Terms of Service

1. Agreement and Scope

These Terms of Service ("Terms") form a binding legal agreement between you and the operator of Thronestead (see §26; "Thronestead", "we", "us"). They cover the Thronestead websites, game client, account and support systems, public API, official communications, and any official community space we operate (together, the "Services"). By creating an account, ticking the acceptance box at sign-up, or using any part of the Services, you accept these Terms together with the Privacy Policy, the Code of Conduct, and the Rules of the Political Stage, all of which are incorporated by reference. If you do not agree, do not use the Services.

When you sign up with an email address we record the version of these Terms you accepted, together with the date, so that both of us can later tell which version applied. Google sign-up requires the same 18+ and Terms confirmations before redirecting to Google; accounts without current recorded acknowledgements are prompted in Settings, under Privacy and age, and we record the version and date then.

Who you play with. Every kingdom you can ally with, write to, or go to war with is run by a player. The game itself operates a few services that are not players' kingdoms: the Traveling Merchant, a game-run seller that keeps a new world's market from standing empty in its first days; the merchant guild's standing bids, which hold a price floor under raw and basic goods and are funded only by copper players have already spent on building upkeep and at the Traveling Merchant; the Import Office; and the scripted guide that welcomes new rulers. The marauder camps and sparring holds the game once ran are switched off: they do not act, and no one can attack, raid, or scout them. If we decide to add kingdoms controlled by the game, we will say so in these Terms and on Patch Notes before any such kingdom takes part in the world.

2. Eligibility and Age

You must be at least 18 years old to create or use an account. Thronestead does not support minor accounts at launch and does not offer parental-consent registration. We ask for an affirmative age-band acknowledgement rather than a date of birth.

Registration information must be accurate and kept current. We may suspend or remove an account that we reasonably believe belongs to someone under the minimum age, and we will delete such an account's personal data as described in the Privacy Policy.

3. Your Account

One account per person. You may create and hold one Thronestead account. Creating, controlling, or coordinating additional accounts, including accounts registered by others at your direction, to funnel resources, dodge a restriction, manipulate rankings, or gain any other advantage is prohibited and is treated as cheating under §6. Sharing an account, selling it, or transferring it to another person is also prohibited.

Sign-in methods. You may register with an email address and password, or sign in with Google. If you use Google, Google's own terms govern your Google account, and we receive only the sign-in details described in the Privacy Policy. You are responsible for keeping whichever sign-in method you use secure.

Kingdom name and identity. Your kingdom name, ruler title, motto, heraldry, and public profile are visible to every other player and to visitors of public pages. They must comply with the Code of Conduct, and we may rename or reset them if they do not.

4. Account Security

You are responsible for all activity under your credentials, including alliance actions, treasury operations, and anything done by someone you allowed to use your device. Keep your login details confidential and use a strong, unique password. We send an email notice whenever your password is changed or your account status is changed by our staff; if you receive one you did not expect, secure your account immediately and contact support. We are not liable for loss caused by unauthorized use of your account that results from your failure to protect your credentials.

5. License

Subject to these Terms, Thronestead grants you a limited, personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to access and play the Services for your own non-commercial entertainment. No ownership of software, assets, data, or virtual content is transferred to you. You may use the public API only in accordance with the documentation and rate limits we publish, and only for tools that serve players rather than replace their play. The public API is versioned: version 1 reads are deprecated, every response to one names its version 2 successor and carries a Sunset date, and they stop working at the end-of-beta reset (scheduled for December 26, 2026). We may retire a later version the same way, with notice in its responses before it stops.

6. Acceptable Use

You may not, and may not help anyone else to:

• cheat, run bots or automation that plays for you (this rule is about players' accounts; the game-run services described in §1 are operated by us), chain or exploit bugs for gain, tamper with the game client or its traffic, or scrape the Services beyond what the public API allows;
• run multiple accounts, "mule" resources between accounts, or collude to manipulate rankings, markets, contracts, or votes;
• distribute malware, phish credentials, or attempt to access accounts, systems, or data that are not yours;
• impersonate our staff, moderators, system messages, other players, or other alliances;
• harass, threaten, dox, or discriminate against anyone, or post content the Code of Conduct forbids;
• commit fraud, including payment fraud, chargeback abuse, or the resale of accounts, virtual items, or VIP benefits;
• interfere with the integrity, security, or availability of the Services, or with other players' ability to use them.

Found a bug or exploit? Report it through Contact Support instead of using it. Good-faith reports are never penalised.

7. Alliance and Region Governance

Alliance and region leadership tools (roles, treasury and vault permissions, recruitment settings, boards, embassies, diplomatic controls, and moderation powers on your own boards) must be used in good faith. Extortion, discriminatory gatekeeping, coercive removals, retaliatory sanctions, deceptive treasury practices, and abuse of board moderation are prohibited and may lead to role restrictions or account penalties. Officer actions on boards are logged and can be overturned by our staff. In-character rivalry, hard bargaining, and betrayal within the game's rules are part of play and are not violations.

8. Virtual Content and VIP Entitlements

Virtual items, currencies, resources, land, boosts, cosmetics, VIP perks, and progression are licensed digital entitlements. They have no real-world cash value, cannot be redeemed for money, and cannot be sold, traded, or transferred outside the game except through features we provide, unless local law requires otherwise. We may adjust costs, rewards, timers, rates, and balance to keep the economy and competition healthy over the long term.

Our fairness pledge. VIP and any other paid entitlement grant cosmetics, identity flair, and small conveniences only. They never change combat, the economy, queues, gameplay slots, intelligence, raids, population, prestige, or any score another player is measured against. The full pledge is on the Support & VIP page, and the game enforces it.

9. Purchases, Subscriptions, and Refunds

Payment processing. Purchases are processed by Stripe on its hosted, secure checkout. We never see or store your card number. Stripe's terms and privacy policy apply to the payment itself. Prices are shown in the checkout before you pay and may include taxes, regional fees, and currency conversion applied by your bank or card issuer.

VIP subscription. VIP is offered as a recurring monthly or annual subscription. It renews automatically at the end of each period and charges the payment method on file until you cancel. You can cancel at any time from the Support & VIP page ("Manage or cancel"): your VIP unlocks stay active until the end of the period you have already paid for, plus a 24-hour grace window, and nothing else about your kingdom changes. If a renewal payment fails, your VIP is held through a 24-hour grace window while Stripe retries and then lapses; we never revoke it mid-period.

Maintenance pauses. Time the realm spends paused for maintenance does not use up paid VIP time. When the realm resumes, every VIP grant still running is extended by the time the realm was paused, and that credit carries into later periods of your subscription. Unlocks without an end date are not affected.

Refunds. Refund requests are reviewed and decided by a person, not automatically; eligibility follows your local consumer law and Stripe's policies. When a refund is issued, the VIP grant is revoked immediately and its cosmetic unlocks lapse; your game state is otherwise unchanged. If the refunded payment belongs to a VIP subscription, that subscription is also cancelled at once, so it does not renew or charge you again. The money is returned by Stripe to the payment method you used: most banks post it within 5–10 business days. Ask for a refund through Contact Support under Billing / purchases.

Chargebacks and fraud. If you believe a charge is wrong, contact us first. We can usually resolve it faster than a dispute. Disputing a legitimate charge with your bank, or any other payment fraud or manipulation, may result in the removal of the affected entitlements and restrictions on future purchases.

What a payment is not. VIP payments fund Thronestead's development and operating costs. They are not investments and create no ownership, equity, or revenue-share rights, and they are not tax-deductible charitable donations. We may change VIP pricing or the benefits it includes for future periods; changes never shorten a period you have already paid for.

10. Open Beta and Your Progress

The end-of-beta reset. Thronestead is live, in open beta, and under active development. Progress made during the open beta will be reset once, at the end of the beta: all player progression and account gameplay data is reset before full release, so that every player begins the permanent world on equal footing. The reset will be announced on Patch Notes before it happens. VIP across the reset: the reset does not take away paid VIP time. A VIP subscription or grant still running at the reset keeps exactly the time it had left, one that has already expired stays expired, and unlocks without an end date are kept. Section 9 continues to govern VIP subscriptions, cancellation, and refunds.

After full release. From full release on, the realm is persistent and we intend your progress to stand; there is no further planned reset. At any stage, in the rare case that a defect, exploit, or data-integrity problem forces it, we may adjust, roll back, or reset affected progress, resources, or standings: always announced on Patch Notes first, and limited to what the defect requires. Features marked alpha, beta, or preview may be incomplete, unstable, or removed, and progression tied to them may be reset during development. No refund is owed for virtual entitlements affected by such a correction, except where local law requires one.

11. User Content

You keep the rights to lawful content you create: messages, board posts, press articles, kingdom and alliance text, heraldry choices, and profile text. You grant Thronestead a worldwide, royalty-free, sublicensable license to host, store, display, transmit, adapt, and distribute that content for the purpose of operating, moderating, securing, and improving the Services, including showing it to other players where the feature is designed to and preserving it in the realm's public history. This license lasts as long as the content remains in the Services and, for moderation records and public history, for as long as those records are retained under the Privacy Policy.

You are responsible for your content. Do not post anything you do not have the right to share, anything that infringes another person's rights, or anything the Code of Conduct forbids. We may remove content at our discretion.

12. Intellectual Property and Copyright Notices

All game systems, rules, text, code, graphics, music, interfaces, names, marks, and lore belong to Thronestead or its licensors and are protected by copyright, trademark, and other laws. Unauthorized copying, resale, scraping, commercial derivative use, or removal of proprietary notices is prohibited. Fan art, guides, streams, and videos that showcase the game are welcome, provided they are not sold as official products and do not misrepresent themselves as ours.

Copyright notices. If you believe content in the Services infringes your copyright, send a notice through Contact Support under Legal / Terms or to the operator mailbox in §26, including: a description of the work, where the material appears, your contact details, a statement of good-faith belief that the use is unauthorized, and a statement under penalty of perjury that the notice is accurate and that you are the owner or authorized to act for the owner. We remove or disable infringing material, notify the poster where practicable, and may terminate repeat infringers.

13. Third-Party Services

Some features rely on services run by other companies, each under its own terms:

• Google, if you choose to sign in with Google. Google Analytics 4 is disabled for launch; re-enabling it requires a separate privacy review and corresponding policy update.
• Stripe, for VIP checkout, billing management, and receipts.
• Discord, if you link your Discord account for notifications, use the in-game Discord commands, or join the official Discord community.
• Flickr, if you set a custom image (portrait, sigil, flag, gallery image, or alliance image) by pasting a Flickr image link. Our servers fetch that image from Flickr, and some alliance images may load from Flickr directly in a viewer's browser, as the Privacy Policy explains.
• Your browser or device's push service, if you enable web push reminders.

These services are optional unless a feature cannot work without them. We are not responsible for their availability, content, or conduct, and your use of them is governed by their terms and privacy policies. Discord's community guidelines apply in the official Discord community in addition to our Code of Conduct.

14. Moderation and Enforcement

We may investigate reports, review content and gameplay data, remove content, roll back abuse-derived gains, restrict specific features (such as chat, boards, messages, profile editing, market listings, war naming, or the report system), suspend accounts, or terminate access, based on severity, history, and risk. An automated content filter screens public text and can hold or block the most severe content immediately and can apply a short automatic restriction (about an hour) or, after repeated serious violations, a temporary chat mute; a person reviews those actions and makes every other enforcement decision. Emergency actions may be taken without advance notice when needed to protect players, the platform, or legal compliance. We notify you of enforcement actions against your account in-game and, for suspensions, bans, and disablement, by email. The standards we enforce are published in the Code of Conduct and the Rules of the Political Stage.

15. Appeals

Every enforcement action against your account can be appealed once, through the Appeal page, which remains available to suspended, banned, and disabled accounts. A person reviews every appeal; the decision appears on the same page. Appeals should add facts or context rather than volume, and repetitive or abusive appeals may be closed without further review. We do not promise a decision time.

16. Service Availability and Changes to the Game

The Services evolve continuously. We may patch systems, rebalance, migrate infrastructure, add, change, or retire features, and change interfaces at any time. Planned and emergency maintenance may interrupt availability. We do not guarantee uninterrupted operation, that any feature will remain available, or compatibility with every device or browser. If we ever decide to shut the Services down permanently, we will give reasonable advance notice on the website and, where we can, by email.

17. Feedback

If you send us ideas, suggestions, or feedback about the Services, you agree that we may use them freely, without payment or attribution, and that they are not confidential.

18. Disclaimers

To the maximum extent permitted by law, the Services are provided "as is" and "as available", without warranties of any kind, whether express or implied, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, accuracy, or uninterrupted, error-free operation. Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion of certain warranties, so parts of this section may not apply to you.

19. Limitation of Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, Thronestead and its operator, contributors, and suppliers are not liable for indirect, incidental, consequential, special, punitive, or exemplary damages, including lost profits, data loss, business interruption, or loss of virtual items or progress, arising from or related to the Services or these Terms. To the same extent, our total liability for all claims related to the Services in any twelve-month period is limited to the greater of the amount you paid us in that period or fifty US dollars. Nothing in these Terms limits liability that cannot be limited by law, including for death or personal injury caused by negligence, fraud, or gross negligence.

20. Indemnity

To the extent permitted by law, you agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Thronestead and its operator and personnel from claims, liabilities, damages, and reasonable costs (including legal fees) arising from your misuse of the Services, your content, your breach of these Terms, or your violation of law or third-party rights. This section does not apply to consumers where local law prohibits such an obligation.

21. Governing Law and Disputes

Governing law. These Terms and any dispute arising from them or from the Services are governed by the laws of the State of New Hampshire and the federal laws of the United States, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. If you are a consumer living outside the United States, you also keep the protection of any mandatory consumer law of the country where you live, and nothing in this section takes it away.

Talk to us first. Before starting any formal proceeding, contact us through Contact Support or the operator mailbox and describe the problem. We will try in good faith to resolve it with you within 30 days. Most disputes end here.

Arbitration and class waiver. If a dispute is not resolved informally, then, to the extent enforceable in your jurisdiction, it will be resolved by individual binding arbitration under the rules of a recognised arbitration provider, conducted in English, by video or written submissions unless both parties agree otherwise, with the arbitrator's fees shared as the provider's consumer rules require. Either party may instead bring an individual claim in small-claims court. Class, consolidated, and representative claims are waived to the extent permitted by applicable law. You may opt out of arbitration by telling us in writing within 30 days of first accepting these Terms. Where arbitration is not enforceable, the state and federal courts located in New Hampshire have exclusive jurisdiction, except that a consumer living in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, or another jurisdiction that guarantees a home-court forum may bring or defend a claim in the courts of their own country.

22. Termination and Account Deletion

By you. You may stop using the Services at any time, and you may delete your account from Settings (also reachable from Support). Deletion is a two-step process: your request locks gameplay immediately and starts a cooldown of about a week (the exact deadline is shown when you request it); confirming with the code we email you, or letting the cooldown run out, deletes your kingdom permanently. Cancelling before then restores everything. After deletion, no support ticket can restore the account. Some world history (battles, treaties, public records) may persist in anonymized form so that other players' records stay intact, and some records are retained where the Privacy Policy says so. An active VIP subscription is cancelled when the account is purged.

By us. We may suspend or terminate your access for violations of these Terms or the Code of Conduct, fraud risk, legal obligations, security concerns, or sustained inactivity. Where the law requires, we will tell you the reason and how to appeal. Sections that by their nature should survive, including §8, §9, §11, §12, and §17 through §25 — survive termination.

23. Changes to These Terms

We may update these Terms for legal, operational, or product reasons. The effective date, revision date, and version at the top of this page always identify the version in force. For material changes we give at least 14 days' notice before they take effect for existing accounts (in-game, on Patch Notes, or by email) unless a change is required by law or is needed urgently for safety or security. Continuing to use the Services after a change takes effect means you accept it; if you do not, stop using the Services and, if you wish, delete your account.

24. Export Controls and Sanctions

You may not access the Services where prohibited by export controls, sanctions, or local law. You confirm that you are not on a denied-party list, are not acting for a sanctioned person or entity, and are not accessing the Services from a jurisdiction where doing so is restricted.

25. General Provisions

These Terms, together with the policies they incorporate, are the entire agreement between you and Thronestead about the Services. If any provision is unenforceable, the rest stays in effect and the provision is read as narrowly as needed to make it enforceable. Our failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver. You may not assign these Terms; we may assign them to a successor operator of the Services, and will announce any such change. Headings are for convenience only. The English version controls if a translation differs.

26. Operator and Contact

Thronestead is operated independently by its developer, an individual established in New Hampshire, United States (referred to in these Terms as "we", "us", or "the operator"). The operator is the service provider for the Services and the data controller for the personal data described in the Privacy Policy.

For legal inquiries, visit Contact Support and choose Legal / Terms, or email the monitored operator mailbox at ops@thronestead.com. For all policies, see the Legal Hub.

Regional Addenda

Consumers in the European Economic Area and the United Kingdom. Nothing in these Terms limits your mandatory statutory rights, including rights concerning digital content that does not work as described. If a statutory 14-day right of withdrawal applies to a purchase, tell billing support within that period and we will honour it as the law requires. Because VIP benefits begin the moment you subscribe, starting a subscription is your request for immediate delivery, and where the law allows this may reduce the withdrawal right for the part of the period already used. §21 does not prevent you from bringing a claim in the courts of your own country.

Consumers elsewhere. Where local consumer protection law requires different cancellation rights, disclosure timing, or dispute channels, those mandatory local provisions apply to the minimum extent required by law.