Crusader Kings 3 has had a big new DLC update: Royal Court. The expansion changes a huge number of things about the game, and the gameplay area with probably the largest amount of update is the culture system.
With so many new elements, this can all seem a bit daunting for even seasoned Crusader Kings veterans, so here is a quick breakdown of the new features, including cultural ethos, traditions, and cultural pillars.
Understanding Cultural Ethos, Traditions, and Cultural Pillars
The Crusader Kings 3 culture system has changed considerably with Royal Court. Previously, while culture affected some crucial elements such as your progression along the Innovation Tree, culturally unique events, and different casus belli; this was all rather fixed in place– and it was not possible to change anything about the cultures in-game, even if you were the cultural head.
Now, it is possible to diverge new cultures with different traditions than your previous one, all with specific bonuses and modifiers – much in the same way as to how you can select new religious options when creating or reforming a religion. It’s also now possible to merge with other cultures.
All cultures have an Ethos Pillar: an overarching way of life that provides differing bonuses depending on the type. For example, this might be Bureaucratic, which provides settlement development bonuses, or Bellicose, which provides bonuses to levy size and men at arms costs. All cultures also have their own Traditions and Cultural Pillars. Cultural Pillars dictate heritage, language, aesthetics, and what gender knights and commanders can be.
As always with Crusader Kings 3, hovering your mouse over any new option in Royal Court will provide you with all the information you need about bonuses or modifiers within its excellent tooltip system.
Traditions work similarly to Religious Tenents, in that they are specific cultural elements that have certain bonuses, modifiers, and unique events and flavour events. Each culture has a maximum of five of these, and they can be changed by any cultural head. Replacing them wholesale costs an eye-watering amount of Prestige, however, so the ability to do this will only really realistically become available to you in the late game.
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