Paradox Interactive has already bent the knee with Crusader Kings III. The upcoming strategy game will not feature one of the more popular phrases from the previous entries, “Deus Vult”, meaning “God wills it”. Why is it removed? Due to “political sensitivities”.
During a spotlight article by Rock, Paper, Shotgun, we learned that Paradox Interactive has removed the phrase “Deus Vult” from Crusaders Kings III.
In the article they write…
“In the years since CK2’s release, “Deus Vult” – an eleventh century crusader battlecry – has become a vile meme beloved of racists on the internet. I asked how Paradox’s community team felt about this, and was told emphatically that the words will not appear in Crusader Kings 3. That’s refreshing, but in a game set during a time of conflicts fetishised by modern fascists, it’s the tip of the iceberg. I’ll be writing more about how Paradox are handling the political sensitivities of making a game about the crusades, and how they’re handling the representation of non-European cultures, in the weeks to come.”
The article was later updated post-publishing, and Paradox Interactive game director, Henrik Fåhraeus, offered a clarification on the “Deus Vult” situation, claiming that they haven’t completely decided to censor the phrase from Crusader Kings III, saying…
“I feel like this issue has been miscommunicated thus far. We have not specifically considered which terms are used in the game apart from making sense in the historical context. The team will decide how any text fits or does not fit into CK3 in a way that feels appropriate.”
The Paradox Interactive forums did not take kindly to the news, and plenty of hardcore fans were incensed that historically accurate verbiage would be censored to accommodate the whims of cultural fascists and censorship-prone Communists.
The moderators responded by locking the threads on the topic and banning users.
One user in particular reached out to One Angry Gamer, angered that a core element of the game would be censored and that he received a one month forum ban for discussing a topic centered around a key historical feature of the game.
In an e-mail he wrote…
“Paradox is also censoring their forums hardcore. I received a 1 month ban on the CK3 steam forum from a developer just for having “deus vult” included in a post.”
The Crusaders Kings sub-reddit seemed to take the news a lot better than the forum goers, claiming that they will simply mod the game and add “Deus Vult” back into the title.
Comment from discussion There will be no “Deus Vult” in CK3..This change didn’t come from out of nowhere, though. Left-wing media outlets have been pining for Paradox Interactive to submit to their cultural subversion of the Crusader Kings franchise by trying to tie the “Deus Vult” saying to an imaginary boogeyman.
Back in August of 2018 the media came after Paradox Interactive and the Crusader Kings franchise for the “Deus Vult” phrase, claiming that it was co-opted by the “Alt-Right”.
Being as weak as they are when it comes to creative resolve, Paradox appears to have folded to the artisans of agitprop and the stirrers of controversy in the media, giving them what they wanted all along: an opportunity to undermine and rewrite history.
Based on what Fåhraeus told Rock, Paper, Shotgun, it’s possible that they may retain the phrase, but the initial impression that they’re attempting to get rid of the phrase due to Left-wing propagandists would be one of the worst things Paradox Interactive could do to the Crusader Kings franchise, next to censoring their own community who are angered that the company is even entertaining the idea of censoring history for the sake of accommodating cultural degenerates.
(Thanks for the news tip Yanr and Joseph)