In today's tutorial I will step you through a list of advantages and added responsibilities that come with the acquisition of a parish, it's my hope that this tutorial will give you a fuller understanding of parishes in general and whats expected of you as steward.

Common responsibilities are;

• Keeping the parish clear of AI castles; bandits and wolf lairs can often be dealt with by lower ranking players.
  
• Building the guilds your parish needs most.
  
• Keeping an updated thread in the parish forum stating which guilds have been fully upgraded.
  
• Listening to the grievances of fellow parishioners and answering questions they might have.
  
• Building and maintaining the parish castle to defend the parish from gold/flag raids.
  
• Maintaining a fair tax rate.
  
• Securing the support of your parishioners (i.e. getting them to vote for you).
  
• (Optional) Blessing your parish when very negative weather hits.

Disclaimer: It should be noted that active fighting players seldom give back to the parish in the aforementioned ways. You are very lucky if you find a steward who does all the above and is an active fighter at the same time.

• An attack from the parish cannot be stopped by counter razing since parishes cannot be razed.
  
  
• Attacks on other players from your parish do not cause you to incur a honor penalty, making parishes your number 1 choice when attacking low ranking enemies.
  
  
• Creating troops in the parish doesn't require weapons, this is especially useful in new worlds where weapons, like catapults, are scarce. However the price for such units far exceeds their weapon requiring village equivalent.
  
  
• There is never a problem with ID (Interdiction) preventing you from attacking other players, unlike a vassal under ID.
  
  
• Fully upgraded Parish armies are comparably faster then regular attacks from villages.
  
  
• Capital armies are the only ones able to gold raid other capitals.
  
  
• The parish troops are FREE! (kinda, they are recruited using gold acquired through parish taxes).
  
  
• If you are in house your parish will generate honor for that house every day.
  
  
• If you are the steward of a parish you get to vote in sheriff elections.
  
  
• A parish is a great way to get your presence on the map recognized.
  
  
• Players with parish(s) are more likely to be accepted into a house in the glory race than players without parishes.

Note: Parishes are a type of capital, the other capitals are counties, provinces and countries.

Note: The commonly accepted and politically recognized neutral acquisition of a parish is achieved via the following;

1. Said neutral player is the original steward (aka uncontested at the start of an age; 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th)
   
2. Said neutral player is given the parish by the vacating steward

If the acquisition of a parish by a neutral player does not abide by the above set guidelines, nearby political powers may denounce you as steward possibly leading up to your removal from the parish if a dispute over stewardship ensues and escalates.

Tip: You can not launch a capture or raze attack from a capital.

Tip: You can not launch a pillage or ransack attack from a capital.

Tip: Honor gained by killing AIs with your parish in your Parish honor circle is divided up between the parish member.

In the end it's up to you, weigh the good with the bad and make your decision based on the above info, your willingness to learn, and personal time constraints.

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