Crusader Kings III News

Hello and welcome to another development diary for Crusader Kings 3: Royal Court!

Today I am here to talk a bit more about one of the more special inspiration types, the Adventurer.
... and also something you might be interested in, at the bottom of the Dev Diary 👀

► Read our Dev Diary #83 - Adventurers & Royal Court News

💡 To experience the full threads and comments, please visit our forums or website.
💡 Enjoy the FAQ Royal Court and read all there is to learn about our upcoming Expansion




As mentioned in an earlier development diary inspiration will strike characters at various times and will mean that they have an artifact or a type of artifact that they want to make for someone who is willing to fund their work.


[h3]Adventurer[/h3]

The adventurer is a somewhat unique type of inspiration in that it is much less clear what this person will present to you in the end. Instead this is a character who knows that they want to undertake a journey to explore and look for an interesting thing for you and your court.

[Screenshot of an inspired person being hired by the player]

How far away a region that an adventurer will want to target with their expedition is mainly dependent on their skill and generally the adventurer already knows where they want to head when they appear to seek your patronage. A highly skilled adventurer might leave the choice of destination up to you.

Regardless of what destination an adventurer will aspire to travel to they will ask you what type of thing they should be looking for. You can let them decide for themselves as their adventure unfolds or you can ask them for a general category of object from the get go (see below).
Depending on the adventurer skill you may even be able to ask them to look for something unique, which will make them actively search for one of the unique historical artifacts that exist in the game. Nothing is entirely certain though, and even an adventurer of low skill might run into something interesting if you tell them to keep an eye open for anything interesting, it is just less likely than asking someone with higher skill to do so.

[Screenshot of an inspired person headed for Asia Minor, asking what type of artifact to look out for]

The above are the most common choices, animal trophies, artwork or trinkets are all potential court artifacts that the adventurer can go looking for.
When given free reins you may also end up with a piece of armor, or a weapon from that region (with a visual appearance and local technique to match). There is also a small chance that an adventurer who is told to trust their own instincts could return with something more rare and unique.

[Screenshot of an adventurer who has run into a crocodile in a county along the Nile]

As an adventurer sets out on a hunt for an artifact to please his employer he or she will send occasional updates to you. Apart from letting you know what happened in the various places the adventurer visited, these events will let you guide them further, potentially impacting the quality of what they bring you home in the end or the length of their journey.

[Screenshot of an adventurer complaining about an Irish marsh]

The adventurer character will move around in the region their expedition has targeted, and events as well as their in-game location will reflect what barony they are currently in.

[Screenshot of an adventurer who has gotten lost]

Sometimes things don’t go as expected. Getting lost is not all bad though, as it might mean reaching a region that was otherwise too far away from where they started.

[Screenshot of an adventurer who has run into bandits]

Travelling abroad is always a risk, even for a seasoned adventurer.

[Screenshot of an adventurer who is discovered as never having left the home town of his employer, instead wasting the money on food and alcohol]

Even the most promising explorers can sometimes turn out to be charlatans (or just be plagued by the stress of the expectations placed upon them).

[Screenshot of a letter from an adventurer in Asia Minor]

Some updates are just short letters and the odd trinket.

[Screenshot of an adventurer returning from the Netherlands with the hide of a defeated Bear]

Eventually the adventurer will return and present you with their find. Depending on the goal you gave them this might be anything from a trophy made from a rare animal to a unique artifact.


[h3]Unique Artifacts[/h3]

[Screenshot of the ark of the Covenant, resting in an Indian court]

Unique artifacts are rarer things that don’t correspond to any of the existing non-adventurer inspirations. They can be relics like one of the swords of Mohammed (a court artifact to be displayed rather than something to fight your enemies with), they can also be great diamonds, or a weapon or crown once wielded by a known king of the past.

As we mentioned in a previous diary, a unique or historical artifact is not always necessarily what it is claimed to be. As these artifacts are accepted as genuine by your contemporaries they do however make a certain impression on them, reflected in the artifact effects. In terms of rarity a much larger number of these unique artifacts will be rated higher than other artifacts you would run into in the game.

Around 50 such artifacts can come to be found in the game, some of which might also exist in a court at start depending on the start date. Should these be lost at any point adventurers will be eligible to discover them again in their travels. What artifact is found during an adventurer depends on their skill as well as their destination, you won’t find Quernbiter on a journey in India (and also not unless you’ve played past a certain year).

[Screenshot of an adventurer returning with an enormous diamond]

Since adventurer inspirations are relatively more rare than other inspired characters we have also tried to balance the effects of unique artifacts in a way as to make them worthwhile even if they are meant to clearly not be supernatural.


[h3]And Now For Something Completely Different![/h3]

This year has not been without news of ALL sorts and we do our best to be the first to give you all your Crusader Kings news!

This time is no exception and we are glad to announce without any further ado, that Royal Court will be released February 8th, 2022!

This means your throne room will be the center of your kingdom - like it should be.
Become a master of languages, founder of cultures, collector of relics, and more on your own path to become the greatest ruler of all time!
Witness the features you have been expecting and even some you didn’t know you wanted.

Feel free to check out our trailer
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Hello and welcome to another Dev Diary!

We talked about the Court Types system last week, and continuing on that, this week we’ll showcase the different types of content you might experience depending on your chosen court type!

► Read our Dev Diary #82 - Court Type Content

💡 To experience the full threads and comments, please visit our forums or website.
💡 Enjoy the FAQ Royal Court and read all there is to learn about our upcoming Expansion




This week we’ll showcase the different types of content you might experience depending on your chosen court type.


[image showing a petition court event about an offensive monument; more common in diplomatic or administrative courts]


[image showing a petition court event about funding a cadastre; more common in administrative courts]

If your court is known as a place of learning, then you can expect events concerning scholarly matters to be more common. If it’s a place famed for its administrative nature, then events related to that will be more frequent.

These “court event weighings” don’t eliminate events from the pool, they just alter their “weights.” It’s not just petition events that are affected either, but the court events too.


[image showing court event about reselling a neighbouring country’s fashion; more common in diplomatic courts]

And if you think that the events are limited to the court room alone, nay nay. We’ve added court type weighted events outside of court as well. Nothing is sacred, nowhere is safe.


[image of event where an academic disagreement is happening; more common in scholarly courts]

Likewise, some new content is based off of your grandeur level and even your amenities. For instance, if your lodgings are low enough that you’re struggling to house everyone, that does give a _rather_ convenient excuse to evict guests and other scroungers from a cramped castle.


[order mass eviction decision]


[order mass eviction event]

On the inverse side of things, having so many rooms that you don’t know what to do with them gives a bit of uhhh… space for experimentation.


[exoticise a grand hall decision]

Redecorating in the style of a glamorous court is a bit on the nose, but not a bad way to crank up your own court’s grandeur.


[exoticise a grand hall event]

Of course, for the _rustic_ look, you could redecorate after a less-than-fashionable court...


[exoticise a grand hall event, less grand court tooltip]

And, to round off, rulers whose courts lack grandeur that are willing to hold their nose a little can even burn some of their remaining dignity in exchange for skilled staff, rounding out their courts with experience even without pedigree.


[scraping the barrel event]

Hello there, and welcome to the eighty-first CK3 Dev Diary!

Today we are going to look at the experience of admiring your Royal Court, one of the paid features of the Expansion with the same name.

Most of the actual mechanics of the expansion should already be familiar to you if you have read previous Dev Diaries. I will refer back to these Dev Diaries where appropriate, so you can see this as a bit of a summary of what it means to preside over your own Royal Court.

That being said, we are going to talk a bit about Court Types, a minor feature for your Royal Court.

► Read our Dev Diary #81 - A tour of your Royal Court (Interface)

💡 To experience the full threads and comments, please visit our forums or website.
💡 Enjoy the FAQ Royal Court and read all there is to learn about our upcoming Expansion




[h3]Visiting your Royal Court​[/h3]
When you reach the rank of King or Emperor as a Feudal or Clan Ruler, you have laid the foundation for your Royal Court. You can now go to it via a button in the main interface.

This button highlights if there is something interesting to do in your Royal Court at this moment, such as if you have new Court Artifacts.


Button to open your Royal Court, with a notification


You can also view anyone else’s Royal Court via a button next to their Character.


Button to open someone else's Royal Court


[h3]The Throne Room​[/h3]
Your Royal Court is split into three segments: Throne Room, Court Grandeur, and Court Artifacts

When you enter your Royal Court, you end up in your Throne Room.


Throne Room view of Royal Court


Here you can see various petitioners or other goings-on in your Court, and you can choose to interact with them. These types of events are described in Dev Diary 75. If any Inspired Characters are present or have projects in progress, they are also shown here, on the left side of the screen.


Interacting with a Court Event


If there is not enough going on here, you can also choose to Hold Court, inviting Courtiers and Vassals across the Realm to grovel before you (which was shown in Dev Diary 72).


First step of Holding Court


A petitioner approaches while holding Court


If this is your Liege’s Court, you can even approach them to hear your reasonable requests, as seen in Dev Diary 74.


Button to Petition your Liege in your Liege's Court


[h3]Grandeur and Amenities​[/h3]
Moving on to the second part of your Royal Court, which is an overview of your Court Grandeur. How much you have, various factors affecting it, and so on.

Grandeur was explained a while ago, in Dev Diary 61. Basically, it is a measure of how well known your Court is, and each Level gives you further benefits.

Your current Grandeur, Grandeur Baseline, and unlocked Grandeur Levels are shown on the large bar in the center.

In the image below, we can see we are gaining Grandeur every month due to being below our Baseline.



Our current Level is 4: while we do not have enough Grandeur to maintain this Level, we had unlocked it before, and it will thus stay unlocked for 6 months, regardless how much Grandeur we have.


Grandeur Level staying unlocked for 6 months


We can also see that our expected Grandeur Level is 7, which we are nowhere near fulfilling.


Expected Grandeur Level is Level 7


Grandeur is also reflected in other ways. If you have high Grandeur, the UI looks more luxurious, and new (non-Artifact) furniture appears in your court.


Your Royal Court at Level 0


Your Royal Court at Level 10


A large source of Grandeur is which Amenities are available to your Courtiers and visitors to your court. Providing excellent Amenities is sure to make your name well known across the world.


An overview of your Amenities


Popup graphic when you change your Amenities


There are two other factors affecting Grandeur, Court Language and Court Types. Court Language was already explained in Dev Diary 78, so let’s talk about Court Types.

[h3]Court Types​[/h3]
With Court Types, you can choose which kind of Royal Court you want to foster. Perhaps one where martial prowess is admired, or where there is a whisper around every corner and a lover behind every curtain.

You always have the choice between two Court Types, based on the Ethos of your Culture, and changing it costs Prestige. If your Culture changes, you can still keep your old Court Type.

The type of Royal Court affects two things: what you get from your Grandeur Level, and what your Courtiers get from being part of the Court.

While some Grandeur Levels you reach are always the same regardless of your Court Type, some change somewhat. So, in a Diplomatic Court, Grandeur Level 4 may see you gaining less Tyranny, while in a Warlike Court, you may gain more Levies.


Changing your Court Type

As for Courtiers, each Courtier who stays at an especially Grand Royal Court for a certain period of time (5 years) will gain a special Courtier Trait based on the Court Type


Court Trait Icons


Each Trait of this type has two different levels. If your Court is at Grandeur Level 5, Courtiers get the first level, while the second level will appear at Grandeur Level 8. The second level comes with extra bonuses and can be especially useful for those you plan to be your Vassals.


Effects of the two levels of the Warlike Courtier Trait


[h3]Court Artifacts​[/h3]
Last but certainly not least, are the Court Artifacts. We showed a few of them off in Dev Diary 69.

In short, Court Artifacts are a special type of Artifacts. These are large furniture and other decorative items you display inside your Royal Court. This makes them distinct from your Inventory Artifacts described in last week's Dev Diary as you are not hauling them around everywhere.

When entering this part of the Royal Court, you can see all spots where you can place Court Artifacts


A view of all slots for Court Artifacts


Just like Inventory Artifacts, they give you a bonus if they are actively on display in your Royal Court. The primary purpose of Court Artifacts is to increase your Court Grandeur, but some have additional effects.


Zygmunt's Goblet in your Royal Court, and its tooltip


For most Court Artifacts, there is more than one slot to place them. Perhaps that tapestry would look better on that other wall?

Animated gif of considering different placements for your Banner in your Royal Court


[h3]End of the Tour​[/h3]
That is all for this week, thank you for reading!