宮廷
Each landed character has a 
court, which consists of the unlanded subjects of a realm. A court may contain family members, 
knights, lovers, courtiers and guests.
Courtiers
Courtiers are unlanded characters living at a ruler's court. They can be appointed as councilors, commanders, knights or 
vassals. If a courtier does not have a minor title they have a 2% chance to leave each month. The chance is decreased by -0.1% for each 10 points of 
opinion above 0 and increased by +0.1% for each 10 points of opinion below 0. In addition the chance to leave can be modified by the following:
| Condition | Chance to leave |
|---|---|
| Child | -3% |
| Any claim | -1% |
 Pregnant trait
|
-1% |
 Married to the liege
|
-0.5% |
 Low health
|
-0.3% |
| Liege or another courtier is a friend | -0.2% |
| Liege or another courtier is a lover | -0.2% |
| Liege or another courtier is a close family member | -0.2% |
 Bastard trait
|
+0.3% |
| Liege is a rival | +0.5% |
Guests
Guests are unlanded characters staying at a ruler's court for three years and then have a monthly chance to leave. During this time they will interact with other members of the court and may take part in random events. They can be convinced to stay permanently in the realm by being given a seat on the council, a landed or minor title, or by using the seduction scheme. Guests can also be directly recruited by paying a variable amount of 
Gold — the base amount is 10 gold, and increases if the guest has claims, useful traits or high skills. Guests are more likely to visit a court if they have a definite reason, such as the ruler being strong enough to press their claims, or the ruler or one of its adult children being unmarried. The fewer courtiers a character has the more guests it will receive.
Unlanded characters can be asked to visit a court with the "Invite to Court" interaction. The base reluctance is -50 and typically cannot be overcome without a 
hook.
If a guest with claims is about to leave, the liege will be given the option to convince the guest to stay for one year.
Court physician
The court physician is a character carrying a minor title that allows them to help their liege against health traits. When the ruler or someone at their court gains a health trait while the ruler has a court physician, the ruler will gain the option to try a safe or a risky treatment. A third type of treatment is also available if the court physician has the 
Wise Man, 
Mystic or 
Miracle Worker trait. The risky treatment has a chance to give the character the 
One-Eyed, 
One-Legged, 
Disfigured or 
Eunuch trait.
Court physicians can be appointed through a character interaction or the 
Search for Physician decision.
Prisoners
Prisoners are characters who are held at someone's court unwillingly. A character can obtain prisoners via the Abduction scheme, occupation|occupying a character's realm capital while at war or following battles if the enemy commander has low 
Prowess. A ruler can attempt to imprison any character within their realm but this will incur tyranny, particularly if the prisoner is Noble, unless they are guilty of a Crime. An imprisoned character can be released, ransomed, tortured or executed. Characters will be imprisoned in either the dungeon or under house arrest and can be freely moved between the two. By default prisoners are held in the dungeon if Lowborn and house arrest if Noble.
| House arrest effects | Dungeon effects |
|---|---|
|
In addition if a character stays in the dungeon for more than 5 years they may gain the 
Ill or 
Pneumonia traits.
A prisoner will gain stress while in prison and will eventually die if he has too much stress. This is caused by event stress_threshold_prison.3999 and his death reason will be listed as "died in captivity".
Negotiate release
A ruler can offer to release a prisoner in exchange for one or more of the following:
| Condition | Acceptance | Opinion |
|---|---|---|
| Banish | -50 | -20 |
| Demand conversion | -20 | -10 |
| Gain weak hook
|
-80 | -20 |
| Recruit | -10 | -15 |
| Renounce claims | -25 | -30 |
| Take the vows | -30 | -10 |
Ransom
A ruler can ransom imprisoned characters, exchanging gold or a weak hook for the prisoner's freedom. The Ransom interaction is used on the prisoner, not the recipient. The character who is sent the ransom is decided in the following order:
- The prisoner themselves if they are landed
- Their direct liege if prisoner is a courtier
- The prisoner themselves, if they are unlanded
Prisoners and their direct liege may also offer to pay ransom to the jailer, with an additional option of using a hook on the jailer. Vassals and courtiers who have their ransom paid for by their liege gain +5 opinion for 1 year.
Ransom cost
When paying with gold, the ransom cost of a given prisoner depends on the ransom recipient's primary title rank as well as the prisoner's relation with the recipient. If a spouse is also the primary heir and/or close family, only the spouse price applies. If the ransom recipient is unable to afford the full price of the ransom, the price is reduced to as much gold as they have left.
| Rank
|
Ransom cost
| |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ruler / primary heir | Spouse | Close family member | Other | |
| Unlanded | — | — | — | 10 |
 Baron |
30 | 15 | 10 | 10 |
 Count |
50 | 25 | 15 | 10 |
 Duke |
100 | 50 | 25 | 10 |
 King |
200 | 100 | 50 | 20 |
 Emperor |
500 | 250 | 125 | 50 |
If the jailor has the Golden Obligations perk all ransom costs are increased to approximately 6 times the jailor's tax income (minimum of 50, maximum of 300 gold).
Characters who are unlanded and liegless cost 100 gold to ransom if the jailer has the Golden Obligations perk (can be increased further) or if the character at least 100 gold to spare.
Punishment
Execution
A ruler can execute any imprisoned character. Executing a character will incur tyranny unless the character is guilty of a very severe crime. Each execution will grant +30 
dread and -20 opinion with the victim's dynasty.
If the prisoner shared the same faith they will be beheaded. Otherwise they will be burned. Burning a prisoner grants 25 
piety if the character's faith has the 
Fundamentalist doctrine. Characters with the 
Cannibal trait or secret can devour prisoners to lose 
stress at the cost of a 20% chance to gain the Ill trait.
Torture
Torture is an intrigue action that can be performed upon prisoners and has the following effects:
- The torturer character gains +20 dread.
- The torturer character loses −100 piety if its faith forbids it.
- The torturer character loses −10 stress if they have the
Sadistic trait. - The torturer character gains +10 stress if they have the
Trusting trait. - The torturer character gains +100 Stress if they have the
Compassionate trait. - The tortured character loses −75 opinion for 50 years towards the torturing character.
- The tortured character gains the Recently Tortured modifier for 5 years, giving
−0.75 Health. - If the tortured character has or knows a secret it will have the option to reveal it to avoid torture.
Castration
Adult characters with either the Ethiopian culture or part of the Byzantine culture group can castrate male prisoners, giving them the Eunuch trait.
Blinding
Adult characters within the Byzantine culture group can blind their prisoners, giving them the 
Blind trait.
Crime
Crimes are actions that allow a character to imprison someone from their realm without incurring tyranny and may remove tyranny from certain punishments. Crimes of vassals may be pardoned, preventing just imprisonment in exchange for an opinion bonus. Crimes can be personal, familial or religious.
- Personal crimes are caused by certain actions taken against a ruler and allows only the said ruler to imprison the criminal character
- Familial crimes are caused by certain actions taken against a character and allows any ruler from the same family to imprison the criminal character
- Religious crimes are caused by traits that are considered criminal by a faith and allows any ruler of that faith to imprison the criminal character
The following actions are crimes:
| Crime | Requirements | Title Revocation | Banishment | Execution | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Attempted Abduction | Abduction scheme fails on the character | Personal | |||
| Attempted Arrest | Liege requests imprisonment and character refuses | Personal | |||
| Attempted Elopment | Elope scheme fails on the character's spouse | Personal | |||
| Attempted To Murder Me | Murder scheme fails on the character | 
|
|
Personal | |
| Blinded Me | Blinded the character | Personal | |||
| Botched My Treatment | Court physician's risky treatment of liege failed |
|
|
Personal | |
| Castrated Me | Castrated the character | Personal | |||
| Declared War | Declaring war upon the character |
|
Personal | ||
| Elopment | An elope scheme succeeds on the character's spouse | Personal | |||
| Failed To Treat Me | Court physician's safe treatment of liege failed | Personal | |||
| Revolted against Me | Civil war ended in white peace or better for the liege |
|
Personal | ||
| Refused Imprisonment | Vassal refuses imprisonment and realm has high crown authority
|
|
Personal | ||
| Refused Retraction | Vassal refuses vassal retraction and realm has High Crown Authority
|
|
Personal | ||
| Refused Revocation | Vassal refuses Title Revocation and realm has High Crown Authority
|
|
Personal | ||
| Scheming Against Me | Discovered as agent in a scheme against the character | Personal | |||
| Spying on Liege |  Spymaster fails the Find Secrets task on the liege
|
Personal | |||
| Tortured Me | Tortured the character | Personal | |||
| Attempted To Murder Family Member | Murder scheme fails on a member of the character's family |
|
|
Familial | |
| Botched Treatment of Kin | Court physician's risky treatment of liege's family member failed |
|
|
Familial | |
| Failed To Treat Kin | Court physician's safe treatment of liege's family member failed | Familial | |||
| Murdered Family Member | Murder scheme fails secrecy on a member of the character's family |
|
|
Familial | |
| Tortured Family Member | Tortured a family member of the character | Familial | |||
| Unlawfully Executed Family | Executed a family member of the character without a valid reason |
|
|
Familial | |
| Excommunicated | Character has the  Excommunicated trait and faith has the  Communion tenet
|
|
|
|
Religious |
| Known Adulterer | Character has the  Adulterer trait and faith has the criminal adultery doctrine for its gender
|
|
Religious | ||
| Known Cannibal | Character has the Cannibal trait and faith does not have the  Ritual Cannibalism tenet
|
|
Religious | ||
| Known Deviant | Character has the  Deviant trait and faith has the criminal  deviancy doctrine
|
|
Religious | ||
| Known Fornicator | Character has the  Fornicator trait and faith has the criminal  / adultery doctrine for its gender
|
|
Religious | ||
| Known Sodomite | Character has the  Sodomite trait and faith has the criminal  same-sex relations doctrine
|
|
Religious | ||
| Known Witch | Character has the  Witch trait and faith has the criminal  witchcraft doctrine
|
|
Religious | ||
| Known Kinslayer | Character has a  Kinslayer trait and faith has the criminal  kinslaying doctrine for its severity
|
|
Religious | ||
| Denounced | Character has the  Denounced trait
|
Dynastic |