Powerbrokers

There are five types of powerbrokers. Nobles, Clans, Clergy, Burghers, and Bureaucrats. These powerbrokers are in every province and represent the powerful locals that need to be dealt with.

Powerbrokers
Powerbrokers are fundamentally local. Every province can have multiple Powerbrokers, each with their own power and wealth. The Powerbrokers are Nobles (combined now), Burghers, Clergy, Clans, Bureaucracy. Nobles, Burghers and Clergy together use the corresponding Elite classes as their base for wealth, integrating powerbrokers largely with the economy.

Data is provincial, and national data is a composite. Power in that regard is a per-province variable. At the national level, all data is summed up and used for display, any changes to data actually occurs back down in the provinces. Clans (old tribes) are the proto-Powerbroker, representing a pre-stratified society, with a single elite class. They override all other power brokers, and open room for the power of other powerbrokers to expand as their own declines. Nobles and Clans share a class, and share wealth data, as Clan chiefs transform into nobles. Their power changes solely based on interactions representing directed efforts. The State, or Bureaucracy, is now a Powerbroker, with special mechanics for power and loyalty. Power is State Reach, representing the potential of 'government' to act in a province, while loyalty instead is corruption. Additional mechanics further fill out bureaucracy, including a bureaucrat mechanic and taxation based on reforms. Corruption represents the co-opting of the Bureaucracy by the Elite Powerbrokers, and is present in both Local and National versions. It is generated from their power, furthered by local autonomy and mitigated through reform.

Power
Power isn't mutually exclusive. Power represents their influence over their given domain, and domain’s aren't exclusive. 100% Noble Power means complete dominion over the countryside in the forms that politics allows said power to manifest, often it means that power leaks into other domains. So all Powerbrokers can be 100% power in the same province. Power is a resting point variable, shifting based on gravity with inertia for Nobles, Burghers, Clergy. For Tribal and Bureau, its static unless acted upon by a force.

Power comes from two sources, the Share of Wealth (%) and Politics. Politics, including Reforms, Interactions, etc can give gravity for power (+10 noble gravity). Inverse Clan Power (1 - Power) caps the power of all other powerbrokers in equal proportion. Shifts in power can affect the loyalty of powerbrokers.

Loyalty
Loyalty is a resting point variable, shifting based on gravity with inertia For Nobles, Burghers, Clergy and Clans, they share a common core for loyalty. Most of the loyalty change comes from Treatment of their respective Concern, on a -25 Loyalty Gravity to 75 Loyalty Gravity scale Nationalism (EU4) can harm further loyalty, up to -20

State Corruption
State Corruption is largely from bureaucracy, but can still be caused in part in an elite-run society. It represents the co-opting of the central government by other actors, including the elites.

State Corruption proportionately siphons a % of wealth into the hands of the other elites, based on their share of the total development-weighted Average Power in a country.

State Corruption comes from multiple sources. Each Elite generates corruption, based on Average Power * ((Average Power * 0.75) + 0.25) * Average Loyalty. This is semi-exponential, and can be countered through gaining loyalty. Lack of Corruption Reforms increase this corruption from Elites by up to 200%. Corruption Reform can reduce it by up to 50%. By default, corruption is at 0.25, or 25% of what it can be. The other 75% is multiplied by Average Bureau Power.

Clans
Clan Power is usually static. Interactions provide modifiers which can add or gradually shift it either upward or downward

Nobles
Noble Power Share of Rural Wealth gives up to 75% Power (almost impossible to achieve 100%, peasants do exist) Local Autonomy multiplies that power by up to 100%. Reforms can give up to 50 Noble Gravity

Clergy
Clergy Power Share of Total Wealth gives up to 75% Power base Local Autonomy multiplies that power by up to 100% Reforms can give up to 40 Clergy Gravity

Burghers
Burgher Power Share of Urban Wealth gives up to 100% Power base Local Autonomy multiplies that power by up to 100% Reforms can further multiply that power by up to 200%

Bureaucrats
Bureau Power (State Reach) is usually static. Interactions and Reforms provide modifiers which can add or gradually shift it either upward or downward.

Every tax demands bureaucrats as a % of population to administer them. This amount is much higher for direct taxes (like land and wealth taxes) vs indirect taxes (excises, tools, etc). Lack of reforms for their respective type (direct, indirect or both) inflates this requirement, meaning each bureaucrat is less effective. Bureaucrats require pay, which is calculated by multiplying the % of population by the population in a province, multiplying that by a base ducat amount, and adding it to local maintenance. At the national level, the state can enact policies about the % of required pay that is actually given as wages, and the % of bureaucrat demand they choose to hire. These policies decide the effectiveness of the state in a province based on how much demand was fulfilled, and causes an equivalent local autonomy penalty.

Local Corruption
Loyalty for Bureaucracy is instead Local Corruption Local Corruption represents the co-opting of the bureaucracy and its power by other actors, namely elites. Local Corruption at a proportionate rate siphons a % of wealth into the hands of other elites, based on their share of the total power in the province. Local Corruption comes from multiple sources Each Elite generates corruption, based on Power * ((Power * 0.75) + 0.25) * Loyalty. This is semi-exponential, and can be countered through gaining loyalty. Lack of Corruption Reforms increase this corruption from Elites by up to 200% Local Autonomy further increases this corruption by 100%