Frequently Asked Questions

Why can't I select to play Muslim/Pagan rulers, military orders, republics, or ecclesiastical rulers?
The game focuses on feudal Europe during the time of the Crusades. It was therefore decided by the designers to limit the playable factions to Christian feudal lords. This means that you cannot play Muslim or Pagan rulers (as these are non-Christian), and nor can you play military orders, republics, or ecclesiastical rulers, as these are not ruled by feudal lords.

So there is no way to play these rulers?
Not without using a mod or editing the files yourself. (Or with the purchase of the Sword of Islam DLC.)

To play Muslims you can try Ladyfabia's Muslim Mod (http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?t=154312).

To play as one of the historic republics or as ecclesiastical rulers you must change their realm to be ruled feudally (i.e. a republic won't be a Republic anymore, but a Duchy or Kingdom).

To change your own Nation form of government from Feudal, you need to edit your save file as follow - ecclesiastical rulers, republics.

The only changes this will induce are the names of titles you can carry and carries no significant game play changes (i.e. being Ecclestial won’t make you the Pope)

The titles are as follow:

Feudal - King, Count, Duke

Ecclestial - Archbishop, Bishop

Republic - Consul, Governor, Magistrate

My ruler just had an Arab kid. But neither of the parents are Arabs!?!
In CK the culture of a newborn child is chosen as either that of the father (70% chance), or of the mother (15%), or as that of the ruler's capital province (15%). This means that if your ruler governs from, e.g., a conquered Arab province there is a chance that the family will "go native" and adopt the culture of the land. Unfortunately, culture also decides the type of portrait used, so you get a rather... different look for the Arab children.

Unfortunately, it is a known bug that children inheriting a culture different from their father which causes them to shift from European to Arab (or vice versa) removes them from normal bloodline succession. This is true whether or not the mother is of the other race.

My ruler died and I got Game Over?
This can happen if the heir of your ruler is of a different dynasty. This happens particularly if you have one of the Laws of Succession such as Elective Law or one of the Semi-salic Laws, where the heir is not chosen strictly through the male line. Salic Law chooses rulers of the same dynasty only. When you open the character portrait for your ruler you can check who the heir is. If this is not someone from your dynasty, you may start to worry...

My court is full of people, but I can't arrange marriages for them?
You can only arrange marriages for people from your own dynasty who presently reside in your court. Members of your dynasty who live outside your demesne are also outside your control.

Why do children get these stupid names?
These names are chosen from a file called 'character_names.csv'. This contains name lists for each sex for each culture. You can add to or alter the available stock of names by editing this file. If you want to be able to choose your own names for characters already in existence, there is no way short of editing the save.

How do I get rid of Thieves Guilds, Highway Robber Bands or Smugglers Rings?
Like their creation, the removal of these is done by events. The events will only happen if the province regiment is de-mobilised/disbanded, and will happen a lot faster if the province has a Court of Justice. Removal of these buildings is slower if your ruler has the trait Merciful.

Why is there no Holy Roman Emperor in the game?
See the explanation of the Holy Roman Emperor title.

Any suggestions on how to play?
Read (and help create!) country guides.