how to get illustrious artifacts?

[Jet]

ive been playing for a little over 200 years. I just became king a decade ago and I dont think ive ever created an illustrous artifact. How is this done? I have a royal court now so I added artificers but in the three inspirations ive had done since (one of them legendary) it still isnt enough to boost it over the edge. Are non royal court holders just SOL for ever getting the highest quality outside of stealing it? Im assuming its only possible for Kings with courts, and i just got the last 3 bad rng rolls but im at a loss for how rare it is.

[PDX-Trinexx]

Commissioning artifacts directly will rarely get anything over the lowest possible tier as a result. You need to fund inspired characters if you want more impressive artifacts.

[titanopteryx]

If you have a lover or soulmate, there's an event that randomly happens where you make a perfume artifact. You have to put it together with parts that each cost money but if you pick the expensive one each time you get an illustrious artifact. You don't need to be a king for that. There's a perk for commissioning an epic in the diplomacy tree and I don't know if that results in one or not.

[luckysyno]

To get illustrious artifacts you will have to sponsor inspired characters. This is only possible in general as a king or emperor.
Inspired characters randomly appear in your court over time, your artificiers can become inspired and your court poet can become inspired. So filing those positions is recommended. The wiki explains what type of stats you need to get a good artifact.
https://ck3.paradoxwikis.com/Artifacts#Inspirations
To maximize your chances you want to boost the relevant stats for your inspired courtiers. The first step is to pick artificiers and court poets that have good stats. Then you can give them artifacts to boost their stats. Picking a good court type that gives a relevant court trait is another option. You can even change your culture or religion to boost the stats for your inspired courtiers (e.g. lay clergy with the unrelenting faith doctrine gives a +4 prowess to any character that follows this religion). A religion that has holy sites that boost stats and controlling those sites can help (Asatru is one of the strongest options for that).
Of course creating a country full of characters that are beautiful, herculean and genius helps as well, since it is likely you can get one of them to become one of your inspired courtiers.
Once the inspiration starts and you have to pick between choices during events you want to pick the choice that gives a highest quality artifact.

[Kimlin]

I get most of my illustrious artifacts from adventure inspirations.

[luckysyno]

Originally posted by Kimlin:

I get most of my illustrious artifacts from adventure inspirations.

Same for me :-)

[Jet]

Originally posted by titanopteryx:

If you have a lover or soulmate, there's an event that randomly happens where you make a perfume artifact. You have to put it together with parts that each cost money but if you pick the expensive one each time you get an illustrious artifact. You don't need to be a king for that. There's a perk for commissioning an epic in the diplomacy tree and I don't know if that results in one or not.

the commission one gave me a lvl 3 one with 1 +6defender advantage despite picking at least 2 dialogues for modifiers

Originally posted by luckysyno:

To get illustrious artifacts you will have to sponsor inspired characters. This is only possible in general as a king or emperor.
Inspired characters randomly appear in your court over time, your artificiers can become inspired and your court poet can become inspired. So filing those positions is recommended. The wiki explains what type of stats you need to get a good artifact.
https://ck3.paradoxwikis.com/Artifacts#Inspirations
To maximize your chances you want to boost the relevant stats for your inspired courtiers. The first step is to pick artificiers and court poets that have good stats. Then you can give them artifacts to boost their stats. Picking a good court type that gives a relevant court trait is another option. You can even change your culture or religion to boost the stats for your inspired courtiers (e.g. lay clergy with the unrelenting faith doctrine gives a +4 prowess to any character that follows this religion). A religion that has holy sites that boost stats and controlling those sites can help (Asatru is one of the strongest options for that).
Of course creating a country full of characters that are beautiful, herculean and genius helps as well, since it is likely you can get one of them to become one of your inspired courtiers.
Once the inspiration starts and you have to pick between choices during events you want to pick the choice that gives a highest quality artifact.

i guess i just got rotten luck ive gotten dozens of inspired characters into my court via marriage even before being a king and have only gotten 1 lvl 4 artifact