I've been thinking about this a lot myself...I mean, historically, a king
could abdicate (I mean, he was legally entitled to), but, logically, most kings wouldn't want to give up their kingship. (I think abdication would be more historically accurate than suicide, given that suicide was a major, major sin at the time.) In the game, of course, having an "abdicate" button would just give the player carte blanche to choose his king with little consequence, but I've had situations where I've had good kings, wise kings that have had a good run and well prepared their successor, that I've really wanted to abdicate rather than die -- sort of the situation a real king might abdicate in.
I'd suggest that considering abdication be a political action, like an assassination, with a chance of refusal. Why would you refuse your own abdication? Because you're a horrible king! :rofl:
In my mind, the "consider abdication" button would work like this:
- You press "consider abdication" button
- Game takes into account your king's stats (whatever those'll end up being in CK2) and figures out if, statistically, you're a wise king. For CK1, the stats you'd probably check might be piety (a really pious king might want to retire to a monastery, especially if he's celibate), diplomacy (understanding the court implications of abdication and political reasons for doing so), and maybe prestige (if he's reknown, he can retire with minimal loss of face; if he's an unknown, he might be reluctant to disgrace himself). Obviously, a greedy king might be counted as a negative. I didn't mention intrigue or martial b/c there's no reason to expect a devious schemer or military genius to exhibit the sort of foresight and generosity needed to abdicate to your successor.
- Game randomly decides whether or not your king will really abdicate -- good kings (i.e., ones that you'd probably not want to abdicate) would have a higher chance whereas the crazies would probably irrationally want to hold onto their thrones.
- If successful, your king "dies" in a retirement event, and the succession crisis moves on as normal (maybe with a posthumous prestige/piety boost or loss to the old ruler, depending on circumstances...could affect possible beatification). If not, you'd suffer the consequences.
Consequences of an unsuccessful abdication could include:
- Loss of prestige -- the ruler is exposed as weak-willed for considering quitting and shamed in front of his peers. This would probably be the worst consequence.
- Loss of loyalty -- why would the nobles stay loyal to a waffling, ineffectual king? Probably a loyalty loss across the board, maybe even applying to a successful abdication, making a succession crisis more likely and more severe.
- Negative traits -- possibly "coward" or maybe a new trait or traits.
Maybe suicide could be an option, but it's a pretty major sin, so it'd have to have major consequences:
- Major prestige loss to the entire dynasty -- IRL, a medieval suicide could probably tarnish the whole family's name. At least, the sons' standing would be hurt, in all likelihood. This would make a succession crisis far more probable.
- Posthumous excommunication -- he couldn't be buried in consecrated ground, after all. Not much effect, but would ruin chances of beatification.
- Maybe events for the successor to try to cover up the scandal...maybe the results could be even worse if you don't put your prestige and money on the line.
- Maybe a chance of excommunication for the successor, or even all the sons of the suicided monarch -- "the sins of the father visited on the son". Would this be historical for medieval Europe?
- To spice things up, how about a chance of automatic realm duress for the sons?
That way, suicide would be an option (for characters that can't abdicate), but would visit the appropriate amount of shame and hardship on the family, and quite possibly be worse than toughing it out.
sadly there wasn't any big events fucking my empire up :/)
