Vassals - CK3 Wiki (2024)

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The feudal system from both the Middle Ages and Crusader Kings III revolves around vassals, characters who are granted by a liege lower-ranked titles to more easily manage the realm in exchange for a cut of their taxes and levies. Each vassal can be a liege towards their own set of vassals, as long as lower title ranks exist. Every character can have at most one liege.

The amount of taxes and levies granted by a vassal to their liege depends largely on their government type:

• Feudal vassals provide taxes and levies based on their individual feudal contracts.
• Tribal vassals provide taxes and levies based on the liege's level of fame, with minimum amounts determined by tribal authority.
• Clan vassals provide taxes and levies based on their opinion towards their liege, with minimum amounts determined by crown authority.
• Theocracies provide taxes and levies based on the liege's level of devotion.
• Republic vassals always provide 20% taxes and 10% levies to their liege.
• Rulers whose faith has the Theocratic doctrine lease their temple holdings to a Realm Priest, who then provides taxes and levies based on their opinion towards their liege.

Vassal limit[edit | edit source]

The vassal limit is the number of direct vassals (excluding Barons) a ruler can have without penalties. It is primarily based on the rank of the ruler's primary title and can be increased by title laws and traits.^[1]

Condition	Vassal limit
Emperor title rank	+60
King title rank	+40
Duke title rank	+20
Legalistic tradition	+30
Egalitarian ethos	+10
Princely Elective title law	+20
Greatest of Khans trait	+75
The Great Khan permanent modifier	+75
Assertive Rulers dynasty legacy	+10
Various artifacts	+2 to +25

For every vassal above the Vassal Limit, -5% is imposed on vassal taxes and vassal levies, up to -95%.

A character can avoid going over the vassal limit by creating duke vassals and transferring count vassals to them through the grant vassal interaction. A character's vassal limit can be seen by opening the Realm menu (key: F2) towards the bottom-right.

Powerful vassals[edit | edit source]

In each realm, vassals with the highest tax income and number of levies are designated as powerful vassals, who expect to be part of the liege's council and will have -40 opinion of their liege if they're not. The number of powerful vassals a liege will have depends on the rank of their primary title:

Rank	Powerful vassals
Count	3
Duke	4
King & Emperor	5

In elective succession types, powerful vassals have more votes than regular vassals. They're also much harder to use the sway scheme on. In order for the succession law of a realm to be changed, all powerful vassals must either have positive opinion of the liege, be terrified or be imprisoned.

Vassal stances[edit | edit source]

Each vassal has a Vassal Stance, which is determined primarily by their AI personality. The Vassal Stance determine what actions the liege takes the vassal will like and dislike and which heir it prefers as long as it matches the gender succession law. If the Primary Heir is the heir preferred by the vassal it will gain a temporary +30 Opinion upon succession. Otherwise it will gain a temporary -20 Opinion upon succession. There are 6 Vassal Stances:

Vassal stance	Likes	Dislikes	Heir preference	Favored by vassals with
Courtly	Giving them court positions Creating titles Inviting them to Feast activities	Giving titles to Lowborn characters Marrying Lowborn characters Disinheriting non-disputed heirs	Highest Diplomacy	High Compassion High Sociability Low Greed
Glory Hound	Partition succession laws Victory in offensive wars Inviting them to Feast activities	High crown authority Defeats and White Peaces	Highest Martial	Low Compassion Low Honor
Minor Landholder	Low crown authority	High crown authority Revoking barony titles	Faith of the liege or considered Righteous or Astray Culture of the liege or with at least 30% Culture Acceptance	Baron title rank
Minority	Using the Promote Cultural Acceptance councilor task	High crown authority Converting the Faith or Culture of a county	Different culture or faith from the liege	Liege's faith is considered Hostile or Evil Below 30% Cultural Acceptance with the liege's culture
Parochial	Constructing or upgrading holdings Making them Guardian of close family members Using the Domestic Affairs councilor task	High crown authority Declaring non-trivial wars	Highest Stewardship	High Rationality Low Boldness Low Sociability
Zealot	Virtue traits Constructing or upgrading Temple holdings Succeeding with the Learn Language scheme Going on Pilgrimage activities	Sin traits Asking the Head of Faith for Gold	Highest Learning	High Vengefulness High Zeal

Vassal contracts[edit | edit source]

All Feudal and Clan vassals have a vassal contract towards their liege, which can only be changed once per character and determines their obligations as well as whether they have special rights.

Rights[edit | edit source]

Rights grant a vassal permissions that vassals do not have by default. A right can be added when increasing an obligation in order to avoid tyranny. Revoking a right will incur tyranny unless another right is added.

Right	Liege effects	Vassal effects	Requirements
Council Rights: Guaranteed	+5 Opinion with vassal −2 Opinion with all powerful vassals	Can use the Demand Council Position character interaction without a hook
Title Revocation: Protected	+5 Opinion with vassal	Titles cannot be revoked
War Declaration: Sanctioned	+5 Opinion with vassal	Can declare war regardless of the liege's crown authority law Pays −50% casus belli cost when going to war against fellow vassals
Religious Rights: Protected	Cannot use the Demand Conversion character interaction with the vassal Cannot convert faith within the vassal's domain +5 Opinion with vassal	+5 Popular opinion	Vassal does not have liege's faith Faith does not have the Tax Nonbelievers tenet
ji*zya Status: Granted	+20 Opinion with vassal +40% Tax from vassal −40% Levies from vassal Cannot use the Revoke Title character interaction with the vassal Cannot use the Demand Conversion character interaction with the vassal Cannot convert faith within the vassal's domain	−0.25 Monthly Prestige	Vassal does not have liege's faith Faith has the Tax Nonbelievers tenet
Succession Rights: Forced Partition	−5 Opinion with vassal	Forced to use a multiple heir succession law +25% prestige cost to change laws	Feudal vassal
Coinage Rights: Granted	−2% Monthly development growth	+0.3 Monthly development growth in realm capital	Feudal vassal Coinage innovation
Fortification Rights: Granted	+5% Castle buildings construction cost −10% Tax from vassal	+1 Fort level −15% Castle buildings construction cost −50% Castle holdings construction cost	Feudal vassal Battlements innovation
Iqta Grant: Granted	−2% Men-at-Arms Recruitment Cost −2% Men-at-Arms Maintenance +5 Opinion with vassal −50% Tax from vassal −50% Levies from vassal	−10% Men-at-Arms Recruitment Cost −10% Men-at-Arms Maintenance	Clan vassal
Marriage Favor: Granted	+10% Tax from vassal +10% Levies from vassal +20 Opinion with vassal	+150 Prestige if marrying a liege's close family member	Clan vassal
Ghazi Status: Granted	+10% Monthly Piety +10 Opinion with vassal −25% Levies from vassal	+10% Monthly Piety −50% Holy War Casus Belli Cost +25% Other Casus Belli Cost	Clan vassal Vassal has the liege's faith

Special contract[edit | edit source]

Special contracts are only available towards duke and king vassals and require a certain innovation. All special contracts grant additional bonuses to the vassal.

Special contract	Liege effects	Vassal effects	Required innovation	Vassal government
March	−50% Tax from vassal	−20% Army maintenance +20% Levy size +20% Garrison +20% Levy reinforcement rate +5 Controlled territory defender advantage	Bannus	Both
Scutage	+50% Tax from vassal −75% Levies from vassal	−20% Men-at-arms maintenance	Scutage	Feudal
Palatinate	+5% Monthly prestige −20% Tax from vassal −20% Levies from vassal	+20% Monthly prestige +15 Fellow vassal opinion +10 Hostile scheme success chance +10 Personal scheme success chance	Divine Right	Feudal

Factions[edit | edit source]

Factions are organized groups that are united against their liege for a common purpose. As long as their issue isn't resolved they will keep growing until they will be large enough to deliver an ultimatum to the liege.

All factions have two important values: military power and discontent.

• Military power is the ratio between the combined military strength of all faction members and the military strength of the liege. When the ratio is above 80%, the Faction will gain discontent; when it is below the threshold, the faction will lose discontent.
• Discontent is a measure of how close the faction is to sending their ultimatum.

A faction will deliver its ultimatum shortly after discontent reaches 100%. It can also send the ultimatum early if the liege unjustly imprisons someone. If the ultimatum is accepted, the liege will gain -20 dread. If it is refused, it will start a civil war.

There are 6 types of factions.

Type	Ultimatum	Military power	Members	Requires military power for discontent	Cannot form during the first
Independence	All faction members become independent Liege loses 150 Prestige	Members' armies	Vassals		10 years if Emperor 5 years if King 1 year otherwise
Dissolution	Liege's primary title is destroyed Liege loses 150 Prestige	Members' armies	Vassals
Claimant	Claimant gains the claimed title Every faction member gains a weak hook on the claimant	Members' armies	Vassals
Liberty	Liege lowers crown authority Liege loses 200 prestige	Members' armies	Vassals
Populists	All faction members form an independent realm Liege loses a level of fame	25% to 50% of each county's levies	Counties		5 years
Peasant rabble	All faction members get -75 control All faction members get -50% control growth and +30 popular opinion for 10 years	50% to 100% of each county's levies	Counties		Can always form

Vassals cannot join a faction against a liege if they are underage, the liege's friend, lover or ally, the liege has a strong hook or truce with them or they have at least 80 opinion of the liege. If one of these requirements is met after a character joins a faction it will leave it. They can however be forced into a faction by the use of a hook.

Terrified vassals can only join factions while discontent is rising.

Civil wars[edit | edit source]

If a faction's ultimatum is refused, it will start a Civil War. During a Civil War, faction members stop providing taxes and levies to the liege and their liege loses access to certain powers such as imprisonment. All faction members will turn hostile to both the liege and all vassals that did not join the faction, though they will focus on fighting the liege.

• If the war ends in white peace, the liege will gain an imprisonment reason against all faction members.
• If the war is won by the faction, they will enforce the faction's ultimatum.
• If the war is won by the liege, all faction members are imprisoned and the liege gains +20 dread. If the faction was caused by popular opinion, each rebelling county will gain +20 popular opinion for 10 years. The liege will also have cause to revoke a title from each faction member (allowing the liege to revoke a title without gaining tyranny).

Leased holdings[edit | edit source]

Rulers of some government types can lease other rulers' holdings. A leased holding is still considered part of its holder's realm, but provides levies and taxes to its lessee instead, and does not count towards the domain limit of either of them. The game considers a character with only leased titles to be unlanded. County capitals can never be leased.

When founding a holy order, a castle or city must be leased to the order. This does not make the order a vassal of their patron, and the order may end up leasing holdings in several realms later on. Leases to holy orders can be revoked, although this costs piety, reduces the holy order's grandmaster's opinion of the holder, and may destroy the holy order entirely if it ends up with no leases and no land of its own.

Realm priests[edit | edit source]

When a ruler's religion has the Theocratic Doctrine, temples are leased to a Realm Priest as church holdings. The realm priest provides their liege with taxes and levies based on their opinion. The minimum is at 0 opinion, where no taxes or levies are provided, and the maximum is at 50 opinion, where 50% of the taxes and 100% of the levies are provided. Unlike leases to holy orders, there is no option to revoke church holdings.

For vassals of the same religion, a vassal's income from their realm priest's church holdings are not directly taxed by their liege. The vassal's realm priest provides their liege's realm priest with 25% of their temples' taxes, and 15% of their temples' levies. This vassal realm priest contribution is provided by the liege realm priest to the liege at the same rate as directly leased holdings. Vassals of different religions are skipped in the hierarchy of lease payments. In addition, if the Faith also has a Spiritual Head of Faith, then the Realm Priest of the independent landed characters (i.e. the top lieges) pay that 15% taxes and the 25% levies to the said Head of Faith.

Example: You are a duke with one county within your domain. That county has a temple with a tax of 1 gold and a levy of 300. At 50 opinion with your realm priest, he will provide you with 0.5 gold in taxes and 300 levy.

You also have a vassal count who has one county with one temple as well. That temple has the same tax of 1 gold and levy of 300. Your vassal's realm priest provides your realm priest with 0.25 gold and 45 levy, before he splits the rest with the count based on his opinion of the count. Then, your realm priest splits this contribution with you, for a final .125 gold and 45 levy from your vassal's temple. The count will receive a maximum of .375 gold (50% of the remaining .75 gold), and 255 levy (100% of the remaining 255) from their realm priest at 50+ opinion.

If you have multiple domain counties that have temple holdings, your Realm Priest would have multiple holdings under his/her management. In such case, it may be beneficial to have a Realm Priest that has high stewardship/martial to enjoy the benefit of extra taxes/levies. At 50+ opinion, each point of your Realm Priest's stewardship would give you 1% more taxes and each point of martial would give you 2% more levies, from all such temple holdings.

References[edit | edit source]