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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...

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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.

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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.

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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)!
 
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Will there be ways for Lucifer's own to abandon their pretenses and openly declare the worship of the dark powers the new state religion, with all the crazy risk that implies?
 
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With the addition of Assassins, I expect the following achievments :

- Nothing is true... : Join the Assassins
- ... everything is permitted : Become Grandmaster of the Assassins.

As for Zunist Demon worshippers, there could be a Moon Cult.
 
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I don't mind all this, as long as I can play a good son of the Church and Inquisition the royal heck out of them!
 
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MODDING questions about the societies.

Do these societies strictly have to be secret? I find that if they are not limited to secrecy, there could be A LOT of things that can be done with societies. I am currently working on pagan overhaul mod and judging from the desciption of this new mechanic, this opens up a lot of new ways to mod stuff into game.

Can these societies be disbanded? I find that certain societies sometimes evolve into stuff that can be represented much better with other mechanics.

Can these societies lay in dormancy until an event triggers them?

Here are some examples of what (I think) could be done with societies feature.
  • Proto-Kingdoms for pagans - independent individuals of the same culture would be its members. It would function kinda like a confederation. Members can squabble with each other as they want, but if someone outside of the confederation invades, the confederation will come to their member's help. Somehow developing this society would eventually result in that society transforming into a full blown kingdom and ditching tribalism. But this would imply the ability to disband the society once the kingdom is formed.
  • Pagan sorcerer communites - This would be a community of pagan dudes and gals who have the Theology/Learning focus or just a high Learning skill. This would be kinda a non-secret group. Its members would be revered as great wizards and sorcerers. Members of this society would enjoy much faster tech spread between the members. Also, outsiders can consult them with problems or to get blessings for money. But in return the leader(s) of this group can ask its lower members to further the interests of the society in their respective realms.
  • Rewamped religious reformation - Instead of just collecting holy sites and hitting "Reform" button, now there could be some interplay between the Mystics and Warlords. Warlords may not really care what religion they are having. But this would SERIOUSLY concern existing Sorcerer Communities that some dude, with a white hat, on the other side of the world, is going to take away their prestigious standing in society. Of course, the Sorcerer Community would anything to keep their little turf. And they would obviously do it by forming their own religion around their society.
 
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MODDING questions about the societies.

Do these societies strictly have to be secret? I find that if they are not limited to secrecy, there could be A LOT of things that can be done with societies. I am currently working on pagan overhaul mod and judging from the desciption of this new mechanic, this opens up a lot of new ways to mod stuff into game.

Can these societies be disbanded? I find that certain societies sometimes evolve into stuff that can be represented much better with other mechanics.

Can these societies lay in dormancy until an event triggers them?

Here are some examples of what (I think) could be done with societies feature.
  • Proto-Kingdoms for pagans - independent individuals of the same culture would be its members. It would function kinda like a confederation. Members can squabble with each other as they want, but if someone outside of the confederation invades, the confederation will come to their member's help. Somehow developing this society would eventually result in that society transforming into a full blown kingdom and ditching tribalism. But this would imply the ability to disband the society once the kingdom is formed.
  • Pagan sorcerer communites - This would be a community of pagan dudes and gals who have the Theology/Learning focus or just a high Learning skill. This would be kinda a non-secret group. Its members would be revered as great wizards and sorcerers. Members of this society would enjoy much faster tech spread between the members. Also, outsiders can consult them with problems or to get blessings for money. But in return the leader(s) of this group can ask its lower members to further the interests of the society in their respective realms.
  • Rewamped religious reformation - Instead of just collecting holy sites and hitting "Reform" button, now there could be some interplay between the Mystics and Warlords. Warlords may not really care what religion they are having. But this would SERIOUSLY concern existing Sorcerer Communities that some dude, with a white hat, on the other side of the world, is going to take away their prestigious standing in society. Of course, the Sorcerer Community would anything to keep their little turf. And they would obviously do it by forming their own religion around their society.

They've already talked about monk orders which are open (i.e. not secret) and discussed how societies must always exist, but events making them hidden or allowing entry into them can be triggered by date, etc (effectively allowing modders to make "unavailable" societies). Look back at the last couple of dev diaries.
 
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I'm actually not sure. The planned DD for next week involves some cut stuff, so a re-shuffle will have to be done. Exciting times!
Oooo, while I understand that sometimes ideas need to be cut, I'm still interested in the process that led to ditching them, how far into trying to implementation they got before being scrapped, and so on. The behind the scenes work and thought processes for projects are always interesting to me... can you share any of these? unless these are just things that have just been pushed back to the next DLC?
 
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Abrahamics get “Lucifer’s Own
Jews as well?

Also, any chance of a Kabbalist society for Jews? Rather than using the Christian mystical traditions, when the Jews had a strong set of their own?
 
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Will there be ways for Lucifer's own to abandon their pretenses and openly declare the worship of the dark powers the new state religion, with all the crazy risk that implies?

Knowing this game, all the direct vassals will convert within 10 days due to demand conversion and the whole kingdom will follow suit with converting within 5 years
 
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Hang on...

Cults...

Cults undermine the rule of emperors....

China had emperors...

China is confirmed guys
 
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I hope ALL Holy Orders are properly merged with Societies. These new mechanics make perfect sense, there is no reason to leave them as they are, a boring, non-interactive home for fourthborns.
 
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Hulagu Khan destroyed the Assassins (Assassins as terrorist group) - will be possible to this destroy the organization by non-Muslims?

Will in game be an Qizilbash as shia military secret society or shia holy order in late game?
 
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