I have a hypothesis. The ability to take concubines is a combination of max_consorts and (wo)men_can_take_consorts, so Matilda was able to take consorts because her religion had max_consorts = 3 and her government had women_can_take_consorts = yes.
This suggests that CM/HL is required for max_consorts from governments to be active for the player, but (wo)men_can_take_consorts from governments is not gated by DLC and just plain always works.
There seems to be an extra complication to it (I tested the below with all DLCs active):
- If the feudal government has women_can_take_consorts = yes (with no max_consorts set for the government), you cannot take consorts as a Norse woman.
- If the feudal government has women_can_take_consorts = yes and max_consorts = 1, you can take 3 consorts as a Norse woman.
- If you set "men_can_take_consorts = no" on the Tribal government, Norse tribal men
can still take concubines. The religion only has the
implicit "men_can_take_consorts = yes", but it has max_consorts = 3.
- If you convert to Hellenic in the above case, you
cannot take consorts as a Tribal ruler. The religion has the same
implicit "men_can_take_consorts = yes", but it has no max_consorts value.
- If you add an
explicit "men_can_take_consorts = yes" to the Hellenic religion, you still cannot take concubines if the Tribal government has a "men_can_take_consorts = no".
- If you set an
explicit "men_can_take_consorts = yes" on the Tribal government and also a "men_can_take_consorts = no" on the Hellenic religion, you can take consorts.
- If you set Tribal's max_consorts to 1, have an explicit "men_can_take_consorts = yes" on the government, and set Norse to "men_can_take_consorts = no", Norse men can take 3 concubines.
I suspect the following:
- If there is an
implicit "yes"
and a max_consorts > 0 from the same source, you can take consorts even if there is an
explicit no from another source.
- If there is an
explicit "yes"
and a max_consorts > 0 from the same source, you can take consorts even if there is an
explicit no from another source.
- If there is an
explicit "yes"
but max_consorts = 0 (I only tested the default case, not the explicit case) for that source, then you cannot take consorts if there is an
explicit "no" coupled with a max_consorts > 0 from another source.
- If there is an
explicit "yes"
but max_consorts = 0 (I only tested the default case, not the explicit case) for that source, then you cannot take consorts if there is an
implicit "no" coupled with a max_consorts > 0.
- An
explicit "yes" coupled with max_consorts = A > 0 from source 1 plus an
explicit "no" coupled with max_consorts = B > 0 from source 2 means you can take B consorts even if B > A.
Or, a bit shorter:
- You need an implicit or explicit "yes"
and max_consorts > 1
from the same source (religion, government (with CM/HL), society) to be able to take concubines/consorts.
- If
any source matches the above, the
highest number from
any source will be used
even if that source has an implicit or explicit "no". Unsure how this interacts with not having CM/HL if the higher number comes from the government (which seems to get a
hardcode "no" in that case).
To me, this
implies that if you were to reform the Hellenic religion with Enatic Clans (setting women to be able to take consorts and men to
not be able to take concubines on the religion level, with the default (implicit) max_consorts = 0 there) and had a character with a government with the implicit defaults (men yes, women no) and max_consorts > 1 (e.g. vanilla Tribal) then they'd have the ability to take concubines if male but not the ability to take consorts if female.
