The characters in Imperator are deeply detailed, and together with the pops and the politics are part of what makes a vibrant living world. They have portraits that age gradually, with lots of different ethnicities covering the world.
Attributes
There are four attributes that characters have:
- Martial represents a character's ability to fight and lead troops. Characters with high martial skills make excellent generals.
- Charisma is a character’s ability to charm and persuade others.
- Zeal is a character's ability to inspire faith in other characters, and also in calling upon the favour of the gods.
- Finesse represents a character's skill in disciplines requiring a high attention to detail. High finesse characters make excellent researchers and governors.
Traits
Traits can be categorized in the following categories:
- Personality - This includes being Brave or Coward, Cruel or Merciful. These impacts the character attributes and stats directly, as well as…
- Military - Usually a character has a maximum of one of those, that may give a bonus or penalty
- Health - Stressed, Maimed, Lunatic etc. Not beneficial to the character in most cases.
- Status - Some exceptional traits that can be given from actions, like Conqueror
Primary Stats
A Character also has his or her personal wealth, and four primary stats:
- Popularity - Popularity is a measure of how the people see the character. In republics high popularity characters are more likely to elected leader of the republic. However even monarchies cannot ignore popular people.
- Loyalty - Loyalty is a measure of a character's loyalty to the state. Disloyal characters are more likely to cause problems to a ruler than loyal ones. However even the most loyal of characters has their limit.
- Prominence - Prominence represents the fame of the character. Jobs and titles help bring characters to public attention.
- Corruption - Corruption is a measurement of this character’s willingness to engage in underhanded practices. Greed, bribery and the bending of rules come hand-in-hand with high corruption.
Health
The Health stat of a character ranges from 0 to 100, and is increased or decreased by various traits. If the health of a character reaches 0, that character will die. Using the Seek Treatment character interaction will increase the health of the character.
Relationships
Characters have parents, will be able to marry and get children, just as you’d expect. They can also have friends and rivals.
Roles
Characters can be given various roles. Besides being ruler of a country, they could be assigned to govern a province, command an army, handle research or be given a role in the government. Some countries allow women to be given offices, and some do not.
Roles in the government include:
- Consul
- Praetor
- Censor
- Tribunus Militus (Military Tribune)
- Vulnerarius
Tyranny
Tyranny is accumulated by the player by performing acts such as imprisoning characters on false charges, crucifying people, sacrificing infants, or other things generally considered malevolent to the populace. Tyranny is tracked by a meter, and as it increases, so do the negative ramifications for the player's country.
Interactions
There are lots of different interactions you can do with and on your characters, including arranging marriages, bribe them, loan from them, or even sacrifice them if your religions so permit and desire. Interactions can cost powers or gold.
| Interaction | Description |
|---|---|
| Appoint Dictator | Can be done to a ruler in a republic when at war or during a civil war. This will allow him to do any diplomatic or character interaction without the Senate interfering, at least until the end of the war. |
| Assassinate | Foreign characters can be attempted to assassinate. |
| Banish | Forces a preciously imprisoned character to leave the country. |
| Bribe | Increases the loyalty of a character. |
| Execute | Kills a character. |
| Free Hands | Increases loyalty and corruption if the character is a governor. |
| Hold Games | Costs money and increases the popularity of the current ruler. |
| Imprison | Imprisons a character. |
| Inspire Disloyalty | Reduces the loyalty and increases the corruption of a foreign character. |
| Loan | Loans money from a wealthy character. They will want it back later, however. |
| Marry Ruler | Works if the ruler and target are different genders and are both unmarried. |
| Recruit | Gets a foreign character to leave their nation and work for you. |
| Recruit General | Gets a foreign general to leave their nation with their army and join you. |
| Release Prisoner | Releases a character from prison. |
| Repay Loan | Repays a loan taken from a character. |
| Sacrifice Prisoner | Some religions allow you to sacrifice prisoners of war, making your tribesmen happy and productive and allowing you to stay tribal. |
| Seek/Stop Treatment | Increases the health of a character. |
| Seduce Governor | Convince a governor to join your cause. |
| Smear Character | Reduces the popularity of a character. |