Hit me with your best CK3 story.

[Kung-Flu]

Hearing people’s craziest stories is the best part of this game. Post yours.

[StarFishon]

i did custome leader healty and good..

my sun leader got scaly and rule until age 85 with some how 10 kids..

next rules got the scaly and born as dwarf

his cousin attack him(me) for claims and win the kingdom

after that his brother claim the dutchi..

i left with county like i started.. with scaly dwarf that his wife hate and no kids..

what i lovely family!!

[DavesBarbaricCookie]

Started as the count of vendome 867. Count was gifted in the stweardship department and had a daughter and easily built up an absurdly strong military power and money stash for a count and manged to take some lands from the neighbour child. Suddenly died after only 10 years of playing.

Only heir is his nearly 10 year old daughter. She is also gifted in stewardship. Shorty after her 17th birthday, spymaster comes around with proof that the duke of anjou aka the liege actually killed the father.

Daughter went to war to avenge her father, won and became independent in the heart of france. No liege, a small independent at the time douchy (she also took enough land before to form a douchy after the independence war).

First crusade rolls around, she is a zynic (a trait that every family member even her father had and continued to have) partakes in the crusade for money and influence. Actually contributes the most, and suddenly a relative sits on throne of jerusalem.

the same repeats with the kingdom of syria, the kingom of pommern, and some smaller douchies in northern italy and spain. The Kingdom of Jerusalem at one point swallowed the kingdom of syria and had a tight grip on the whole Nile region.

All the while at home, The center of the Dynasty was a small little independent double douchy (managed to take some land from france when they were weak) that continued to stay a douchy for 300 years while having family ties to several crusader Kingdoms across the globe and had a military force that could go toe to toe with the european kingdoms based on stewardship.



morale of the story: Never let anyone tell you that money doesn't rule the world, it surely does.

[Heraclius Caesar]

Not sure if this is a "best" but definitely 1 of my favorite moments:

Started as Konstantinos Diogenes in 1066, count of Naissus.

Romanos, the father of Konstantinos, never became emperor as he did in history and when he died I inherited the duchy of Anatolikon from him.

When Konstantinos dies and I take over as his older son, I notice that he's best friends with his younger brother, who didn't inherit any titles, so I grant a county in Sicily to my younger brother and wish him well.

My younger brother promptly starts a faction to elevate me to the imperial purple. He and the faction members revolt. They win. I become Byzantine emperor.

Tl;dr gave my younger brother a county and he successfully waged war to make me emperor.

[The Former]

I was an English earl, second generation off a custom ruler, who was growing my power base, serving the king of Mercia. War broke out between an ambitious viking lord and my liege, which I largely stayed out of. In the siege on my lands, however, my beloved younger sister - whom my character was very close to - was captured by one of the chieftains serving the invader, one Nils Sigurdrsson.

She was then made his "woman", which infuriated me.

After the war ended, I sought allies and found a Mormaer in Scotland, Gilla-Patraic, willing to betrothe his young daughter to my heir, with the appropriate amount of bribes and plying. He was a treacherous man but I didn't need his friendship, only his considerable army. He also happened to have a lot of experience fighting these men, as the vikings frequently raided his lands to no avail.

We waged war. I struck eastward across the ocean, hoping to "recapture" my character's sister in a siege. My forces were split in two - one to raid and one to hold the land passages through Denmark - with the former commanded by my second son Arahl, then 17, and the second commanded by my character himself. The fighting was rough initially and forced us onto our heels.

Arahl wound up leading the bitter campaign as the spearhead, and a decisive battle near Kattegat - including Norse mercenaries I'd just spent my entire fortune on - was his to win. It was glorious. Yet, during this time, Mormaer Gilla-Patraic had besieged our enemy's holding and captured my sister.

"Good enough," I thought. "At least she's out of the Swede's hands." I was wrong.

Perhaps seeking information on our enemy, Gilla-Patraic tortured my sister to death. The war was won just months later, and I ceded the new territory to Arahl as an equal earl of the Mercian king beside me. After all, it was too far away for me to rule. I married him to the Herculean daughter of the fine knight who had helped him win the war.

Then I set my sights on Gilla-Patraic. What followed was a bitter feud involving kidnappings, and attempted assassination on either side, and several hurt feelings over the course of some 60 years. Gilla-Patraic's daughter was IMMEDIATELY sent back to Scotland in favor of a more worthwhile match, of course.

Long after Gilla-Patraic's death, my character sought his land as recompense. When it seemed out of reach due to differences in military strength, he instead kidnapped Gilla-Patraic's female relatives (as he had no sisters). First his daughter, then a granddaughter. Then he had Gilla-Patriac murdered, only to have an attempt made on his own life by Gilla-Patraic's son, the father of one of the women we had taken.

It was all very ugly. My character managed to live out the rest of his years and die at a ripe old age, and the feud finally ended when his eldest son apologized with a bribe and released the Scottish women his father had held captive. Arahl went on to found a mighty branch house in Scandinavia, his next two generations claiming the southern half of Sweden for Mercia. Though not without the initial defensive support of his older brother.

[Mati_Lublin]

Played as custom duke in Scandinavia, used varangian adventure CB against France, conquered Normandy and immediately turned catholic but kept Norse culture. Played as "faithful" vassal a while, finally claimed whole kingdom of France and some other dutchies, won, got my stuff and turned Norman. Slowly but steady further generations ousted Karlings from southern France, established empire and waited for crusades. Participated, made some lowly and lovely lady a benefactor, got KoJ for her and loaded as her. Used alliances and money to slowly get empire of Outremer and hundred years later converted to Sabianism. Later created my own dualist , totally-not-gnostic, faith.

[AidanMan217]

TLDR at bottom

My first character was a knight of Duke Berardo II of Emilia (Son of Count Berardo I of Siena) of House Bonifazi. The Duchy of Emilia was created a few years after Berardo II declared independence as Siena successfully from the Duchy of Tuscany.

There was a knight who helped conquer the lands to create the Duchy of Emilia for Berardo II. This lowborn knight was named Adalberto. Due to his help, the County of Mantua was gifted to Adalberto, making him Adalberto of Adalfazi (Adalberto + Bonifazi). I played as him by using the switching characters feature,

The House of Adalfazi began its rags to riches journey on May 1st, 896.

The main goal was to become Duke of Emilia and to get my Dynasty out of obscurity. However, Mantua was weak and all the duchies and counties were more powerful than my land.

The first land I grabbed was the County of Cremona. My descendants didn't do much after that in terms of conquering. When Adalberto died, his son Adalberto II was more focused on making money and developing Mantua and Cremona. This development lasted until he died 11 years later at 26 with no kids or wife, due to his wounds.

Adalberto II's sister, Berta, took the throne on November 9th, 926. Had to be the worst character I have played. Had some of the worst traits and was always stressed. I had to marry a lowborn to continue the dynasty. She ended up killing herself 15 years after she got on the throne.

Her son, Adalberto III, actually conquered stuff. He was able to grab the County of Novara and the County of Como. He married Jean Karling and had 3 sons: Adalberto, Berardo, and Astorre. Adalberto III died at 34 due to being slain in battle.

Adalberto III's heir was Adalberto IV. Adalberto IV, now 7 years old, took the throne on September 19, 963 of a now split county between 2 other sons. He quickly conquered those 2 counties in order to restore the land of the County of Mantua. Adalberto IV sought to take the Duchy of Emilia To do this he needed to declare independence. Why declare independence if the liege's domain is only 2? Adalberto's domain was already more powerful than his liege. His liege, Toda-Adalais Bonifazi, owned both Pisa and Siena. Adalberto IV planned on fabricating a claim on the Grand City of Pisa and take it for himself. While Adalberto was in war with Toda-Adalais, the Duchy of Tuscany declared war on Toda-Adalais for the County of Siena, making Adalberto's job easier. Tuscany won their war first, and Toda-Adalais was booted from her throne and got her titles revoked, making Lucinetta Bonigazi the new leader of Emilia. Emilia then turned into the Duchy of Pisa for a short while. The title of the Duchy of Emilia was destroyed on 977. A couple years later Adalberto IV won the war against Pisa, still as a count. Adalberto saved money and created the Duchy of Emilia on 981, 4 years after the title got destroyed. After the Duchy was created it was time to increase the size of my domain. Adalberto IV went on to take 4 more counties and usurp the title The Duchy of Lombardy. Adalberto IV lived a good life and earned the title 'the Benevolent'. He died at 68 on May 17, 1024 from being ill. He fought 19 wars, including 1 Holy war.

His son Vincenzo took the throne at age 43. Duke Vincenzo only ruled for 5 years, however he created the Kingdom of Facilia (Fazi + Emilia) also it just means easy. Yes I did make kingdoms easier to create because the requirements are total ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. King Vincenzo, like all of his other ancestors, died from his wounds at age 48 in 1029

Now where I left off. King Adalberto V is the 2nd King of Facilia. Adalberto, now a King, had an ambition to insert his dynasty into the Byzatine Empire. Adalberto's Brother, Roberto, was already married to Gabriella Agelastos, the Princess of the Byzantine Empire. However, there was 2 heirs in the way of her inheriting the throne. Dionysios II and Petronia were the next up heirs. In order for Gabriella to inherit, Adalberto had to murder Dionysios and Petronia. The plots were expensive, but thankfully the pope indirectly funded the schemes. Both were successful, which meant Dionysios II and Petronia ended up dying and Gabriella takes the throne. Roberto Adalfazi was now the Prince to his Empress of the Byzantine Emperor. However, due to the quick leader change, revolts were sprawling up in the realm and the Arabian Empire was taking up more land. Empress Gabrielle died only 2 years after inheriting the throne, BUT LUCKILY, she had a daughter named Agnese Adalfazi. Her dying made Adalberto V the first in line to inherit the Byzantine Empire. It is now May 17, 1040 and it's been 144 years since House Adalfazi was created.

Should I killed my niece, Empress Agenese Adalfazi of the Bynzatine Empire to take the title for myself and my descendants?
or should I marry her to a lowborn to watch a potential cadet dynasty grow?

The current state of the Byzantine Empire is not doing so well. You have Bulgarian and Arab rebels as well as civil wars for liberty and independence. You also have the Arabian Empire destroying you in almost every war.

Western Europe is completely butchered by Muslims. There is not major Kingdoms or Duchies in Central Europe. Italy Is Divided between Facilia (Me), The Pope, and Sicilian Muslims. Christianity is on a very steep decline. Hungary is big and still tribal. Byzantine Empire is gonna break any minute now due to new Italian leadership. It is a total mess.

This story might not be crazy at all, but I had fun and I thought it was interesting. I plan to keep going until end game. Even though the time is super slow due to mods.

TLDR: It started with an Italian Knight being granted a county to an Italian King going to inherit the Byzantine Empire.