How to gain influence:
First rule is simple: Talk. Very, very rarely will you get anything without getting your voice out there. But don't be stupid about it. The new guy who starts mouthing off about how the realm should completely change it's diplomacy makes more enemies than friends. So, how do you talk without risking making a fool of yourself?
1. Ask questions. Ask your liege, ask your Marshal, ask your Ruler, ask the General, ask your Duke. Use personal letters, not letters to the realm. Letters to message groups or guilds can work, but again, you have to know which ones are important and which aren't. And once you have someone who answers questions, don't let the correspondence die. Ask them about themselves, start to talk with them about whatever you can think of.
2. Talk after battles. Congratulate the enemy on a well-fought battle. Invite people to an impromptu post-battle celebration, and send a brief RP so they know it's not just polite words. Congratulate Sir So-and-So for wounding the enemy General. Offer Lord Thus-and-Such sympathy for being wounded in the first round. Whatever you do, word it in such a way that it calls for the other person to respond.
Once you've gotten to know a few people and understand a bit better how things work, the actual influence gathering stage begins. There are wildly different systems in Battlemaster, which require different approaches, but in essence figure out whether the position you want is selected by the Ruler, a Duke, all the Dukes, all the Lords, or the entire realm. Each of these requires a somewhat different approach, and how you go about getting an elected position is rather different from how you get an appointed position, but this list should help with everything in general.
1. Find out what, if any, competition you have for the position.
2. Find out what traditions, if any, the realm has for the position.
3. Find out who really picks positions (does the King tell the Dukes who to appoint? Does the Duchess ask her lords who to appoint to a lordship in-duchy?).
4. Send personal messages asking to all involved what you can do to prove yourself worthy.
5. Do not fixate on a single position, but stay flexible for other options if they arise. Once you get one position, others are much easier.
6. Find out what factions exist in the realm (if you do a favour for the Duke of the capital, is that going to annoy the Judge? Who is the Queen more likely to listen to?).
7. What religions are important to the realm/Ruler/Dukes/Lords, how seriously do they take religious affiliation?
8. Does the realm tend to reward Courtiers and the like who help fix regions, Traders who bring food to the starving cities, Warriors who fight well on the front lines...?
9. Find out where most discussions take place (the War Council? A Senate? One or more of the armies? A guild, or religion?) and what you need to do to get in that group so you can start talking.
10. Spend some extra time making your character real, having actual motivations and such, to make it clear that this is a real person to those you talk to.
