• We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.

CK2 Dev Diary #36: The Witching Hour

Hi everyone!

I hope you all had a good time during the Holidays. I know I did, but now it’s time to don the crown, strap on the sword and get back to work on Crusader Kings II (and my other game, of course...) Now, what better way to start off the new year than with a bit of harmless witchery? In the terribly long eras before the great thinkers of the Age of Reason would have us replace magic with science, the “occult” was of course seen as a normal part of life, and society lived in fear of curses and evil spells. But… just because you’re superstitious does not mean the witches aren’t out to get you! Just like today, the desperate and the unscrupulous would seek power by any means necessary, including the worship of demons and evil spirits...

society_1.png

This brings us to my favorite Society in the upcoming expansion Monks and Mystics; the Demon Worshippers. These brothers and sisters of the left-hand path come in several varieties: Abrahamics get “Lucifer’s Own”, Tengri pagans get the “Plaguebringers”, the Indian faiths are afflicted with a particularly nasty type of Kali worship, Baltic, Slavic and Finnic pagans get “The Cold Ones” (evil shamans) and Germanic Pagans have those who curry the favor of Hel and of powerful jotuns. Regardless of religious context, they are all united in their self-serving, utterly ruthless quest for power in the world of the living, and care little for their fate in the afterlife. As they advance through the ranks, Demon Worshippers get powers like “Dark Divorce”, “Summon Familiar” and “Tainted Touch” (a health curse.) Through their network of agents, they can also attempt to abduct relatively low ranking characters. Now, a lot of the content for the Demon Worshippers is hard to explain in terms of placebo effects and natural phenomena, so if you don’t care for the supernatural I suggest simply not joining those Societies (because rooting out their covens and persecuting them through your Court Chaplain is reasonably historical and adds flavor to the game.) However, if you really don’t want them around, you can turn them off through a Game Rule.

society_1_power.png

Next up are the infamous Assassins, a Shiite Muslim Society that - unsurprisingly - specializes in murder. The elusive Assassins consider themselves the true followers of Allah, and will do anything to further the advances of Shia Islam and protect their fellow believers. Consisting of loyal warriors as well as competent spies, wielding manipulation and social skills as expertly as a dagger, they specialize in asymmetrical warfare, striking hard at the heart of their enemies. Their special powers include intimidation and murder. For example, they can get a Favor with someone (if you have the Conclave expansion) by leaving a dagger on their pillow. At higher ranks, they can also mark someone for death, so that lower ranked members will get that murder as a mission. Since this Society is also a political entity and a Holy Order of sorts, the Grandmaster gets the power to raise special troops.

society_2.png

There is more to say about these Societies; their other powers, missions and semi-random events, but I don’t want to spoil it all. Oh, and if you have the Way of Life expansion, you can use “Spy On” to find out if a character is a member of a secret Society like the above...

There won’t be a CK2 stream today, but stay tuned for something next week (and a new dev diary, of course)!
 
  • 167
  • 32
  • 30
Reactions:
Berbers sharing the same portraits as Arabs doesn't seem right to me either.

I've always thought the same about Berbers and Arabs. Honestly, most of the cultures in the Middle East are tragically over simplified

Ideally, in my mind, the Muslim group should be broken into five or six graphical cultures. But, I'm also heavily in favor of "moremoremore" so I just mod it for my own usage to be that way.

You should totally release that mod publicly, because I would totally play it!
 
  • 2
Reactions:
  • 3
Reactions:
Do Aztecs and Hellenics have their Secret Societies as well? And that does include the heresies like the Druze and the Iconoclasts?
 
  • 3
Reactions:
Do Aztecs and Hellenics have their Secret Societies as well? And that does include the heresies like the Druze and the Iconoclasts?

Why should Hellenics have one? They are not playable and not intendet to be playable.
 
  • 16
Reactions:
can you conspire to get people (say grandmasters or next in line to be grandmasters) kicked from societies?
Then, everybody in the societies would be kicked out because every member is plotting to kick out everyone else. :p
 
  • 1
Reactions:
Another good looking DLC .
I wished there were a temple/villa/etc.. something to build and upgrade these secret societies "holding". Just like when playing as republican and upgrading your house. For.eg. If some character gives gold to build a new altar for Lucifer he/she could gain more score/prestige within the guild and new buildings could expand the abilities of the guild.
 
Do Aztecs and Hellenics have their Secret Societies as well? And that does include the heresies like the Druze and the Iconoclasts?
From the sound of things, certain societies are universal for those that don't have specific societies to fit that role. Lucifer's Own, for example, seemed to be the default 'evil' society.
 
Hmm, nice things all around. It's funny how the actual sages of Baltic-finns(not sure about Estonians or others, but I'd recon they had similarities) did have a sort of society in the form of a loose organization and rules.
For instance the passing of knowledge and the runesongs that contained that knowledge was quite strict, and the very word used to describe this kind of knowledge means "trust".

Also quite accidentally fitting is the "Cold Ones" secret society as it was commonly believed that the "essence" of death( called "Kalma") was something one could control and bend to their will.
Needless to say people didn't like the thought of their dead coming back to haunt them or the fact that those dead were their ancestors bound into servitude by some malicious spell.
 
  • 1
  • 1
Reactions:
Then, everybody in the societies would be kicked out because every member is plotting to kick out everyone else. :p

We ARE struggling together!
 
  • 2
Reactions:
Do Aztecs and Hellenics have their Secret Societies as well? And that does include the heresies like the Druze and the Iconoclasts?
I'm trying to picture an Aztec secret society. Would that be one that tickle tortures you instead of hacking your heart out? #haventhadcoffee

Why should Hellenics have one? They are not playable and not intendet to be playable.
And yet they have their own Crusader trait in the 2.6 files, "Ares' Own".
 
  • 1
Reactions:
I wish you guys would revamp the loan mechanic to be more realistic.

We should be able to take loans from our own vassals,neighboring kingdoms, and close relatives. and incur a diplomatic penalty with them for every year we fail to pay back out loans. They even get a CB on us after a certain amount of years have passed without paying back the loans. If they win, they take the money we owed them along with a massive amount of interest or even land.

This would put us in debt and could cause instability throughout the kingdom in the form of rebellious vassals, bandits, and robbers.

Jews should be an option to take out loans but in exchange we have to grant them rights like holding land, less taxes, tax free business within the kingdom, and other rights that the population natural have.

Merchant Republics should play a very big role in this new loan system.

The Knights Templar were a major banking organization during the Medieval age. Maybe you can take out loans from Holy Orders as well.

Crusader Kings II: Bankers Due
 
Last edited:
  • 4
Reactions:
And yet they have their own Crusader trait in the 2.6 files, "Ares' Own".

But that means nothing. Nothing. Well OK, it means someone at Paradox deigned to spend a few minutes putting that one in. But I don't it's in no way a sign that they are going to add more official stuff for the Hellenics.
 
  • 5
  • 1
Reactions:
And yet they have their own Crusader trait in the 2.6 files, "Ares' Own".
That was more for modders than anything else and only takes a few minutes to do. Making an entire society with events and powers and art work etc that will never be used is a stupid thing to think would be made as it would take a lot of time only to never be used. If modders use the hellenic religion then they would be the ones to make the society not Paradox.
 
  • 8
Reactions:
That was more for modders than anything else and only takes a few minutes to do. Making an entire society with events and powers and art work etc that will never be used is a stupid thing to think would be made as it would take a lot of time only to never be used. If modders use the hellenic religion then they would be the ones to make the society not Paradox.
I never said it was likely, just that they've already added stuff to a religion that was previously just there as historical flavor so it's not completely out of the realm of possibility.
 
  • 2
  • 1
Reactions:
I never said it was likely, just that they've already added stuff to a religion that was previously just there as historical flavor so it's not completely out of the realm of possibility.
It really is out of the realm of possibility, there is a huge difference between a 5 minute job to help out the modders vs implementing hours upon hours of work that will never be used in vanilla
 
  • 4
  • 2
Reactions:
If I recall the Are's Own trait is just in there as flavor for the immortal character who has a chance to pop up in that quest chain and is an ancient Greek.
 
  • 3
  • 1
Reactions: