Culture

from the forum:


 * A settlement can gain culture by giving cultural events. Cultural events can only be staged at settlements with a theatre, so if you want to get allegiance of other settlements by culture the first thing you have to do is build a theatre.


 * Once a cultural event is finished, you will see that the cultural score of your settlement goes up (the number next to the two masks). After the new allegiance is calculated your cultural score will decrease by a small amount, so if you do not give new feasts and events, your cultural score will slowly vanish.


 * Your cultural influence over other settlements will decrease with the distance to your settlement. Every settlement has a "cultural threshold", depending on the number of inhabitants, the garrison and the own cultural score. If your cultural influence is higher than this threshold you will gain cultural allegiance over this settlement (unless another settlement has an even higher cultural influence) and expel any units which were holding the allegiance (they will return in time to the appropriate caravan). Trying to regain control over a settlement after you have been expelled is a difficult task, because probably you will be expelled again the following calculation (only if you add extra units to the garrison and your threshold will be high enough, you will keep the allegiance).


 * Being culturally allied is not a bad thing, yes you have to pay allegiance, but your production will be increased by 10% in that settlement, which normally is worth more than the allegiance you pay.

Castle settlements can not be culturally allied by other settlements. If you build a theatre in a non castle settlement, you must not be allied to another player, else you will not be able to gain cultural allegiance. A castle settlement will always be able to gain cultural allegiance, but then it can be taken over by a paladin...
 * Some extra information: