As a seasoned Crusader Kings 3 strategist with over a decade of gaming under my belt, I must say that Legitimacy is the hidden gem of this grand strategy game. It’s not just about seizing power and ruling with an iron fist; it’s about maintaining your throne through charm, diplomacy, and strategic maneuvers.
In the release of both the “Scythe” update and the “Legends of the Dead” DLC, Crusader Kings 3 introduced some fresh mechanisms. One of these is the concept of Legitimacy, which gauges the degree of respect from a ruler’s subjects towards their claim to rule.
In most cases, victorious battles and thriving social endeavors tend to bolster a leader’s authority, whereas unsuccessful wars and outbreaks of illness weaken it. Leaders with greater influence require more credibility, while lesser lords like counts and dukes need less. In the game ‘Crusader Kings 3’, tasks become increasingly challenging when your credibility is insufficient, but excess credibility can be remarkably potent.
Legitimacy Values and Thresholds
At any moment, you can verify your ruler’s present legitimacy by looking at the crowned head icon situated in the lower-left part of your screen. Unlike other icons, this one doesn’t open a menu. Instead, when you move your cursor over it, you’ll see your current legitimacy level displayed.
The Legitimacy bar always has five levels, and the names of each level are always the same. However, the Legitimacy level your ruler needs and the amount of Legitimacy you need to reach each level depend on a few factors:
- How powerful your vassals are, and how much they like you. Close family members and nobles you personally empower need less Legitimacy than nobles with claims on your titles or rivals.
- How many of your vassals belong to your de jure titles, and how many belong to “foreign” titles.
- How long your vassal’s house has served your ruler’s dynasty.
- The rank of your primary title. Counts and dukes need less Legitimacy than kings and emperors.
- Your ruler’s rank and cultural era also increase your Legitimacy needs. A Tribal count only needs 60 Legitimacy to reach level 1, “Aspiring,” while a High Medieval emperor needs 210 to reach the same rank.
irrespective of one’s position or feudal obligations, a ruler must always maintain a Legitimacy level of at least 4, which is considered ‘True.’ Reaching this level allows for additional advantages associated with achieving level 5, known as ‘Ordained.’
In Crusader Kings 3, the game awards or deducts certain advantages according to whether your ruler surpasses or falls short of their anticipated Legitimacy level. Some benefits remain consistent regardless of proximity to the ideal legitimacy, while others adjust based on how near or far you are from that standard figure.
| Bonuses for Exceeding | Penalties for Falling Behind | |
|---|---|---|
| At the Correct Level |
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| One Level |
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| Two Levels |
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| Three Levels |
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| Four Levels |
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Noble leaders receive an additional advantage when attempting to vassalize others, provided their actual legitimacy surpasses the anticipated one.
If your projected Legitimacy score is 1, but your current score is 0, it appears that you are two steps below where you should be rather than just one. Conversely, if your actual Legitimacy level is 5 when your projected level is 4, it provides benefits slightly beyond a single level increase, and possibly even a level more. In other words, a commoner could gain more from having a high Legitimacy score, while a monarch might be impacted more negatively by a low one.
How to Gain and Lose Legitimacy
The moment a new ruler takes power, they get a set amount of Legitimacy based on a few factors.
- Birthright traits like Bastard, Legitimized Bastard, Born in the Purple, and Sayyid.
- Congenital traits like Beautiful and Inbred.
- Their Dynasty’s Level of Splendor.
- Their personal Diplomacy skill, and diplomatic traits like Just and Diplomat.
- Their Court Grandeur, and whether it’s below the expected Grandeur level.
- Whether they’re the wrong gender for a culture or faith with Male Dominated or Female Dominated traditions or doctrines.
- The previous ruler’s Legitimacy.
- How recently the last ruler changed the succession laws.
- The current ruler’s age.
- The current ruler’s dynastic connection to the previous ruler.
This figure may fluctuate based on your actions and some unpredictable occurrences. Activities that increase its value are those that boost its legitimacy, such as:
- Letting valuable prisoners go free for nothing, instead of demanding ransoms or other concessions.
- Winning wars, including civil wars.
- Creating titles.
- Hosting feasts, hunts, and pilgrimages.
- Holding court (Royal Court DLC).
- Hosting grand activities (Tours and Tournaments DLC).
- Spreading legends (Legends of the Dead DLC).
Actions and events that make Legitimacy go down include:
- Getting captured.
- Losing wars.
- Losing titles.
- Accepting faction demands.
- A plague that starts in your ruler’s personal domain.
- Doing nothing when a plague reaches your ruler’s personal domain.
- Performing a Tyrannical action.
- Having a hostile scheme discovered by your target.
- Having a damaging secret go public.
- Getting excommunicated.
- Marrying outside the nobility
- Disinheriting dynasty or house members (denouncing is fine).
The amount of Legitimacy you gain or lose for each action doesn’t change, but the amount of Legitimacy you need to change levels goes up as you gain ranks and enter new eras. This means that it takes more Legitimacy actions to improve your standing late in the game, but it also takes more disasters and tyrannical actions to reduce your standing. This effectively means that Legitimacy swings wildly in tribal nations, but tends to be more stable in large, late-Medieval empires.
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2024-09-01 15:03