Got a great tribe of kids waiting to carve up your precious Kingdom? Yeah, Confederate Partition can be a pain. But with good planning your Primary Heir can inherit the whole lot uncontested. Here’s some options for offloading those unwanted successors.
 
 

How much does your Primary Heir really stand to Lose?

The number of titles lost on his/her succession to the throne is summarised in the game for you. Click on the green Crown icon, and hit the ‘Succession’ tab. You should see something like this:
 
 

 
 
The goal is to reduce Titles lost on succession down to 0
 
 
 

Summary of your main options

This is roughly the order of most-to-least preferred options (as I see it). Each has it own costs and benefits, which I’ll address further down below.
 
 
1. Disinheritance
 
2. Take Vows order
 
3. Join Holy Order … order
 
4. Murder
 
5. Assign suicide missions
 
6. Execution
 
 
 

1. Disinheritance

Right-click on the target and find this option under ‘Hostile Actions’
 

• Ruler must be ‘Dynasty Head’
• Cost = 300 Prestige + 150 Renown (but can be 3x higher if the target is already a powerful title holder)

 
 
 

2. Take Vows order

Right-click on the target and find this option under ‘Friendly Actions’ (friendly?)
 

• Your culture must have the Monastic tradition
• Target must be at least ten years of age
• Cost = 350 Piety
• Target might refuse, even when using a hook on them
• Target is removed from your court, but can be potentially recruited back into it. This might be useful
   
   
   
  for engaging his talents in a court or council position.However, he can no longer marry, inherit titles, be granted titles, or fight as a knight.

 
 
 

3. Join Holy Order

Work in progress. But this I’ve learnt so far:
 

• You must have established a holy order already before this option will appear under ‘Friendly Actions’
• Only applies to targets with a military background.

 
 
 

4. Murder

Right-click on the target to find this option under ‘Hostile Actions’.
 

• Requires ruler to have the Sadistic personality trait
• Lengthy process
• Usually entails costly bribes to pull off successfully
• Target might escape (unless you’ve got very high Intrigue), making them immune to further attempts for several years
• Your plot maybe detected – incurring reputation costs
• Target is removed from the game, so becomes a lost resource.

 
 
 

5. Assign suicide missions

The method here is to send the poor sap off to fight a war single-handedly. This can be dome after you ‘Forbid’ all other knights from combat. Then sub-dividing the army down to a minimum size before sending him off to battle – Don Quixote style.
 

• Potentially a lengthy process
• Target must be at least 16 years old to field in battle
• Requires declaring a war, which may be risky
• Target might escape the battlefield (especially targets with high Prowess)
• Target may merely become imprisoned by the enemy (putting them safely out of reach of your other options)
• Target is removed from the game, so becomes a lost resource.

 
 
 

6. Execution

First right-click on the target and select the ‘Imprison’ option under ‘Hostile Actions’. If successful, you can just callously have them executed via the Prisoners interface
 

• Unless the target happens to be a known criminal this brands you as both a Tyrant and a Kin-slayer. Both of these result widespread opinion penalties
• Target might evade imprisonment and flee your court, even if you have a hook on them. Potentially making them immune to other options.
• Target is removed from the game, so becomes a lost resource

 
 
 

One final consideration

Disinheritance is unpopular with some players due to its Renown cost, and the delay this causes to unlocking Dynasty Legacies. But in the long-term Disinheritance might be the better option anyway. It’s the only method that keeps the target alive and otherwise ‘in play’. This can be quite handy. Not only for retaining their skills and genetic traits, but also for the significant Renown bonuses supplied by maintaining a large dynasty with lots of title-holders. This in turn ought to accelerate your Dynasty Traditions anyway.
 
 

 
 

 
 
I hope you enjoy the Guide we share about Crusader Kings III – Shedding Unwanted Heirs; if you think we forget to add or we should add more information, please let us know via commenting below! See you soon!