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CK2 Dev Diary #103 - Long live the King!

Greetings.

Today we will put Pagans aside, go back to good old Catholics, and explore one of the new features coming for them with Holy Fury: Coronation Ceremonies.

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With this expansion, succeeding to the throne of a Catholic Kingdom or Empire will not be a simple matter of gaining the title itself. The new ruler will need to organize a Coronation Ceremony (via new intrigue decision) and be recognized as legitimate by a notable member of the Catholic Church.
If a Catholic ruler fails to be officially crowned, he will see his popularity slowly fade away each year, as his vassals grow more and more restless under what they perceive as an illegitimate King.

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Coronation is divided into two phases: preparation and ceremony.
During the preparation, the ruler will decide whom he wishes to be crowned by, he will meet the Church’s demands, and invest money to organize the ceremony. In the second phase, the ruler will host the ceremony itself, interacting with guests and ultimately receiving his crown.

When organizing a ceremony, a Catholic King can choose between three possible options when it comes to officiant priests: he can be crowned by a low-status theocratic vassal within his realm, by a powerful theocratic vassal within his realm (such as a Cardinal, Antipope or Prince-Bishop), or by the Pope himself. Catholic Emperors who fail to enact the Free Investiture succession on the other hand will be limited in their selection only to the Pope.
While being crowned by a local Bishop is a lot less prestigious, it is also much cheaper, as higher-ranking members of the Church will be prone to make outlandish requests, especially if they dislike the ruler requesting them to officiate his coronation.

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Requests may vary a lot, especially when it comes to the Pope: the Holy Father might ask you to change your realm’s Investiture laws, wage war against an Excommunicated ruler on behalf of the Papacy, or to restore some of the Central Italian provinces to the Holy See.
Be sure to be in good relations with the Pope before asking for a coronation if you wish to receive a more tolerable offer.

Once the demands of your chosen priest have been met, you will be able to select a budget for your ceremony which will determine the kind of coronation you will receive, the kind of flavor events tied to it and the number of guests participating in it.
An extravagant coronation is a prestigious event to which all your vassals, courtiers and even neighboring Christian rulers are invited, a secluded coronation is a private feast to which only your Council will have access to.

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Once the ceremony has been concluded, your character will receive a specific trait tied to the priest that crowned him, as well as retain any additional perks granted by the flavor events experienced during the feast leading up to the coronation.

You might have noticed from the screenshots that this new mechanic affects character portraits as well: Catholic Kings and Emperors that have not been crowned will no longer wear the high-tier headgear in Holy Fury, defaulting to the Ducal band instead until their rank has been officially recognized by the Church (naturally, if you do not own Holy Fury, Catholic Kings and Emperors will wear the appropriate gear by default as before).

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This is not the only portrait-related addition though: Holy Fury will bring to the game a series of special crown artifacts that will be visible on portraits whenever the characters are wearing them. Most of these artifacts can only be used when the character meets certain requirements and they are often tied to a specific title rather than a character’s dynasty.

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And this should be about it for this week.
 
This looks great! So excited for this mechanic!

Is there a similar mechanic for vassals?

Would be cool, especially with elective succession, if you had some similar demands of you from your more powerful vassals to affirm their vote/fealty. Especially cool if it helps simulate the natural decentralization tendencies elective monarchies have, but in a way that powerful kings/players can overcome. Either way, Holy Fury is looking better than ever!
 
Can claimants to the title (who are inside the realm) disrupt the crowning ceremony somehow? This may be a bad question, I don't know how coronations go (I don't live in a country with a monarch so my knowledge is limited) but I assume that if your brother is a claimant the coronation will reduce the legitimacy of his claim, so can your brother then try to ruin the ceremony, to reduce the effect of your legitimacy?

In the British coronation ceremony, there has for a long time (not sure how long) been a part of the ritual where the monarch's champion defies anyone to contest their claim. I don't know if it's ever been answered.

Now I'm thinking of that bit in Black Panther...

nd
 
To add a thought of my own: as well as having some more minor coronation mechanic for Christians other than Catholics and Fraticelli, I'd really like to see this specific mechanic apply to Jewish rulers if the Temple is restored. The legitimacy of the monarch and his ties to the priesthood were key questions both in the times of the Davidic kingdoms and later under the Hasmoneans. It would be thematically very appropriate if reviving the Temple put the King of Israel back in the same situation.

nd
 
No, once set, it remains as is. It is more convenient for a ruler to press the Anti-Pope's claim first as then the new Pope will likely already love him and request the cheapest price for a coronation.

Is the cheapest price not "free"? If a Pope has 100 opinion of you, they'll still ask you for something? What if they already have everything they want? That is, no dejure territory they don't own (that you can war for on their behalf), you already have papal investiture, etc. Does it revert to a regular ol' gift of gold?
 
Is the cheapest price not "free"? If a Pope has 100 opinion of you, they'll still ask you for something? What if they already have everything they want? That is, no dejure territory they don't own (that you can war for on their behalf), you already have papal investiture, etc. Does it revert to a regular ol' gift of gold?
Scaled money.
 
Scaled money.

Has anything been changed regarding scaled money for anything? It is so widely applied and without caps on either end.

Honestly on both ends of the extreme it could use a tweak. I mean tribals can get artifacts and things at way too cheap price because because they can raid, and even if they didn't it's just the fact that tribals make little income leading to scaled money being 10 ducats when it should be 200 or 500.

And on the other end of the spectrum it can read even a little extra income from say the silk road and jack the scaled cost up waaaay too much. I've seen this with crown jewels and smith events, and maybe even building a hermetic lab. You'll have like 2k making like an extra 150 a month from trade and it feels like it will take that little extra income and jack up any of the costs by like a 1,000 or more.

I know part of that is on me the player to remember these options and to save up more first.

But when you have 2 or 3k from saving up and it jacks up multiple, the garden hedge maze you can make did it I remember now, things to 2k suddenly you are in the hole.

TLDR it's just really too widly applied, needs to be readjusted and really a ceiling on both ends of the spectrum are needed.
 
The deeper baptismal mechanic is probably referring to the mass conversion mechanic they covered in dev diary 89.

What about Baptising your children born into Christianity?
 
The deeper baptismal mechanic is probably referring to the mass conversion mechanic they covered in dev diary 89.

It could be.

I think the assumption multiple people including myself had was that it was about getting babies born and having them baptized.

Though I have wondered wouldn't that get spammy and tedious.

Honestly if it's about babies and events great new content.

If it isn't great one less dev diary between us and Holy Fury.
 
What about Baptising your children born into Christianity?

It's the fact they say deeper, so that means its taking an old mechanic and adding more depth. As far as I know the only baptism mechanic we have is pagan realms converting to Christian, which they've added more depth to. Any child baptism mechanic (or adult, as baptism weren't always done with children) would be a new mechanic and thus wouldn't be descried as deeper.