So in this shard, every dwarf and centaur region I take, revolts and gets unhappy after a few turns. What can I do to avoid this ? I don't seem to fully grasp how happiness works in this game.

Also, where can I find my karma and how does it work ?

To improve happiness, you need to play "nice" : Choose a populist option when an event happens in these provinces, station troops that improve the mood (healers) or slows down the mood degradation (guards), construct some buildings (like taverns/pubs if you have a theater)...
Or simply station a few guards, and crush the rebels under your boot when they try to revolt. Works too. ;)
I think karma may play a role, too : I play "mr good guy", and I have far more problems with evil provinces (orcs, goblins...) than with good or neutral ones.

Karma : You can guess it by looking at your "title" (the great, the wise, the pure...)
Mostly, it seems that "good" events tend to happen more to good leaders, while evil leaders have more negative incidents. It also helps you negociating with people whose Karma is close to yours (i.e. you need to be good to ally with good people like the elves for example)
Your karma is influenced by your response to events, by the troops that you hire, by the spells you cast and by the happiness of your kingdom.

Cheers, thats very helpful :)

One thing you may want to keep in mind. Centaur Revolts are really good for leveling a solo warrior on as the fight is quite easy even with say a lvl 5 warrior.

I hate how rebellious dwarfs are even when I have really good morale :(

Also if you just want to put off a revolt for a few turns you can use the Extravaganza ritual spell.

Yeah, Karma is one of the least documented mechanics in the game. In a nutshell, "playing nice" when random events come up is the best way to shift your karma. Completing "good" quests can also move the needle significantly. Killing evil monsters (you can see their alignment from right-clicking on them) nudges karma a little one way, whereas killing good creatures nudges it a little the other way. Casting *some* evil spells (e.g., Raise Zombie) nudges you also. Documentation here is spotty--it's been a topic in other threads.

Over time, most populations will calm down--but it often takes putting down a couple revolts first. Some buildings also improve morale, once you unlock them. Once you have a temple built in your Castle, then building Pubs or Taverns in the provinces improves morale. Other structures do as well, but they tend to be further along in the game.

In terms of dealing with revolts when they happen: Garrisons can usually put down a revolt (although some garrison troops might die), and certain garrison creatures can slow down the development of unhappiness or even increase it (e.g., garrisoning a province with Brigands will make the people unhappy). You can get details by right-clicking on the garrison option when you're thinking about hiring them.

Hope that helps!

It's the theater that does that. Good advice though, that's the earliest reliable bonus I can think of for happiness.

There's a few temple like building under the military quarter that give you healer/monk guards for provinces though. The guards give +1 population mood and +healing rate. There's also a forest only defender that gives +2 mood. I usually only found that through random contracts though.

I have a much better understanding now, and after losing two shards in a row, I finally managed to win my first shard. Then a second. What a fantastic little gem, excellent game.

Pretty hard so far, not forgiving but pretty damn rewarding!

I can't wait for the remake.

The problem with that is that every time you recapture a province that successfully rebelled against you, the population mood worsens. I guess you could dedicate a province just for Warrior fodder but if you have any intention of keeping the province later on, putting down revolts will make them hate you until the end of time.

Once you're able to build the arena, I find that's a perfect building for the nastiest, most unruly non-human provinces. Goblins, orcs, centaurs, and lizardmen seem to love bloodsports.

I do believe i found the real solution to populations bad mood.. Just look at their graveyards everywhere! Last shard i play(4th) i had everyone happy because i cleaned most/all graveyards and other bad areas there.

Also make another hero like scout and scout the provinces so the population can grow. I think these two things easily solves the unhappy populations.. I will find out if this is correct the more i play.

It seems exploring can help improving the mood. Maybe events and their buildings are already set, and unknown brigands from they lair freely upset people until you discover and remove them.