Preview by: Kevin Hutchins

Editor's note: All the events in the following story are derived from actual Crusader Kings II gameplay, with some embellishment. Players can expect similar results.

Once upon a time, there was a mighty Earl of the land of Asturias de Oviedo. He was a good man, as men go, and he lived in a mighty castle with his devoted wife and four young children. He lived the simple, pious life of a noble, tending to his serfs and enjoying amicable relations with his neighbors; the good and peaceful life of a true Christian.

Times were about to change.

The Earl began his reign with a plot. He had always enjoyed friendly relations with the lords in Astorga, to the south. However, his lust for power compelled him to send his trusted Chancellor to the province, in secret, to manufacture a fake inheritance claim. In so doing, he would have a legitimate cause to usurp the throne of Astorga from its current owner and expand his holdings in the north of Spain. This betrayal, with luck, would pass beyond the notice of his liege lord, the King of Leon, preventing an internal war that the Earl of Asturias would certainly lose. One simply must wait for the right time to strike. After all, the King cannot put out every fire at once, can he?

While the Earl gathered his forces for the eventual assault on his neighbor’s castle, his wife, the realm’s Spymaster, came to him in the night with a stern warning. She discovered that her own daughter, the second in line to the Earldom, was plotting to assassinate her brother, the heir to the throne.

In a fit of rage, the Earl of Asturias immediately ordered the imprisonment of his scheming daughter, sending her to the dungeon to rot in her perfidy. No child of his would undermine his power in such a fashion; she could spend the rest of her wretched life in that dank pit for all he cared. Such cruelty did not come easy to the Earl, but he was learning.