CK3 Game Concepts — Glossary

An interaction allowing you to abandon a hook you have in exchange for losing stress.

Absolute is the second-highest level of dominance. At this level migration can target de jure empire titles within the great steppe. Independent rulers may settle outside of the steppe using the Settle the Steppe decision

Absolute Control is a special state of control enabled by the Absolute Control perk, denoting that the ruler has an iron grip over the population. Whenever Control is at 100, it will instead display as 'Absolute' and give additional bonuses to taxes and levies.

Absolute Crown Authority is the highest level of crown authority. Vassals have a -30 opinion penalty toward their liege. At this level — in addition to the effects of high and limited Crown Authority — the ruler can pick a designated heir at a prestige cost. Furthermore, vassals cannot declare war even against foreign rulers.

Accolades are honors given to knights by their liege. The Knight who holds an Accolade becomes an acclaimed knight. As the Acclaimed Knight gains glory, their squires Aptitude increases (improving accolade succession) and accolade ranks may be gained. These allow more accolade attributes to be unlocked, offering stronger bonuses. When an Acclaimed Knight dies, accolade succession takes place and the knight is immediately replaced with a successor whose skills are modified by squires Aptitude. Innovations and higher tiers allow rulers to have more Accolades simultaneously.

An accolade has up to 3 Attributes, which provide scaling bonuses as their higher levels are unlocked. Each Attribute has 3 Levels. When an Accolade increases its accolade rank, its owner may either increase the level of an existing Attributes or add a new Attribute to the Accolade. The acclaimed knight, however, must satisfy any new Attribute's requirements. Each knight is only eligible for certain Attributes, which may be based on traits, skills or experiential unlocks while serving as a Knight. Every Accolade must have unique Attributes: a Liege cannot duplicate Attributes between Accolades. Each Accolade may also specialize in only 1 men-at-arms-type Attribute.

An accolade has 6 progressive Ranks which allow its owner to unlock and improve accolade attribute bonuses, such as knight army modifiers. Gaining glory unlocks each Rank, while losing Glory can cause them to be lost. When an Accolade loses a Rank, one level of one accolade attribute will become disabled. Regaining the Rank will cause the Attribute and its bonus to be restored.

When the host and guests have arrived and are engaged in an activity it is considered to be active.

A Guest at an activity is any character invited by the activity host. While they usually cannot affect the Activity as much as their Host, they can still pursue their intent.

The Host of an activity is the ruler that started it. They choose the activity type, location, activity options and which guests to invite.

All activities have Options that allow you to customize the planning of your activity. Options have various costs and requirements.

Some activities and grand activities have different types corresponding to special variants of the activity. For example, when planning a Hunt, you may choose between Standard, Falconry, and Legendary if you fulfill the requirements for that type.

Adoption is the act of bringing another character into your house and dynasty.

An Adult is a character of at least 16 years of age.

An Adventurer is an unlanded character who leads a camp. They do not have vassals, nor do they earn income passively in the usual fashion — instead, they must take contracts to earn their coin, or call in favors from their roll of patrons. Adventurers may freely roam the map. Their main concern is making sure they have enough provisions to survive on the move. Instead of crown authority, most Adventurers will set a camp purpose. This indicates what type of group they have and why they stick together. Driven seventh sons with no inheritance, ambitious nomads, petulant run-aways, curious scholars, vicious sell-swords, and deposed nobles alike all flesh out the ranks of these tireless wanderers. Their sole uniting factor is a hunger for something more than a quiet life of obscurity, and the will to do something about it.

A casus belli which allows an adventurer to declare war to attempt to carve out a new realm

Discovered secret scheme agents may be seen as criminals by their liege, and are likely to be imprisoned if so.

An Agent is a participant in a scheme, who can provide one of three benefits. They can increase success chance, reduce phase length, or improve secrecy. Only the target's courtiers, guests, and direct vassals can be recruited as Agents. For hostile Schemes, having agents close to the target is very important. For example councillors or close family of the Scheme Target contribute more to Phase Length and Success Chance. Being an Agent in a hostile scheme is a crime, and Agent risk being discovered.

A Aligned Bloc Member House is a house that has joined a house bloc, and has the same house aspirations as the leading house.

An Alliance is a diplomatic relation between two rulers. Independent Rulers can call on Allies to join each others wars. Alliances are created and maintained through a marriage or betrothal, as long as the two characters that are wed are closely enough related to the two Rulers. For example, if a king marries off his daughter to another King's son, the two Kings become Allies. Lieges can also create Alliances with their vassals. The Liege cannot call the Vassal to War, but it prevents them from joining factions.

The Ancestral Claim casus belli allows you to annex all lands within a title with which you have a claim gained through a Legitimizing legend.

Anointment is one type of a coronation, where the ruler will seek out the head of faith to bless their ascension to the throne. In certain faiths this is necessary to truly be considered a legitimate ruler of their lands. To ensure the support of their Head of Faith, the host can use the request anointment interaction.

Your Chance of Infection determines how likely you are to contract diseases from an ongoing plague.

Archer Cavalry are mounted men-at-arms equipped with ranged weapons. While each kind of Archer Cavalry is unique, they generally counter heavy infantry, and are in turn Countered by archers equipped with crossbows. Archer Cavalry are also often strong on flat terrain, particularly Steppe.

Archers are men-at-arms who fight on foot with ranged weapons. While each kind of Archer is unique, they generally counter skirmishers, and are in turn Countered by heavy cavalry and light cavalry.

Armies are used to win wars by engaging in battle with other armies, and to besiege and occupy enemy fortified holdings. Armies are raised in rally points and primarily consist of levies and men-at-arms, but can also be bolstered by mercenaries and holy orders. Armies can move across water by spending an amount of gold to secure transport. They can suffer losses from attrition if the local barony is unable to adequately supply them.

An Army Commander is a Character in command of an army. Any of your courtiers or direct vassals can potentially be assigned as a Commander (subject to age, health, and doctrines). In battle, the martial skill of the Commander heavily influences the advantage. As long as there is a Commander present, additional rolls will be made in attempt to increase the Advantage. In addition, commander traits can provide an Army with many different perks, both in and out of Battle.

Every artifact has a Durability. When all Durability is lost, the Artifact is destroyed. Durability decays over time, but can also be lost in certain events, such as sieges and on succession. Durability can be restored by choosing to reforge or repair the Artifact.

Some artifacts are rarer than others, which is reflected in their Rarity. The levels are, from lowest to highest: • Common (never shown since it is the default) • Masterwork • Famed • Illustrious

In Crusader Kings III, this character experiences little or no attraction to other characters regardless of gender.

An Assault is when a besieging army attempts to storm a fortified holding at the risk of losing a lot of soldiers. Assaults can only be attempted if the walls of the Holding have been Breached, which requires that the Army contains siege weapons.

Armies can suffer from Attrition, which is when soldiers are lost due to desertion, disease or starvation. Attrition occurs when an Army is out of supplies, besieging a fortified holding, or moving from one hostile county into another if the target location doesn't border a County already under control.

'Autonomous Vassals' is the lowest level of crown authority. At this level, vassals have no opinion penalty toward their liege, and the liege only has basic power over them.

Imprisoned Characters can be Banished from the realm, which is arguably the harshest form of punishment. Banished landed Rulers are deposed, while Banished courtiers have their assets seized. Banishment without a reason (e.g. some severe crime) is considered extremely tyrannical.

A Banishment Reason gives a liege the opportunity to freely banish any subject they have in their dungeon. They are most often gained from the subject being a criminal.

This special interaction is available to involved rulers who are in a defensive war. The war leader asks a neighboring higher-rank ruler to join their war in exchange for becoming their vassal.

A Baron is a ruler whose primary title is a barony. Their rank is the lowest possible, directly below counts. As such, they cannot have vassals and any non-Baron can be their liege.

A Barony is a title of the lowest tier. Baronies have the smallest footprint on the map, organized into larger counties. Barony Titles must always have a holder if they contain a holding.

A modifier may change the Base Contribution of your vassals obligations. This is not the same as contribution. If you have a vassal that has a total income of 10 gold and pays you 1 gold per month, and you gain a modifier that increases Base Contribution by 10%, then the vassal instead pays you 2 gold.

Battles start when two opposing armies enter the same barony. At the start of a Battle, one side usually starts with advantage dependent on factors like terrain, commander and commander traits. Armies take casualties based on the amount of damage sustained. The Battle enters its aftermath when no soldiers remain for one side. The winner of a Battle is awarded war score dependent on the magnitude of the victory.

Battle Advantage makes one side in battle do more damage. The higher the Advantage, the more damage the soldiers will do. Battles often start with one side having a higher Advantage based on terrain and the martial skill and commander traits of the commander. Either side may then gain additional Advantage from Commander rolls.

A Battle Phase is one part of a battle. Battles have three distinct phases; maneuver, main phase, and aftermath.

Advantage Rolls are made by each commander during battle. These are done on a scale from 0-10 and are completely random, but can have a decisive effect on the outcome of the Battle.

A decision unlocked by certain traditions which allows a ruler of a small realm to voluntarily leave and become an adventurer

Every participant in a great holy war can select a Beneficiary from their dynasty. Upon victory, the Beneficiary will receive lands in the targeted realm proportional to the war contribution of their patron ruler. The largest contributor can force their Beneficiary to receive the main title being fought over.

A Best Friend is a Special Relation indicating lifelong dedication and support. It is a stronger Special Relation than a friend. A character can only have one Best Friend.

A councillor task performed by the chancellor, which increases the opinion a chosen vassals in the realm has towards their liege.

In Crusader Kings III, this character is attracted to characters of either the same or opposite gender.

If you know another Character's criminal secret, you may use a Blackmail character interaction to potentially gain a hook on them. The strength of this Hook varies with the severity of the Secret, which in turn is often determined by doctrines.

Cohesion measures the unity of a house bloc, with higher levels granting increasing benefits to members of bloc member houses, based on the leading house's house aspiration. The main source is house relations between Bloc Member Houses, which can affect Cohesion positively and negatively. Additionally, the Bloc's overall size or mismatched House Aspirations or government of members can reduce Cohesion. Maintaining a level of Bloc Cohesion will bestow various bonuses on member houses, based on the Aspiration of the Leading House. Upon reaching 0 Cohesion a House Bloc will automatically dissolve.