Burgher

Getting Started

Start here, then use the detailed reference below when you need exact rules or edge cases.

Restrictions

Overview

The Burgher Origin is Vastala's organised commerce and merchant-institution Origin. Burghers can establish Merchant Houses, register business premises, employ other players, build Renown through genuine trade, operate payroll and a business Treasury, post Merchant Orders, and expand into other Towns through commercial charters.

The Origin does NOT make ordinary buying and selling exclusive to Burghers. Other Origins can still trade and use normal commerce systems. Burgher is about creating a recognised commercial institution on top of that economy.

Two existing systems remain authoritative:

• Towny controls land ownership, building access and Town permissions.
• ChestShop controls the actual exchange of items and money in shop transactions.

The Burgher system records the business identity, registered premises, staff, trade history, Renown and Merchant Orders around those systems. It does not fake shop transactions or override Towny property rights.

Establishing a Merchant House

A Burgher can begin a registered business with:

/business establish

Current establishment cost: £500

To establish a Merchant House, the player must:

• hold the Burgher Origin;
• not already own a Merchant House;
• not currently be employed by another Merchant House;
• be a resident of a Town;
• stand inside their HOME Town;
• stand on a Towny plot they personally own; and
• have enough money for the £500 establishment cost.

The first registered plot becomes the foundation of the business and its Main House. The player enters the business name through the setup prompt. Business names are limited to 32 characters.

Only one Merchant House can be registered to a given plot.

The owner of the Merchant House is the Proprietor.

Use /business after establishment to open the main business management GUI.

The Main House and Registered Premises

A Merchant House operates through registered Towny plots called premises.

Premises do not grant new physical building permissions. Towny still decides who can build, open containers, or otherwise interact with the land.

The business has a Main House, which acts as its commercial seat. The proprietor can move the Main House between valid registered premises using the business management controls.

A business can register more premises as its Standing increases. The current limits are:

The Town cap represents how many different settlements the Merchant House may operate in, while the plot cap is the total number of registered premises.

Home-Town Premises

Within the Merchant House's home Town, a registered business plot must be personally owned through Towny by the Proprietor.

This keeps business registration tied to actual landholding rather than allowing a Merchant House to claim arbitrary public or private plots as its premises.

Factors may help manage premises through the Burgher system, but Towny remains the authority over the physical plot itself.

Foreign Branches and Commercial Charters

A Merchant House can eventually expand into other Towns, subject to its current Town cap.

Foreign branches work differently from home-town premises. They must be on TOWN-OWNED land rather than another resident's private plot and require an explicit commercial charter from the foreign Town.

A Mayor or Town Assistant of that settlement stands on the town-owned plot and grants the charter to the Merchant House. The charter authorises that business to REGISTER the plot as a branch.

A charter does not override Towny build or container permissions. It is commercial permission, not a hidden ownership transfer.

After the charter is granted, the Merchant House registers the plot as premises through its normal claim flow. If the charter is revoked, the associated foreign branch registration can no longer remain as though the Town still endorsed it.

This creates a political link between Town governments and established merchants: cross-border commerce requires permission rather than being automatic expansion.

Renown and Business Standing

Merchant Houses progress through Renown.

Renown is designed to represent business relationships with real external customers and suppliers rather than money being shuffled between the proprietor and employees.

Current Standing thresholds:

Higher Standing increases the number of premises, employees and Towns the Merchant House may support.

How Renown is Earned

The Burgher system listens to completed trade on registered premises. ChestShop remains responsible for actually moving money/items; the Burgher system records the completed transaction afterward.

A qualifying external trade can grant +1 Renown when:

• the Merchant House is active and not suspended;
• the transaction occurred through the tracked trade system on registered premises;
• the transaction value is at least £5; and
• the external customer/supplier has not already generated a Renown credit for that same business during the cooldown window.

Current customer Renown cooldown: 20 hours per customer, per Merchant House.

The Proprietor cannot generate Renown by trading with their own company. Employees also cannot generate Renown for their employer through internal activity.

This means a single friend repeatedly buying and selling tiny amounts cannot rapidly power-level a business. Renown rewards a broader pattern of actual external trade relationships.

The business ledger separately records trade volume, transaction counts and recent activity, even where a transaction does not create another Renown point.

Staff Roles

A Merchant House has three internal levels of responsibility:

Proprietor

The business owner. The Proprietor has final control over the Merchant House, including its name, staff ranks, pay settings, Treasury withdrawals, Main House and dissolution.

Shopkeeper

Shopkeepers are ordinary employees. They can:

• run business shops under the ordinary Towny/ChestShop permissions available to them;
• view Merchant Orders;
• collect incoming Merchant Order stock; and
• deposit personal money into the business Treasury.

Factor

Factors are managers. They receive Shopkeeper capabilities and can additionally:

• post and cancel Merchant Orders;
• place Merchant notice boards;
• manage registered premises; and
• invite/remove Shopkeepers.

Only the Proprietor can appoint another Factor, change staff ranks freely, control pay rates, or withdraw money from the Treasury. A Factor cannot use their managerial status to remove another Factor.

Staff invitations are consensual. The invited player must accept before becoming an employee. A player already tied to another Merchant House cannot simultaneously establish or join another one.

A non-Proprietor employee may leave their employer with /business leave. The Proprietor cannot simply leave their own House; they must dissolve it if they want the institution to end.

Staff Caps

Employee capacity rises with business Standing:

The Proprietor is the owner and is not counted as one of these employee slots.

Business Treasury

Each Merchant House has an internal Treasury.

The Treasury does not generate money. Funds enter it when players deliberately deposit existing money. ChestShop revenue is NOT automatically swept into the Treasury.

Treasury funds are used for systems such as:

• staff wages;
• revenue commission payouts; and
• Merchant Order escrow.

Employees may deposit. Only the Proprietor may withdraw.

This separation allows the business to maintain an operational budget without silently taking ownership of every coin earned through a shop.

Payroll

The Proprietor may choose between three staff pay modes:

• Disabled
• Automatic Wages
• Revenue Commission

Automatic Wages

Wages are based on staff online work time. The current default hourly rates are:

The proprietor can adjust the rates through the payroll GUI. Wage processing checks periodically and uses the business Treasury.

Revenue Commission

In commission mode, a configured percentage of real ChestShop BUY/SELL revenue is placed into employee commission pools.

Current defaults:

Commission is split between online staff of the relevant role. Merchant Orders are procurement spending rather than ChestShop sales, so they do not generate staff sales commission.

If the Treasury cannot support required business payments, the system does not create money from nowhere.

Merchant Orders

Merchant Orders let a Merchant House publicly request stock from other players.

The Proprietor or a Factor may create an Order while standing inside registered premises. The creator holds the exact item the House wants to buy, then begins the order creation flow. The system records that item definition rather than relying only on a loose material name, allowing custom/modelled items to be distinguished where supported.

Current limits:

The order specifies a quantity and unit price. The required purchasing money is reserved from the Merchant House Treasury as escrow when the order is posted. This means a Merchant House cannot advertise a funded Order without actually committing the money.

Suppliers can browse active contracts through:

/contractboard

Merchant notice boards may also provide local access, but the global Contract Board is the primary public listing.

When a supplier fulfils an Order, matching items are taken from the supplier and payment is made from the Order's funded escrow. Delivered goods enter the Merchant House's incoming order stock, where authorised staff can collect them.

The Proprietor and Factors may cancel active Orders. Unspent escrow is returned appropriately rather than disappearing.

Merchant Order trade can also participate in the business's wider trade record where applicable, while sales commission remains restricted to actual ChestShop BUY/SELL activity.

Town Business Directory

The Burgher system maintains a local Town directory of registered Merchant Houses.

Use:

/business directory

while inside a Town to browse businesses registered there. This makes commerce discoverable as part of the settlement rather than requiring players to know every shop owner's name beforehand.

Business Suspension and Re-Homing

A Merchant House depends on a valid Main House and a valid home Town relationship.

If the proprietor leaves the business's home Town or its Main House becomes invalid, the Merchant House can enter a suspended state. Suspended businesses do not continue gaining normal trade progression as though nothing happened.

After settling appropriately and retaining/registering suitable premises, the Proprietor can re-home the Merchant House using the business management controls.

This prevents a business from remaining permanently anchored to a Town relationship that no longer exists.

Dissolving a Merchant House

The Proprietor can permanently dissolve the Merchant House through the management menu or the confirmed business abandonment flow.

Dissolution removes the active business institution, including registered premises, staff links, Renown and trade records.

Before the business data is cleared, remaining Treasury funds and unspent Merchant Order escrow are returned rather than silently deleted.

Employees are detached from the dissolved House.

Dissolution should be treated as a permanent closure rather than an ordinary rebranding action. Business renaming exists separately.

Changing or Resetting the Burgher Origin

A Proprietor cannot have their Origin reset while they still own an active Merchant House. The business must be dissolved first so that its premises, employees and trade state are not orphaned.

Ordinary employment and business responsibilities should likewise be resolved cleanly before changing social role.

Important Player Commands

Most proprietor controls, including payroll, Main House, renaming and dissolution, are intended to be accessed through the /business GUI rather than memorised as a giant command list.