Editing Europa Universalis (section)

===Monarch Points===
These things are what drive your game. Your income of these basically determines if you will become a global empire or remain a swampy, insignificant backwater. There are three kinds of Monarch Points: Administration, Diplomacy and Miliary. Administration serves as a representative of your Nations bureaucratic efficiency, mainly how good your pencil pushers are at collecting taxes and expanding the administration of newly, erm aquired territory. Diplomacy is a representation of your nations diplomatic and mercantile esteem and is involved in everything related to Naval, Colonial and matters of trade and of course, Diplomacy. Diplomacy also is a vital resource in warfare, as you need to spend points to force your opponent to sign the conditions of peace. Military is not as straightforward as you might think, as it mainly serves as a representation of the ability of the state to wage war, rather than strengthening your military directly. You generally spend military points to increase the amount of Manpower you have available, raise war taxes and subdue rebellions before they become a problem. 

The basic rate of income of Monarch Points is determined by the abilites of your current ruler, be it a monarchy, a theocracy or a republic. By opening the "court" ledger, you can see your ruler, his spouse and your heir and their stats. The game tends to give smaller nations better rulers and vice versa. So for example, your King, let's call him Friedrich, King of Saxony has a statline of 4/2/3, that means he will generate 4 administrative, 2 diplomatic and 3 military points per months. The income from your monarch merely determines your baseline income that can be modified in a number of ways, mainly by employing advisors to the court that will basically turn money into additional monarch points. 

So what are the specific usecases of monarch points then? This article will only go into the most common things you will be using them for, as listing them all would take up too much space. 
*Development: You can spend monarch points to develop one of your provinces, to increase its wealth and value for your nation. This basically represents the level of population density and industry that is accumulating in that province. Provinces that are highly developed have multiple benefits; they are harder to conquer because they demand a higher diplomatic cost from any attacker to annex them, they produce more goods that can be sold to the world market and they provide more manpower for your armies. Development however generally tends to be on the low end of priorities you should get sorted, as spending too many MP on development tends you leave you broke for other things that need your attention. 
*Technology: Your #1 priority is to stay up-to-date with the technological development of your neighbors. For that, you need to spend monarch points of the kind of technology you want to invest in. Administrative Technology provides new idea groups, diplomatic technology ship types, factories and colonial range and military everything you would want for your army. 
*Ideas: Ideas are unlocked via administrative technology and represents general cultural ideals your nations strives towards. Ideas are also what determines your playstyle much more than your general location or the nation you play as. They are, just like technology, sorted into the three kinds of monarch points. Ideas provide general, usually pretty powerful bonuses for your nation (not to mention that you need Exploration to even unlock Colonialism as a mechanic). 
*Events: It's in the name. The game triggers certain events in your nation when the prerequisites are met; some are positive, many are negative and add a certain amount of randomness to your playthrough. Most of the negative events can be circumvented by paying a price in Monarch points; avoid this if the consequences aren't too severe (i.e. spending 100 Dip to prevent your ships costing 50% more money for 12 months is a bad choice when you only have a small navy).