Overview
This guide expands upon the ‘de jure titles’ section of ‘Advanced Tips and Tricks for Beginners’ and offers a detailed explanation of de jure drift, with images.
Introduction
Welcome!
De jure drift is simultaneously one of the most complicated, broken and yet fascinating mechanics in Crusader Kings 2. I authored the successful Advanced Tips and Tricks for Beginners CK2 guide (which, if you have not read, I implore you to check out) and attempted to provide as much detail on de jure drift as possible, but it simply was not possible to include everything. Word limits prevented me from expanding any more, and whilst I did manage to get sufficient detail in, relative to the context of the guide, it may still leave some newer players a little confused. There was a lot of text and few images or examples to back up what I was saying.
As a result, I have decided to make this guide to expand upon de jure drift. I shall explain to you what it is, how it occurs and how you can make the best of it. Crucially, however, I shall be supporting my explanation with detailed screenshots of very specific examples.
If you have any further questions, feel free to either leave a comment or send me a message.
What is de jure drift?
For this section I am going to offer the exact same explanation I provided in my other guide:
First, it is important to understand the terms de jure and de facto.
De Jure is a legal term that essentially means ‘is in name but not in practice.’
De Facto is essentially the opposite, ‘is in practice but not in name.’
In game, de jure essentially means something that ought to be, by right and by law. This is contrary to de facto ‘despite what it ought to be, this is how it is.’ To give an example to help make this easier to understand:
I may be the de jure duke of Wessex (I own the de jure title duchy of Wessex). However, I do not own the county of Dorset (which de jure (remember, this means ought to be) is a county in Wessex) – it is instead owned by another duke. As a result, Dorset is a de jure part of Wessex, but de facto is not part of Wessex.
The game is made up of de jure duchies (containing multiple counties), de jure kingdoms (containing multiple duchies) and de jure empires (containing multiple kingdoms).
This a map of de jure empires:
This is a map of de jure kingdoms:
This is a map of de jure duchies:
In order to understand how these maps overlap, you must understand the hierarchy of titles. An emperor rules over kings, who in-turn rule over dukes, who in-turn rule over counts. A more detailed explanation of this hierarchy can be found on my other guide.
These de jure titles are how the game – the AI and world around them – perceive the legal structure of the world. Because these borders determine how things ‘ought to be’, they impact laws and claims.
To go back to our earlier example:
I may de facto own the county of Dorset, but because I am not the duke of Wessex, I do not de jure own the county of Dorset. The game is saying that, because Dorset ought to be part of Wessex, as opposed to part of my duchy, I don’t have the legal right to own it. This means two things:
- It means that the duke of Wessex has a de jure claim on the county of Dorset. Because the county ought to be his, he can go to war to take it.
- It means that the county of Dorset is subject to the crown laws of Wessex, not my crown laws. If I want to change a crown law for Dorset, it must be a de jure part of my realm.
So if this explains de jure titles, what is de jure drift?
Well, it’s quite simple: De jure titles are not static! Over time, meeting certain pre-requisites, titles change their de jure status – titles change under which ruler they ought to be a part of. This process is called de jure drift.
It is not possible for counties to de jure drift, and so our above example would not see Dorset shift away from the de jure duchy of Wessex. However, duchies can de jure drift from one kingdom to another, as can kingdoms de jure drift from one empire to another.
The duchy of Mallorca is, at the start of the game, a de jure part of Valencia. That means that it ought to be part of the kingdom of Valencia – it is subject to Valencian crown laws and the king of Valencia has a de jure claim on the duchy. However, if the duchy of Mallorca is completely owned by the kingdom of Sardinia then (assuming the pre-requisites for de jure drift to occur are in-place) the duchy can drift to become a part of the de jure kingdom of Sardinia instead of Valencia. This would make Mallorca subject to Sardinian crown laws and give the king of Sardinia a de jure claim on the duchy.
Identifying de jure drift
Ok, let’s give an actual example of de jure drift in action:
On this save, I am playing as the (custom) empire of Carthage. This is a multiplayer game, hence all of the custom names:
In order to access the de jure map modes, you need to click on one of the three map buttons highlighted in the bottom right of that image.
The de jure map modes are as follows:
- The small crown on the left is de jure duchies.
- The medium-sized crown in the middle is de jure kingdoms.
- The large crown on the right is de jure empires.
Because these map modes are de jure, not de facto, they show you who ought to own what, not who does own what.
By clicking on these map modes, you can see the de jure map for each of these three levels. You can see which counties, duchies and kingdoms are a de jure part of which duchies, kingdoms and empires. These are the areas that are a solid colour. You can also see which duchies and kingdoms are currently undergoing de jure drift. These are the areas that are striped.
Take this example:
This is the same save on the same date. I have clicked the ‘de jure empires’ map mode. Notice the solid areas showing the current de jure empires. For instance, Hispania is a de jure empire. However, if you look carefully on the map (clicking on it will enlarge the image) you will see that some areas have stripes across them. These areas are kingdoms that are in the process of de jure drift.
My cursor, in this image, is currently hovered over the kingdom of Romagna. The kingdom of Romagna, as the map shows, is currently a de jure part of the empire of Italia. However, because the kingdom is entirely owned by the empire of Carthage, it is being de jure drifted away from the empire of Italia and into the empire of Carthage. Hovering over the kingdom, as I have done, shows the details of this in the tool-tip.
See that it says: ‘Kingdom of Romagna: Being incorporated, de jure, into the Empire of Carthage (45/50 years).’
This means that the kingdom is in the process of de jure drift. Because the game settings have de jure drift set to 50 years, the kingdom is currently 5 years away from being a de jure part of Carthage and not part of Italia (it is 45 years out of 50 complete).
However, notice that it says: ‘Active Crown Laws (Kingdom of Romagna).’
This means that, because it is not a de jure part of Carthage, despite being in the empire, it does not follow the Crown Laws of Carthage until the de jure drift has been completed.
These are the crown laws of Carthage:
You can identify a crown law (with the conclave dlc*) by the crown image next to the law. The crown laws for Carthage are currently set to:
- Controlled realm inheritance: Illegal.
- Vassal war declaration: Illegal.
As the tool-tip in the above image states, crown laws only apply to the de jure kingdom or empire! As a result, any titles that have not de jure drifted into the kingdom or empire will not be subject to the crown laws.
In the above example, the kingdom of Romagna is a de jure part of the empire of Italia, and has not yet completed the drift into the empire of Carthage. As a result, the kingdom of Romagna is not yet subject to the crown laws of Carthage. The empire of Italia does not exist, so on the tool-tip it says ‘Active Crown Laws (Kingdom of Romagna)’ until de jure drift has completed. Were the empire of Italia to exist it would say ‘Active Crown Laws (Empire of Italia)’, but things would still function exactly the same.
Because the kingdom of Romagna is not yet subject to the Crown Laws of Carthage, it does not need to follow the ‘Vassal war declaration: Illegal’ Crown Law. This means that, until it has been de jure integrated, the kingdom can still go to war despite being a vassal.
Through de jure drift, we are able to expand our Crown Laws to newly occupied titles.
More examples
Here are some more examples of de jure drift in the same save:
This is an example of a completed drift:
This time we are looking at de jure kingdoms, as opposed to the last example which was de jure empires.
In this instance, the duchy of Mallorca (red) has drifted from the kingdom of Valencia (pink) to the kingdom of Sardinia (blue). I am showing you this not only so you can see a completed de jure drift, but also so you can understand how de jure drift can be used to micromanage vassals.
In this instance, I thought that the duchy of Mallorca would be more strategically beneficial to the island kingdom of Sardinia than the mainland kingdom of Valencia. As a result, I made sure that a single duke owned all of the counties in the duchy of Mallorca (by either owning the entire demesne himself, or by having the counts in the duchy as his vassals). I then transferred the duke of Mallorca as a vassal to the kingdom of Sardinia. This meant that the king of Sardinia de facto owned the entirety of the duchy of Mallorca through his new vassal, and the de jure drift commenced.
*Note that de jure drift commences on the next ‘1st January’ following the requirements being fulfilled. So, in this instance, as soon as I gave the duke to the king of Sardinia the de jure drift was set to begin when the date next reached 1st January.
Here is another example of the process happening:
Here, the duchy of Barcelona (red) is de jure drifting from the kingdom of Aquitaine (pink) to the kingdom of Navarra (blue). Note that in this instance, two drifts are occurring. The kingdom of Aquitaine is a de jure part of the empire of Francia, whilst the kingdom of Navarra is a de jure part of the empire of Carthage. This means that, as well as the duchy of Barcelona becoming a de jure part of the kingdom of Navarra, it is also becoming a de jure part of the empire of Carthage. The reason it only shows the kingdom drift on the tool-tip is because: 1. We are currently on ‘de jure kingdoms’ map mode instead of ‘de jure empires’, and 2. The kingdom of Navarra is already a de jure kingdom in the empire of Carthage and so as soon as it drifts into Navarra it will occupy the Navarran Crown Laws – which are the Carthaginian Crown Laws.
In both of these instances we have seen how de jure drift can be used inside your own realm. In this game, I own Valencia and Sardinia and so was simply transfering Mallorca between them. I also own both Navarra and I de facto own Aquitaine (I still need to usurp the title), and so this is technically another example of a duchy (Barcelona) being internally moved.
But what about integrating land from somewhere you don’t own?
Here is the same save and same date, once again on ‘realms’ map mode:
We can see the empire of the Fifth Reich (blue) and the kingdom of Sweden (pink).
The Fifth Reich occupies a few duchies in the South of Sweden. This is a de jure part of Sweden, but de facto owned by the Fifth Reich.
Because the Fifth Reich owns these duchies, de jure drift is occurring, transfering the legal status from Sweden to them:
The area highlighted in red shows the de jure drift occuring from one state to the other.
However, notice this bit of land (below) is not in the process of de jure drift?
Why is de jure drift not occuring in this county?
This map mode (de jure duchies) shows us why.
The Fifth Reich completely de facto control the duchy of Varend (red). As a result, that duchy is being integrated. However, they only own a single county from the duchy of Ostrogothia (yellow). The rest of the duchy – the other counties – are owned by Sweden still (the border being the dotted yellow line). As a result, this county is not de jure drifting. Counties cannot de jure drift. In order to begin de jure drift, an entire duchy (if integrating into kingdom) or kingdom (if integrating into empire) must be completely controlled.
Requirements for de jure drift
This chapter shall briefly outline the requirements for de jure drift. As a result, this chapter is also showing you how you can begin (or avoid) de jure drift.
[From the Wiki] A duchy will begin to drift into a kingdom when the following conditions are met:
- The entire duchy (i.e. all county titles; baronies are allowed to be outside the realm) is within the realm of the king.
- The king does not hold the crown of the current de jure kingdom to which the duchy belongs.
- The ducal title either does not exist or is held by the king or by a vassal of the king.
- The duchy is not part of the kingdom of Jerusalem.
- The kingdom is its owner’s primary title.
Upon reaching Jan 01 of the next year, drift is visible as dashed stripes on the kingdoms map mode. Hovering over the duchy will show a tooltip indicating the number of years until full assimilation.
Whenever the conditions for assimilation are not met — for example, if the local ruler of a duchy rebels against top-liege, or if one of the counties in the duchy is conquered by another independent realm – the counter will tick backwards instead of forwards, and at twice the speed. When the conditions are again met — for example, if the duke’s rebellion is put down – the counter will resume ticking forwards.
*[Also from the Wiki] Note that de jure drift only happens to the owner’s primary title. If you are an Emperor (primary title) and hold Kingdom titles as well, Duchies will not drift into your Kingdom title(s), even if you only have one. If you are an Emperor, your Empire title may only assimilate Kingdoms. You may want to delay the creation of an Empire until some Duchies have drifted into the Kingdom title you plan on holding.
When you create a new game you can specify the amount of time it takes for de jure drift to complete, in the settings. The default is 100 years.
Conclusion
This completes my brief guide on de jure drift. My aim here was simply to expand on de jure drift and provide an easy to understand, yet detailed, explanation of de jure drift – how it works and how it can be identified.
If you are looking for strategies, or methods of employing de jure drift and don’t feel that the explanation of how it works is suffice, I strongly encourage you to check out my other guide.
All strategies are entirely contextual, and so a specific path to victory can never be given. However, in the guide I do put this explanation into context and explain some of the best make-ups of vassals and de jure titles. That guide is, among other things, dedicated to helping players create a stable realm and so applying this explanation to that guide should help any confused or struggling players.
If you have any questions, please either drop them in the comments below or send me a message. I would strongly appreciate if, as well as checking out my other guide, you gave this guide a like and a favourite so that more people can find it.
Thank you for reading!