Am I the only one that has a gripe with the obscurity of the influence system?
Well, it would be nice to be able to see the numbers involved, but as far as I can tell, influence is working fine.
Oh and also what about the sovereign gaining essence without gaining levels (at least i did not level him up).
Each Shard Shrine you build will increase Essence totals by +10%. Each Temple of Essence you build will increase it by +1.25% (the tooltip that says 25% is incorrect).
Additionally, has anyone else got the city screen (conquered city) saying that "this settlement will upgrade when it reaches 0 population" ?
Minor nations, e.g. Clan of the Snathi or Ilyan Orekeepers, never have more than one city, and that one city will never grow past 1 (even if you take it). That's why you see the message with 0 population. The city will never grow.
Also, Is there a way to research new schools of spells in case you do not choose them at character creation? I have focused on military and imperial research but the documentation of the techs says nothing about gaining access to new spellbooks.
You need to research up the Sorcery tree to get access to new spell books (e.g. Combat, Enchantment, etc.). There is also at least one spell book you find on a quest. However, you can never get the Elemental spell books (e.g. Fire, Water, etc.) if you don't take them at the start.
Last (for now) but relevant to all the above: Get some people doing serious documentation for the in game encyclopedia. It is a great source of help and needs to be seriously updated.
I agree 