Caravans, pilgrims, migrants, refugees, patrols

The world that moves while you're not looking.

Agents arrive between sessions. Each one is a decision — take the gold, gain the member, lose the loyalty, or close the gate.

The Living World system runs while you're offline. Agents arrive at your cities and pose a decision in the Heartbeat feed. Some are routine — sign here, pay this — others cascade across regions and pay off days later. The shortest summary: your decisions in the Heartbeat tab compound. Ignoring them is a decision too.

Caravans

Trade convoys passing through your region.

Shows up: Every few in-game days, weighted by your roads and trade routes.
Decision: Let it through (small tax in gold or materials), or deny passage (loyalty drift with the originating faction). Some caravans return home — accepting one starts a round-trip that closes later with bonus loot.
Payoff: Gold, refining materials, occasionally a one-time item or essence. Multi-hop paths cascade through adjacent regions.
Cost: Modest faction tilt; bandit ambush risk while passing through hostile territory.

Pilgrims

Travelers on a religious circuit.

Shows up: Linked to your patron shrines — more visits if you consecrate, fewer if you apostatize.
Decision: Offer hospitality (catechism tier nudge, small loyalty bump with your patron's faction), or turn them away (no effect, but they remember).
Payoff: Doctrine progress, occasional shrine offerings (currency the shrine uses), rare named-pilgrim arcs.
Cost: Buildings briefly occupied; faint heresy risk if you host a pilgrim of a rival faith.

Migrants

Workers looking for a new home.

Shows up: When your region's prosperity outpaces its neighbors, or when a neighboring region suffers a famine / climate event.
Decision: Accept (free new recruits, ~30% chance of a named member you can actually field), or decline (faction-neutral, no penalty).
Payoff: Population growth, free professional slots, named members with backstories you can chase later.
Cost: Housing capacity gets tight if you over-accept; some migrants are locked to specific destinations.

Refugees

Survivors from a recent disaster.

Shows up: After a Veilbreak incursion, fire, plague, or military rout in a nearby region.
Decision: Take them in (loyalty surge with the dispossessed faction, small material cost), or close the gate (loyalty crash, no resources spent).
Payoff: Strong loyalty swings; rare relic drops from refugees who carried something out. Multi-hop refugee waves cascade through several regions.
Cost: Materials to settle them; transient strain on housing and food.

Patrols

Soldiers from an allied faction sweeping the area.

Shows up: When a region's loyalty meter is high with one of your military factions.
Decision: Allow them to operate (gather intel, deter ambushes), or refuse access (no effect, faction cools).
Payoff: Map intel (reveals adjacent region threats), reduced ambush rate on your own dispatches for a window.
Cost: Patrols are allow-listed for GATHER actions; they will not interfere with your own gatherers.

These types live in code (scripts/data/npc_agent.gd), not data. The Heartbeat tab is the primary entry point in-game.