Understanding (and manipulating) succession

[Deja Voodoo]

I'm playing starting as a lowly non-independent Count and trying to work my way up to HRE or equivalent. My plot to ascend to Duke looked like this:
1. Marry one of my dynasty to a female relative of the Duke
2. This female relative has a kid of my dynasty
3. Make faction in favor of this relative as Duchess. Win war and install Duchess.
4. Kill Duchess. Child inherits. The title is now in my dynasty.
5. Kill child. Heir should be me or my brother (who is the child's father).

I've gotten as far as #4 (the child is a daughter), but I've run into something unexpected: the child's heir is listed as the Duke I deposed! He's the kid's cousin on the kid's mom's side. (And the next-in-line heirs are all on that side of the family rather than mine.) Why doesn't succession run through the child's father back to my dynasty?

Edit: the Duchy has Agnatic-Cognatic Gavelkind as succession law.

 

[clockworkBabbag]

The heir shown on the character screen isn't always entirely accurate for the title you actually care about. Go check who the actual title says is the heir, not the character screen. It could also take time for the game to calculate the succession properly.

Of course, the better question is why such a convoluted approach - marrying your heir to this duchess would have been a far easier way to ensure you end up in control on succession. Marrying non-heir dynasty members is more useful for getting your dynasty on the throne (either as an independent potential ally or as a vassal) than it is for actually ending up in direct control of the title.

It's far trickier to do, and kinslayer is probably not something you can easily shrug off at the count/duchy level. Especially not if you're a vassal who has to worry about political intrigue or liege opinion. Although it's more harmful with dynasty members than everyone else, -3 diplomacy isn't exactly negligible.

 

[Dragatus]

It seems that if a ruler doesn't have any children or siblings the title will go to the person the ruler inherited it from in the first place rather than the father.

You're still in a good position though since you have a duke/duchess of your own dynasty. You should be able to arrange a marriage between the new duke/duchess and your own children. If your new liege is female and you ever find yourself without a wife, you might even be able to marry her yourself. Uncle-niece marriages are allowed even without Divine Blood.

 

[Deja Voodoo]

Of course, the better question is why such a convoluted approach - marrying your heir to this duchess would have been a far easier way to ensure you end up in control on succession.

Of course that would have been simpler, but I had other plans for my heir, and there was an inconvenient age gap.

It seems that if a ruler doesn't have any children or siblings the title will go to the person the ruler inherited it from in the first place rather than the father.

You're still in a good position though since you have a duke/duchess of your own dynasty. You should be able to arrange a marriage between the new duke/duchess and your own children. If your new liege is female and you ever find yourself without a wife, you might even be able to marry her yourself. Uncle-niece marriages are allowed even without Divine Blood.

Thanks for the explanation!

 

[josefrees]

Seniority and tanist successions are my favorites.