继承人

An heir is the first character in the line of succession.

Title heir

The heir of a given title is determined via succession laws of each titles.

If the heir is already vassal to another liege, whether the inherited title will leave the realm depends on the rank of the title:

• The inherited title will leave the realm if the title is the same (or lower) rank as the heir's current primary title.
• If the inherited title is higher-ranked, the heir will remove titles from the other realm.

Titles leaving the realm can be prevented with High crown authority (without ), which excludes foreign rulers from the line of succession.

Dynastic heir

Your dynastic heir is the character you will play as once your current character dies. He/she is the heir of your primary title, if that character is of your dynasty. Otherwise, it will be another character who is (or will be) landed after your death.

If your dynastic heir is not of your dynasty, or he/she is unplayable (e.g. he or she rules a theocracy or is of a religion or government type that you lack the required DLC for), this is game over.

Selecting your heir

Depending on your government and religion, you may have several methods available to influence who becomes your heir, even without changing your succession law.

By designation

Ruler	Can designate	Method
Patrician	A man at court	Designated Heir honorary title
Nomad	A son or brother	Ensure high prestige, e.g. by having him lead a mercenary band
Buddhist , Jain , Taoist , or reformed pagan faith with Meritocracy doctrine	A child of the ruler (overriding age but not gender preference) Great with Ultimogeniture! Note: you can never designate an heir who could be preempted Girls can't be selected under agnatic-cognatic, even if there are no sons	Designate Heir button (above child's portrait)
Open Succession	A child or grandchild	Give them the best titles
Adulterer	A child among bastards	Legitimize by decision (or at birth)
Adulteress	A child among bastards	Legitimize by decision (requires that the father does not legitimize on birth)

By election

With a succession law that features succession voting, such as Feudal elective, you can nominate your favorite dynasty member to succeed you. If your vassals trust your judgment and think your nominee will be a good ruler, they will likely vote for your candidate.

You have full control over elections if you are:

• a Count with Elective gavelkind succession
• a Duke with Feudal elective succession and at most one Count vassal
• a King with Feudal elective succession and at most one Duke vassal

By disqualifying other heirs

See also: Succession#Disqualification

Ruler	Method	Can disqualify	Risks
Byzantine culture group Chinese culture group Latin Empire bloodline	Castration	Men or boys in your prison	Opinion May gain trait
Byzantine culture group	Blinding	Characters in your prison
Monastic religion	Order to take the vows	Your courtiers who are adults, and either: Unmarried and not heir to any titles, or In your prison.
Monastic religion+	Grant temple	Adult Not your primary heir Courtier or vassal's courtier Gender allowed by religion	May have to revoke a temple
Catholic	Investiture	Men of your court	May have to murder a bishop
Mainstream Christian religion	Send to holy order	Men	Depending on traits, may have a chance to flee instead of joining the holy order
Mainstream religion	Allow to join holy order	Men with 5+ martial skill More likely if
Religious head	Educate with other religion	Minors

The Christian methods work better a generation ahead: you can more easily make a grandson a bishop/monk than a son. With mutilation, Byzantine emperors can permanently disqualify any character from the imperial title.

If you need to imprison a character, the Intrigue focus can give you excuses to arrest or opportunities to abduct. When arresting a character, you might want to take steps to ensure they do not flee your realm. Your marshal can increase arrest chance with the "Suppress Revolts" job. Or you can grant a title to prevent flight. If you transfer that title under another vassal, a failed arrest will depose them rather than starting a rebellion, giving you a second chance at arrest.

By killing other heirs

You cannot plot to assassinate your own children, but you might be able to arrange their death another way. Many of these methods mark you as a kinslayer, but at least kinslayer doesn't stack...

Method	Potential victims	Issues
Battle	Adults eligible to be commanders	Risk of imprisonment by enemy if a battle is lost Could be injured without being killed: wounded, maimed, or even made incapable
Duel	Rivals, etc	, merciless, ruthless Risk of injury or death Risk that seducing your son's wife does not start a rivalry and/or causes complications
Cannibalism while carousing	Party guest (or host)	, You must be , , or Becoming a Cannibal through parties alone requires luck or persistence. A faster way is to seclude your court when threatened by an epidemic, and start running out of food.
Cannibalism of prisoner	Your prisoners age 12+	, , Crazy Cannibal (-50 general opinion), likely Requires The Reaper's Due DLC and already being a .
Execution	Your prisoners	, tyrant
Sacrifice	Your prisoners	You must be
Judged by the Sun	Your vassal prisoners	You must be . Not guaranteed to kill.
Oubliette	Your prisoners	Slow if character has high base health
Dark Sacrifice	Your prisoners	You must be a demon worshiper. Gain 10 dark power but 5 points of visibility. May become more arbitrary, more cruel, more deceitful, or possessed.
Absorb Lifeforce	Your minor children	You must be a demon worshiper level 4. Spend 500 dark power. Gain health for 10 years.

By disease

Arranging for unwanted heirs to contract diseases will eventually kill them off. However, there is a risk that the unwanted heir inherits while sick, and rules just long enough to see the realm disintegrate.

Method	Potential victims	Issues
Send to epidemic location	Children, by education Unmarried adults, by marriage Adults eligible to be commander Adults eligible to be spymaster	If the same disease reaches your capital province, and the character is still alive and in your court, seclusion will be ineffective.
	Adults eligible to be commander	Only with The Reaper's Due: after several years at sea, commanders are likely to get Scurvy. This is one of the safer methods: if you inherit with Scurvy, it will go away within 4 months of being back on land. Killing women this way requires Full Status of Women or making them
Sabotage their seclusion	Rulers	Before they enter seclusion, marry characters with any epidemic disease into their court
Sabotage their health care		Remove their Court Physician through invitation, marriage, or title grant. Or have them in your court while you don't have a court physician, or have a zealous infidel as court physician. Or make them a baron-level ruler who cannot employ a court physician.
Great Pox	Unmarried adults	Only without The Reaper's Due: a primary spouse with Great Pox increases the chance of getting it, especially if also leading armies.

Preparing your heir

Educate heir yourself: by tutoring your heir yourself, you can ensure picking good traits (or removing bad traits) on education events, and that his culture and religion remain the same as yours. (If your heir has a different culture, all cultural buildings in your castles will be lost upon succession.) Also, you will gain a positive opinion modifier for having been his tutor.

Keep heir at your court: by keeping your heir unlanded, he (and his family) remains under your control.

• You can choose who he and his children should marry, without the 10-year limit imposed by the "Restrict Marriage" checkbox
• You can fulfill his council ambition (for +1 skill), then switch back to someone more skilled, without having angered a landed vassal
• If Christian, you can easily disqualify your heir's worst children by ordering them to take the vows. Catholics can also use investiture. (This is important because your heir may be restricted from taking these actions once he is a ruler.)
• He avoids some bad ruler events (such as getting ) and opportunities to make bad decisions (up to and including getting himself killed).
  • Note that becoming a councillor may cause stress issues for your heir.

The downside is that:

• he will not get much prestige before he inherits. This can be mitigated somewhat by giving him honorary titles such as Designated Regent.
• he cannot improve his skills by taking a focus (or, without WoL, an ambition to improve skills below 8)
• 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
  • Nomads
• Your heir can still practise a secret religion while remaining in your court, and even join the corresponding secret society. The worst case scenario is that the heir openly adopts the secret faith, making it impossible for you to demand conversion. Ways to convert when playing as the heir include converting to the capital's religion (requires Rajas of India DLC and 500/1000 prestige) and secretly adapting the faith (requires 250 piety) before open adoption.