Nope no joke. The throne passes to the first born son, if he die's then to the second and so on. If there are no sons then it goes to the next in line after the previous king, the kings brother usually. If the kings brothers are dead it passes to the kings uncles. If there's none of them alive then it would pass to the eldest nephew.

Nope, not exactly...

Actually in my Byzantine campaign the game chose to nominate as heir the first adopted son I got (I make it a rule to decline adoptions, but this one was promoted as "man of the hour" - I accept this as more in line with the "role playing" element - and placed as "first-born" of my next-to-be-emperor family member!)

Plus strict primogeniture was not always observed and certainly not in all cultures. Manuel Komnenos for example was a 2nd or 3rd son (can't remember) but he was chosen over his elder siblings, supposedly by his father John when he was already on his deathbed.


Either way, the game does not respect the rule of "blood", ie choosing heirs from the dynasty - and the term "adoption" is just absurd in a medieval context.

This must be changed one way or another...