and forces;
• Landmark for capitals, ports, forts, and other fixed places.

Add one named value and color for each side. The stat definition is the property; each subject's current value is its answer.

Paint the starting territory

Open Cells, display Allegiance, choose the faction's value, enable Paint continuously, and drag across the cells it controls. Repeat for the other sides.

Add a capital and mobile forces

Create the capital as a landmark and give it the faction's Allegiance value. Create each army, fleet, or mobile group as an entity with the same value, then add only the extra stats that produce decisions: strength, morale, supply, loyalty, or another game-specific fact.

Do not duplicate a faction's full description in every member. Use names, stats, locations, and Simulation Rules to make the relationship playable.

Explain how control changes

The cell stat's change instruction should define what can change one cell. Use Simulation Rules for interactions that involve armies, capitals, distance, or several stats.

A practical starting rule might say:

A cell changes Allegiance only after its current holder withdraws, surrenders, defects, or loses effective control. An army merely passing through does not transfer the cell automatically.

Add separate rules when capitals, supply lines, or contested values have special effects.

Geometry is not sovereignty

Use Edit cell geometry when the fixed areas themselves are wrong: a coastline is poor, a city is split between cells, or one cell is too large to support meaningful movement.

Use a cell stat when control changes. Painting Allegiance does not alter cell shape, and reshaping a cell does not decide who owns it.