Crusader Kings III

[Syt]

Chapter V has been revealed:

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/threads/crusader-kings-iii-chapter-v.1917179/

The big ones are:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4232900/Crusader_Kings_III_By_God_Alone/

Navigate through a medieval era with a rich religious life in By God Alone, a Core Expansion for Crusader Kings III. Wrestle with sin as your rulers try to live up to the tenets of their faith as you tangle with church authorities who have power on earth, as well as heaven. Instigate or settle religious debates, negotiate the limits of crown and Papal authority, and ponder the afterlife.

Crusader Kings III: By God Alone includes:

• Playable Theocracies: Take control of landed realms headed by an archbishop or even the Pope himself. As the Papacy, new resources of power and wealth will be at your disposal.
• The Christian "Situation": A new persistent Situation for Christian realms, allowing actions and decisions connected to the development and progress of the Faith. You can participate in Ecumenical Councils to decide on religious tenets and beliefs.
• Heresies: Religious rites that diverge too much from the standard Faith steal power and wealth from the Church and may be declared heretical, forcing you to either conform or rebel.
• The Great Schism: In the 867 game start, the Christian church will eventually reach a crossroads for the faith. This can result in the Great Schism, separating Western Catholicism from Eastern Orthodoxy.
• Monastic Holy Orders: Centers of both research and theological power, Monastic Holy Orders offer potent bonuses to those who host their headquarters. Chief among their offerings is spiritual fulfilment, for their prayers protect secular rulers from eternal damnation.
• Changes to Religious Tenets: Revisions to the tenet system in Crusader Kings III now center characters' relationships to their faith and what is appropriate behavior within that faith. Follow heretical beliefs that push the boundary of what is accepted or have your personal preferences adopted and accepted through internal church politics.
• Spiritual Fulfillment system: Traits, actions and religious tenets work together to paint portraits of characters' inner spirit and spiritual life. Sinful or virtuous actions are not merely a concern for stress, but can also affect relationships with God and concerns about the afterlife.
• Archdioceses: New clerical titles that have religious authority over a geographical region independent of the secular rulers' lands.
• College of Cardinals: The Pope can appoint cardinals across Christendom. But, the struggle between secular and religious authority never ends - secular rulers can use their power to influence the appointment of Cardinals and the direction of the Church.
• Dynamic Holy Sites: Cathedrals can become the focal point for reverence of specific saints or other holy figures, leading to them becoming Holy Sites. Faiths can now dynamically change their holy sites as they grow and change over time.
• Cathedrals: Cathedrals can become the focal point for reverence of specific saints or other holy figures, leading to them becoming Holy Sites.
• Puppets: In order to interact with the political machinery of the church, secular rulers will be able to puppet clerical characters so they can act on their behalf.
• And more!

And:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4232910/Crusader_Kings_III_Silk__Silver/

Build your dynasty through trade and moneylending as you lead a merchant family through the medieval era in Silk & Silver, a Major Expansion for Crusader Kings III. Start as a humble trader, ingratiate yourself with the local authorities as you expand your business interests and maybe even seize power in a Republic, defeating your rivals as you turn your trading monopolies into political power.

Crusader Kings III: Silk & Silver includes:

• Merchant government: In an entirely new playstyle, lead a merchant family at the head of a trading company, rising from obscurity to greatness and using your wealth to advance the fortunes of your family.
• Establish trade routes: Seek out profitable routes, slowly expanding the reach of your trade empire as your family grows in renown and wealth
• Compete: Push out other families, undermining their trading profits and locking them out of valuable markets.
• Lobby for power: Use your money and intrigue to influence nobles and royalty, seeking patrons who can strengthen your trade empire.
• Monopolies: Use your political influence to gain exclusive rights to routes or goods.
• Improve your mansion: Direct your family from your grand house, improving its grounds and establishing a base for your mercantile efforts.
• Republics: A new government type that focuses on merchant families competing for power and wealth in a range of historical republican models.
• Laws and Assemblies: Set the constitution of your Republic, asking the Assembly to pass laws that control the terms of leaders and uses of the state treasury.
• Trade Leagues: Through the new Trade System, you can join other Republics in alliances with both commercial and military benefits. Long established leagues could become Confederations, a larger and stronger Republican form.
• Historical Italian Flavor: Take part in civic Carnivals to celebrate the greatness of your republic, and watch the historic struggle in northern Italy between the Guelphs and Ghibellines as political factions lead to open warfare.
• And more!

Religion DLC comes in September according to their YouTube video, the trade/merchant DLC in November.

Plus a music and cosmetic pack. And the big patch that's been in beta for a bit.

The video states that for the mercantile DLC they'll rework buildings, e.g. that you build "districts" that contain "buildings" (I guess similar to estates/adventurer camp?) and economy - adding trade good options per county that you can choose to build up and trade.

[garbon]

The Christian "Situation"

[Syt]

The Christian "Situation"

Situations are the new Struggles. I think I prefer Christian "Situation" over Christian "Struggle"

[Sheilbh]

The Christian "Situation"

A youth pastor's YouTube venture

[Solmyr]

Religion AND trade in the same year? I think OPB just exploded with anticipation.

[Norgy]

This seems promising, and a step towards the EUV-isation of CKIII as well. 

[Sophie Scholl]

The Religion one sounds amazing. I'm not super keen on the economic stuff, personally. I might be tempted to try out CKIII again. The last version I really played was... CKI? 

[garbon]

This already sounds like a lot..

Every duchy in the world counts as its own separate market, and every province will have a new set of buildings (this will be discussed later) that will produce or require trade goods for its market, meaning we have just over 900 separate markets in the world of CK3 come Silk & Silver. For trade goods produced within a market, they will be available for local consumption before they are available for purchase by foreign traders.

[Syt]

Reading through the vision statement for Silk & Silver.

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/developer-diary/silk-silver-dev-diary-1-design-vision.1917178/



(But I have always been a fan of games like Hanse, Patrician, etc., so I'm very much inclined to enjoy playing a merchant in the middle ages )

[Syt]

Before anything else, we should discuss buildings and districts. I have already mentioned districts a couple of times throughout the dev diary, so it is time for a clarification. We often found it weird that, as a ruler, you would build a brewery or a windmill. It always felt a bit underwhelming, and with few building slots, it was hard to dig deeper into the system, as there wasn't a lot of room to add anything.

As part of our rework, we have removed every single regular building in the game (note, we have mostly kept all the special buildings that existed, but they will all see tweaks to their effects). Instead of having building slots, we will now have district slots instead, with districts in them. A district is effectively a thematic folder for buildings, where you will build a district (which will have some effects by itself), and then you will be able to build buildings within the district afterward. Instead of building an e.g., a smithy, you will be able to build a district for artisans that you can then fill with different buildings like a smithy.

The goal is that a district is an investment, whereas the buildings are more easily switched and cheaper to replace if need be, and they will be flavorful and thematic. So you will see districts focused on the military, markets, urban life, or even on keeping the city small so it can remain an effective rural location. Speaking of size...

[Zanza]

If they can pull the two DLCs off, I might play this again.

[Sheilbh]

I've never read it before and I'm sure there's a million problems with it. But currently reading The Distant Mirror and enjoying it so much I'm going to get back on CKIII

[Valmy]

I've never read it before and I'm sure there's a million problems with it. But currently reading The Distant Mirror and enjoying it so much I'm going to get back on CKIII

I love that book. Probably outdated and mostly wrong by now but such an enjoyable read.

[Sheilbh]

Oh yeah I've no doubt Medievalists are shaking their fists (I feel like all those "Light Ages" people must be furious) - but as you say it's so well written.

[Syt]

New dev diary: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/developer-diary/by-god-alone-dev-diary-2-ecclesiastical-power-rites.1920599/

Archdioceses will have its own map layer and bishops can petition head of faith for their own archdiocese or ask to merge them. The borders of the archidoceses and the political borders can overlap (an archidocese may cover parts of different independent realms).

The Archbishop or Patriarch holding one of these is an actual person with an actual job. He has subordinate Bishops to oversee. He sees to the faithfulness and souls of local Christian rulers. He starts and administers Church-related Great Projects in his region. He ensures everyone in the region follows the right teachings. When his See vacates, the next holder is selected from local clergy by a Clerical Appointment score - we're still tuning the factors, so I'm not going to walk you through the formula, but the principle is that the next Archbishop of Reims is somebody you can scout before he gets there and have some influence over. The Head of Faith can also override the local process, parachuting in a preferred Cardinal over the heads of an aggrieved local clergy. That happens sometimes. God works in mysterious ways.

Cathedrals will be projects that have a base build time of 30 years or more.



Looking at the requirements, it should tie in nicely with trade once that comes out.

And the diary also covers rites again a bit more and how archbishops can affect them.

So: wealthy Archbishops on a map that doesn't match anyone's realm, sending the Pope a monthly check on top of running their own buildings. What does any of that have to do with what they teach?

A Rite is the answer. Cyril and Methodius founded one. Any clergy character in the right circumstances can found one - a Patriarch, an Archbishop, the Head of a Holy Order (and, as we hinted last time and will detail next time, you have Puppets you can work through to do this as a secular Christian ruler.) The flow is similar to the old Create Faith UI: the founder picks Tenets to elevate or demote and Doctrines to swap. Each individual change carries its own Piety cost, modulated by the parent Faith's Fervor - a modest Rite that nudges one or two Permitted Tenets up to Core is cheap, an aggressive Rite that promotes an anathema teaching is not. The UI shows you a predicted Divergence number alongside each candidate change before you confirm. You (or your Puppet) should never be doing this blindly.

The Tenets and Doctrines you get to pick from are the ones known to you (or your clergy puppet, as the case may be). You can't just make up a new theological idea you've never been exposed to before, after all. As per our last dev diary, this means Studying other faiths or learning about them in some other way, like travelling far and wide, inviting foreign guests, etcetera. A well-travelled Merchant family for example might well prove a wealth of foreign knowledge and might originate some very strange ideas if they are put in a position where they can found their own Rite. If you truly want to be a religious innovator, you can also aim to become a Herald through becoming a renowned theologian, which gives you access to Tenets nobody has even heard of before.

What the Slavic Rite actually did, when Methodius founded it, is concrete and embedded into the game. It promoted Anachoresis - the Eastern, contemplative, Desert-Fathers ideal - where the Roman Rite has Apostolic Succession, the institutional and hierarchical posture of top-down clergy authority. It kept Dulia alongside, because the Slavs were not theologically distant from Rome on the topic of saints. Yet it permits clerical marriage where the Roman Rite does not. This makes their clergy married men, embedded in their villages, whose moral and political incentives are different from those of a celibate Roman priest.

Every Tenet has a status in any given Rite - Core, Permitted, Known, or Prohibited - and each status carries a weight in the calculation of Divergence. Two Rites that both treat Apostolic Succession as Core agree. Two Rites where one has it Core and the other Prohibited disagree, sharply. Add up the per-Tenet contributions across the whole list of Tenets and Doctrines and you have a Divergence score from one Rite to its Faith's mainline.

At 50 points of Divergence and above, the Rite crosses into what the game flags as potentially heretical territory: a different bucket in the Church's politics, a distinct ragged border on the religious map, and - if a Pope is in a position and a mood to do something about it - the prospect of a Papal Bull naming the Rite a Heresy outright. The Rite's Head is then offered a chance to submit and rejoin the mainline. If they choose not to, they will become their own Faith, with the consequence of being labeled a heresy of its parent. While this means the total Divergence across the parent faith has decreased, which is good for the Pope, having a heretical faith to contend with is not typically good for a stable status quo.

Should you try to create a Rite with an immediate Divergence score above 100 - for example by suggesting all these teachings of the Roman Rite are fine and all, but we should have Lay Clergy and a Temporal Head of Faith, because that's what God's word truly intended - there's not a pressing need for a lead-up period, you'll just be declared a heretical faith outright. Good luck!

Also, they extend mechanics to non-Christian faiths:

Most of what you've learned about today works the same regardless of if you're Christian or not. Most faiths have been split up by Rite, and some faiths have become Rites where we think it better reflects history. For example, Islam has been reshaped around the major historical branches and schools of law: Sunni, Shia, Kharijite, and the early community of Sadr al-Islam are now subdivided into Rites such as Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i, Hanbali, Ismaili, Imami, Zayidi, Ibadi, and others. This lets characters and provinces better reflect regional and historical differences, from North African Malikis to Persian Hanafis and the varied Shia communities of the medieval world. Some groups, such as Druze and Quranism, remain distinct faiths where that better fits their historical role.

I like all these changes, on paper. It should give players more to do since religion is supposed to be - per their DDs  - something you practice and interact with regularly instead of it being a tag that adds some modifiers and event triggers. Together with the upcoming merchants DLC it should make the world a lot more interactive and alive. If they don't release it in a completely broken and unbalanced state, but hey, what's the odds of Paradox ever doing that?