Deciding who to marry

[sr902]

I'm currently a vassal of the Nords, and I'm getting ready to rebel and form my own Kingdom, which I have never done before, but I want to get married first. So I'm wondering, what should I look for in a wife? Do I get some kind of alliance with her relatives? I've got one Nord woman, and one Rhodok woman who I think I could get married to, but is it best to marry a Nord woman if I'm going to be rebelling against the Nords?

[Ape-tier Buffoonery]

You just get the relationship boost with the dad/brother and maybe her cousins/uncles. 3 Right-to-rule and the ability to hold feasts. A couple other things too but those are the bigger ones I remember.

It's not like becoming part of someone's family (Where you lose relation once you leave the faction or if anyone gets captured but get some slight benefits like staying at their castles free or getting a tiny relations boost every week or month), once you marry a woman you can do whatever you'd like and it's not like you get a relationship hit with any one lord (Except maybe the one who is trying to court her but that's beside the point)

Generally I'll marry a woman who gives me some early relations with a lord I know is pretty good to have around (Owns a city or castle) but isn't necessarily honourable (Since I can +relations easily just by having honour with these lords). Also if she's not those weird freakazoids from Rhodoks/Swadian lands that always helps.

[Tuidjy]

When I play together with my real wife, we always choose the prettiest girl for our guy, and the most handsome and cunning lord for our gal.

When I minmax, the best possible father would :
- own a city.
- have cunning or martial personality.
- be already at odds with his monarch.
- have a lot of brothers and sons, preferably cunning and martial, preferably owning castles and cities of their own.

Once I actually found someone like this, I think in Floris. I turned him and his relatives within days of declaring myself Emperor. But usually you will only get a few of the above... it does not matter too much - the two most important things about your wife are that she can manage your kingdom and your court, i.e. be your minister and organize feasts.

[Ape-tier Buffoonery]

Oh! I totally forgot about that marrying as a female character:
Be a total gold digger! Marry the lord with the most troops or richest town, why? Because as a female lord/later queen you get access to all his troops. Yeah relation and all that is nice too but you have it hard enough as a female character might as well get some perks for it.

And as Tuidjy brought up: Go for the better looking ones. I think these lords are generally littered about, and I haven't really taken a good look at which is the most handsome but I may have to say that the Khergit/Sarranid lords on average are usually the uglier of the bunch I think there's a few alright looking ones sprinkled in there. Lol so opposite from the Ladies.

[Sohei]

Also consider the troop types that your ally by marriage will bring to a battle. Some faction troops will be more useful than others for achieving your goals.