Prestige
Prestige is a measure of how honorable and respected a character is.
Prestige is increased in a variety of ways. Any given title will gradually increase the holder's prestige. A high Diplomacy skill will slowly increase Prestige, as will having a lot of direct vassals. Creating or usurping titles will also give a lump sum of Prestige, and some traits give Prestige per month.
Winning battles and sieges earns significant prestige, divided primarily among the flank leaders, but also among the unit owners. Wars fought under most casus belli give a significant prestige boost to the winner and major participants, and cost the loser prestige.
Increasing prestige[edit | edit source]
Monthly gain:
- Held titles and direct vassal titles
- Some council positions: chancellor, marshal, or steward
- Most honorary titles, along with automatic minor titles such as ruler consort
Muslims also gain monthly prestige based on the titles of landed relatives
Nomads also gain monthly prestige if their capital is on a holy site (of any religion)- Tribal rulers can gain monthly prestige by assigning their steward to Build Legend.
Patricians get 1 Prestige per month for every 2000 gold they have (caps out at 6000 gold).- Dynasty controls holy order
- Some traits: Proud
, Scarred 
, Born in the purple 
, Augustus 
, Kshatriya 
, Shaivist 
, Viking 
and its upgrades, Renowned Physician 
- Small monthly gain from Diplomacy skill
- Concubines below age 45 or extra wives (With 4 wives, kings and emperors following Islam or
reformed pagan faiths with the Polygamy doctrine cannot earn more prestige, but can prevent prestige loss.)
Lump sum gain:
- Creating or usurping titles
- As a commander, one point of prestige per 100 enemy troops slaughtered
- As an army owner, one point of prestige per 200 enemy troops slaughtered
- Winning a war, or having contributed to a war won by your side
- Tributary wars give extra prestige
- Holy wars often give you a chance to (re)create a duchy title afterward
- Marriage prestige effects, when marrying into a prestigious dynasty or higher rank (not applicable if both groom and bride are Muslims)
- Taking a concubine of noble birth (+25 prestige per rank of parent)
- Fleet returning to port with loot from raiding
The amount of prestige gained by creating, usurping or destroying a title, as well as the monthly gains from holding a title, are given in the following table:
| Name | Creation | Destruction | Usurp | Hold directly | Vassal holds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Barony | 50 | N/A | N/A | 0.025 | 0.025 |
| County | N/A | N/A | N/A | 0.1 | 0.1 |
| Duchy | 200 | -200 | 50 | 0.2 | 0.2 |
| Kingdom | 400 | -400 | 100 | 0.8 | 0.8 |
| Empire | 800 | -800 | 200 | 1.6 | N/A |
Effects of prestige[edit | edit source]
- +1 opinion bonus from most characters for every 200 prestige, for a maximum of +10 at 2000 prestige. (Theocratic rulers care about piety instead.)
- Nomadic khans' and khagans' opinion of each other is greatly affected by prestige, as prestige affects clan sentiment. More importantly, the increase to clan sentiment from prestige has no cap. (But, opinion boost from clan sentiment is capped at +100.)
- Determines heir under some succession laws:
- Open Elective (along with age)
- Patrician Elective (along with age and funding)
- Nomadic Succession
- Imperial elective (along with certain attributes); electors' influence also affected by prestige
- Some important decisions require a minimum prestige, without spending it, such as:
- Creating
custom titles requires 1000 prestige for a kingdom and 8000 prestige for an empire. - Prepared Invasion requires 1000 prestige
- Creating
- Added to score upon death, along with piety
Spending prestige[edit | edit source]
- Construct buildings in tribal holdings.
- Some nomadic horde troops require prestige to hire and maintain.
- Tribal rulers can utilise tribal-exclusive
retinues which cost prestige. - Some powerful CBs cost prestige, such as Tribal Invasion and Nomad Invasion
- Decisions to convert religion/culture
- If your succession is not Gavelkind or Elective Gavelkind, you get a prestige penalty for having unlanded sons. Exceptions are government types with only one succession law, namely:
- Muslims
- Patricians in merchant republics
- Imperial Elective
- Nomads
Dynasty Prestige[edit | edit source]
Dynasty Prestige is a measure of the accomplishments of an entire dynasty. It is visible by going to the dynasty screen from the character window. At birth, a character's personal prestige is set to 1/5 of their dynasty prestige. At marriage, characters gain 1/10 of their spouse's dynasty prestige (making AI more willing to marry into prestigious dynasties). Both of those fractions are alterable in defines.lua
Dynasty prestige is calculated by summing up all titles held by living dynasty members plus those held by deceased ones. The same title will count multiple times if held by several dynasty members in succession, so if A holds a kingdom and his son B later inherits it, the dynasty will be credited with two held kingdoms and 40 prestige. The amount of prestige per title is:
| Barony | County | Duchy | Kingdom | Empire |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 5 | 10 | 20 | 40 |
Strategies for increasing dynasty prestige[edit | edit source]
- Put your dynasty members in power: see Advanced marriage guide
- Elect your dynasty members as pope
: see Papal succession#Strategies - Arrange for extra members of your dynasty to rule theocracies
or minor republics 
- Especially useful for bastards
because these government types disallow or discourage ruler marriage - Grant title, investiture, or matrilineal marriage into the court of a ruler who uses Open elective succession
- Especially useful for bastards
- Establish a vassal merchant republic
with a kinsman as doge
- Give the doge a large demesne to maintain power, and to increase dynasty prestige per patrician even when not doge
- Help the doge reach king tier, e.g. by granting the duchy of Venice and one additional duchy
- Accept the short reigns
typical of Seniority succession, or elect old relatives with Feudal elective succession
