Crusader Kings II

[Monk]

CK1 featured higher death rates from illness and battle, and also had women and/or children die in childbirth. That was cut from CK2 in order to keep the character history data files from becoming obscenely large and grinding the engine to a halt. Kind of a shame, but an understandable decision.

There must be some mods which tweak mortality rates. Might be worth taking a look?

Yeah, this is essentially the reason. The game tracks every character ever born. No, really. Every character ever, even those who are in the history files dead has to be checked for events and various conditions for every in game day. When a character dies they are still stored in the history files, and the game continues to track their progress until the end of the game at 1453. It doesn't matter that they are dead, the game is still tracking them.

This is why if you plan to start adding a bunch of new events to the game you risk seriously slowing down the engine unless you include the player only tags.

Why do I never have such things? My succession is almost always secure and I have never been assassinated or plotted to death unless it was revenge.

Crusader Kings II is a bit like Dwarf Fortress in that, at some point, your skill at the game actually hinders the fun you can have just a bit. Sometimes half the hilarity is seeing it all blow up in your face, or struggling against the inevitable collapse of your dynasty after a series of events sets you into a decline. I firmly believe that Crusader Kings II is a game meant not only to chronicle your rise to power, but also your fall. Losing is fun.