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[Thesis] The Playable Past: A Historical Didactic Analysis of CK3

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8ssian

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Oct 23, 2025
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  • Crusader Kings III
Hi everyone,

Following up on my conversations with the Paradox team, I’m excited to share my Bachelor’s Thesis from Lund University, titled: "Det spelbara förflutna: En historiedidaktisk analys av strategispelet Crusader Kings 3".

Please Note: The full paper is written in Swedish.

My study analyzes the communication process between the developer-historian and the player-historian.

Commercial vs. Scientific History Use: How Paradox balances historical research with the needs of a commercial product.

The "Historical Experience": Why authenticity (how it feels) is often prioritized over strict facticity to meet player expectations.

Community Impact: An analysis of how AARs (After Action Reports) and mods like RICE and VIET expand the game's historical narrative beyond its original code.

A huge thank you to Jacob Blakey, Verónica Pazos, Laurence Kennedy, and Nicholas Legault for sitting down with me and providing the developer perspective that made this research possible.

I’d love to hear your thoughts, even if you’re just running the text through a translator!
 

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I realized I missed a couple of very important mentions in my original post! No study of the Crusader Kings community would be complete without acknowledging the incredible work done by the players and modders themselves.
A Special Thank You
A huge thanks to @cybrxkhan for taking the time to interview with me. Your perspective on the modding scene and your work with RICE and VIET provided a crucial dimension to my analysis of how players actively expand the game's historical scope.
Shout-out to the AAR Creators
I also want to formally credit and thank the following authors whose After Action Reports served as primary material for my research. Your storytelling is what makes this community so unique:
@Nikolai for Norgesveldet 2.0.
@Peter Ebbesen for Born to Breed.
@Kitsilver for Faster Than The Fox.
@KiratRawr for Yumahang Mundhum and Displaying the Decades.
@HistoryDude for Confessing Their Apostasies.
@ChicagoZohan for Heirs of the Pharaohs.
@Cora Giantkiller for The Caliphate of al-Rus.
@Koweth for The Legacy of Eadmund.
And a special mention to Hector Krona for the My House Yngling of Norway AAR on Reddit, which was a fantastic example of visual storytelling in the community.
 
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8ssian said:
I realized I missed a couple of very important mentions in my original post! No study of the Crusader Kings community would be complete without acknowledging the incredible work done by the players and modders themselves.
A Special Thank You
A huge thanks to @cybrxkhan for taking the time to interview with me. Your perspective on the modding scene and your work with RICE and VIET provided a crucial dimension to my analysis of how players actively expand the game's historical scope.
Shout-out to the AAR Creators
I also want to formally credit and thank the following authors whose After Action Reports served as primary material for my research. Your storytelling is what makes this community so unique:
@Nikolai for Norgesveldet 2.0.
@Peter Ebbesen for Born to Breed.
@Kitsilver for Faster Than The Fox.
@KiratRawr for Yumahang Mundhum and Displaying the Decades.
@HistoryDude for Confessing Their Apostasies.
@ChicagoZohan for Heirs of the Pharaohs.
@Cora Giantkiller for The Caliphate of al-Rus.
@Koweth for The Legacy of Eadmund.
And a special mention to Hector Krona for the My House Yngling of Norway AAR on Reddit, which was a fantastic example of visual storytelling in the community.
Click to expand...
How fun! Thanks a lot for the mention!:D
 
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8ssian said:
No problem at all! Glad you saw it. Looking forward to seeing more of your projects around the forums!
Click to expand...
I actually posted my last chapter to my EU5 AAR, Norgesveldet 3.0, a few minutes ago! :)
 
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8ssian said:
@HistoryDude for Confessing Their Apostasies.
@ChicagoZohan for Heirs of the Pharaohs.
@Cora Giantkiller for The Caliphate of al-Rus.
@Koweth for The Legacy of Eadmund.
Click to expand...
Hi! The forum sends alerts for only the first 5 @‘s, so I’m copying your last 4 @‘s to ensure everyone receives a notice:

@HistoryDude for Confessing Their Apostasies.
@ChicagoZohan for Heirs of the Pharaohs.
@Cora Giantkiller for The Caliphate of al-Rus.
@Koweth for The Legacy of Eadmund.
 
  • 2Like
  • 1
Reactions:
8ssian said:
I realized I missed a couple of very important mentions in my original post! No study of the Crusader Kings community would be complete without acknowledging the incredible work done by the players and modders themselves.
A Special Thank You
A huge thanks to @cybrxkhan for taking the time to interview with me. Your perspective on the modding scene and your work with RICE and VIET provided a crucial dimension to my analysis of how players actively expand the game's historical scope.
Shout-out to the AAR Creators
I also want to formally credit and thank the following authors whose After Action Reports served as primary material for my research. Your storytelling is what makes this community so unique:
@Nikolai for Norgesveldet 2.0.
@Peter Ebbesen for Born to Breed.
@Kitsilver for Faster Than The Fox.
@KiratRawr for Yumahang Mundhum and Displaying the Decades.
@HistoryDude for Confessing Their Apostasies.
@ChicagoZohan for Heirs of the Pharaohs.
@Cora Giantkiller for The Caliphate of al-Rus.
@Koweth for The Legacy of Eadmund.
And a special mention to Hector Krona for the My House Yngling of Norway AAR on Reddit, which was a fantastic example of visual storytelling in the community.
Click to expand...

This is a real treat. I've never been part of anything like this before. I hope my work was useful to you.
 
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Cora Giantkiller said:
This is a real treat. I've never been part of anything like this before. I hope my work was useful to you.
Click to expand...
Google translated the part where you are mentioned :)

Finally, the genre includes works that challenge Western-centered historiography. ChicagoZohan’s “Heirs of the Pharaohs” and Cora Giantkiller’s “The Caliphate of al-Rus” explore Nubian and Russian-Muslim empire-building.189 These works draw inspiration from external historical cultural components, such as popular history podcasts (e.g. Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History), and demonstrate an awareness of contemporary ethical perspectives on representation. A similar quest for authority is found in Koweth's "The Legacy of Eadmund", which combines authentic historical sources with fictional primary sources to create a scholarly semblance, which challenges the reader's critical ability to interpret sources.190 That this work was awarded the prize for best History Book AAR in the annual vote on the Paradox forum.191 Which underlines the importance of this type of emulated authenticity within the community, where the interface between verifiable fact and fictionalization forms the core of the player's historical creation.
Click to expand...
 
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I enjoyed this read :)

I also still think about some of the things your handledare brought up in the course on the Middle Ages in popular culture that he gave 15 years ago or so(?) as I work on this game.
 
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