I need your suggestions on marriage!

[VersusAllOdds]

I'm an emperor of Scandinavia, and have 8 kingdoms titles (the Scandinavian ones, Lithuania, Scotland and Jerusalem). I'm trying to role-play, I give titles to my kinsmen - about 60% of all vassals is of my dynasty...

Anyway, my son, a genius, and an elected heir of all my titles, is unmarried. I, almost exclusively, marry genius wifes, and exclusively have genius rulers (the first one is genius through ruler designer). However, now the infant Byzantine empress and Queen of Ireland are both unbetrothed, and would both accept my son and heir as their regular husband.

What do I do? I'm at such an impasse!

I want to keep genius in the family, but chances would be low with only one genius parent... Having a genius and a well educated ruler is probably my foremost priority in all my games. However, I want the Kingdom of Ireland as my next expansion. But how can someone reject a Byzantine empire of ~350 holdings? Yeah, taking titles like this doesn't feel well to me, as it would be somewhat illogical in the real world (the only such entity I know of is the Habsburg empire).

What would you do? Ah sweet pain of deciding what treat do I get to eat

 

[Yenzen]

You may not want byzantium. They are not going to be thrilled about the foreigner catholic emperor living thousands of kilometers away and will be a constant source of rebellion that will take forever to quell. I would suggest taking the queen of Ireland instead, it's not that far off and honestly marring perfect genius wives can get a bit boring.

 

[mike the knight]

I also suggest to choose the Irish bride .Despite prestige and power gain from gaining another Empire it is surely a terrific pain to control far away vassals who hate your guts ( even from an rpg perspective this would be more logical )

 

[Felius]

Can be an interesting idea to marry one of your other sons with the byzantine empress so your dynasty can ascend to power there.

 

[JonStryker]

Maybe that was changed but afaik the chance for genius offspring isn't increased if two geniuses marry. I'd go with the Byzantine one. Such a chance doesn't come along all that often

 

[VersusAllOdds]

Can be an interesting idea to marry one of your other sons with the byzantine empress so your dynasty can ascend to power there.

My idea was to do that, then the greed for all those holdings kicked in...

I wondered about something else though:

If I take the Byzantine empire, can I just give it away? I mean like ruin it from the inside and just dump it? I didn't really plan on ruling it, I planned to squeeze whatever I can from it and leave it to rot! What makes me wonder:

If I get the Byz, my retinue capacity will jump, right? And then when I hire my retinues to the max, what happens when I lose it? Thanks for your responces guys!

 

[unmerged(457435)]

so what, i am a Karling sayyid augustus genius 5 times emperor and 29 times king with all my dukes from my dynasty and >100.000 points on 1230?

 

[yezhanquan]

You cannot give the Byz Emperor title away without the character becoming independent. You can consider creating the kingdoms within the borders of the Byz Empire,and giving them to the natives. Delegate the job of running the place if you are personally not interested in that part of the realm.

 

[Veetor]

so what, i am a Karling sayyid augustus genius 5 times emperor and 29 times king with all my dukes from my dynasty and >100.000 points on 1230?

So? Was that even necessary?

I liked your pictures, but you should have made your own topic!

 

[Kelly Hrdina]

I also suggest to choose the Irish bride .Despite prestige and power gain from gaining another Empire it is surely a terrific pain to control far away vassals who hate your guts ( even from an rpg perspective this would be more logical )

How old is the Irish Queen? If she's an adult, you can start making heirs immediately. You'll have to wait quite a while with the Byz Empress, and she might not even live long enough for that to happen.

 

[Kelly Hrdina]

so what, i am a Karling sayyid augustus genius 5 times emperor and 29 times king with all my dukes from my dynasty and >100.000 points on 1230?

Golf Clap.

 

[tuareg109]

You cannot give the Byz Emperor title away without the character becoming independent. You can consider creating the kingdoms within the borders of the Byz Empire,and giving them to the natives. Delegate the job of running the place if you are personally not interested in that part of the realm.

But he doesn't plan on ruling it.
He plans on ruining it from the inside, then giving it away. This makes sense if his son was "co-ruler" of the Byzantine Empire; however, since it is only his grandson that will rule the Byzantine Empire, and I don't think any boy would ruin the proud realm of his mommy and half his ancestors, this doesn't make sense for RP purposes, actually.

 

[generalolaf]

Marry the Irish bride, you'll find the realm easier to keep. Marrying the Byzantine empress comes at the cost of Ireland.

 

[noobermenschen]

Marry the Irish Bride, live with a non-genius ruler for a generation, then look for another genius within your dynasty. Train him/her for the throne and make them your heir (assuming you have elective succession). I have found education makes a much bigger difference than breeding as traits make a much bigger difference than raw stats - though I confess to strenuously trying to keep genius or strong on my throne as well.

 

[generalolaf]

But then he won't inherit Ireland... isn't that self-defeating?

 

[noobermenschen]

But then he won't inherit Ireland... isn't that self-defeating?

It would have been if I hadn't edited

 

[generalolaf]

Yeah, now that's a very valid and effective strategy you have there