Crusader Kings III

Crusader Kings III

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Co-Emperors and Symbasileuses 2: Born-in-the-Purple Also Available in Rome!
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19 Feb, 2022 @ 7:18am
7 Nov @ 4:01pm
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Co-Emperors and Symbasileuses 2: Born-in-the-Purple Also Available in Rome!

In 1 collection by bighungryjames
bighungryjames' CK3 mods
7 items
Description
What does this mod do?
This is a recreation of my mod, "Co-Emperors and Symbasileuses" in CK2, ported into CK3.
(For anyone curious, here's the link: https://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1583784589 )

There has been a great update after the DLC "Roads to Power". Since the vanilla game now supports Co-Emperorship, the mod was updated to reflect the changes. The original main function of this mod was to allow emperors to have born-in-the-purple grandchildren by appointing their children as Co-Emperors. However, that was implemented in the vanilla game, hence reducing the utility of this mod slightly.

Nonetheless, the vanilla game still has problems. First, after restoring the Roman Empire, you would lose this mechanic if you moved your capital to Rome. This mod fixes that by allowing you to rebuild Domitian Palace in Rome after the restoration of the Roman Empire via a decision so that you can benefit from the Purple-born features even when your capital is Rome, not Constantinople (with the Bucoleon Palace). Of course, your culture should have the "Byzantine Traditions" Tradition.

Historical backgrounds
This section is mostly for justification of this mod before the Roads to Power, but I thought there might be people who are still interested in it.

The "born in the purple" trait shows that the character was born in the Purple Chamber of Bucoleon Palace, Constantinople, when their parents were the ruling emperor and empress at the time of their birth. Historically, Porphyrogenitus or the people "born in the purple" had higher legitimacy than people who weren't, granting a decent advantage to the descendants of the current emperor in the race to the Imperial Throne. Nonetheless in this game, when you get your grandchildren, they will not get this trait because their parents are not reigning at the time of their birth. However, this is NOT historical at all.

The Byzantine Emperors were not fools. Instead of threatening their own grandchildren's legitimacy, they devised a clever bypass to this problem by making their heir apparent as "Emperors", often upon birth. The appointed junior, co-ruling emperors had full access to the "purple chamber", built with purple porphyry marble "all purple except for the colorful spots" and decorated with silk completely dyed in Tyrian purple, inside the imperial palace in Constantinople, thereby giving birth to fully legitimate "born-in-the-purple" grandchildren as the future heirs for the Empire.

The very idea of multiple co-ruling emperors dates back to Emperor Diocletian, who founded the tetrarchy where four emperors existed, two senior and two junior, each having an army and a set of provinces to defend. However as time flowed and the empire split in half, the title of junior co-emperor was not generally recognized as the sovereign of the empire anymore. Instead, the title of co-emperor acted as a de facto crown prince, just as the position that Prince of Wales holds in the Kingdom of England. Nevertheless, since they were "technically" (or de jure, so to speak,) emperors, their legitimate children were also considered to be Porphyrogenitus/Porphyrogenita, or born in the purple. There were several prominent cases where this fact affected the imperial politics in critical ways.

Detailed mechanics
Any legitimate children that were born between the appointed Co-Emperor and his/her spouse AFTER the appointment will get the trait Born in the Purple, given that they meet all the (slightly modified) vanilla requirements. Specifically, it is that the capital of the Empire is Constantinople, non-ruler mothers must present in Constantinople at the time of the birth, and the ruling mothers must not be at war with the owner of Constantinople (vanilla requirements for the mothers were "not at war with the father", but that created weird situations where the ruling Empress at war with her vassal duke husband failing to give birth to Purple-born kid.) Also, the culture of the Emperor should have the "Byzantine Traditions" Tradition.

This feature is also maintained even after you restore the Roman Empire, provided you enact a decision (provided by this mod) to restore the Domitian Palace.

Compatibility issues and trivia
Does not change any vanilla files. Will be compatible with most of the mods.
Cannot guarantee compatibility with any major overhaul mods. Use them at your own risk.

DLC Requirement
"DLC Roads to Power" is required.

Future plans
Most of the future plans of this mod were implemented by Paradox, so I struck them out.
  • Add graphical GFX so that the Co-Emperors use the Byzantine Emperor's headgear and clothing.
  • Add faction rebellion that installs the Co-Emperor as the Emperor, while placing the former Emperor as the Co-Emperor (basically an Emperor switcheroo that happened several times historically). AI vassals will have more chance to join this faction compared to other pretender factions.
  • Add a feature where a powerful vassal demands the position of Co-Emperor, and the vassal can revolt if the demand is refused.

For the gorgeous Roman and Byzantine Coat of Arms, I strongly recommend Cat's CoA mods:
https://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2356992605
This mod was used in my playthrough and for the creation of the title image. I used it in the title image with his consent.
68 Comments
bighungryjames  [author] 11 hours ago 
Yeah, I believe that was the vanilla game's behavior after the Coronation DLC. If you find any problems caused by this mod, remember that I'll be in touch :)
Ed Balls 21 Nov @ 6:43am 
Ah, I have found out why, they mostly haven't been coronated and that is a requirement for BITP
Ed Balls 21 Nov @ 6:29am 
@bighungryjames That is a strange rule, however, in the 867 start date, The Basileus Basil's son Leo starts with the Born in the Purple trait and he was famously thought to be Michael III's son, I do not think that is the cause however, it would mean that like 90% of the children born after the Makedon family have been illegitimate, there's some other reason for them not getting the trait
bighungryjames  [author] 20 Nov @ 11:02pm 
@Ed Balls I'll look into the problem. Please make sure that the child is not cuckholded, since the code checks for the real father (even if not revealed).
Ed Balls 20 Nov @ 9:37am 
I really dont understand why, but a lot of the time the heir doesn't get Born in the Purple, Skleros Dynasty, both Mother and Father in Byzantion, No Civil war, Father Rules Byzantine Empire, but 0 year old Child doesn't get Born in the Purple?
bighungryjames  [author] 7 Nov @ 6:29pm 
@AxelLAG I'm glad you got your empire -- or hegemony, as of AUH -- up and running again. I'll be in touch.
AxelLAG 7 Nov @ 5:32pm 
it seems that it fixed itself, it was probably a clash with another mod that stopped the building being made, thank you for checking!
bighungryjames  [author] 7 Nov @ 3:59pm 
It seems fine on my end. Note that the decision itself does not give you the slot and the building, the immediately triggered decision event does. Maybe you should revert back to the savefile before taking the domitian palace decision, and try again from there.
bighungryjames  [author] 7 Nov @ 3:25pm 
Thx for the feedback. I'll see what I can do.
AxelLAG 7 Nov @ 5:56am 
Hey man, thanks for responding. Now you can take the decision, but no extra building slot is added nor the Dominitian Palace is built.