Crusader Kings Chronicle: The Prologue

September 15, 1066: Dawn of destiny

My initial goal for this game is pretty simple. While most of the world is currently ruled by Kingdoms, Ireland is merely a handful of warring Duchies and Counties. I plan to go against the grain of history and become High King of Ireland, a feat that was only briefly accomplished in 1156 for about a decade before Normans from England took hold of the Irish nobility. Once I have my crown and have secured Ireland's continued independence, we'll decide where to go from there.

I have a few issues facing me from the outset: I am not married, nor is my son and heir. Marriage is a pretty huge deal in CK2, as it can be used to form alliances and orchestrate my heirs inheriting more land than they started with. Making the wrong choice can also be dangerous, I've found. If I marry too many foreign nobles just to secure their troops for my wars, my own people will stop recognizing my line as “native” and start to grow restless.

My preference would be to marry into an Irish noble family, but none of them have eligible daughters right now. After looking over the choices, it seems that strengthening ties with my bannerman Ragnvald's Norse kinsmen is the best course of action at the moment.

September, 1066: Duke Murchad sends his messengers east with two offers of marriage. He seeks to marry Alfhild Aslaksdatter, the 36-year-old sister of the Norwegian Count Svein of Rogaland. For his son Brian, he chooses none other than the 18-year-old Princess Sigrid of Denmark, second oldest daughter of King Svend II.

Interestingly enough, it turns out that Svend's oldest daughter, Ragnhild, is married to Count Svein of Rogaland. So my liege is marrying his son's future wife's sister-in-law. Believe me, this is the Middle Ages... it's only going to get weirder.

The next thing I do is pick an ambition: short-term goals that give me a small stat boost when completed. I pick one that's sure to come true almost immediately: get married. Doing so will increase my Piety, which makes it less likely that the church will decide to excommunicate me for murdering people on my path to kingship.

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Len Hafer is a freelancer and lifelong PC gamer with a specialty in strategy, RPGs, horror, and survival games. A chance encounter with Warcraft 2: Tides of Darkness changed her life forever. Today, her favorites include the grand strategy games from Paradox Interactive like Crusader Kings and Europa Universalis, and thought-provoking, story-rich RPGs like Persona 5 and Disco Elysium. She also loves history, hiking in the mountains of Colorado, and heavy metal music.