Assassin’s Creed Valhalla has a minigame where you have to complete rhymes to build reputation, so you could say I know a thing or two about being tortured by poetry myself. According to a new Paradox developer diary, poets in the medieval strategy game can descend to the cells of their captives to read them some of their worst works, causing “hideous” amounts of stress. Just look at this screenshot. Big “I’m about to ruin this man’s entire week” vibes from the poet there. CK3’s poetry trait is a new and improved version of the CK2 one, with reworked stats, characters interactions and randomised poetry generation. It can be used for oh so much more than annoying the hell out of people too. If you want to send someone a fine little ditty, you have four themes to choose from that will make the recipient like you a little more: romance, legacy (which also gives them some piety), strife (which also gives them a little prestige), and mourning (also reduces some of their stress). There is a fifth theme, however, that I imagine will be the one used most frequently: incompetence. This sort of poem will “slam the subject for their weakness, incompetence, and method of eating asparagus”. Poets will be able to send their rhymes to almost any character with diplomatic range. Sending poems costs a little prestige, and the themes available will depend on who they’re writing to. You’ll be able to send poems in both singleplayer and multiplayer, so get ready to send your pals some classic randomly generated medieval insults, such as: The poetry trait will arrive in CK3’s major 1.3 update, though Paradox haven’t set a date for it just yet. That update will also be adding the chilly winter season, and is expected to drop alongside the game’s first big DLC as well.
