# Crusader Kings III All Under Heaven & 1.18.0 "Crane" Update - Now Available

- Product: Crusader Kings III (https://whatsnew.fyi/product/crusader-kings-iii)
- Vendor: Paradox Development Studio
- Date: 2025-10-28
- Original notes: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1158310/view/498336168563182789
- Permalink: https://whatsnew.fyi/product/crusader-kings-iii/releases/2025-10-28-all-under-heaven-1.18.0-crane-update-now-availabl

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Reuse: the summaries, labels and curation here are © What's New. Quote freely with attribution and a link back; wholesale republication of the corpus is not permitted — terms: https://whatsnew.fyi/terms. The vendors' own release notes remain their publishers'.

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- **added** — Celestial Government, a new government type inspired by centralized administrative government of China, overseen by the Son of Heaven
- **added** — Influence, Noble Families, Family Estates and Treasury systems for Celestial Governments
- **added** — Legitimacy for independent rulers and Merit system for vassals in Celestial Realms
- **added** — Mandate of Heaven, a special type of Legitimacy tied to the Dynastic Cycle for the Top Liege
- **added** — New Province Administration types split into Military and Civilian categories with distinct career paths
- **added** — Merit system to measure worthiness as an official, earned through Examinations, Debates, constructing buildings, Inspection Activities, and Mentoring schemes
- **added** — Local, Capital and Palace Examinations to increase Merit Rank
- **added** — Children's Examination to boost education and provide initial Merit and Dynasty Prestige
- **added** — Treasury resource as a complement to Gold for Celestial, Meritocratic and Administrative realms
- **added** — Treasury Budget system allowing redistribution of collected taxes to Governors and Ministers
- **added** — Scheme to siphon Treasury out of a Title
- **added** — Local and Capital Examinations activities for earning Merit through fair completion or cheating
- **added** — Celestial Appointment Succession law for civilian provinces based on Merit, age, Dynastic Movements, and Confucian values
- **added** — Celestial Commander Succession law for military provinces based on Merit, Martial skill, Prowess, and Commander Traits
- **added** — Army Command Structure provincial law to organize army between Personal or Title Men-at-Arms
- **added** — Retirement Age provincial law to set expected service duration for governors
- **added** — Candidate Score Focus provincial law to determine impact of Fame and Splendor on appointment scores
- **added** — Powerful Family Aspirations system with Ritual, Righteousness, and Integrity specialization options
- **added** — Map expanded by roughly 30 percent to establish a complete map of the Old World

Hello everybody! Today we are releasing our Major Expansion for the year and the centerpiece of Chapter IV: _All Under Heaven_. We're also releasing Update 1.18.0 ‘Crane’ alongside this expansion.

All of us at Studio Black here in Stockholm are so excited to share this with you._ All Under Heaven_ might just be the biggest expansion we've made for Crusader Kings III. Growing the map by roughly 30% has definitely had its challenges, but it's been a long-term ambition of ours to establish a complete map of the Old World as a base to build on.

We hope that you all will have as great a time playing All Under Heaven as we did creating it!

Signed,

Alexander Oltner, _Game Director_

Henrik Lohmander, _Design Lead_

Lucia Dzediti, _Producer_

Daan Broekhof, _Programmer _/_ Code Owner_

Jacob Blakey, _Community Manager_

and everyone else at Paradox Studio Black and Paradox Interactive

Check out the release trailer below, and a partial changelog under that. The full changelog is well beyond the limits of what we can fit into a Steam announcement, so check out our forums for a more comprehensive list of changes coming in today’s update!

##### **Expansion Features (Paid)**

**China**

- Added **Celestial Government**: A new government type heavily inspired by the centralized administrative government of China, overseen by the Son of Heaven.

- In a Celestial Government, you have access to Influence, Noble Families, Family Estates and Treasury.

- Independent Rulers have Legitimacy, while Vassals in a Celestial Realms focus on gaining Merit.

- The Top Liege has the Mandate of Heaven, a special type of Legitimacy tied to the Dynastic Cycle.

- New Province Administration types: Several new province types are split into two categories — Military and Civilian. Creating two distinct career paths for a character to pursue.

- Capabilities vary, with Military provinces being able to hire Title Men-at-Arms while a Civilian cannot.

- They have their own Governor Contracts.

- **Merit**: Merit is a measurement of your worthiness as an official for the Celestial and Meritocratic governments.

- You can earn Merit by participating in Examinations, Debates, constructing buildings, going on an Inspection Activity, using a Mentoring scheme, and generally, by being a good governor.

- You can increase your Merit Rank by passing the Local, Capital and Palace Examinations.

- If you have an Elder or Disciples, you can produce a passive Merit gain. The monthly merit gain can be increased by paying more taxes (for Civilian governors), or by creating Men-at-Arms (for Military governors).

- You can use the Children’s Examination to further the education of your children, giving them an initial boost of Merit and some Dynasty Prestige.

- **Treasury: **A new resource that acts as a complement to Gold for Celestial, Meritocratic and Administrative realms. It is the currency you spend on official business, such as constructing buildings, recruiting Title Men-at-Arms, and hosting certain Activities.

- Governors collect and send taxes up towards the central government.

- The central government put the collect taxes into the Treasury, which gets redistributed down to Governors and Ministers who all receive a small share depending on the realm’s Treasury Budget

- A budget can be tailored to suit each need and defines how large a share each Budget Category should receive. Each category is then divided amongst the receivers.

- Officials receive a salary that is paid out of the Treasury, but is received as Gold. A salary is set according to their governed titles and Merit Rank.

- Added a scheme allowing characters to siphon the Treasury out of a Title

- **New Activities**: Added Local and Capital Examinations. These activities let you earn Merit either by succeeding fairly or trying to cheat the system.

- The Local Examination is eligible for all government types that use Merit. It is held by local officials for the selected men of the prefecture, where

_[Truncated at 4000 characters — full notes: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1158310/view/498336168563182789]_