# Crusader Kings Ii
Crusader Kings II is a grand strategy game from Paradox Development Studio released in February 2012, whose dynasty simulator gameplay spawned a cult community and meme staples like Deus Vult, Remove Kebab and Glitterhoof the horse chancellor. Playing medieval nobles through cousin marriages, murder plots and inherited traits made the game a fixture of PC gaming meme culture.
## Overview
Crusader Kings II (CK2) is a grand strategy game from Paradox Development Studio set in medieval Europe, released for PC on February 14, 2012, with an OS X port on May 24, 2012 and Linux support arriving on January 14, 2013[3]. Players run a noble house rather than a single character, so when your ruler dies the game keeps going through their heir until the clock hits 1453, the year Constantinople fell to the Ottomans[5].
The game's identity is built on emergent storytelling. Characters carry defining personality traits that shape opinions, marriages, plots and inheritance, and Paradox pushed this angle hard with the pre-launch "Seven Deadly Sins" YouTube spots[2]. Sales stayed strong long after launch, passing one million copies by September 2014 on the back of word of mouth and constant patching[1]. Reviewers gave the game an 82 Metascore, singling out how accessible it was for a genre known for spreadsheets[3].
Ongoing support kept the base game alive well past release, with more than 60 patches shipped by early 2017 alongside a stack of major expansions and cheaper cosmetic portrait or music packs[4].
## How It Spread
The subreddit r/CrusaderKings became the main hangout outside Paradox's official forum, and its spinoff r/ShitCrusaderKingsSay collected in-game lines that sound unhinged when yanked out of gameplay context, everything from casual fratricide to Zoroastrian sacred incest marriages[5]. That tone, medieval politics filtered through tooltips and murder plots, is what most CK2 memes trade on.
"Deus Vult," the actual First Crusade battle cry Pope Urban II used at the Council of Clermont in 1095, was already Paradox slang from earlier titles and locked in as the default community rallying yell for the game[5]. "Remove Kebab," aimed at the Umayyad and Seljuk blobs that press on Iberia and Anatolia in most starts, spread far enough that Paradox banned it from their official forums, and the variant "Remove Karlings" popped up after The Old Gods start put the powerful Carolingian dynasty on the map[5]. Cartographers, meanwhile, coined "Border Gore" for realms that end up non-convex and discontiguous after enough inheritance wars.
The Sunset Invasion DLC, released November 15, 2012, dropped an Aztec fleet on the Atlantic coast as a late-game answer to the Mongols and drew a tepid reception, with the community flagging both the ahistorical setup and the Aztec army's near invincibility[6]. A later Paradox community survey confirmed it as the most divisive add-on the game had shipped, and PDS avoided fantasy scenarios afterward[7]. Around the Conclave expansion, event ZE.15000 let a lunatic ruler appoint their horse Glitterhoof as chancellor, a nod to Caligula's horse Incitatus, and the equine courtier became a fan favorite spawning fan mods and a "Horse" culture unlock.
## How to Use
The catchphrases work outside the game too. "Deus Vult" gets deployed as an exaggerated pro-crusade punchline in strategy communities, though the phrase has picked up real-world extremist baggage that CK2 players are often quick to distance themselves from. "Remove Kebab" carries similar warnings and is typically kept to in-game context about pushing back Muslim neighbors on the map. "Border Gore" is common shorthand for any map screenshot with genuinely ugly territory. Screenshot posts typically pair CK2's dry event text with an absurd family tree outcome, an inherited "Double Chin" trait chain spreading through generations, or a suspiciously convenient assassination that just cleared the succession[5].
## Frequently Asked Questions
### What is Crusader Kings Ii?
Crusader Kings II is a 2012 grand strategy game from Paradox Development Studio where you play a medieval noble house across generations rather than a single ruler[3].
### Where did Crusader Kings Ii come from?
Paradox Development Studio released it for PC on February 14, 2012, following up on the 2004 original Crusader Kings[1].
### What does Crusader Kings Ii mean?
In meme contexts it points to a whole community vocabulary, Deus Vult, Remove Kebab, Border Gore, Glitterhoof and cousin marriage jokes, all pulled from CK2's dynastic gameplay and event text[5].
### How do you use Crusader Kings Ii?
Fans post screenshots of chaotic in-game outcomes, ugly maps or unhinged event text, or drop catchphrases like Deus Vult and Border Gore into strategy game discussions[5].
### Is Crusader Kings Ii still popular?
It sold over a million copies by September 2014 and stayed active with more than 60 patches and a dozen major expansions into 2017, making it a classic of the grand strategy genre[1][4].
## References
1. [https://www.paradoxplaza.com/]()
2. [https://www.pcgamesn.com/crusader-kings-2/how-crusader-kings-2-caught-paradox-by-surprise]()
3. [https://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/crusader-kings-ii]()
4. [https://ckiiwiki.com/Patches]()
5. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/subcultures/crusader-kings-ii]()
6. [https://store.steampowered.com/app/210630/Crusader_Kings_II_Sunset_Invasion/]()
7. [https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/threads/ck2-dev-diary-46-surveying-the-survey.796041/]()
---
Source: https://meme.com/memes/crusader-kings-ii
Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library