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CK2 Dev Diary #103 - Long live the King!

Greetings.

Today we will put Pagans aside, go back to good old Catholics, and explore one of the new features coming for them with Holy Fury: Coronation Ceremonies.

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With this expansion, succeeding to the throne of a Catholic Kingdom or Empire will not be a simple matter of gaining the title itself. The new ruler will need to organize a Coronation Ceremony (via new intrigue decision) and be recognized as legitimate by a notable member of the Catholic Church.
If a Catholic ruler fails to be officially crowned, he will see his popularity slowly fade away each year, as his vassals grow more and more restless under what they perceive as an illegitimate King.

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Coronation is divided into two phases: preparation and ceremony.
During the preparation, the ruler will decide whom he wishes to be crowned by, he will meet the Church’s demands, and invest money to organize the ceremony. In the second phase, the ruler will host the ceremony itself, interacting with guests and ultimately receiving his crown.

When organizing a ceremony, a Catholic King can choose between three possible options when it comes to officiant priests: he can be crowned by a low-status theocratic vassal within his realm, by a powerful theocratic vassal within his realm (such as a Cardinal, Antipope or Prince-Bishop), or by the Pope himself. Catholic Emperors who fail to enact the Free Investiture succession on the other hand will be limited in their selection only to the Pope.
While being crowned by a local Bishop is a lot less prestigious, it is also much cheaper, as higher-ranking members of the Church will be prone to make outlandish requests, especially if they dislike the ruler requesting them to officiate his coronation.

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Requests may vary a lot, especially when it comes to the Pope: the Holy Father might ask you to change your realm’s Investiture laws, wage war against an Excommunicated ruler on behalf of the Papacy, or to restore some of the Central Italian provinces to the Holy See.
Be sure to be in good relations with the Pope before asking for a coronation if you wish to receive a more tolerable offer.

Once the demands of your chosen priest have been met, you will be able to select a budget for your ceremony which will determine the kind of coronation you will receive, the kind of flavor events tied to it and the number of guests participating in it.
An extravagant coronation is a prestigious event to which all your vassals, courtiers and even neighboring Christian rulers are invited, a secluded coronation is a private feast to which only your Council will have access to.

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Once the ceremony has been concluded, your character will receive a specific trait tied to the priest that crowned him, as well as retain any additional perks granted by the flavor events experienced during the feast leading up to the coronation.

You might have noticed from the screenshots that this new mechanic affects character portraits as well: Catholic Kings and Emperors that have not been crowned will no longer wear the high-tier headgear in Holy Fury, defaulting to the Ducal band instead until their rank has been officially recognized by the Church (naturally, if you do not own Holy Fury, Catholic Kings and Emperors will wear the appropriate gear by default as before).

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This is not the only portrait-related addition though: Holy Fury will bring to the game a series of special crown artifacts that will be visible on portraits whenever the characters are wearing them. Most of these artifacts can only be used when the character meets certain requirements and they are often tied to a specific title rather than a character’s dynasty.

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And this should be about it for this week.
 
Can we gift the cursed crown to a nearby king/emperor so that they will be accidentally dead/disappear/incapable in a few years?
 
I imagine non-Catholics will forge or acquire unique crown artifacts.
Yes.

So even if you have an Antipope you can ask the Pope to crown you and he can accept?
No, if you have an Antipope, he is the highest kind of priest you can ask a coronation from. What I meant is that an Antipope counts as being crowned by a "powerful theocrat" as far as the boni go, rather than by an official Pope.

Is the local priest with the highest opinion automatically selected? Or doesn't opinion matter if you choose a local priest? I can imagine that when every priest hates you, this must in some way effect your coronation...
Yes, the event will try to scope for one which has a high opinion of you.
 
What if the Pope is a vassal of the emperor? Will he also ask outlandish requests or be more of a yes-man?
He might still ask outlandish requests, it mainly depends on his opinion of you.
He might ask you to relinquish the vassalage in exchange for the coronation.
 
Bit strange considering catholic coronations are a direct decedent of the byzantine coronation rituals...

We have yet to see the new Byzantine government. It's possible they come with their own lavish Coronation events, but immediately on inheritance and without requiring to find a sponsor.
Though I do think that an Orthodox Emperor should be able to send a crown to a King.
 
Bit strange considering catholic coronations are a direct decedent of the byzantine coronation rituals of the 8th century...
The mechanic itself is meant to handle the often antagonistic relations between secular rulers and the clergy, and the influence that the Church had when it came to legitimizing rulers, that is why it focuses on Catholics.
 
Love the Crowns being visible on portraits. Not so sure about the coronations. Can you imprison a priest (or even the Pope) and force them to Crown you in return for being let go?
 
What happened in the case of vassal Pope under Emperor? Can he set any demands to his liege lord for coronation?

He might still ask outlandish requests, it mainly depends on his opinion of you.
He might ask you to relinquish the vassalage in exchange for the coronation.
 
Can you have an option to be able to be crowned by a relative if that relative is a bishop? This could ensure less demands than those of strangers.
 
CK2+ coronation is absolutely barebones compared to this

I have to ask, how?
It's exactly the same, except for the portrait feature which we don't have because it would mean only people with certain DLCs would have coronations.
Oh, and Plus has it for all non-tribals.
And regnal names...
 
This: "The Byzantine coronation ritual, from at least 795 on, incorporated a partial clothing of the new emperor in various items of special clothing prior to his entrance to the church, following which he entered the cathedral and received the prostrations of the Senators and other patricians. The Patriarch then read a set of lengthy prayers, as the sovereign was invested first with the chlamys and then finally with the crown. Following this, the emperor received Holy Communion followed by further acts of homage.[8][11] From the moment of his coronation, Byzantine emperor was regarded as holy; while the Patriarch was holding the crown over the emperor's head, the attending people repeatedly cried: Holy! [12]

In later centuries, after receiving their crown from the Patriarch, Byzantine emperors placed it upon their own head, symbolizing that their dominion came directly from God.[13][14] Anointing was added to the ritual after the eleventh century, with the monarch receiving the Sign of the Cross on their forehead from the Patriarch. The purple chlamys also disappeared from the rite during this time, being replaced with the mandyas, or cope.[8]


Childebert III (r.694-711).
The Byzantine coronation ceremony begins to influence the Barbarian kingdoms in the West with their Christianization. The Iron Crown of Lombardy is traced in legend to Constantine himself (but more likely dates to the 8th or 9th century). In Spain, the Visigothic king Sisenand was crowned in 631, and in 672, Wamba was the first occidental king to be anointed as well, by the archbishop of Toledo.

Two prayers for the coronation of Byzantine emperors are found in the Byzantine Archieratikon (Slavonic: Chinovnik). The second of these prayers is proceeded by the diaconal command: "Bow your heads to the Lord" and the assembly's response: "To you, O Lord." This pattern of two prayers corresponds to the ritual form found in the Byzantine liturgy for the ordinations of bishops, priests and deacons and also for major blessings, such as the Great Blessing of Waters on the Feast of the Theophany. In some texts, the first prayer is associated with the act of clothing the emperor in the chlamys and the second with the act of crowning him.[15] Although the Byzantine coronation ritual underwent various changes throughout the centuries, these two prayers are found consistently in every version." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coronations_in_antiquity And this: https://biblicalstudies.org.uk/pdf/jts/002_359.pdf
 
Also, what about adding the nickname "the uncrowned"?

Could be an achievement: without being crowned, rule for 30 years and gain X Prestige and Y Piety.