User Guide

38
that is either positive or
negative will tend to slow-
ly return to this mid point
unless there are other fac-
tors involved.
There are many things
that will affect your re-
lationship with another
country, the most obvious
being any diplomatic in-
teractions you might have
with one another. Your
reputation plays a key role
here. A poor reputation
will tend to make other
countries faster to forget,
and slower to forgive. A very bad reputation
may be enough to slowly make other coun-
tries despise you regardless of any diplomatic
attempts to mend the relationship. Religion
will also affect your relationships. If you share
the same religion, your countries will tend to
draw closer to one another; by any religions to-
wards which you are intolerant will tend to be-
come your fanatical enemies. As we mentioned
above, prestige is also a factor; and as we’ll see
momentarily, your ruler’s
skill at diplomacy will
also affect the way that
other countries view your
relationship.
Having a good rela-
tionship with another
country will make it more
inclined to accept your
diplomatic offers, and
reduces the likelihood
that it will do anything
hostile towards you. The
reverse is true for poor re-
lationships. Other coun-
tries will be unreceptive
to your diplomatic offers
and might consider you
a prime target for a dec-
laration of war. Again, we
will look at this in more
depth when we discuss
the details of Diploma-
cy later in the manual.
There are two buttons
above the scrollable list of
relationship values which
allow you to sort the list
alphabetically by coun-
try, or numerically by re-
lationship value. The list
can be sorted in reverse
order by clicking the but-
ton a second time.
Create Vassal
The “create vassal” button at the bottom-left
corner of the Domestic Overview screen is the
only part of the interface that allows you to “do”
something directly. This allows you to create a
new country by giving it a number of suitable
provinces. The country will be a vassal of your
country and pay a percentage of its income di-
rectly into your coffers each month. Unlike a
country that you have forced to become your
vassal at the end of a war, a vassal that is vol-
untarily released will be
grateful for its freedom
and have an excellent re-
lationship with you. This
action is seen by other
countries as a very hon-
ourable one, thus improv-
ing your reputation.
To release a vassal,
click the button to display
a list of possible countries
that can be created, and
the provinces that would
be turned over to that
new nation. The button
will be greyed out if you
do not own any suitable
provinces. Releasing a
vassal is also prohibited if
you are currently at war.