Maybe if you get lucky and find a family that happens to be spread out across multiple towns already. But if you want to start in one town together there can only be one mayor. You could grant your friends many of the powers of a mayor, but there can be only one mayor. (Insert Highlander scene here)

They can be mayors in different towns and be part of your family

Worst case scenario you'll just need to marry into a same familly over the generations. My family, the drakes have half a dozen counts, 10ish mayors/barons + a bunch non titled peeps. we know we probably won't have it all at launch but we plan on merging post launch.

Join a family together with your friends, and than spread them out. You can all mayors in different town, but each village/settlement/town can only have one. All you have to do is join a family together.

If we can be in the same family while holding titles, I don't care if we aren't in the same settlement. I know if you play you can make it so through marriage. I'm talking about through paying; not playing. I'm talking before exposition. I don't wanna do it through play, I wanna do it through the website, selection, the several "meta" games, etc or however. I don't wanna have to work to make a friend a part of my family just because they spent more money on the game and decided to do a certain play style. It'll take away so much play time from all of us to arrange marriages. Just because they chose to spend more money.

I guess a simpler question would be so I can eliminate misguided answers is this; when and how do we first see family selection??? Maybe that'll help.

Posted By GrandMaster_Sic at 8:46 PM - Sun May 20 2018

I guess a simpler question would be so I can eliminate misguided answers is this; when and how do we first see family selection??? Maybe that'll help.

Family selection takes place during Character Creation, in the form of selections which tell the story of your character's early childhood and, in doing so, the game will match your story to the best-fit families, or it may tell you that no such families exist.

If you are given a family code from a friend then you will be able to be born into that family, though your ability to define the childhood and experiences of your newly chosen character may be slightly limited.

And we get character creation during vox or is it alpha 1? Or KoE?

I know you're looking for a definitive answer, but It may not be possible at this very point considering your question requires things that haven't been completely fleshed out yet. I do believe the want is for people in your situation to be able be in the same family, however the exact method on how to do so hasn't been determined yet. I hope these Q&A's about Surname Reservation help.

Source

Q18: Can I claim the same Surname, and be a part of an extended family?

A18: We're working out the details and will have more to share in the future. For now, claim the surname you want

Q22: May I choose my own surname now even if I am planning to play inside other family?

A22: Sure, it still puts that surname on the server and allows you to create characters with it at any time.

Q26: I want my friend to enter the same surname as I did so we can start out in the same family, but it won’t let us do it because I’ve already claimed it. What can we do?

A26: The reservation tool works as intended. Surname reservation does not allow you to join the same family that way. Stay tuned for more information on personas and how to become part of the same family at a later point in time.

Q37: If players intend to play as a family with the same surname, or two counts intend on playing as brother and sister, can they all choose the same surname?

A37: They can be in the same family, which is why "surnames wont always be unique" is accurate. If a group of players want to be part of the same family, there will be a way of the surname owner to share that last name with them with personas.

I hope these to some extent help, the best answer I can give is that SBS seems to want players in your situation to be able to do what you want to do, the exact method on how to do it however hasn't been publicly announced or perhaps figured out yet.

Posted By GrandMaster_Sic at 5:53 PM - Sun May 20 2018

And we get character creation during vox or is it alpha 1? Or KoE?

Character creation for our characters takes place during Exposition (if you have a package which grants access), or Launch. Anything running during the testing phases will be wiped and not carried over until KoE is released, from there we play as remnants who could be our ancestors if we maintain that bloodline to carry forward to Exposition.

Caspian: In addition to the above testing phases we also have two different soft-launches. The first, Kingdoms of Elyria, uses the VoxElyria client and allows people to play remnants of the past, their ancestors, to help us test some functionality and also to help build on the recent history (Previous 52 years). Access to Kingdoms of Elyria requires a paid package - any package, from Elyrian all the way up to King.

There is also Exposition, another soft-launch that uses the UE4 client. This one takes place shortly before launch and requires Bloodline+ to access. In terms of the CoE timeline, it takes places after the events of KoE, as well as the events of Prologue: The Awakening.

Source: Soul Chamber in the CoE Discord, (04-01-18)

I hope these to some extent help, the best answer I can give is that SBS seems to want players in your situation to be able to do what you want to do, the exact method on how to do it however hasn't been publicly announced or perhaps figured out yet.

Thank you very much. Was exactly what I needed!