[h1]3. Noble Houses and Politics[/h1]

There are 7 noble houses in the Empire. You are the Head of one of them. Noble Houses are a double-edged sword. On one side they are valuable assets since they provide means to fight off aliens, provide extra legislation, etc. On the other side they can lead the rebellion and attempt to usurp the throne is unhappy or merely too ambitious. The ideal situation is when you have obedient nobles who are also powerful, but usually you can't afford both. So, another option is to befriend some houses only and strive to make them powerful while marginalizing the hostile houses. 


[b]Relations, Opinion, Grudges, Political Agendas[/b]
Each house has opinion of the Emperor which is the basis or relations.  Every 100 Opinion means 1 relations tier. But things are not that easy in practice because houses can have old grudges which limit the relations regardless of Opinion. In addition, noble houses might have various political agendas, things they desire. Some political agendas are plain bad, like the desire to take over the throne, and can be hoped to be removed via rare audience event options. Other political agendas can be possible to meet, like the desire to have more Ministers under the house control, for an extra Opinion bonus.


[b]Political Marriage[/b]
When everything else fails, there is always an option to arrange a marriage between the ruling house and a hostile noble house in order to let all grudges be forgotten. No noble house, no matter how hostile, would pass the opportunity to get married into the ruling dynasty. Provided there are sufficient minor members of the house ready for the marriage.


[b]Audience[/b]
Every 12 turns (on default settings) there is an audience (there is a progress bar on the interface which indicates how long till the next audience). Upon an audience various personas (imperial officials, nobles, ministers) and aliens appear with their issues. Each presents you a set of options to decide. Additional Emperor Focus points are also generated, and various smaller things happen (like a new squadron design enters production).
