Titles - CK3 Wiki (2024)

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A title is essentially a certificate of land ownership, decreeing which characters own a certain place or a certain organization (e.g. churches, mercenaries, and holy orders). Each title has a rank, a unique coat of arms, and a color on map. Certain titles can change name based on the culture of the character holding it and all titles can have their names and coat of arms changed by their holder. A character's titles along with those held by its vassals form a character's Realm.

A character's highest-ranked title is the Primary Title and determines the realm's color and coat of arms. If a character owns multiple titles of the same highest rank they can freely choose which one is the Primary title.

Title rank[edit | edit source]

Each title has a Rank, which determines its place in the feudal pecking order. Rank primarily governs who holders of that title can vassalize or become vassals of. A ruler can only have vassals of lower rank and can only be a vassal of someone of higher rank. Title Rank also determines what bonuses it grants to players who hold that title. The lowest playable title is Count.

Rank	Effects	Prestige per title	Opinion if granted	Creation / Usurpation cost	Destroy cost	Create reward	Title succession law removal cost	De Jure Drift
Barony	+1 Domain Limit +2 Scheme Resistance Is always a Vassal of their de jure Count	+0.02	+20	Holding cost Cannot be usurped	Cannot be destroyed	N/A	Cannot have title succession laws
County	+2 Domain Limit +4 Scheme Resistance +5 Number of Knights +2 Number of Regiments	+0.05	+40	Always exists Cannot be usurped	Cannot be destroyed	N/A	Cannot have title succession laws
Duchy	+2 Domain Limit +8 Scheme Resistance +6 Number of Knights +3 Number of Regiments +20 Vassal Limit +10% Mercenary Hire Cost	+0.2	+60	250	400	300	375
Kingdom	+3 Domain Limit +16 Scheme Resistance +7 Number of Knights +4 Number of Regiments +40 Vassal Limit +1 Accolades Available +30% Mercenary Hire Cost	+0.8	+80	500	800	400	1000
Empire	+4 Domain Limit +32 Scheme Resistance +8 Number of Knights +5 Number of Regiments +60 Vassal Limit +2 Accolades Available +60% Mercenary Hire Cost	+1.6	+100	1000	1200	500	1500

All opinion modifiers from granting titles last 50 years and can stack.Creation costs can be reduced by various modifiers up to a 20% minimum cost. (So a creating a Duchy will always cost at least 50 gold).

Duchy[edit | edit source]

Duchy is the third rank of titles, and the first rank that can be destroyed or created by characters. However, it has some unique properties:

• Each duchy has a duchy capital building slot in its capital county's capital barony.
• Characters can hold at most 2 duchy titles without suffering opinion penalties from their vassals; this rule does not apply to any other ranks.
• Emperors can have duchy rank vassals without penalties. Emperors cannot have county-rank vassals, and kings cannot have county-rank vassals, without penalties).

De Jure[edit | edit source]

De Jure, meaning "by law", means that a title historically covered certain lower Rank titles. The Duchy, Kingdom and Empire map modes will show all De Jure titles. A character who owns a title can choose the De Jure Casus belli to seize a single De Jure title covered by it, provided that the character's culture has the appropriate innovation below:

• Seize De Jure County requires the Tribal-era innovation Casus Belli.
• Seize De Jure Duchy requires the Early Medieval-era innovation Chronicle Writing.
• Seize De Jure Titles requires the Late Medieval-era innovation Rightful Ownership.

If a vassal's primary title does not fall under the de jure territory of any titles their liege holds, that vassal gives 50% less Taxes and Levies alongside -5 Opinion of Liege. Furthermore, count rank vassals give 25% less Taxes and Levies alongside -5 Opinion of Liege if their liege does not hold the de jure duchy of their primary title, but does hold its de jure kingdom or empire.

Any ducal or kingdom title can be created by a character who controls at least 51% of its De Jure Counties as long as they hold either two titles of lower Rank or one title of equal or higher Rank; empire titles require at least 81% of their De Jure Counties. In the Region of Europe, AI characters will only create Kingdom titles if they have certain cultures.

Usurpation[edit | edit source]

If a character is holding more than 50% of the De Jure Counties of a title held by a Ruler of the same Faith or a Faith which is not considered Hostile or Evil, then the character can Usurp the title. This process gives the title to the usurper. If the holder's Faith is considered Hostile or Evil, then they must not hold any De Jure counties of the title to be able to be Usurped.

If a character is a Vassal, they cannot Usurp a title belonging to the Liege, nor can they Usurp one that has the same Rank or higher than the Liege's Primary title.

De jure drift[edit | edit source]

De jure drift or assimilation is the process by which the de jure borders of kingdoms and empires can change over time. If a ruler completely controls a Duchy and owns a Kingdom title other than the one the Duchy De Jure belongs to, or if a ruler completely controls a Kingdom and owns an Empire title other than the one the Kingdom De Jure belongs to, then the said Duchy or Kingdom will slowly become De Jure part of the character's Primary title.

In general, a title will be assimilated after being controlled for 100 years. The duration required for assimilation is decreased by the Chancellor task "Integrate Title". Every duchy in the game is considered to be part of a specific de jure kingdom and every kingdom to be part of a specific de jure empire. Vassals within a de jure border have fewer reasons and abilities to revolt against their liege and declare independence.

A duchy will begin to drift into a kingdom when all of the following conditions are met:

• The entire duchy (i.e. all county titles belonging de jure to the duchy; baronies are allowed to be outside the realm) is within the realm of the king.
• The ducal title does not exist.
• The duchy is not part of the kingdom of Jerusalem.
• The kingdom is its owner's primary title.
• The duchy either shares a land border with, or is a maximum of 2 sea tiles away from the existing de jure kingdom.

A kingdom will begin to drift into an empire when all of the following conditions are met:

• The entire kingdom (i.e. all county titles of all duchies belonging de jure to the kingdom) is within the realm of the emperor.
• The empire is its owner's primary title.
• The kingdom either shares a land border with, or is a maximum of 2 sea tiles away from the existing de jure empire.

Upon reaching January 1st of the next year, drift is visible as dashed stripes on the kingdoms and empires map mode. Hovering over the duchy or kingdom will show a tooltip indicating the number of years until full assimilation.

Whenever the conditions for assimilation are no longer met — for example, if the local ruler of a duchy rebels against top-liege, or if one of the counties in the duchy is conquered by another independent realm - the counter will tick backwards instead of forwards, at twice the speed. When the conditions are again met — for example, if the duke's rebellion is put down - the counter will resume ticking forwards.

Assimilation allows titular kingdoms and empires to become non-titular and vice versa. If a de jure kingdom becomes titular, it can be created by whoever controls its de jure capital.

Claim[edit | edit source]

A claim represents a character's legal right to obtain a title which is not theirs and allows the creation of a claimant faction. If the title belongs to a vassal, the claim allows the liege to revoke the claimed title without incurring tyranny. Otherwise, a claim provide a casus belli to gain the claimed title through war. Alternatively, if the title belongs to the liege and the government is tribal, the claimant vassal can use the ‘Challenge the Ruler’ decision, which is a duel. Claims can be pressed, unpressed, or implicit.

• Pressed claims on a character's titles are given to all legitimate children upon the title holder's death, except to primary heirs under gavelkind succession. Also, these claims are inherited by legitimate children as unpressed claims regardless of sex.
• Unpressed claims are never inherited but can become pressed if a claim war using the claim ends in a white peace.
• Implicit claims on a character's current titles are given to eligible children^[1] while the title holder is still alive.

Claims on landed titles can be obtained the following ways:

• A vassal that owns 51% of the counties from one of their liege's titles can use Claim Liege Title interaction to get an unpressed claim on that title at the cost of 1500 prestige.
• Using the ‘Fabricate Claim on County’ councilor interaction will provide an unpressed claim on the targeted county. If the holder of the targeted county also holds its de jure duchy title and the court chaplain has high learning, there is a 20% chance of gaining a claim on the county's de jure duchy instead.
• A dynasty head can use the claim title interaction on dynasty members of the same religion to gain an unpressed claim on their primary title.
• A character with the ‘Sanctioned Loopholes’ perk can use the ‘Buy Claim’ interaction to gain an unpressed claim on another character's primary title at the following cost: (Note: if your character's primary title is an Empire, you will be unable to claim another Kingdom/Empire level title, and if it is a Kingdom, you will be unable to claim another Kingdom level title)

Title rank	Piety cost
County	250
Duchy	500
Kingdom	1000
Empire	2000

There are no claims for baronies; if you want a particular barony, you have to hold the county which the barony's a part of.

Using claims[edit | edit source]

Some claims have additional conditions before they can be pressed in war:

• With Male Dominated religious doctrine, claims of women can only be pressed against other women, children or incapable rulers.
  • This also applies for Female Dominated.
• You may only help your direct Vassals and adult Courtiers press their claims.

Revocation[edit | edit source]

Revoking Titles of vassals is a crucial part of realm management, as it allows redistribution of power.

To revoke Titles:

• Feudal or Clan Rulers require Level 2 Crown Authority (and thus the Tribal Era Innovation Planned Assemblies).
• Tribal Rulers require Level 3 Tribal Authority. This means that Tribal Rulers can only revoke titles at the earliest 10 years after a game has started, provided they have enough Prestige to implement Level 2 Tribal Authority on Day 1.

Revoking Titles incurs a base of +20 Tyranny if done without a valid reason; valid revocation reasons include:

• having a Claim on the Title being revoked;
• Vassal has committed a Crime of a certain Severity

If the Vassal doesn't accept the revocation, they will rise in revolt, along with other disgruntled Vassals; imprisoned Vassals cannot refuse Title revocation.

Note that baronies can be revoked without tyranny.

Holding too many titles[edit | edit source]

Overextension: If a character is a Count or Duke, their realm can include a maximum of 30 County titles without penalties; for Dukes, this include the Counties controlled by their Count Vassals. Each county over the limit gives an overextension penalty that reduces the character's Gold income by -5%. Count-rank characters are unlikely to see this however, as they are further limited by their Domain Limit, which is usually much lower.

Too Many Held Duchies: If a character is a King or Emperor, they can hold a maximum of 2 Duchy titles without penalties. Any Duchy above the limit reduces the Opinion of all Vassals by -15.

Mongol Empire[edit | edit source]

The Mongol Empire is an initially titular title that has special mechanics. It can be created via the Become Greatest of Khans decision and will replace the current primary title. If multiple empire titles are held they will all be merged into the Mongol Empire title that will gain all their de jure territory. Characters holding the Mongol Empire title that have Tribal government will have access to the Mongol Invasion of Kingdom casus belli.

If the Mongol Invasion was not turned off in game rules and a player with realm size of 100 is not Culture Head of the Mongol culture then a married couple will eventually spawn: Temujin and Borte. Based on the Gender Equality game rule one of them will start with 4 Warfare dynasty legacies and take the decision. They will have 4 sons and 1 daughter together and the entire family will be immune to diseases for 10 years. Genghis Khan will immediately declare 5 wars with the Mongol Invasion of Kingdom for the following war targets: Mongolia, Tuva, Buryatia, Khakassia and Angara. After achieving victory in these wars Genghis Khan will target neighbor rulers that are not emperors or allies with him one by one to offer vassalage and declare war on any that refuses. Whenever one of Genghis Khan's armies fully occupies a county it will halve its Development. When Temujin or Borte die their heir will inherit all titles regardless of succession law. After he or she will die, if the empire's realm size is at least 50, all current wars will end in White Peace and the Mongol Empire will break up into multiple empires depending on what regions the Mongol Empire controlled at least 15 counties in:

Roman Empire[edit | edit source]

The Roman Empire is an initially titular title that has special mechanics. It can be created via the Restore the Roman Empire decision and will replace the current primary title. If multiple empire titles are held they will all be merged into the Roman Empire title that will gain all their de jure territory. The character holding the Roman Empire title will always have the Augustus trait. The initial coat-of-arms of the title depends on which of the 3 required empire titles the character taking the decision had.

Characters holding the Roman Empire title that follow a Christian or Greco-Roman faith will have access to the Restore Imperial Province casus belli and will gain +350 Prestige whenever it gains control of all counties from the duchies within one of the empire's old provinces as well as provinces it originally failed to conquer. Restoring all provinces will grant an additional +350 Prestige.

Head of faith titles[edit | edit source]

Head of faith titles are not part of the de jure hierarchy as they do not contain any de jure territory. Instead they designate which character is a the head of faith for faiths with Spiritual or Temporal head of faith doctrine. Creating a head of faith title requires control of a Holy Site, 300 Gold and at least a Devoted level of devotion. All head of faith titles have Duke rank, with the exception of the Catholicism and Orthodoxy ones which have Kingdom rank.

Unused/Unplayable titles[edit | edit source]

These are titles that are only available through cheats and therefore are not usually seen in game as it is now. Some of these can be noticed through the title they are de jure of for example if you look a the list of de jure kingdoms to the Byzantine Empire you see the Ottoman Turk kingdom.

References[edit | edit source]