Firstly, I did a search and wasn't sure whether I'd be best of using this thread or the
Paradox Megathread. Went with my gut!
Okay then. For the last week or so I've become a little bit addicted to CKII. I'm about 75% through my first proper game (after a couple of 100 year or so test runs to get a feel for systems and buttons) and things are going pretty well. Definitely still learning new things, but I've figured out a whole heap of stuff through this longer run by making mistakes and witnessing the cause/effect fallout. Next time will most certainly run much smoother.
BUT. I've just noticed something that's giving me a massive headache from brain overload. Screenshot to follow, but read through the following to get the background.
The story behind the following screenshot, in case it won't be apparent: My demesne includes Ulster (yay double-town) and Gowrie (yay double-castle). The Kingdoms of Ireland and Wales were created many centuries ago by my forebears, whilst the Kingdom of Scotland was usurped a short while after.
I've been having a puzzling problem for a LONG time now where, even though Crown Authority is medium for all three Kingdoms (ie. no fighting between vassals in the realm), there's been this constant trickle flow of occasional in-fighting still persisting, in Scotland for the main part. It was doing my head in trying to figure out why. About a century ago I looked at the 'Direct Vassals' mode on the map and saw all sorts of crazy shit, with the brown of Wales in Scotland, other vassals' green also in Scotland and blue of Scotland in Ireland. There was a fallout of cross-Kingdom vassal hierarchies all over the fucking bedroom floor of my realm. I suspected that this might be the cause of the in-fighting somehow so I set about tidying it up. I've largely achieved it now and only have a single Irish Duchess who has Scottish Galloway as part of the Irish Duchy of Connacht. A few more years and she'll be a lowly Countess and that Duchy will be destroyed so that it can be made again non-screwy.
It was after things had neatened again that
another inter-vassal war broke out in Scotland. This was annoying because I thought I'd tidied these particular Counties' shit up! Nope.
So I'm clicking around trying to figure out what's going on and I notice that, in the county screen, the Coat of Arms in the top-right is inconsistent and buggery when you click around the Highlands. Some counties are considered Kingdom of Ireland, some are considered Kingdom of Scotland. So (and I can't believe it took me this long to actually do this) I clicked on the Kingdom of Ireland CoA and I'm greeted by this:
(Map mode: Direct Vassals)
Whaaaat the piiiiiiss.
I have NO idea how I managed that. I have to assume that it goes waaaay back and that it is this which is causing my vassal war problem. So while Medium Crown Authority stops vassals fighting within a ream (ie. single Kingdom), they're free to fight across Kingdoms.
QUESTION:
Can anyone explain to me what I did to cause this and outline the steps which need to be taken in order to keep Kingdoms as De Jure as possible once you create them?
As an aside, I'm having a bastard of a time managing to get any kind of foothold in England. My attempts at fabricating claims are giving me poop and it's been distressingly difficult to get claimants to the Throne under my wing so I could marry them off without them having a say in the matter. I should have been sowing Ua Briain seeds among those counties about 200 years ago.
EDIT:
By the way, in case that map above is immediately misleading, here's the Independent Realm map, just to show that Ireland, Wales and Scotland are all considered one independent realm:
