Leveling Up

To do what is called "leveling up;" you will need to advance in titles. All players begin as "sirs." During the tutorial you will be awarded the title of "Knight" and eventually as a "Baron." The first 2 title advancements, you get awarded access to artifacts. From the 3rd title advancement and on you get to begin producing barons. I capitalized the title "Baron," to differentiate from barons, the troop type. When you reach the level of "Baron 1" from that point on, each level you gain gives you the ability to recruit a baron. 

The baron allows you to create new cities. Here is how to start earning barons.

You will need to have a Moonglow Tower (MGT) advanced to level 10 to purify your resources.

You will purify X amount of resources to do "Research" (Green Button at top center). 

You will need to produce X amount of gold as part of the research.

You will need a Trinsic Temple (TT) advanced to level 10 to recruit your baron.

A baron cost resources to recruit. 50,000 iron and 100,000 gold. Don't worry about cost, you should be able to produce that much by the time you get to level 10 MGT and TT.

Once you have your baron, you can launch a settlement caravan, when you have enough resources to start a city. Cost: 100,000 wood and stone each, 25,000 iron and food each. 

You will need either 2 Markets, with a total of 250 carts, or a Harbor with 25 merchant ships. This is to transport your goods for the new city along with the baron.

Sounds harder than it actually is. By your 6th or 7th city, you should begin to be able to create a city a week. About the 20th city you should have the capabilities to create a city a day. And anything above 40 cities, you should be able to create a city when you want to or need to. 

Sounds like a lot, but consider the average Alliance that has won the game. Their alliance members averaged about 200 cities each (alliance has up to 99 members).