Quote Originally Posted by justjoe770
Again the problem is that when the sultan dies, a civil war starts immediately. No matter who is the successor.
I had this happen to me once; however, in my case the reason was clear. My ruler had no sons or brothers ready to succeed him; thus, no mature heirs in the "heirs" list. I had a number of generals who were of royal blood. Thus, one of them became the successor, but not everyone followed him, and civil war broke out.

Check your list of immediate heirs and see if you have any mature ones. If you don't, then when the ruler dies, his heir will be one of the generals who is a former heir, but was removed from the heirs list since he is not the present ruler's brother or son (he might be a great-uncle or something). In this situation, civil war will probably break out.

If this isn't your situation, then the problem will be something that someone else here already mentioned. Reasons for a drop in loyalty include:

1. The new ruler is too far removed from many of his provinces.
2. The new ruler has less influence; thus, his generals will immediately be less loyal to him.
3. The new ruler lacks the former ruler's virtues that gave loyalty/happiness bonuses, such as builder and steward virtues.
4. There may be an immediate, temporary drop in loyalty during the year that the new ruler assumes power.

You can counteract some of these effects by doing the following:

1. Adjust taxes appropriately. This has a huge effect on the people's happiness.
2. Assign governorships to individuals with high dread ratings. The people will respect these men more, and be more loyal.
3. Make sure your entire empire is connected - use ships and ports if necessary. A break in the sea link between two separated parts of the empire will cause loyalty problems in at least one area, usually the one without the ruler.
4. Immediately begin building stuff with your new ruler. He will soon have enough virtues to improve the people's happiness.