#ck2

[fkaluis]

ireyne and adryan of house velaryon

some ocs set in a world inspired by my crusader kings 2 save, decades after dany reclaimed her throne. adryan is the eldest of the family, both of them are cousins to the targaryen prince and heir of the iron throne.

#asoiaf #art #a song of ice and fire #asoiaf art #valyrianscrolls #drawing #house velaryon #velaryon #oc art #ocs #ck2

[morgenstern16]

#crusader kings #ck2 #ck3 #best games ever made

[toasttt11]

hmph

April 4, 2016

Carina sat at a table in the hotels banquet room, where the team was going to meet up all together for the first time for the U-18 IIHF Championship, Carina felt someone sit next to her and she looked up her face in her normal glare, Clayton Keller sat next to her giving her a nudge to her shoulder smiling at her.

“Keller.” Carina bluntly greeted him, Carina and Clayton having known each other for a while now.

“Kniesy!” Clayton smiled happily not at all bothered at her bluntly tone and glare on her face knowing that’s just how Carina is, “Did you meet everyone yet?” Clayton also knew Carina hates most people as she is the biggest anti people person ever.

Carina grunted and shook her head.

Clayton smiled and looked around who is the closeted, “Wolly!” Clayton called out to Joseph Woll, who turned around and smiled walking over to the two.

“Hey.” Joseph smiled brightly his eyes lingering longer on the beautiful girl next to Clayton.

“Wolly this Carina, Kniesy this is Joseph.” Clayton happily introduced the two noticing how Joseph eyes kept looking back at her.

“Hi!” Joseph brightly beamed at her giving her his whole attention.

Carina eyebrow raised at how bright his smile was and nodded slightly, Joseph didn’t seemed bothered by her response just kept smiling.

“Don’t mind her, she’s a grumpy one.” Clayton teased his friend nudging her, Carina just rolled her eyes sharply elbowing him back.

Joseph just smiled and sat at the seat next to Carina, just as the coach walked in and everyone took a seat at all the different tables.

“Get to know each other, you’re a team now.” The coach finished off his talk about what they want to achieve in this tournament and how he hopes they play, he finished talking and headed to a table with the staff letting the team get to know each other.

“You’re a center right?” Joseph turned his attention back to Carina once the meeting was over.

Carina nodded slightly, not loving how he keeps involving her in the conversation as she hates making conversation and does he always have to have such a bright smile and happy personality.

“That’s sick.” Joseph grinned having thought it’s amazing that she is on the boys team and can obviously easily keep up and keeps all of them in their toes with her skills.

Carina continued to sit quietly as the table talked and she could tell Joseph was trying to bring her into the conversation but she would rather not.

Carina saw some of the players leaving after a little while and she got up just as she felt her phone buzz and she saw a facetime from her brothers she started walking out of the room and answered their facetime.

Joseph watched her leave with heart eyes and a goofy smile and was so focused on her leaving he didn’t even realize he was being very obvious.

“Oh buddy.” Clayton winced in sympathy knowing Carina will probably never give him a chance, Clayton patted him on the shoulder.

Joseph snapped out of his day dream and turned to Clayton, “What?”

“Don’t, Kniesy doesn’t do relationships.” Clayton knew that if she does have a relationship in the future the perosn is going to be quite special to be able to break through her walls.

“I wasn’t.” Joseph weakly denied, all he could think about is how beautiful she was.

#carinakniesau #ck2 #joseph woll x oc #joseph woll blurbs #joseph woll #clayton keller #matthew knies #auston matthews x oc #auston matthews #matthew knies x oc #mitch marner x oc #mitch marner #john tavares #owen power #jj peterka #jack quinn #jack eichel #nhl x oc #nhl blurb #nhl au #buffalo sabres #toronto maple leafs

[mediumshock]

Not to be autistic on main but ck3 (and ck2) are like so good for world building inspiration. I have little dialogs in my head of how characters are interacting with eachother, war, conflicts, family drama, anything. All of it surrounding medieval politics. It just scratches an itch in my brain so right. I don't even get mad when bad shit happens. Like, baby that's character development that is going to carry on for generations to come. Your great grandchild will someday go to war with your sister who wants the crown. Your kid might fucking murder you. Chef's kiss.

#crusader kings 3 #pc games #pc #ck3 #ck2 #paradox #world politics #world building #kings #queens #drama #im tagging this seriously to find other ck players who feel the same #anyone who likes world building should play #it's so good

[demongirlgarlicbread]

Paradox games are.. interesting. We can put it like that. I'm talking specifically about the propensity for doing truly abominable thing within the world of the game. Stellaris and it's intergalactic slavery and genocide. Hearts of Iron and how it lets you establish a fascist regime over all the world. Crusader Kings and how you can get.. well.. medieval. And Europa Universalis, where you engage in colonial expansion and genocide as a matter of course.

EU4 stands out as the most uncomfortable to play, when you sit back from the ducats and the development and the drilling.

It's not like Stellaris, where the scales are too big to ever really grasp what you're doing. There's too much abstraction. You can't look at a pop and say "this is X amount of people I've enslaved or condemned to genocide."

It's not like Hoi4, where in the interests of creating a wargaming experience, the only relevance fascism has to the game is the alliances your country makes, the type of puppet state you establish, and the buffs you get from your focus tree. TNO is as of yet the only Hoi4 experience we've had that grapples with fascism. What it means, what it does, what it is. And it's in essence a visual novel grafted onto the game, near completely divorced from the standard experience. One of the stories it tells is in fact a repudiation of the standard Hoi4 experience, that of a world conquest. What does that say about the game?

CK2, on the other hand, is very personal. The stories you tell with the game are about people, after all. Love, lust, rage, hatred. Scheming, fighting, praying. Cruelty, kindness, apathy, fervor. It does the opposite of the two games mentioned above, and brings into sharp focus the individual lives of the rulers. Every part of the mechanics and the flavor is centered around telling the tale of an individual monarch and their dynasty.

And that's an interesting question, mechanics. How do the mechanics of a game influence your experience with it? And I'm not talking about the basic functions of mechanics here or anything. I'm not talking about whether or not the game is fun to play, or well designed. I'm talking about the way the interaction of the mechanics with the setting of the game influences the way you think about it.

In Stellaris, you think about the grand scale. Of great empires, of massive economies. You're far beyond the concerns of manpower. Far beyond the focus of the individual on the ground. You have no time for that. There are stars to explore, civilizations to conquer, and a galaxy to colonize. Stellaris is a very dehumanizing game. The closest you get to stories on the ground are events talking about large societal trends, or the archaeological digs. I don't think anything with your leaders counts, really. They're paragons, isolates, and more representative of groups than they are themselves. Stellaris isn't a game about people. It's a game about civilizational machines, beyond your ability to comprehend.

In Hoi4, you think about war. Your goal is to get to a war economy and a high conscription law as fast as possible, produce as much war material as you can, and then go about the business of fighting the second world war. Hoi4 is so incredibly focused on war in its mechanics that it presents an utterly alien dichotomy the moment you sit down to think about it. You, the commander in chief of this nation of many millions of people, are actively encouraged to rush towards the death of millions. Because doing right by your country, fighting a limited war, only doing as much as is necessary to defend yourself to ensure the best life for your people, that's not only boring, it's non-optimal gameplay. This is exacerbated to such a degree that it's the opinion of most persons that the democratic nations, the most passive and reactive nations, are the most unfun to play. You are encouraged by the mechanics of the game and how it provides enjoyment to be a warmongering tyrant, because fighting war is the purpose of the thing. For a game about the second world war, it seems incredibly uninterested in actually portraying anything but the most surface level, historybro understanding of it. Particularly when it comes to atrocity. It's a game about civilizational machines, grinding into one another and desperately asking you to forget about the civilian dead.

Then EU4. It's a game that starts in 1444, and ends in 1836, and chronicles the history of the world in a wholly and entirely eurocentric manner. Your goal is not so much to conquer the world(though you may) but to become a dominant global power through your mastery of science, diplomacy, the economy, snd the military. As one might expect, one of the primary mechanics of this game is colonization. Another primary mechanic is culture and religion. Like all things in EU4, these mechanics can be somewhat labyrinthine to those who are inexperienced with the game. So I'll spare any readers an in depth dissertation on how it works. The gist of things is that each province has a religion and a culture, representing the beliefs and way of life of those living there. Ethnicity too, one might presume. When you colonize a territory, you over the course of a number of years turn it from a stateless, uncontrolled province to one with your own culture and religion. Except, the land is not uninhabited. It is with only a very few exceptions, never uninhabited. There are people there. Cultures and religions. Helpfully marked down with population stats, as well as 'aggressiveness' and 'ferocity' stats to let any potential colonizers know what to expect. As though these people are simply animals, and should be dealt with like animals.

When you colonize, of course, people will fight back. Native uprisings, they're called. So you need to station troops there, to protect your invasion and your genocide. But since your troops can only be in so many places at once, well. Wouldn't it be nice if there was some way to get the inevitable fight over with? In comes the 'attack natives' button, marked with a helpful graphic of a stylized man wearing a stylized war bonnet running from a stylized sword. With one to three applications of sword mana, you can commit genocide at your leisure, and reduce the population in the province to zero so your settlers have an easier time of things.

And so the game goes. For captured territory, there's a religion conversion button and a culture conversion button. The mechanics, through their simulation of people simply desiring to be free, make it optimal to crack down, restrict autonomy, crush rebellions, and homogenize all religion and culture. You are playing as an absolutist monarch, after all. Though even the republics aren't any better, because they're under the same mechanical pressures as the monarchies.

So it's interesting, how these mechanics influence your view of the world that the game presents. You get to see, in close to real time, how your empire snuffs out peoples and cultures and faiths, all for the sake of power and money. And these are good things for you, the player. Because the good numbers go up, and the bad numbers go down. You make more money, you have to deal with less unrest, and your name on the map grows larger. Press button, kill people, receive dopamine. All in a way that's so incredibly difficult to divorce yourself from, because the mechanics invite you to actively take part in the atrocities. And they make them fun. And satisfying. And it's on a scale that is very, very, very possible to comprehend. It's a game about civilizational machines crushing peoples under their heels, all while inviting you to look and see with just enough detail to make out the dead.

If you're going to play Paradox games, then you need to go into them knowing damn well what the difference is between what they're portraying and how they're portraying it. So you don't reduce the very real people who survived the horrors of colonialism to numbers on a screen.

#just some late night thoughts #externalizing what's been brewing for a while while we play colonialism sim #this sort of thought process always crops up when we play eu4 #and I'm glad of it #perspective is important #eu4 #paradox #hoi4 #stellaris #ck2 #grand strategy

[novaraptorus]

Starting a series of illustrations of Jesus as depicted across North America in the post-post-apocalypse of After the End! Starting wiiiiith:

# CALIFORNIA

In the Imperial Palace of Sacramento, the capital of the Most Righteous Celestial Empire of California, the marble statue of Guru Jesus is not the largest, or fanciest of the Gurus depicted. Yet it is Guru Jesus who receives offerings and prayers to a degree almost unmatched by any other Guru.

Symbolising the Star Sign Scorpio, Guru Jesus teaches us the world is full of dangers and it is only with a steadfast commitment to living a pure life that we can hope to navigate them. It was he who remarked on the power that faith has over those that wish us ill - "In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all."

Peace and Love dudes.

#after the end #original art #digital art #oc art #mythology and folklore #christian mythology #theology #? kinda #not sure what to tag this #california #Californiacation of Jesus #AtE #AtEff #ck3 #ck2 #post apocalyptic #post post apocalypse

[heyo-phillip-dead]

the steam reviews for crusader kings ii are fucking unhinged

#ck2 #crusader kings ii #crusader kings 2 #i love this game and the psychos who love it w me

[smolebleat]

Am I the only person out there that thinks Warrior Cats would be a cool idea for a Crusader Kings total conversion game???

Probably set between DOTC and TPB or maybe even after in the Lake Territories

Plagues could be simulations of whitecough/greencough

The big invasion events could be influxes of rogues into the Territories

Various traits could be retranslated based on lore of warrior cats

Not sure how a lives system could be put in place for leaders but maaaybe that'd be neat too?

#I just think that'd be a neat idea #warrior cats #crusader kings #ck2 #ck3 #waca #warriors

[rogue-lavellan-trin]

Forgotten Realms mod for crusader kings 2 can be a bit wacky

#bg3 #ck2

[victusinveritas]

#paradox interactive #crusader kings 2 #ck2 #zapp brannigan

[holycrowe]

"I'm very sorry to the guy who ran away from China to find refuge in my court but I recently took up an extremely expensive hobby (gardening apparently) and if China gives me money for you, you gotta go back srry"

#ck2 #crusader kings 2

[jorocks30]

Ta-da! I’ve finally done it, I’m now posting to AO3. If you want to read some nice little tidbits about my OCs please check it out. The story and characters are all based off of one of my CK2 AGOT playthroughs. I hope you enjoy; the stories are mainly character exploration, dynamics, and world building for my little oc story.

#my ocs #asoiaf #a song of ice and fire #hotd #house of the dragon #game of thrones #writing #drabbles #ck2 #crusader kings 2 #valyrianscrolls #asoiaf meta #world building

[morgenstern16]

one of the most interesting ways that things have changed from crusader kings 2 to crusader kings 3 is the 867 afghanistan start. in ck2 the early years were a vicious fight for survival against the saffarids, the seljuks, and the ghaznavids as they sought to smite your infidel ass but now in ck3 you can just hand off your Least Important Baby to them for 16 years and they'll just sheepishly take care of it while you focus on taking over western india completely safe

#crusader kings #crusader kings 2 #crusader kings 3 #ck2 #ck3 #the iranian intermezzo and hostage mechanics are fun but a bit easy to exploit if you know what you're doing

[toasttt11]

do you like me?

April 19, 2021

Carina has tried for the six years to do everything to not think about or care for Joseph Woll, but he seems to have a way to worm his way through her walls and she hated it because no one has ever made her feel so much.

After she invited him to her game in December of 2019 she didn’t get to see him before the rest of the season was suspended and she headed home to her family but she did stay in contact as Joseph asked to be able to text her and she reluctantly agreed still not sure why.

Carina did spend most of her time in quarantine working out and being on the ice. It was a lot for Carina being home for so long again and not being able to leave. She did enjoy being near her family longer than a few weeks but it was difficult living with people again for that long as she is use to living alone most of the time.

Carina reluctantly did keep in contact with Joseph, texting him more than she has ever texted anyone and gave him the rare facetime’s, they became a lot closer and Joseph could tell Carina was softening towards him bit by bit.

Carina was in her new house she bought a few months ago, and was pacing in her bedroom trying to decide if this was the correct idea and she couldn’t take it back.

Carina wasn’t stupid, she may be grumpy but she understood that Joseph had regrettable wormed his way into her heart and she couldn’t stop no matter how much she tried to too.

Carina let out a deep breath glaring at the ground as she continued to pace. Groaning once more she all but stomped out of her house and into her car starting to drive out of her driveway.

Carina had left right as the sun was setting and the traffic had already cleared up and she got to her destination within a hour and a half, she parked in the parking garage and headed into the elevator up the the floor she knows she needs to go.

She walked through the hallway and knocked on the apartment she was looking for, the door opened and Jospeh was there.

“Ina? What are you doing here?” Joseph let out a disbelieving laugh and a smile came to his face.

“Can i come in?” Carina asked as politely as she got and it made Joseph raise an eyebrow but he nodded moving over letting her come in and he shut the door behind them.

Joseph watched as Carina started pacing in his living room and he frowned in worry as he has never seen Carina this emotional, “Ina is everything okay?” Joseph asked in a soft voice walking closer to her.

Carina spun around abruptly facing him and blunty asked him, “Do you like me?” Carina fiddled with her fingers behind her back and away from Joseph seeing.

Joseph froze and his eyes widen dramatically, “What- Why are you asking?” Joseph spluttered out nervously.

“Do you?” Carina asked slightly softer but still very blunt as she took a step closer to him.

Joseph took a deep breath but nodded seeing Carina looking at him, “I do.” Jospeh’s felt a sense of relief finally telling her his feelings after six years.

Carina slowly nodded not looking away from him and crossed her arms around herself, “Well are you going to ask me to be your girlfriend?” Carina sassed him with a slight smirk.

“Girlfriend?” Joseph spluttered out again looking at her nervously but hopeful, Carina nodded once more, “You like me Ina?” Joseph stepped closer to her and even with her doc martens on he was still a few inches taller than.

“So what if i did.” Carina sassed back hoping to cover her feelings.

“Then i would love to ask you to be my girlfriend.” Jospeh softly replied but giving her a stern look rasing his eyebrow as he wasn’t asking her until she at least told him she felt something.

Carina looked away letting out a hmph, Jospeh could see a slight pout on her lip before she started mumbling to herself.

“Ina, i can’t hear you.” Jospeh softly interrupted her mumbling and grumbles, he watched as she took a deep breath before looking back at him.

“I feel something for you too.” Carina glared at Jospeh keeping her arms crossed.

“That’s all you had to say Ina.” Joseph softly smiled at her but also felt his heart jump hearing the words he’s waited for.

“So would you like to be my girlfriend Ina?” Joseph looked at her fondly gently nudging her arm.

“Alright.” Carina furrowed her eyebrows nodding, “Guess that’s fine.” Carina tried to act nonchalantly but Joseph could see the slight smile on her face.

“May i kiss my girlfriend?” Joseph questioned titling his head.

“If you want.” Carina whispered out as he leaned closer to her and his hand brushed against her back and rested there, she swallowed at his touch and feeling his breath hit her lips.

“I would love that.” Joseph whispered back before pressing his lips gently to hers and pulling her closer to him, he felt her hands tentatively run across his shoulders up to his neck and rest there as they kissed each other.

Carina pulled away catching her breath and let herself smile slightly as she looked up at him.

“Wait don’t you have a game tomorrow?” Joseph looked at her in concern as he suddenly remembered.

“I’m sick.” Carina plainly anwsered a small smirk forming on her face as she faked a cough.

“You-“ Jospeh shook his head speechless but also not suprised because it’s Carina, he smiled and pulled her back into a kiss.

Carina stomach rumbled as they kissed and Jospeh pulled back letting out a fond chuckle, “Want dinner?”

“It’s late.” Carina protested kinda feeling bad.

“And you’re hungry.” Jospeh sternly replied gently and slowly grabbing her hand so if she wanted to pull away she could but he smiled when she squeezed his hand back, “Come on i made dinner a few hours ago and i have a lot of leftovers.” Joseph walked with her to his kitchen and sadly dropped her hand as he grabbed the food from his refrigerator and grabbed a pan to heat up.

Carina let out a small noise when she saw he made salmon bowls her favorite, “Salmon?”

“You like Salmon still?” Joseph asked hoping she still does, Carina nodded quickly. Joseph smiled and started heating up the food pretty quickly and putting it into a bowl and putting it onto the counter, “You want something to drink?”

“Water. please.” Carina replied. Joseph smiled and grabbed her a glass of water before picking the bowl up and gesturing for her to follow him he brought them to his couch and set her food onto the coffee table.

“Thought you would be more comfortable.” Joseph shrugged when he saw her questioning look, Carina nodded sitting down and slipped off her boots and put her keys and phone onto the coffee table before picking the bowl up as Joseph sat down next to her.

Carina hummed as she took her first bite and happily ate another big spoonful, “Good?”Joseph asked curiously as he watched her fondly, Carina replied with a rapid nod.

Joseph clicked on a random show as Carina ate her dinner.

Carina put her bowl on the coffee table, “Thank you.” She looked over at Joseph.

“Of course.” Jospeh softly smiled back before looking at the time seeing it was already ten o’clock at night, “Your staying tonight.” Joseph stated and got up off the couch.

“Not gonna ask first?” Carina teased him as she got up following after him.

“No, i’m not letting you drive home this late.” Jospeh called back as he walked to his bedroom, he opened his drawer grabbing a pair of sweat shorts and a t-shirt and turned around and handed them to her, “The bathroom is right there.” He pointed to the bathroom door.

Carina nodded and headed into the bathroom shutting the door and slipping off her clothes and putting on his, she walked back out leaving her clothes in the bathroom.

Joseph looked over and smiled softly at the sight of her in his clothes, “Uh you can have my bed and i’ll take the couch.” Joseph offered not wanting to overwhelm her.

Carina shook her head soflty walking over grabbing his hand pulling him to his bed, “We can share.”

Joseph smiled and squeezed her hand back, he pulled the covers back and got into bed and Carina laid down next to him.

Carina laid her head on the pillow looking at Joseph, Carina tentatively brought her hand up to his face and gently brushed her fingers across his cheek and into his hair.

Joseph smiled softly closing his eyes enjoying her soft touch as he slowly fell asleep.

#carinakniesau #ck2 #joseph woll imagine #joseph woll x oc #joseph woll blurbs #joseph woll #matthew knies x oc #matthew knies #mitch marner x oc #auston matthews x oc #auston matthews #mitch marner #willy nylander #toronto maple leafs #owen power #jj peterka #jack quinn #buffalo sabres #dylan cozens #rasmus dahlin #nhl x oc #nhl blurbs #clayton keller #quinn hughes #jake oettinger #nhl au #nhl blurb

[a-chaotic-dumbass]

love the ck2 agot mod bc in my latest playthrough i played as ned wifed up catelyn had like 7 kids won the rebellion took in jon so robert wouldnt throw a temper tantrum only for robert to roll over dead in the next month then stannis became king i accidentally became his commander and made his council and vassals love me married my first child (robb) off to margaery betrothed jon to the new lord paramount's of the stormslands daughter married off another one of my bastards which i accidentally had to the vale and won a bunch of tourneys all before the age of 30

#chaos plays #ck2 #asoiaf #ck2 agot #ned stark #eddard stark #like i said. easy #not a rebellion in sight my vassals love me and my wife will give me many children. if only cersei didn't die i wouldve smashed too😔 alas

[boldly-legendary]

When you finally win after spending years waging a claim war in a country on the other side of the world, and then you realise you forgot to vassalize the claimant and have to do the whole thing again.

#crusader kings 2 #ck2