Oathbound

Oathbound is a roleplay-focused mod centred around a brand new type of relationship. It introduces a new character interaction under Diplomacy, allowing landless adventurers to swear an Oath of Loyalty to a ruler of their choosing. This creates a unique relationship between the Oathbound (the adventurer) and their Oathholder (the ruler) that can only be severed by the death of either party.

• Swear an Oath – As a landless adventurer, pledge your loyalty to a ruler, becoming their sworn sword and devoted follower. Each year at a random time, the Oathholder will send the Oathbound provisions.
• Oathbound Trait – +3 Martial, +10 General Opinion, +25 Opinion of fellow Oathbound characters, + 1 monthly prestige. Also links to their Oathholder.
• Oathholder Trait – No bonuses, but allows you to see who their Oathbound is.
• Oathbreaker Trait – -1 monthly prestige and a massive -50 general opinion.
• Oathbound Alliance – Unlike traditional alliances, the Oathholder can call their Oathbound to war (which is automatically accepted), but the Oathbound cannot call their Oathholder to war. In addition, the Oathholder does not need to be the war leader, so they can call their Oathbound into every war they are a part of. This makes for a one-sided but thematically appropriate bond of duty and service. (The alliance is not displayed on the character sheet.)
• Perspective – All events (where it makes sense) and content are written both ways, meaning that as a ruler, an adventurer can approach you to swear an oath, while if you are an adventurer, you can obviously approach a ruler.
• NEW: Task System (In Development) – Act as the physical extension of your Oathholder’s will. Take on dynamic, targeted tasks that require you to pack up your camp and travel across the realm to solve your Oathholder’s problems (channel your inner Uhtred).

Oath Swearing – From all different perspectives depending on the situation.

The Forced Oath – When an ambitious Oathholder dies (is in their final moments on their deathbed), there is a high chance that they will compel the Oathbound to swear an oath of loyalty to their own successor (only if their heir is their child). (Note: Only the AI Ruler can trigger this for now.)

Swear An Oath Of Loyalty – As an adventurer, this is how you become an Oathbound to a ruler.

Become My Oathbound – As a Ruler, you can ask an adventurer to swear their loyalty to you at a cost of prestige and gold.

Enforce Local Control for Oathholder – In the county that your camp is within, help raise the control for your Oathholder.

Make Your Oath Permanent – A new Decision which, upon being pressed, will swear yourself and your future lineage to the Oathholder’s line. Upon the Oathholder’s death, you will automatically become their heir’s Oathbound. If the Oathbound dies, your heir will automatically swear themselves to the Oathholder. Your heir must be of your dynasty, and the Oathholder’s heir must also be of their dynasty. This will continue in perpetuity until the bonds between your line and theirs are truly broken (no one is valid to either swear the oath or be sworn to).

(Currently, this includes cadet branches of the dynasty. I wonder if house-only might be better, or a separate decision entirely.)

Sway Vassal for your Oathholder – You can now help your Oathholder towards a stable realm by swaying individual vassals on their behalf. (Player only for now.)

Oathbound Forgery – A hostile scheme in which a ruler can attempt to force a landless adventurer to become their Oathbound. (Both the player and AI can use this.)

The Task System is currently in active development, introducing ways to benefit your Oathholder. Tasks generally fall into three categories: Travel, Friendly Schemes, and Hostile Schemes.

• Enforce Order task: When control lowers in their counties, your Oathholder may dispatch you to help deal with it. Travel to the unruly province, establish your camp, and then setup patrols to bring Control back to 100. Your effectiveness is determined by your Martial skill and Prestige level. This is the first of many planned, immersive tasks.
• Diplomatic Envoy (Friendly Scheme): Not every fire is put out with blood. If a vassal’s opinion drops too low (-30 or below), you may be tasked with a Sway for Oathholder scheme. Success depends on your Diplomacy skill, existing relations, and other factors. To complete the task, you must bring the target’s opinion to +50 or higher.
• Murder Rivals (Hostile Scheme): Your Oathholder can now tell you to go and kill their rivals via a murder scheme.

The Task System is designed to be seamless and intuitive, ensuring your efforts provide tangible benefits to your Oathholder and their realm. Because the tasks are separated into three different categories, it means that the Oathholder can send you on three tasks at a time if that’s what they need. The goal is to give the player a means of helping their Oathholder stabilize the realm and deal with threats under their direction. As I add more tasks, this should eventually become fairly immersive as they will decide what needs to happen based on their circumstances and traits.

• Travel Tasks (Decision UI): For physical tasks that require travelling or moving your camp like Enforcing Order, a decision icon will appear at the top of your screen with all relevant information and clicking it will let you setup travel to get there.
• Scheme Tasks (Friendly & Hostile): Friendly or hostile schemes will just use the normal scheme system. These will pop up and track just like a vanilla Sway or Murder plot, allowing you to see your progress.

I love The Last Kingdom and the journey of Uhtred and Alfred, and I wanted to try recreating a similar dynamic in CK3. Not just a mercenary for hire, but rather a sworn sword. + Some extra for gameplay.

This mod couples very well with some of my other mods:

• Adventurer’s Beneficiary: You can go off on your own and declare wars for land on your Oathholder’s behalf.
• Nye’s Aggressive AI: Makes the AI a little more competent and interesting to work with.
• Adventurers Don’t BANKRUPT The Realm: Great if you intend to spend a lot of time in the Oathholder’s realm and don’t want to constantly bankrupt them!

The AI uses this mod, and I have seen between 0-20 (ish) Oathbounds at any given time, so I think AI usage is in a good spot. Also, you can only swear an oath to one ruler, and a ruler can only have one Oathbound at any given time.

Oathbound is compatible with every mod and every overhaul. All scripts are custom-made.

Anyway, enjoy!

Genetics, Death & Difficulty
Better Landless Adventurers