Kingdoms that are serious about their imperial status will eventually become chartered. A chartered kingdom is recognised by the empire and thus becomes an official state. This ensures that the kingdom, its laws and politics will continue as long as it's people do.

There are many advantages associated with becoming a chartered kingdom, but the most important is the fact that chartered kingdoms will prevail even when the monarch dies. Being chartered, will force the emperor to maintain the kingdom whilst a new monarch is crowned. Its laws(ACTs) and politics(Forum) will remain as long as there is one active member left.

Chartered kingdoms have the option of preserving up to 10 ACTs in the event their monarch dies. Monarchs may also choose a special add-on insurance which will cover up to 36 ACTs. This insurance will prevent ACTs being lost in the event the monarch is reset. When the crown is passed on to a new monarch, the new monarch may choose whether to keep the forums or start afresh.

A contract auto-renewal is available for the monarch to set up on the 'OUTPOST' menu. This will enable the kingdom to remain chartered continously as long as there are enough funds to cover the expense in the KINGDOM BANK.(Read below)

KINGDOM BANK

All chartered kingdoms are automatically given a bank. This is accessible by all kingdom members from the CROWN menu. The KINGDOM BANK stores Runes which can be used for payment of charters, or transfering to vasals in need. All kingdom members may deposit Runes into the KINGDOM BANK, but only the monarch can manage their use. If set to auto-renew, the expense will be deducted from the bank's balance. If a kingdom chooses to auto-renew, it is adviseable that enough funds be deposited to cover for the expense, or the auto-renew may fail and the kingdom will lose its charter status.

A monarch may transfer Runes to himself or any vasal, directly from the bank to their personal Rune account. This transfer takes 48 hours, in which time it remains as 'Pending' in the bank's transaction logs. If a transaction is 'Pending', any vasal has the option of canceling it. This means that although the monarch is the only one who can initiate a transfer, all vasals have the option of stopping it if they feel it is not legitimate.

A monarch can use the Runes in the KINGDOM BANK to buy ACTs. The game will always try to deduct the cost from the KINGDOM BANK, but if there are insufficient funds it will remove it from the monarch's personal account. Either way, a monarch can later transfer or deposit funds to balance out the payment of the ACTs between his personal account and the KINGDOM BANK.

If a kingdom does not re-new and loses its chartered status, it will no longer be able to use its bank. Any Runes stored within will be saftely held till the kingdom is chartered once again. If a kingdom wishes to re-charter, it may use the funds in the kingdom bank to do so. The option for this will appear if there are sufficient funds to cover the charter. If the kingdom has never been chartered before, the cost of the first charter will be deducted from the monarch's personal account.

Having a healthy bank account is always a good idea. A KINGDOM BANK will earn interest based on the amount of Runes that the kingdom stores in it. A bank will pay a daily dividend in caravans to its monarch. The greater the amount of Runes stored in a bank the greater the number of caravans that will be earned.