How to keep land after death in Crusader Kings 3 (CK3)

In the feudal medieval world, succession was one of the primary driving political concepts over which numerous wars were fought. Crusader Kings 3, being set in such times, has succession embedded in its core. So, to keep your playthrough smooth, here’s how to keep your land after death in CK3.

Dealing with succession in CK3

There are numerous ways to ensure the succession of your titles passes to the correct heir, which will heavily depend on your government type, which depends on your selected country’s region and culture. In general, you will focus on one of the following:

• succession laws,
• disinheritance,
• murder,
• abstinence,
• or war.

Sidenote: save scumming may also save you from certain death so that’s an option as any, just prepare yourself to be morally judged by other PDX fans.

Change your succession laws

Probably the easiest way of dealing with succession with the ultimate goal of keeping your hard-earned clay is changing the succession laws. Most countries you start with will have one of the Partition laws enacted, meaning that succession will be distributed among all your eligible children, which can vary in terms of efficacy.

Confederate partition can break up your realm into many small pieces, with all heirs taking an equal bit. Partition and High Partition are easier on the balkanization, but the gist is the same. To avoid this, the best way to go is the Primogeniture law under the Single Heir laws, though this option only becomes available in the Late Medieval tech tree, which is basically near the end of the game.

Disinherit your heirs

If you don’t have the patience to wait for the late game and your ruler happens to be a pure macho man (or woman) with a dozen legitimate children with one or more spouses, you may want to opt for the disinheritance route. Taking away the titles from your children individually will cause your ruler to lose a ton of reputation and prestige, and it will generally be a destabilizing path, especially if your ruler has many children and keeps pumping more out,. This option is only to be taken if you can handle the pressure and aftermath, including rebellion and claims, which we will later cover when we take a look at the war option.

Murder your children

Okay, look, here’s the deal. In medieval times, all sorts of stuff happened, and you aren’t a real CK3 connoisseur if you don’t try to murder your own family members at one point or another. This option works if your heirs are old enough, as the game prevents actual children being targets of intrigue schemes.

Keep in mind that you will need a high-Intrigue ruler and the sadistic trait to successfully pull off such murder plots, and you may kickstart rebellions or similar reactions from your targets, which can have severe consequences, including your losing the game by being disinherited yourself at the hands of your own children.

If you don’t have such traits, you may want to revoke their titles and start wars intentionally so you can win and imprison them instead, and only then proceed to execute them. Now, that’s what I call Game of Thrones.

For the love of God, stop making more heirs

The best way of dealing with succession is not having to deal with it at all. Now, to ensure this, you need to find a way of preventing your ruler from making more children. This includes not going for seduction or romance schemes, avoiding any ruler traits that may increase the chance of an offspring, and not legitimizing children birthed out of wedlock if your ruler does end up feeling reckless against all odds. The fewer children you have during the years of the Partition Laws, the better. It will make everything much easier to handle and allow you to transfer all of your titles upon death to a single heir.

Ensure your heir gets the highest-ranking title

Okay, look. Primogeniture is not exactly required if you play your cards right. If you happen to form a kingdom title, all duchies within said Kingdom title will always split, but the kingdom itself will pass to your player heir. This means that everything inside remains yours, even if your domain downsizes and some duchy titles pass to other heirs.

Avoid having multiple kingdom titles or duchies outside of your singular kingdom so you can easily and always retain all of your possessions. Only go for several kingdom titles to form the empire title. Keep in mind that being emperor or king only means your heir will inherit those territories, and anything outside of those borders will be partitioned, no matter if they’re of a lesser rank.

If all else fails, go to war

You may give it all you’ve got and still end up at the wrong end of a sword and lose your titles in a failed and mismanaged succession. Your realm usually ends up split between two or three factions, but it’s not that big of a deal. Your player heir will still retain claims upon the lands of their parent, meaning you can go to war with your siblings to reclaim and reestablish the lost realm.

I cannot tell you how many times I’ve done such a maneuver after my realm ended up partitioned severely, and on one occasion, I was exiled to another continent altogether and still managed to reclaim my lands. Like in most Paradox Interactive games, war is the ultimate tool for reclaiming what you’ve lost, and it’s actually very effective, especially if you secure a couple of alliances quickly enough. I’d even say it’s better than all other options apart from primogeniture.