How do I open the gates on the Road to Rule?

The gates are plot events, this makes for a very different "leveling" mechanism from previous games.

Spoiler follows

Here are the events that allow you to open gates

1. Opens when you receive the guild seal
2. After receiving the music box
3. After defeating the Mercinaries
4. After doing Sabien's 3 Tasks
5. After killing the magic hobbs in the monorail
6. After you promise to restore the gaurd in morningwood
7. After meeting the resistance in bowerstone
8. After the fight with the balverines in Millfields
9. After arriving in Aurora
10. Being Crowned King

It looks like the gates are opened by key events in the plot, rather than being opened on their own.