Templar system:



The system works this way: you might get offered the templar service if you're a young, martially skilled, catholic and pious enough character. If you accept, the service lasts at least until you are 35 years old. After that treshold, you can decide to come home either via decision, or via a random event. During the templar service you will be considered to be abroad, so you're going to need a regent. During the service you will get many templar related events, and you might get some even on your trip back home from the holy land, which always lasts around two years. Remember that when you click on the decision as well, and always keep in mind that it's not so easy to get out of the order, and that the holy land is a dangerous place!



Peerage of England system:



The peerage of england system is present only if the ruler of england is of norman or english culture. It basically adds many titular titles corresponding to those of the peerage, except from barons, which are impossible to render in the game engine. So the heir to the throne will be prince of wales, the male firstborn will be duke of cornwall, the male second born will be duke of york, and the thirdborn will be duke of bedford. Then you got other titles that you can assign to vassals or family members, like the duchy of clarence and gloucester for junior sons of the monarch, the duchy of norfolk and earldom arundel (jointly assigned, making the premier earl), the duchies of aumale, exeter, surrey and lancaster, assigned to a local landholder, together with the earldoms of buckingham and warwick, assigned with the same criteria, and the earldom of the marches which can be assigned to bordering lords on either the scottish marshes or the welsh ones. The whole system works via events.



Guelphs vs. Ghibellines system:



In the new system guelphs and ghibellines are distinct factions of the hre. They cannot exist at the same time, and the existing one will be determined by the investiture law of the emperor. Once (and only if) he changes it to crown investiture, the system will start and a guelph faction will appear in order to fight to restore the papal supremacy. If they grow powerful enough they will send the emperor an ultimatum, and if he accepts it the law will revert to papal investiture, whereas on the alternative case of refusing it a civil war between the guelphs and the ghibellines will break out, with the result of a change in law in the case of guelph victory, possibly via nominating a more favorable guelph ruler. If the law is successfully reverted to papal investiture through the guelph faction, the ghibelline faction will appear, with the same behaviour and goals, but with crown investiture as a goal. Also, italian guelphs and ghibellines are able to wage war on each other only because they are part of the adverse faction, via a special cb working like a conquest one.



Creatable Holy Orders:



There are 16 creatable holy orders creatable via decision. You can create them starting at year 1090 if you are a catholic ruler of a higher tier than duke, you completely control their province of origin, have 2 years of income at hand and 1000 prestige. Once you create an order, your ruler won't be able to create another one in his lifetime, even if he has the requirements. When you click on the decision, the pope will decide on granting you the authorization for the fouding, and if he does so you will be able to found the order of your choice which will be given their barony of origin, the grandmaster title and a county depending on the avaiability, or if it's a capital or not. The newly generated grandmaster will be vassalized by you, and you will be able to raise the order at a much reduced piety hit, and manteinance costs.



Cardinal and Papal election system:



The system works this way: there are 25 seats for cardinals, and those will be randomly and gradually assigned to either a landed bishop, an important court chaplain or the cadet son of an important ruler who asked the pope for such recognition. Out of the landless cardinals who reside at the papal court, 6 will be assigned to the 6 dioceses of rome, a handful will be cardinal deacons and one the cardinal protodeacon, with the latter not able to be elected pope. Once the pope dies a new one is immediatly generated by the game, but at the same time a conclave will be held to determine who is the future pope between the cardinals. There are 10 papables, ranked in no priority, based on different conditions such as holding a key bisphoric, being a great theologian, being sponsored by someone important, being highborn and so on. The choices might overlap, so that if a papable falls into more than 1 category he will have a higher chance of being elected. You can influence the election if one of the papables is of your dynasty by funding his papal campaign (there is a sponsored category between the papables), which will give you a personal opinion gain with the cardinal (and possible future pope), and all kinds of bonuses if he wins the race. Be careful though, if you backed another cardinal the new pope might not like you so much!



Fealty system:



Every vassal is required to swear fealty to his liege. This will happen either at the confirmation ceremony, or at a later stage if you couldn't attend the ceremony. If you refuse to swear fealty, your liege can choose either to ignore it, but you will still be his vassal with great penalties for him and a relations hit, or to declare war on you and possibly imprison you/strip you of your titles. Note that if you somehow end up being at war with someone you swore fealty to, that will give you the oathbreaker trait and lots of other negative consequences. So be careful to keep your oaths, medieval society frowned upon those who did not!







Holy war system:





In order to declare a holy war, there are some conditions to be fulfilled: you have to have at least 250 piety or be zealous, but such treshold becomes only piety related once you are over year 1150. Every 75 years until 1300 the piety treshold increases by 250, so you need to have at least 500 piety in 1225, and at least 750 piety in 1300.