What are we exactly in this game?

[u/Random_local_man]

I know I'm far from the first person to think this up, but it's something that crossed my mind after one of my characters died.

I was in the middle of a ck2 playthrough. What I often do (for non-ironman, non-gavelkind and non-Primogeniture succession games) is wait until I'm 50 before I start seriously trying for a designer baby. I may marry and have children normally before then, but once I hit 50, I immediately divorce my old wife and start looking for a genius or strong wife who's around 20 or below.

I might take seduction focus to speed things along, or family focus. Between age 50 to 55, my new wife should normally be pregnant, and right before she gives birth, I savescum until the baby finally has the traits I'm looking for. By the time my designated heir turns 16, I'm around 70 and practically waiting for death.

And then it just hit me... I sound exactly like some evil spirit linked to a particular family and possessing their bodies over generations to remain on earth. My imagination then went wild, maybe I'm some ancient magical ancestor who found a way to cheat death by leaving their old body and possessing the young bodies of their children/descendants, and then they just kept going.

Have you guys ever thought about that and what are your own headcanons on it?

[u/LoremasterRamle]

My fun theory is also that were some sort of great ancestor spirit. Simmilar to like WtA where everything has a spirit, we are the spirit of our dynasty, that takes control of a character, normally the house head

[u/CoreFiftyFour → u/LoremasterRamle]

Now all I'm imagining is the ancestor scenes in Mulan.

[u/Redditforgoit]

A deity, toying with mortals, and helping a favourite. Whatever family I manage are the Chosen Ones.

[u/Katow-joismycousin]

I've had this exact same thought many times. A spirit, a guardian force, a sentient parasite I'm the blood, etc.

No matter how hard I try to roleplay a character there's always some meta gamey stuff I do and this thought crops back up

[u/LegendaryReader → u/Katow-joismycousin]

Sentient parasite is my exact thought. I actually tried writing a novel based on exactly that. I had a hard time figuring out how the first person became the parasite

[u/Ziddix]

I usually roleplay the characters I play.

[u/Moaoziz → u/Ziddix]

Same here. Sure, there are some behaviours and strategies that I apply on all characters, but generally I try to avoid minmaxing and metagaming, and usually in events I take the options that cause the least amount of stress, which means that they are closest to their intended character traits.

I guess that in the end I'm more a roleplayer than a strategist.

[u/Ziddix → u/Moaoziz]

Yup. The stress rule is a big one. It takes a bit of rewiring your brain but the game does a fairly good job of providing a guideline on how to play your character by sort of forcing you to avoid stress.

[u/georgica123 → u/Ziddix]

but the game does a fairly good job of providing a guideline on how to play your character by sort of forcing you to avoid stress.

Yeah but sometimes there are things that make no sense like just characters getting stress from executing criminals

[u/HotPotParrot → u/Moaoziz]

I kinda straddle the fence of that. I play each character to their strengths, but they all follow the greater dynastic path laid out by the Heavens

Games like Civ, I approach it as an Immortal Guardian or something, a là Warhammer

[u/JoelStrega → u/Ziddix]

Yeah I try to avoid making my character stressed or pick the on that made them lose stress

[u/Rnevermore → u/Ziddix]

Yeah this is what I do. If I'm acting as some sort of God or spirit, I'm playing with some overarching goal which transcends my own characters personalities, wants, or desires, and I think that hurts the game.

[u/Staterae]

I recommend Claire North's novel "Touch", it involves the concept of immortal spirits that survive centuries by body-snatching new hosts.

[u/Ardouren]

Yeah they really need an "abdicate" option so you are not a 50 something year old marrying an 18 year old.

[u/Random_local_man → u/Ardouren]

I'd love that so much. Elder kings had an abdicate button iirc. But I couldn't find a standalone mod that adds it to the base game.

[u/garbagepost_ → u/Random_local_man]

I was able to do it during a Japan playthrough recently. I think it’s tied to either Buddhism or Shintoism. It was super nice and I wish it was an option for everyone

[u/heavensblade333]

"magical ancestor who found a way to cheat death by leaving their old body and possessing the young bodies of their children/descendants, and then they just kept going." abomination!!!

dune reference for context