User Guide

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information displayed on this screen, several of
which are not shown elsewhere in the game.
National Culture
Towards the top of the display is a scroll that
identifies your current form of government and
the name of your ruler. It also indicates which
culture is considered to be your primary state
culture. We’ll talk about your ruler and gov-
ernment later in this chapter, but let’s focus for
a moment on culture.
When we looked at provinces, we saw that
if a province’s culture is different than the state
culture, there would be an increased risk of re-
bellion and a decrease in the amount of tax rev-
enue generated towards your country’s income.
A country’s culture is usually determined by
the culture of the province containing the
country’s capital. This very specific state cul-
ture will often be shared by only a handful of
other provinces in the world; however, each
specific culture also belongs to a somewhat
larger “cultural group”. Any other culture that
is part of this same group is considered to be an
“accepted culture” within your realm. A prov-
ince will incur a much smaller revolt risk and
economic penalties if its culture is one that is
accepted by the state.
From time to time, it is possible that addi-
tional cultures from other groups could become
accepted by your country. This isn’t something
over which you have direct control; the longer
you continue to own a province that has a cul-
ture that is not accepted by the state, the more
likely it is that this culture will later become
accepted. This is further influenced by some of
the policies that you may decide to adopt in the
Government section of the Domestic Interface.
If a new culture becomes accepted, it is only
this specific culture that will be added, not any
of the other cultures within that culture group.
A tool tip will list all of the cultures cur-
rently accepted by your country when you
hover your mouse over the official state culture
name on the scroll. You will find a complete
list of cultures and cultural groups included in
Europa Universalis III in Appendix C. These
are determined partially by language and his-
torical traditions; however, in some cases it was
necessary to make generalisations or over-sim-
plifications when assigning cultures to a prov-
ince or when placing cultures within a group.
It is not our intent to offend or misrepresent
any ethnic or cultural background, but rather
to create a balanced and entertaining game for
you to play.
National Prestige
In the center of the green drape pinned to the
scroll are two circles. The large upper circle
shows your country’s current prestige value
which may range anywhere between -200 and
+200. Prestige has a significant effect on many
aspects of your country:
Prestige is also a self-normalising value that
is modified at the end of each month. If you
have a high prestige, it will tend to slip back
towards zero; if you have a negative prestige, it
will tend to rise a little each month. For obvious
reasons, you should avoid allowing your coun-
try’s prestige to sink too low, and you should
take advantage of its extra benefits when your
prestige is high.
National Ranking
The smaller, lower circle displays your country’s
current ranking compared to all of the other
countries in the world. It is this ranking that
determines the overall winner at the end of the
game, although many players prefer to set per-
sonal goals and will pay only marginal atten-
tion to their national ranking. There are a large
number of different factors that are considered
when the game calculates your country’s rank,
including the size of your realm, your prestige,
your reputation, the size of your treasury, any
special titles you hold (such as “Defender of the
Faith”, “Holy Roman Emperor”, and “Control-
ler of the Holy See”), the overall size of your
military forces, your level of technological ad-
vancement, and a variety of different diplomat-
ic relationships that you might form.