Vassals and the realm

[Erik McAwful]

Could anyone tell me a good way of keeping the realm together? Upon succession, and pretty much only then, vassals will faff off with big parts of my realm as a petty kingdom, other vassals might just call a rebellion and declare war on me with of 9/10 of my own realm against me and things like this. I suspect this has to do with creating titles, but if so, how does that really work? Everything comes along smoothly in my empires, but they usually burst at the seams every time a ruler dies. Even weak empires shouldn't be THIS weak.

 

[Viktor Vaughn]

So first, check the succession laws. It sounds like you might be using gavelkind, which personally I am not a fan of at all. I find it unstable and unintuitive. As soon as I can, I almost always go for an elective monarchy, although primogeniture provides less of a headache (in the short run).

Secondly, you're probably right about creating titles. If you have three kingdom titles, and your character dies, those three kingdoms will become independent. However if you had an emperor title, as long as the heirs of the kingdoms are in your realm, they'll pass on to your (the emperor's) heir. So if you have multiple titles of the same rank, and none higher than it, it tends to fall apart on death.

 

[Afganitia]

So, no multiple empire titles?

 

[StarSword]

So, no multiple empire titles?

You can hold multiple empires or kingdoms as long as your succession law is set up in such a way as to send them all to the same heir (chiefly seniority, primogeniture, or ultimogeniture if you apply the same law to all titles).

 

[_krampe_]

Yeah sounds like gavelkind succession: Every son of yours gets a part of your inheritance, having several titles at the same rank (in your case its Duke level ithink because of "petty kingdom") they get distributed between your heirs and since you can't have a vassal with the same title rank than yours they become independant.
Either change your succession law, get rid of all other sons or grand most of your titles to your successor shortly before your death. Best to aim for a law change since all other methods have drawbacks like your house becoming extinct since your favoured heir dies and you killed all others or you live longer than expected and you can't do anything because of lack of power or your heir grands land to his heir.

I guess the rebellions start with a faction of whatever purpose. Vassals create / join factions more frequently the more they dislike you. And when you die you lose one important opinion modifier - Long rule, it get replaced by the short rule penalty - yeah quite obvious i know.
Having a heir with good traits is one thing to have a good standing among vassals but after each succession its important to get their opinion back up as quick as possible:
- Get prestige, 200 prestige equals a +1 up to +10 modifier (Hold tournament, create titles, etc)
- Award honorary titles, bonus depends on the title mostly +10 (they become available again when the recepient dies or if you revoke them)
- Bribe, If you can afford it send them some money
- Send your chancellor to increase opinion
- Have a child of your family educated by them
- Give them a position in your council (don't get a spymaster with negative opinion, NEVER)
- Fulfill their ambition (Council position, marriage, etc)
- Release a prisoner of importance

If they already in a faction send your spymaster to the strongest vassals home country and scheme to force him out of a faction.
Repeat with the next strongest after the event triggered. You can use your chancellor in a similar way.
In general Vassals leave factions at +70 (i think) opinion if they were not persuaded to join by a spymaster.

EDIT: Adjusted the prestige opinion modifier - haven't played for a long time and it was changed

 

[Erik McAwful]

Thanks for the replies!

Yes, it is indeed Gavelkind, but I don't think I would be able to choose anything else. Still being in the viking age, so I think my options there are limited. Apologies, I should have fleshed out these politics a bit better. However, I'm being an emperor rather than a king, but my empire still seems to dissolve upon succession. And I wouldn't mind that much if it was a fair split, but in these cases, a single vassal could take off with most of my realm, leaving me nothing but three to four de jure provinces. Could it be that the viking age might just be too early for empire building, or would this problem persist through the ages? And how did that guy become so powerful without me noticing it?

 

[_krampe_]

Every age is good for empires
Seems like you're tribal. Are you pagan? Is it reformed? Do you have several Empire titles?
Your heir always get your primary title, all other titles are distributed more or less equally among your sons.

Well i can guess all day, so why don't you click on your capital and on your ruler and make an unzoomed screenshot of your realm and post it.
Then i can tell you a lot more i think.