Alliances are another story all together. You may now form alliances between characters and this arrangement will last for as long as the two characters are alive – i.e. the alliance is automatically cancelled when one of the two characters dies. Unlike other Paradox games, alliances in CK are not restricted to “pacts” and are limited only by the diplomatic rating of a character’s realm (maximum is (realm_diplomacy – 7)/7)). This makes it entirely possible for a web of rather interesting relationships to come into existence, so some care must be taken when forming one and you should have a look at this before taking an action. (The immediate allies of a selected demesne are shown in blue on the relationship map).
Alliances are restricted to independent rulers or very disloyal vassals. You cannot ally with one of your own vassals since the bond between liege and vassal supersedes that of allies, and you may only ally with the vassal of another liege if that vassal’s loyalty to his liege is very low. Of course your own disloyal vassals may also go looking for someone else to support them in the event that they should choose to assert their independence. If the relationship between liege and vassal is repaired (the vassal’s loyalty becomes decent again) then any alliance that the vassal might have made is sundered.
One of the benefits of forming an alliance is that your ally may now choose to join you in a war (which can be a two-edged sword since it is his decision as to whether to do so or not and may disrupt some of your plans for conquest if you aren’t careful). This can be particularly useful when considering embarking on a crusade and is presently more offensive than defensive in nature - meaning that when you declare war your ally is actively asked to make a decision as to whether he wishes to assist you whereas if someone declares war on you they are not immediately presented with that choice. Declining to participate in an ally’s war does not end the alliance and has no penalty associated with it (unlike failure to support one of your vassals in a war).
As mentioned above, an alliance is terminated if one of the characters dies. It is also broken if the situation changes such that a formerly disloyal vassal regains his loyalty, or potentially through inheritance that invalidates it. It is also broken if one of the allies is discovered assassinating (or attempting to assassinate) a member of the other’s court.
