This is a civ-ish quest. First we will go over the three currencies.
Currencies
Silver : Fairly self-explanatory. This is your treasury of precious metal coinage expressed in units of silver. Your primary means of gaining silver is through tax revenue. It can also be gained from beseeching the church for financial aid, looting/pillaging, or certain random events. Silver is broadly useful. It pays your armies, funds your construction projects, bribes your rivals, etc.
Prestige : Prestige is your social capital which can make it sound worthless. But make no mistake, social capital is incredibly valuable especially in personalistic medieval societies. Prestige is highly useful for flattery; gifting ceremonial titles or awarding ceremonial posts to people. Being the cupbearer of some schmuck isn't very appealing, but if you're a big important guy who is popular with lots of social capital, suddenly being your cupbearer is something people will seek to become at great expense to themselves! Prestige is not, however, a replacement for diplomacy. It's more like diplomacy's best friend.
A small amount of prestige is earned every season for your titles, but prestige is largely gained from events and war. You need to accomplish things to be prestigious!
Piety : A sort of specialized social capital. Piety is your standing with the church and trust me it pays to be in good with the Gods. Piety is gained every season if you have certain traits, but most of the time, you will gain piety from events or specific church estate interactions or you can gain vast amounts from defeating heretics and especially from converting them. Piety can be used to ask your church for money, call upon crusaders against heretics, or simply spent to flatter religiously inclined subjects and improve their opinion of you.
Next we will go over the estates and what they mean.
Estates
Large Landowners
Very specifically, I don't call these "nobles". That is because it is your prerogative whether you want to have a protected class of hereditary nobility. Your kingdom is nascent and its social systems are malleable and subject to change as you expand.
Anyway, these are the people who own a lot of land. They own so much that it has made them fabulously wealthy and politically powerful since their lands are worked by many serfs and freemen who depend on them.
These are your classic nobles. They are expected to fight in your wars as cavalry. They owe you one season of free service every year, but beyond that, they demand exorbitant pay.
The most powerful of the large landowners expect to be taken seriously by their ruler. They expect seats on your council. They expect to be treated fairly and justly. And they can and will rebel if they aren't. Or at the very least, they will make your life difficult.
Large landowners want low taxes, political power, and more land.
Freemen
Freemen are free farmers who own enough land to support themselves and some extra. The richest among them are the knight-villeins who own enough land and livestock to afford their horse and serve in your cavalry. Most simply have enough to purchase good quality mail and a spear making them the bread and butter heavy infantry in your armies.
Freemen are very insecure in their position. They are liable to be exploited by large landowners and fall into dependent labor. They lack the power to defend themselves against state encroachment or unfair treatment from large landowners. They tend to form relationships with large landowners whereby they swear military service in exchange for patronage and legal protection. This makes your large landowners… annoyingly powerful. Curtailing them will necessarily involve empowering the freemen to persist without patronage.
Freemen want low taxes, fair courts, and more land.
Freemen are free farmers who own enough land to support themselves and some extra. The richest among them are the knight-villeins who own enough land and livestock to afford their horse and serve in your cavalry. Most simply have enough to purchase good quality mail and a spear making them the bread and butter heavy infantry in your armies.
Freemen are very insecure in their position. They are liable to be exploited by large landowners and fall into dependent labor. They lack the power to defend themselves against state encroachment or unfair treatment from large landowners. They tend to form relationships with large landowners whereby they swear military service in exchange for patronage and legal protection. This makes your large landowners… annoyingly powerful. Curtailing them will necessarily involve empowering the freemen to persist without patronage.
Freemen want low taxes, fair courts, and more land.
Burghers
City dwellers. The ones who live in the burghs. This includes merchants, craftsmen, or well-to-do laborers within your city. No one cares about the poor ones. These urban men are very protective of their rights and privileges. Much of your tax revenue comes from these easily taxable beating hearts of wealth so take care not to infuriate them!
Burghers are rich enough to afford their own kit, but when called upon for service, they tend to favor ranged weaponry. Your troops from the cities will be crossbowmen. They are deadly, but they demand good pay.
Burghers want low taxes, good market access, and peace.
The Church
The Orthodox Tritheos Church is the faith of almost all the mortal races… and it has made them very powerful. Fortunately, they are not united under one single Grand Archon. Your Archon only has religious jurisdiction over the territory of the Kingdom of Alfida, but since he collects a hefty tithe from your people, that still makes him very powerful.
The Church is rich and commands the respect of your people. A bad relationship with them will spell a turbulent reign.
The Church wants to preserve its special status and it wants to purge the heretics from Tartessia. Oh, and of course, it doesn't want to be taxed.
The Mages
Wizards… no sense of right and wrong. They are an itinerant and eccentric lot, but some do opt to settle permanently in an area. Alfida invariably has attracted a handful. These people are powerful and weird. Their power can be called upon, but it can cost you. Later on, you can establish your own school of magic and begin training mages loyal to your state. For now, however, that is a pipedream.
Most mages in the peninsula were trained in the Free and Sovereign City of Emporia. It has stood for thousands of years and has not been conquered ever except when it surrendered voluntarily to the armies of the prophet. The Sovereign City is secretive and not above engaging in clandestine operations.
Mages want to be left alone.
Lastly, let's discuss attributes
Attributes
Diplomacy : Your charisma and ability to navigate interpersonal relationships, find compromises, and strike deals.
Martial : Your ability to command armies. Not only to give orders to your troops in the heat of battle, but to select defensible camp locations, manage logistics, organize musters and the like.
Stewardship : Your ability to manage money and the technical side of rulership. A good steward not only understands how to use money wisely, but how to collect it efficiently.
Intrigue : Cloak and dagger. Intrigue is your ability to organize clandestine schemes and your ability to recognize and subvert the clandestine schemes of others.
Learning : Religion, Science, and Magic. An odd pairing for sure, but it represents your intellect in abstract matters. A learned ruler knows his histories, his science, his magic, and the tenets of God and he can apply this knowledge in new and innovative ways.
Attributes can go infinitely into the negatives in theory, but generally, they will range from 5-15 for most people.
0-10 is someone considered unsuited or untrained in something
11-15 is considered competent
16-20 is quite skilled
21-30 is exceptionally good. Precious few people in the kingdom will have any skill as high as this
31-40 is extraordinary. You're among the very best in the whole world.
41+ A living legend. One of the greatest to ever live