Crusader Kings 3: Vassals Crusader Kings 3 guide, tips

On this page you will learn more about vassals. We'll start with who the vassals are and how many of them you can have. Then we will focus on the interactions and relations with vassals. The vassals are closely related to titles, so we recommend that you first read the previous page of the guide - you will find there a summary of the most important information on titles.

• Who is a vassal?
• Vassal limit
• Interactons with vassals
• Vassals' opinion and factions
• How to improve relations with vassals?

Who is a vassal?

A vassal is a character with a lower-ranked title subordinate to a character with whom they have a feudal relation. The vassal-liege relation is when a character with a higher rank (liege) gives one of his lower-rank titles to another character (vassal). In other words, if you are a king with many lower-rank titles, you can give some of them to your subjects, who will then become your vassals. Having vassals is necessary due to the limit of titles you can own. To avoid penalties resulting from exceeding this limit, you grant control over some of your lands (and the de facto title to them) to your vassals. They, in return, will be paying taxes and sending people to your army.

To check what vassals you have, open the kingdom management window and select the Vassals tab. Each of your vassals provides you with two types of resources (1): gold and levies. The amount of resources you receive from vassals is always a certain percentage of the income they receive from their titles. The percentage depends primarily on the type of government is in the vassal domain:

1. Feudal vassals provide resources based on individual feudal contracts.
2. Tribal vassals provide resources based on your level of fame, but not less than is determined by your tribal authority.
3. Clan vassals provide resources based on their opinion of you, but not less than is determined by your crown authority.
4. Theocracies provide resources based on your level of devotion . If your religion has a theocratic doctrine, then your vassals provide resources based on their opinion of you.
5. Republic vassals always provide 20% of their gold and 10% of their levies.

The amount of income from vassals also depends on many other factors, such as de jure titles or specific character modifiers acquired as a result of random events. Each character can have a maximum of one senior and have their vassals at the same time. There is also a rule according to which vassal of my vassal is not my vassal.

This influence your interactions with vassals, as these are only possible with vassals under your direct command. That means if your vassal is a duke and his vassal is a count, you cannot modify the feudal contract with the count, only with the duke.

A specific type are powerful vassals . These are the vassals who provide you with the highest income. There are always several of them, depending on the rank of your primary title. Accordingly, it is 3 vassals for a county, 4 for a duchy, and 5 for a kingdom and empire. Each of them will always expect a place in your council, which is not always optimal or even possible to implement. If a powerful vassal does not get the position in the council, he will impose a -40 modifier to the opinion on your character. Powerful vassals also have a greater influence on domestic politics. They have more votes in elective succession and will also prevent you from changing the succession law if they have a negative opinion of you (unless they are imprisoned or terrified ). Powerful vassals are always at the top of the vassal list in the kingdom management window and are marked accordingly.

Vassal limit

As with the titles, there are limits to the number of your vassals. The vassal limit depends primarily on the rank of your primary title and is as follows:

1. For the count - 20.
2. For the king - 40.
3. For the emperor - 60.

The vassal limit can be increased in many ways. It is possible to have specific traits like Greatest of Khans, which adds up to 20 vassals you can have. It is also possible to increase the limit of vassals through the laws (e.g. Princely Elective provides 10) or dynasty legacy. You can check the number of your current vassal limit at the bottom of the kingdom management window in the vassals tab. Vassals with a title lower than the count (i.e. barons) are not included in the vassal limit.

Exceeding the limit reduces the income from vassals by 5% for each vassal above the limit. The best way to deal with the vassal limit is to manage your kingdom's titles hierarchy. Using the situation report icon (1), you can quickly check what titles you can create or usurp (2). In the title creation window, you will find information about which lower-rank (3) titles in your kingdom will be included in the new title. Then, if you give the new title to one of your vassals, the holders of the connected lower-rank titles will become his vassals, and according to my vassal is not my vassal rule, they will no longer exceed your vassal limit.

Another way to reorganize the title hierarchy is to delegate rule over vassals. You can assign a vassal under your rule to another vassal of yours with a higher rank title. So you can hand over a vassal with the title of count to a vassal with the title of duke, but not the other way around. To do this, open the dialog window with a higher-rank vassal, select the Grand Vassal option, and then select which of the lower-ranking vassals you want to transfer to him from the list. Similar to giving titles, handing over vassals is a good way to improve relationships with your subjects. At the same time, maintaining an organized feudal hierarchy is an essential part of managing your kingdom.

Interactons with vassals

Your relations with your vassals, and the interaction of your vassals with each other, have great importance to the inner stability of your kingdom. They also affect your income and military strength, which is why you should pay attention to them.

What you can do with your vassals and also their range of possibilities is determined by your Crown Authority level. Crown Authority has four levels, and you can find its symbol at the top of the kingdom management window. The lowest level of authority means the highest level of autonomy for your vassals. They can make independent decisions, including waging wars between themselves and obtaining titles. At this level, your options to intervene in the vassals' matters are very limited.

Only on the second authority level do you have access to several important mechanisms, including the ability to change the succession law under the partition succession or change the tribal to the feudal system. At this level, you can also revoke titles and hand over vassals, and your income from vassals with a tribal government increases.

At the third level of authority, your influence from vassals with feudal and clan government increases, and you can implement any currently available succession laws. From now on, your vassals cannot wage war with each other unless they have a hook on you and decide to use it. A security measure is also the fact that your vassal titles can no longer be inherited by characters outside your kingdom, and any vassal who refuses to revoke his title can be legally imprisoned by you. The limitations that appear at this level make it possible to stabilize the situation in your kingdom and prevent your vassals from becoming too powerful. At the same time, such a high level of authority generates dissatisfaction with your vassals, because each of them receives a permanent -10 modifier to their opinion about you.

The highest level of authority grants additional income from feudal and clan vassals and prevents them from waging any wars unless they use a hook against you. You can also designate an heir at this level. However, such a high level of authority is also associated with a worse attitude of your vassals towards you, which receive -30 to their opinion of you. It is easy for a situation in which you cannot guarantee a seat in the council for one of your powerful vassals, which at this level of authority automatically gives them a -70 modifier to his opinion of you. It is also worth remembering that you keep all the benefits of the lower levels when your authority level increases.

You can check the innovations needed to change a given level of authority by hovering over its icon.

One of the common mistakes you can make is to treat authority as something unchangeable. It is easy to assume that if you have already achieved a sufficiently high level of authority, then you should maintain it at all costs. However, your crown authority shouldn't only increase. In a situation where a group of vassals (faction - more on that later) gives you an ultimatum and demands to lower your authority level, it doesn't necessarily end in a civil war. The ability to reach new levels of authority depends on your culture having the right innovations. If you get the innovation you need, you won't lose it by lowering your authority, and you will be able to return to the desired level when the situation calms down. Another thing is that increasing the crown authority is not always the optimal decision. It is definitely enough to keep the second level for the majority of the game However, remember that you can change the authority only once in 20 years. To implement the next levels of the ruler's authority, you will need the following innovations:

1. For the second level - Planned Assemblies - tribal era;
2. For levels three and four levels - Royal Prerogative - early medieval era;

A special new type of interaction with vassals is changing their feudal contracts. This option only applies to feudal vassals and allows you to form the rights and obligations for each of them individually. To do this, open the kingdom management window, select the Vassals tab and find the vassal whose contract you want to change. Then click on the pen and parchment icon (1) under the portrait of the chosen vassal. If you cannot modify the contract of any of your vassals, hover the cursor over the corresponding icon to find out why. If the change is possible, you will see the Feudal Contract window. You will find obligations (2) of your vassal at the top of the window. They apply to both taxes and levies that they provide to your army. Each time you increase the vassal's obligations, you will be penalized. Whereas lowering taxes will improve the vassal's opinion of you. Below, you will find special types of contracts (3). Thanks to the specialization, your vassals will provide more gold, levies, or prestige. At the very bottom, you will find the rights (4) that you can give to vassals. Using this option, you can both increase and limit the freedom of action of your subjects. Each of your decisions will have appropriate consequences, which are displayed on the left side of the window (5).

It is easy to guess that reckless tax increases will quickly ruin your vassals' opinion of you. If your actions are not properly justified, they can be viewed as an act of tyranny, which will result in negative opinions not only of the vassal whose contract you modify but also of everyone else. It is worth using the hooks you gather during the game on vassals To avoid negative consequences. It can also be a good strategy to modify the contracts of the characters you've just given a new title. Usually, in such a situation, you will get a hook for a new vassal, thanks to which you will be able to increase your influence a bit right away. Remember that using hooks will prevent you from being perceived as a tyrant, but your relationship with a vassal whose contract you modify you may suffer anyway.

You can also interact with vassals using a dialog window. To do this, open the vassal character window and then right-click on their image. From the dialog window, you can handle most of the official matters, such as giving new titles or modifying the feudal contract, and personal matters, such as romance.

Vassals' opinion and factions

Your vassals are the most important characters in your kingdom. The stability in all your lands depends on how you treat them. A group of powerful and disgruntled vassals can trigger a civil war or even break out of your control.

The first indicator that you should pay attention to in this aspect is the individual opinion of the vassals about you. You will find the information on the vassal's opinion in the character window below the character's portrait. Hovering the cursor over the icon will display a list of modifiers that affect it. In addition, if there are any additional effects related to the vassal's opinion, such as Terrified status, you will find their icons there. Every once in a while, it's a good idea to check the opinions of your most powerful vassals.

A single vassal with a negative opinion may try to harm you, but the real problems only begin when negative moods become common in your kingdom. Vassals can form a faction - organized groups united against their liege strive to achieve specific political goal. To check which factions currently act in your kingdom, open the faction window (1). Each of the active factions has a separate section with detailed information. At the top, (2) you can find faction's purpose. Its Military Power is shown below (3). It is the ratio between the combined military strength of all faction members and yours. Lower, there is the faction Discontent rate (4). Finally, at the very bottom, you will find the Members tab - clicking on it lets you see a list of all members of a given faction.

If a faction's Military Power is greater than 80%, its Discontent rate increases. If it reaches 100%, the faction will deliver you an ultimatum. You can agree to its demands, which will result in different effects, depending on the faction's purpose. You can also refuse, which will lead to a civil war. There are five types of factions purposes:

1. Independence - all members of the faction will gain independence;
2. Claimant - a faction acts on behalf of someone who has a claim to one of your titles. "Dealing with" such a person will neutralize the faction.
3. Liberty - faction members are trying to lower your Crown Authority. If you reduce the authority level, you will neutralize the faction.
4. Populists - the purpose of the faction is to gain independence, but its members can also be peasants.
5. Peasant rabble - this faction aims to reduce the level of control over a given county. The faction is made up of only peasants.

Your vassals may join the peasant factions, but the peasants are their main strength. Peasant rabble is represented by an icon of peasants with pitchforks.

As you can see, the faction can also be divided using a different category: those factions in which your vassals play a dominant role (independence, liberty, claimant) and the peasant factions (populists and peasant rabble). The latter usually pose a slightly smaller threat, as peasants rarely have real military strength. However, they should not be underestimated as they have an irritating tendency to incite rebellions during major crises.

However, factions dominated by vassals can lead to the fall of your kingdom, so you should continuously monitor their activity. The easiest way to deal with a faction' is to meet its demands. These, however, are often unacceptable because, for example, they involve the loss of territory. In such situations, you have to take high measures. In the faction window, you can check what individual members of the faction contribute to its total military strength (hover over the character's portrait). So you can choose the strongest rebels and try to convince them to get to your side or even eliminate them. It is important to keep the military strength of the faction below the indicated level.

How to improve relations with vassals?

As you can see, relations with vassals are the core of the internal politics in the game. For this reason, the authors provide you with many mechanisms with which you can influence the opinion of your vassals about you.

One of such tools is Sways, more about which you can read on a separate page of this chapter. It is worth noting that one of the basic techniques for improving relations with vassals is to win them over. You can do it with the appropriate Sway you can choose from the character's dialog window. You can only try to persuade one vassal at a time, and this will not always be successful. Nevertheless, one of the first things you should do after changing the ruler is to analyze your relationship with your vassals and select a character among them with whom you will try to improve your relationship that way. Whether or not you succeed depends on several factors, primarily your diplomatic skills. Because using the Sways is time-consuming and risky, the decisions about which vassal you should try to persuade ought to be made carefully. If one of your vassals has an opinion of you on the -100 level at the time you take control over the realm, the list of negative modifiers takes the entire screen. They will immediately start organizing an enemy faction, so it is a waste of time. It is sometimes better to start an open conflict right away with some characters. In such a situation, it may be more beneficial to cut off the opponent from allies and improve the relationship with them instead. A vassal with a high opinion of you will most likely leave the enemy faction with time. In general, using Sway works best with vassals with whom you plan a long-term partnership because you can pacify your enemies using other methods.

You can find the Sway scheme in the dialog window in the Personal category. In the same category, you will find other useful schemes to improve relations with vassals, including the Romance, Seduce or Send gift options. The latter solution is not an scheme and provides immediate results. So if you have the right amount of gold, you can share it with your vassals, which will give them a one-time +25 bonus for their opinion about you. The amount of gold you need to spend as a gift depends on the receiver's rank, so you have to take into account that gifts for the king or emperor will cost you dearly. Another thing is that giving gold is only successful once in a while. If you have sent any character a gift, you will have to wait at least a few months before sending another gift to have any positive effect. The possibility of using the Romance options depends on the character and sexual preferences of the characters, and your intrigue and diplomacy skills (read more on this topic on the Schemes page). This means this activity is more time-consuming, and you shouldn't treat it as a fast solution to repair your relations.

One of the best ways to improve relations with vassals is good old corruption. It is not just about sending gold but using your authority to take care of your vassals' interests. It is worth regularly checking which modifiers affect the opinion of the most important people in your kingdom, as it can provide you with valuable knowledge about their needs. You won't be able to do anything with many of them because they are influenced by, for example, your character's traits or the time of reign. However, it is worth paying attention to modifiers related to the desire to have certain titles. If any of your vassals are claiming one of your titles, consider whether you need it. Granting a title to a character who wants it will remove the negative modifier (which always is -25 per title). You will also get a bonus for the mere fact of doing so. Remember not to empower your vassal too much because you will have to take care of the opinion of his successor from scratch.

As much as granting titles, handing over vassals influences the opinion about you. Of course, the titles hierarchy still applies here - the person taking sovereignty over a given vassal must have a higher rank title. Importantly, this type of action also works the other way around. You can entrust some of your dissatisfied vassals to other vassals, thus eliminating the problem. For example, a group of constantly rebellious counts can be handed over to a friendly duke, so they will be forced to leave the faction that is hostile towards you. Granting titles and handing ober vassals, like sending gold, has some limitations. You can, of course, grant your vassal several titles in a row, but if you wait a bit between each time, the overall positive effect on their opinion will be more significant.

A slightly less efficient way to improve your opinion is by giving your children under custody. For such an action, you can receive 15 for the opinion of the person who is to take care of the upbringing. However, this applies mainly to young children, on whom the educator will be able to have a real influence. Additionally, this action may cause the child will acquire negative traits, but you may consider this strategy if you have many children. To give the child under the custody of a selected vassal, select the Offer Ward option from the dialog window and then, in a new window, choose which child you want to offer.

The opinion of your vassals can also taken care of in a long-term strategy. This will happen if you decide to focus on developing your character's diplomacy skills. Complete mastery of the Diplomat and August tree will provide you with solid and permanent bonuses to the opinions of not only your subjects but also foreign rulers. Importantly, diplomacy-focused builds also provide modifiers to prestige, which translates into your fame level (more on this in the chapter on Dynasty and Character management). The highest level of fame, The Living Legend, adds 60 to the opinions of all characters. The thoughtful development of your character will allow you to create a ruler who will be forgiven even if you sentence somebody to death.

It is also worth bearing in mind cultural and religious factors. If most of your kingdom has a religion and culture different than yours, you should consider adjusting to these circumstances. If you do not have sufficient military and financial resources to carry out long-term conversion processes (which can be associated with frequent revolts and civil wars), you may want to adopt a local culture or religion. This will allow you to remove at least some of the negative modifiers, and at the same time, you will act accordingly to the practices often seen in history.