Explain command authority and province turns (#8441)

docs/eagle0pedia/astro.config.mjs

@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@ export default defineConfig({
               items: [
                 { label: "Game Concepts", slug: "concepts" },
                 { label: "Victory and Defeat", slug: "concepts/victory-and-defeat" },
+                { label: "Who You Command", slug: "concepts/command-authority" },
                 { label: "Eagle Round Flow", slug: "concepts/eagle-round-flow" },
                 { label: "From Eagle to Shardok", slug: "concepts/eagle-to-shardok" },
                 { label: "Shardok Battles", slug: "concepts/shardok-battles" },

docs/eagle0pedia/src/content/docs/concepts/command-authority/index.md

@@ -0,0 +1,62 @@
+---
+title: Who You Command
+description: Faction leaders, vassals, province turns, and direct control.
+---
+
+Eagle commands are issued through provinces, but who chooses a province's action depends on its ruling hero. The key distinction is between **faction leaders**, whom the player commands directly, and **vassals**, who govern automatically.
+
+## Leadership roles
+
+| Role | Directly commanded? | Main purpose |
+| --- | --- | --- |
+| Faction head | Yes | Defines the faction and provides its original leadership |
+| Other faction leader | Yes | Gives the player another directly controlled leader and a successor |
+| Vassal | No | Rules a province according to standing orders and local needs |
+| Unaffiliated hero | No | May be recruited, divined, apprehended, or otherwise interacted with |
+
+The faction head is also a faction leader. **Swear Kinship** can promote a loyal faction hero into an additional faction leader. A faction leader who rules a province lets the player choose that province's normal command directly.
+
+## Province turns
+
+Most strategic actions belong to the province currently acting. During **Player Commands**, provinces led by faction leaders present their available commands to the player. A normal command such as Train, Improve, March, or Rest spends that province's turn.
+
+The hero selected for a command is its actor, but selecting a different hero does not create another province turn. Several heroes may be eligible to perform the same province action; the player chooses which hero pays vigor and receives the associated experience.
+
+Some commands explicitly do not take the turn. For example, **Issue Orders** changes standing instructions without consuming the acting province's normal action. The command reference labels these exceptions.
+
+## Vassal-led provinces
+
+A vassal-led province acts during **Vassal Commands**, before the main Player Commands phase. The vassal chooses an action using:
+
+- the province's standing order: Entrust, Develop, Mobilize, or Expand;
+- the faction's focus province;
+- urgent local needs such as defense, riots, fatigue, low support, or beasts; and
+- the commands actually available in the province.
+
+Standing orders guide a vassal; they do not guarantee one exact command. A vassal may address a crisis before following a long-term development or expansion preference.
+
+## Multiple leaders and provinces
+
+Gaining more faction leaders does not give one province several normal actions. It expands direct control:
+
+- A leader can directly rule a province instead of leaving it to a vassal.
+- Leaders in different provinces can make those provinces player-controlled.
+- Leaders provide succession if the faction head dies.
+
+Heroes who are present but do not rule the province can still be selected for eligible commands. Province leadership determines who chooses the action, not which local hero must perform it.
+
+## A simple example
+
+Suppose your faction controls three provinces:
+
+1. Your faction head rules the capital. You choose its action during Player Commands.
+2. A second faction leader rules the frontier. You choose that province's action too.
+3. A vassal rules a farming province with Develop orders. The vassal chooses its own action during Vassal Commands.
+
+The result is two direct player decisions and one automatic vassal decision, assuming no riot, diplomacy offer, battle decision, or other special phase adds another required choice.
+
+## Special decisions
+
+Attack decisions, defense decisions, diplomacy responses, prisoner handling, riots, and battle aftermath are conditional decisions rather than extra normal province turns. They appear only when the current game state requires them and can pause the shared phase until every required faction responds.
+
+See [Eagle Round Flow](/concepts/eagle-round-flow/) for phase timing and [Eagle Commands](/commands/) for which actions consume a turn.

docs/eagle0pedia/src/content/docs/concepts/index.md

@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ These pages explain how Eagle0's major systems fit together. Use them when you w
 ## Eagle
 
 - [Victory and defeat](victory-and-defeat/) explains the strategic objective, leadership succession, faction destruction, and how the game ends.
+- [Who you command](command-authority/) explains faction heads, faction leaders, vassals, province turns, and direct control.
 - [Eagle round flow](eagle-round-flow/) explains how a strategic round advances, why actions are simultaneous, and when players see results.
 - [From Eagle to Shardok](eagle-to-shardok/) explains how strategic movement turns into tactical battles and how battle results return to Eagle.
 

docs/eagle0pedia/src/content/docs/heroes/index.md

@@ -188,6 +188,8 @@ Only heroes with **NoProfession** can gain a profession. At the end of a round,
 
 ## Faction Leaders
 
+For a side-by-side explanation of direct control, province turns, and vassal automation, see [Who You Command](/concepts/command-authority/).
+
 Every faction starts with a **faction head**. The faction head is the hero who defines what the faction represents: its political identity, its public story, and the starting point for its leadership.
 
 Factions can gain additional faction leaders through **Swear Kinship** with another hero. The candidate must already belong to the faction, must have at least 95 loyalty, and must be in a province with the faction head. When the command succeeds, that hero becomes one of the faction's leaders.