CK3 DatabaseCrusader Kings III · 1.20.1.2 “Crozier” · unofficial
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Major Expansion · announced October 19, 2026

Silk & Silver

Release date
Tuesday, November 17, 2026
Price
$29.99 / £25.99 / €29.99
Also in
Chapter V ($43.99) · the Subscription

Not in the game files yet: the site reads Crusader Kings III 1.20.1.2. Date and price from Paradox's press release · Steam app 4232910 · store page.

Silk & Silver is the next major expansion for Crusader Kings III, out on Steam on November 17, 2026 for $29.99 (£25.99, €29.99) and part of Chapter V. It adds two governments — landless Merchant families running trading companies and playable Republics with an Assembly — plus Trade Leagues, the Guelphs & Ghibellines situation in northern Italy and two bookmarks (1066 Channels of Commerce, 1178 Guelphs & Ghibellines). Its free patch rebuilds the economy for everyone: regular buildings are replaced by districts.

Quick answers (6)
When does Silk & Silver come out?
Tuesday, November 17, 2026, on Steam (Paradox's announcement of October 19, 2026).
How much does Silk & Silver cost?
$29.99 / £25.99 / €29.99 suggested retail price. It is also part of Chapter V ($43.99 on Steam, with By God Alone, Songs of the Realm and Symbols of Authority).
Is Silk & Silver in Chapter V?
Yes. Steam's Chapter V package lists By God Alone, Silk & Silver, Songs of the Realm and Symbols of Authority, and Paradox's press release says it is part of Chapter V.
Is Silk & Silver coming to Xbox or PS5?
Paradox's announcement of October 19, 2026 names no platform and no console date; the November 17 release is listed on Steam for PC.
Do I need Silk & Silver for the new economy?
No. Paradox says the district and building rework, settlement size, control and popular opinion changes come free with the patch, because the whole economy is rebalanced around them (dev diary #1). Playing a Merchant or a Republic, Trade Leagues and the two bookmarks are the paid part.
Can I play a merchant republic like Venice?
Yes, with the DLC. Venice starts as a Maritime Republic, the administration that can trade furthest; merchants can join or found a republic and keep their company and domicile (dev diary #6).

Free for everyone with the patch

  • Every regular building is removed. Counties get district slots instead; you build a district (military, market, urban, rural…) and then cheaper buildings inside it. Special buildings mostly stay, with new effects.
  • Settlement Size, 1 to 10 per barony, sets how many district slots a holding has: Constantinople gets far more than a village.
  • Control gets a baseline it always drifts back to; some effects lift it above that for a while. Men-at-arms stationed nearby, castles and fortifications, eras and likely some districts give control.
  • Popular Opinion becomes a bar from −100 to +100 with the same baseline-and-drift logic.
  • Every cost and gold income in the game is reviewed to slow the snowballing economy; broad modifiers may be split ("maritime income" instead of income).

Source: Dev Diary #1 — The Vision of Silk & Silver (April 21, 2026)

Needs Silk & Silver

The store page lists these as the expansion's content.

Merchants: a family trading company

  • A landless government: your family runs a company from a domicile in a city, and that county's holder is your Patron (you become their Beneficiary, a new kind of tributary).
  • Start as one with "Create your own Merchant" anywhere on the map, or take the Become Merchant decision as a count or duke whose culture allows it — patricians and adventurers can take it too.
  • Company purposes: the store page names three — Caravaneer (move goods), Creditor (lend gold) and Artisan (make artifacts); dev diary #6 lists a fourth, Reputable, and one capstone decision per purpose that unlocks a unique domicile upgrade.
  • Trade routes for over 40 goods, each with one Trader who works on competitiveness, expertise or route capacity. Commission Routes (up to 4 by company size) pay a lump sum up front and last 10 years; cancelling one refunds part of it and gives you the Dealbreaker secret.
  • Loans: lend at open interest (they owe 25% more — a faith that condemns usury can void the debt), disguise the interest (15% more) or lend for nothing. You hold a strong hook while the debt lasts, and debts are inherited.
  • Rivals: sharing a market sours house relations. Steal trade secrets, challenge or sabotage a competitor, get their charter revoked, undercut their prices — or end them with Merge Company or a hidden Hostile Takeover scheme (needs a company at least as large and a hook).

Source: Silk & Silver on Steam (store page) (October 19, 2026) · Dev Diary #3 — Merchants Vision (May 26, 2026) · Dev Diary #6 — Merchants, Republics & the Silk Road (September 15, 2026)

Republics: patricians, the Assembly and the doge

  • All republics share one government, specialised by an Administration type: Venice starts Maritime, the one that trades furthest. County-tier republics are limited to Communal and to one patrician family; a republic really opens up at duchy tier.
  • Republics build tall: as the capital grows, a tier law raises the domain and vassal limits and the reach of trade. Succession is usually by election, with a despotic option — and laws change the ruler's title (a Doge can become a Prince).
  • No crown authority: the Assembly passes laws one at a time (revoking titles, terms of office, who may vote, majorities) and decrees that spend the state treasury.
  • Patrician Rating decides how strong your House Ambition is. There are five: Commerce, Aggrandizement, Communal, Signorial, Agitation.
  • The capital's Popular Opinion matters: when it is low, a Capital Uprising faction forms and its demands get worse the lower opinion falls. Civic Works is a repeatable great project to spend gold on the capital.
  • Trade Posts are districts in other rulers' counties (one per county, a limit per patrician). You can persuade a county's holder to hand one over, steal one with a scheme, start routes from it, and use the Conquer Trade County casus belli on neighbouring or coastal counties.

Source: Silk & Silver on Steam (store page) (October 19, 2026) · Dev Diary #4 — Republics Vision (June 9, 2026) · Dev Diary #6 — Merchants, Republics & the Silk Road (September 15, 2026)

Trade Leagues

  • Republics band together, like the Hanseatic League. Cohesion has five levels: Casual Barter (0–20, no effects), Shared Markets (20–45), Joint Ventures (45–70), Commercial Consortium (70–95), Mercantile Union (95–100).
  • Three new casus belli: Trade War (a rival league gives up trade posts and monopolies in shared markets), Proclaim Commune (free land from a non-republic and add it to the league as a republic) and Enforce a Monopoly.
  • The league leader picks a focus trade category; members share market insight and goods expertise, and get two trade post buildings (Trade League Arsenal, Trade League Treasury). The Hanseatic League can be founded and has a trade post of its own, the Kontor.

Source: Dev Diary #7 — Guelphs & Ghibellines (October 20, 2026)

The Guelphs & Ghibellines situation

  • Guelphs back the Pope and the Italian city-states, Ghibellines the Holy Roman Empire. Six phases: Papal Resurgence (the 1066 start), Dictatus Papae (around 1075), Repose (the 1178 start), Agitation, Guelph Advantage and Ghibelline Advantage.
  • A side enters Advantage at 70% of the power bar (checked monthly) and drops back below 60%. Only a side in Advantage can end the situation in its favour.
  • Guelph Victory: every Holy Roman vassal in northern Italy becomes independent, the Empire can't declare wars there for 30 years or on its church vassals, and Church Authority rises. Ghibelline Victory: the kingdoms of Italy and Romagna become de jure Holy Roman, and Church Authority falls. A Compromise ends it with concessions on both sides.
  • New schemes Replace Ruler, Claim Leadership, Align Undecided and Coax Defection; decisions to pick, join or lead a side, ignite the conflict or offer peace, and invite exiles; the Displace Ruler and Reinstate Ruler casus belli; the Lombard League from 1167.

Source: Dev Diary #7 — Guelphs & Ghibellines (October 20, 2026)

Bookmarks, Italy and the Silk Road

  • Two new bookmarks: 1066 Channels of Commerce (famous merchants) and 1178 Guelphs & Ghibellines (northern Italy after the Treaty of Venice).
  • Civic carnivals for republics, historical events such as the Investiture Controversy (1075) and the Concordat of Worms (1123), and map changes that give the northern Holy Roman Empire more room for republics.
  • Merchants in the Silk Road region join its situation and get route length, capacity and expertise bonuses by phase — for every Silk & Silver owner; the dynastic-cycle effects still need All Under Heaven.

Source: Silk & Silver on Steam (store page) (October 19, 2026) · Dev Diary #6 — Merchants, Republics & the Silk Road (September 15, 2026) · Dev Diary #7 — Guelphs & Ghibellines (October 20, 2026)

Announced, but not said whether it needs the DLC

  • Trade markets: one per de jure duchy, just over 900 in the world. Over 40 trade goods (salt, silk, spices…) come from resource districts, and buildings get "needs" that only work while supplied.
  • Landed rulers move goods too, but far less than merchants: Distribution Routes let a duke or higher link two markets whose capitals they hold and trade the basic goods between them (cereals, meat, carpentry goods, stone, beasts of burden, precious and basic metals — the list in dev diary #5).
  • Tolls set by a market's holder on the trade through it (still work in progress in dev diary #5); entrepôts in cities like Cairo, Baghdad, Constantinople and Venice take goods in and let other merchants carry them further.
  • Steady routes turn into roads that move armies faster, and decay when trade stops.
  • Traditions are reworked for the new economy: Seafarers now works through the port district; new ones include Fortune Seekers and Saharan Traders (both allow the Become Merchant decision), Binding Oaths and the Italian Contado, Civic Religion and Roman Law.
  • A Usury doctrine on rites decides whether lending at interest is condemned, allowed only with outsiders, or honest business.

Source: Dev Diary #2 — Trade Vision (May 12, 2026) · Dev Diary #5 — Iteration (September 1, 2026) · Dev Diary #6 — Merchants, Republics & the Silk Road (September 15, 2026)

On ck3db when it is out

Every page here is read from the game's own files — now patch 1.20.1.2, which doesn't contain Silk & Silver yet. The patch removes every regular building (dev diary #1): on this site that is the 59 chains under Regular buildings. The 277 special and 11 great buildings are mostly kept, with new effects. Once the patch is out the site is rebuilt from its files: districts, trade goods, the new laws, decisions and traditions get their pages, and a page the patch removes sends you on to its section.

Sources

Summed up by ck3db from these, checked October 22, 2026. Dev diaries describe work in progress: numbers and names can still change before release.

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