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Crusader Kings 3’s Royal Court has new ways to interact with your liege

Playing as a vassal, you'll be able to petition your liege or pay homage when the Royal Court DLC arrives

An impressionist painting of a delegation of knights riding in the fields outside a royal manor estate.

Depending on your approach to playing Crusader Kings III, from time to time you may find yourself having to bend the old knee to some mightier queen or emperor. As it stands, however, there aren’t many ways to interact with a liege, but the grand strategy game’s upcoming Royal Court DLC is going to change that by adding in some new decisions for vassals to make.

The latest Crusader Kings III dev diary goes into some detail about the two new decisions. There’s Petition Liege, which allows you to make some request of your feudal overlord every five years by spending some prestige, so long as they have something you can ask for. You might need their help paying off a debt, or to grant you a title you have a claim on. You also can ask for a position on their council, or to enforce peace within the realm – helpful if you’ve been running around the kingdom starting fights for the past twenty years.

Basically, this gives you a few options to try before resorting to war, which can be awfully costly when you’re up against a powerful monarch who still enjoys at least some support from their other vassals. That’ll remain an option, but going forward you’ll at least have some quicker and easier things to try first if you’re so inclined.

Of course, making a request doesn’t guarantee it’ll be fulfilled. Lieges can refuse to grant an audience to a petitioner, or turn down the request itself once it’s been heard. That’s usually regarded as a tyrannical move, but as Crusader Kings players are already no doubt aware, that’s not something that concerns certain rulers very much.

Lieges can opt to attach some cost to granting your request by making a counter-offer, and you’ll be able to weigh this offer to determine whether it’s still worth getting the king involved with your local unruly faction if it means granting him a hook, for instance.

The other new decision the dev diary reveals is paying homage. This is essentially a pledge of allegiance to the ruler, and it’s accompanied by some gift – a hook, for instance, or perhaps a sum of gold. If it all goes well, both the liege and petitioner get improved opinion, some renown, and prestige – but things can go badly if you’re a particularly uncharismatic vassal or clumsily trip over your robes on the way into the court.

The Royal Court DLC is shaping up to be an interesting addition to Crusader Kings 3, adding some extra layers of nuance and palace intrigue to the medieval game. Paradox says the expansion should be out before the end of the year.