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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.
 
Really looking good, I hope we can get events similar to this one for marriage at some point, even if a mod does it.
Will the Pope ever demand land outside of De Jure Italy? Can the pope create an emperor level title like Italia with a name like "The Papal States".
 
Can you have an option to be able to be crowned by a relative if that relative is a bishop? This could ensure less demands than those of strangers.
It is not a specific option, but the player can definitely make it happen by appointing relatives as his bishops or pushing them as Cardinals/Popes. When it comes to the powerful theocrat option, the event will prioritize by rank first and by opinion second; when it comes to common priests, it will prioritize only by opinion.
 
I have to ask, how?
It's exactly the same, except for the portrait feature which we don't have because it would mean only people with certain DLCs would have coronations.
Oh, and Plus has it for all non-tribals.
And regnal names...

Also the "complete quest for clergy" thing. But yeah it's not exactly bare-bones IMO.
 
This sounds amazing! Can you tell how many unique crowns there will be in the game? And will they all be historical, or is there a chance of any random generated crowns being brought into a game by an event?
 
I think asking Pope for coronation should usually only be reserved for Emperors. Mere king of France shouldn't be able to do that unless there are no Emperors around. So for example if HRE is not yet formed, powerful king could ask Pope for the coronation. But after forming the Empire, the privilage of being crowned by Pope should be reserved to the Emperor.

Most countries had traditional crowner like Archbishop of Reims for France. I think choosing traditional crowner could be one of the options if it happen not to be the same as "the most powerful Bishop of the realm".
 
Also the "complete quest for clergy" thing. But yeah it's not exactly bare-bones IMO.

I had that done, but it was stupid and annoying. We'll see what vanilla does with it...
I mean, it's not a bad idea in itself, but one has to be very carefull with goal selection.
 
What about heretic kings/emperors?
Do they ask pope or only pick among those bishops with their same heretic belief?
Or....they don't have this feature?
 
Would there still be time to add Ecumenical Councils in game and Concordats between the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor? The councils would help create parameters among organized religions in the game which could affect gameplay. Concordats would also help the Pope influence the HRE. The Concordat of Worms of 1122 helped shape the German Medieval lands into accepting Christianity as a dominant force since it made rulers in those lands have a limited power over investiture. Those that don't adhere by the outcomes of the Councils or the Concordats get excommunicated.
 
I have to ask, how?
It's exactly the same, except for the portrait feature which we don't have because it would mean only people with certain DLCs would have coronations.
Oh, and Plus has it for all non-tribals.
And regnal names...
Last time I played, coronations went like this:
- Find bishop to crown you
- Invitations are sent out
- I have never been more proud
- Some guy drinks and breaks some glasses (endure it, it's just for one night)
Over and over and over and over again. Not sure if I'm just unlucky getting the exact same events time and time again, but having more varied events and interaction with the dude performing the coronation sounds good. Also, the feast lasting for several days is whack
 
This: "The Byzantine coronation ritual, from at least 795 on, incorporated a partial clothing of the new emperor in various items of special clothing prior to his entrance to the church, following which he entered the cathedral and received the prostrations of the Senators and other patricians. The Patriarch then read a set of lengthy prayers, as the sovereign was invested first with the chlamys and then finally with the crown. Following this, the emperor received Holy Communion followed by further acts of homage.[8][11] From the moment of his coronation, Byzantine emperor was regarded as holy; while the Patriarch was holding the crown over the emperor's head, the attending people repeatedly cried: Holy! [12]

In later centuries, after receiving their crown from the Patriarch, Byzantine emperors placed it upon their own head, symbolizing that their dominion came directly from God.[13][14] Anointing was added to the ritual after the eleventh century, with the monarch receiving the Sign of the Cross on their forehead from the Patriarch. The purple chlamys also disappeared from the rite during this time, being replaced with the mandyas, or cope.[8]


Childebert III (r.694-711).
The Byzantine coronation ceremony begins to influence the Barbarian kingdoms in the West with their Christianization. The Iron Crown of Lombardy is traced in legend to Constantine himself (but more likely dates to the 8th or 9th century). In Spain, the Visigothic king Sisenand was crowned in 631, and in 672, Wamba was the first occidental king to be anointed as well, by the archbishop of Toledo.

Two prayers for the coronation of Byzantine emperors are found in the Byzantine Archieratikon (Slavonic: Chinovnik). The second of these prayers is proceeded by the diaconal command: "Bow your heads to the Lord" and the assembly's response: "To you, O Lord." This pattern of two prayers corresponds to the ritual form found in the Byzantine liturgy for the ordinations of bishops, priests and deacons and also for major blessings, such as the Great Blessing of Waters on the Feast of the Theophany. In some texts, the first prayer is associated with the act of clothing the emperor in the chlamys and the second with the act of crowning him.[15] Although the Byzantine coronation ritual underwent various changes throughout the centuries, these two prayers are found consistently in every version." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coronations_in_antiquity And this: https://biblicalstudies.org.uk/pdf/jts/002_359.pdf

Not sure what is the point of this post: EVERY culture had some kind of "Coming to Power" ceremony, no need to give an article on it. As Silfae said, Catholics have it unique due to more complex relations between the Clergy and Seculars, while others have just normal ceremonies. That can be handled by simpler events that start a while after coming to power (which I do think should be there).
I think it would be more important for Orthodox to have the Emperor accept Orthodox Kings as legitimate Kings, in other words for him to send priests to coronate them.

I think asking Pope for coronation should usually only be reserved for Emperors. Mere king of France shouldn't be able to do that unless there are no Emperors around. So for example if HRE is not yet formed, powerful king could ask Pope for the coronation. But after forming the Empire, the privilage of being crowned by Pope should be reserved to the Emperor.

The Pope should personally come to coronate an Emperor, but for Kings he should send someone to do it for him (most of the time, he could surprise everyone and come, which would be a great honor).
 
What happens if the priest dies in the middle of the event chain?

I'm guessing they're referencing holder of k_papal_state instead of a specific character.
That way it won't matter if pope lives, dies or becomes a zombie.

Last time I played, coronations went like this:
- Find bishop to crown you
- Invitations are sent out
- I have never been more proud
- Some guy drinks and breaks some glasses (endure it, it's just for one night)
Over and over and over and over again. Not sure if I'm just unlucky getting the exact same events time and time again, but having more varied events and interaction with the dude performing the coronation sounds good. Also, the feast lasting for several days is whack

Ah... yes, well that was the old version.
You select tier for coronation now, and get a regnal name choice.
There's also CBs agains uncrowned rulers, some bonuses you can do with top-tier crown etc.

Feasts and such events lasting for days is just how the game works (vanilla too).
Never liked it myself either, but that's just what the scale is.
 
My portrait should be bigger to be able to see all the gloriousness of my Crown .
Also if i'm already the king of France and crowned by the pope, then inherit kingdom of England or succeed a Empire title later, will I must be crowned again. Charlemagne was crowned again when he form the holy roman empire by the pope.
 
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Portraits are really beautiful . Could we have a picture of a crowned King of France ? Does the laurel crown of roman emperors enter in this mechanic of linked-to-title crowns like the persian one ?
 
Someone already asked, but I haven't seen an answer, so I'll ask again myself. Does being uncrowned affect what claims can be pushed against a ruler? Specifically, did you implement pushing weak claims against uncrowned rulers?
 
Nice addition! So what happens during a regency? When you are at war, can you be crowned? If someone gains a king title with a weak claim will they still be seen as that even after they have been coronated and/or is this different for each vassal.
 
Would there still be time to add Ecumenical Councils in game and Concordats between the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor? The councils would help create parameters among organized religions in the game which could affect gameplay. Concordats would also help the Pope influence the HRE. The Concordat of Worms of 1122 helped shape the German Medieval lands into accepting Christianity as a dominant force since it made rulers in those lands have a limited power over investiture. Those that don't adhere by the outcomes of the Councils or the Concordats get excommunicated.

Eccumenical Councils deserve to be a big-ass feature, and affect many aspects of Christian gameplay. I'd rather not have them shoehorned in at last moment.
 
This sounds amazing! Can you tell how many unique crowns there will be in the game? And will they all be historical, or is there a chance of any random generated crowns being brought into a game by an event?
Some of them are historical, some are unlocked by special circumstances. No randomized ones though.
Portraits are really beautiful . Could we have a picture of a crowned King of France ? Does the laurel crown of roman emperors enter in this mechanic of linked-to-title crowns like the persian one ?
The laurels are a bit of a special case as they are tied to the Augustus trait.
Nice addition! So what happens during a regency? When you are at war, can you be crowned? If someone gains a king title with a weak claim will they still be seen as that even after they have been coronated and/or is this different for each vassal.
Wartime coronations can become an option in desperate circumstances, yes.
Coronations are tied to the ruler himself, so gaining a new title does not require another ceremony. While this is not exactly historical, having different ceremonies, traits, etc. for every King or Emperor tier title that a ruler has (or gains after his first coronation) might get very frustrating for a player.