Prophesy of Pendor for Dummies

This is a guide to the Prophesy of Pendor mod. Made for those who struggle a lot to get started without cheating by a guy who used to struggle a lot to get started without cheating.

Character Creation

So, I have been playing a lot of Prophesy of Pendor in warband lately, and it is wayyyy more difficult than native. I personally am bad at warband as well, so here is a guide to Pendor, for noobs such as me. Please note that all of this is my opinion, and I will only be covering the start.
Alright, so you just hit 'New Game' in the title screen, now what do you do? First up is character creation, and all of this depends on what kind of build you want, but according to me a horse archer with OH-Weapon and shield is the best.
Your first stage is best to if you pick "A retired adventurer", you can pick Knight as well, but that will strain relations with Sarleon which will come important later on. The second stage should be "Left you to hunt alone in the wilds" This is going to give you a Heavy Dark steppe horse, which is going to help you until you find a better horse. It has 135 HP 40 speed and 40 maneuver. The third stage should definitely be "A self-employed merchant" because it will make you start with more money. The last one should be "You receive a message your father has died" This gives you the Barclay armor that will cover up until the later stage of your mid-game.
Now it is time for character creation, spend half of what you have on INT, and distribute the rest on AGI and STR. Get spend maximum of 2 points (according to your choice) on Ironflesh, Power Strike, Horse Archery and Trade. Then take a ship to Javiksholm.

Starting Out

When you spawn there manage your inventory (i.e equip arrows and bow instead of crossbow) and then sell everything except your Barclay plate and 2 horses that's in your inventory (tip: keep them in your last 3 slots). You should be at about 2,5k money at this point, use this to hire whosoever decent is in the tavern. They are best if they are crossbowmen for vanskerries. If they are not here, accept the merchant quest and go to Avendor or Valonbray. After that go back to the merchant and hunt the robbers. You should have atleast 5 melee and 5 ranged units to safely attack the hideout.

Foundations

That is the very beginning now here is what you should do next, and note that this part is a bit vague because everything at this point is up to you. First, start doing a bunch of quests for the Fierdsvain lords, and keep increasing your party size to 7 cavalry, 7 ranged and 7 infantry. While doing quests for them keep checking in on Javiksholm and its surrounding villages for flax prices. When it drops below 80 start selling it at Avendor or trade it for food supplies at its villages. Morale should not be a big problem so buy grain instead. When you have enough money from selling flax, you should get a party of 30/35 mid tier troops with a decent composition preferably with 2:3:2 in the order of Archers : Infantry : Cavalry. This is when you should start hunting for Mystmountain Tribes for loot to sell.
Hunting Mystmountain will go on for until you reach 50 renown, till then keep an army of atleast 35 mid tier troops at all times selling your loot for your wages.

Becoming a Mercenary

Once you reach 50 renown go to a Ravenstern lord and ask for a mercenary contract. They should be in peace with the Fierdsvain already and at war with Sarleon. Now here is a handy dandy tip on fighting the Mystmountain tribes: Get on any sort of slope no matter its steepness and put you archers higher up and then put your infantry up forth. If the are positioned iregularly make them go forth 10 steps and back 10 steps makes sure to do this formation as quick as you can. Keep your cavalry on standby on either side of the archers in case the infantry are struggling. After positioning them start kiting the troops on your horse, keep a safe distance and start aiming for headshots with your bow. If they have shields then de-horse them. REMEMBER: Never tackle enemies that chase you instead of you chasing them as this has a high risk of casualties. Hunting mystmountains are just a way to get renown, but after you army size has reached 50 it will become worthless, at this point just rely on mercenary payment start following the marshal or quest for Knighthood orders. This mercenary stage will last a long time, be sure to keep switching factions for troop variety.
ALSO: This is when you need to have a proper tactic, and a strong enough force to not cheese battles.

Becoming a Vassal

Now we enter the Mid-Stage which I would call the vassal stage, and this is the last thing I will be covering here: Working for different factions should give you a good idea on who to become a vassal of. Every faction has a decent Knighthood Order (KHO) if you want to join. Here are my reccomendations: Ravenstern - Dragon or Silvermist, Fierdsvain - Kraken Cultists, Sarleon (If they have Laria) - Clarion Call, Baccus Empire - Shadow legion or Radiant Cross. Depending on your choice of KHO and the faction with the safest potential, join as a mercenary for them and proceed to buy the most profitable enterprise on every town. After you have made atleast 150k in denars, join the faction as a vassal and keep playing until you get a town. After that its your choice to either continue with the kingdom or rebel whilst taking your land when he refuses to give you a castle or town you captured.

Conclusion & Foundations for becoming monarch

Things to keep in mind: Get as many noble companions as you can that are happy with each-other. Increase right to rule as much as possible. Gain honor by refusing quest rewards. Have atleast 250k before rebelling
There you go, that should help you in pretty much 2/3 of the game in your first playthrough. If struggle in the start use the Import export method to give yourself a jumpstart.

[BackerLord]

@dederpbutt Its the city chest in Rane, not Valonbray. However it gives you a qualis gem and not a large pouch of diamonds. If you want more information, the pop 3 fandom (or Wiki, whatever you call it) has lots of information. Even on tactics during battles for each faction.

[BackerLord]

@Cryogenius333 , well yeah. However most people might be new to the game. There could also be people who do all htis but may be missing something.

[Cryogenius333]

Ssssssoooooo....in short.

Play Mount and Blade like you normally would.

[dederpbutt]

i found the book and doing doing the quest now but do you know how i can get a large bag of gems so i can get the location of the mine, cave or whatever its called with the hermit dude. i went to get the the chest in valorbray and only found bullets and vairous loot

[BackerLord]

Everyone: For those who want to play as a female, here is another build which I have tried and tested for multiple early-game only runs.
Note that you should probably skip being a vassal, not just in this build but in the previous one as a whole if you want to, as it is going to be an unnecessary step and should only be done if you really want to.

Stage 1: Merchant ship captain, Gives lots of money
Stage 2: Hunt in the wilds, Dark steppe horse (Its just an awesome horse)
Stage 3: Huntsman, this will add a lot into archery.
Stage 4: Unfortunate events, "Your father has died" will bring you up from 3600 denars to around 4300, However this gives a lot of important skills.

Allrighty, now let me sum up what this character will be:
You are a horse archer, with 2 quivers and a two handed weapon. I will add more builds integrated into this guide later on.

[Zopheir]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgKDHZGHU7g&list=PLjQELccfn--56tRJm9G_QCYbJqZi3VqUd&index=6
Very good guide also

[dederpbutt]

i went to that location earlier but found nothing i will go there again i guess

[BackerLord]

@dederpbutt The moment you enter the ruins go to the right, where you will see a square-ish shaped tower. On the inside of it, there are two "rooms" go to the one on the right, and in the rubble is a sneaky little chest. Read the book thats in it from the camp menu.

[dederpbutt]

im having trouble with the the old tale quest i went to the ruins couldnt find any thing i check every house and tried to get to the upper level of the ruins but there was an invisible wall