Crusader Kings 3 Silk and Silver: release date, merchants, and republics

Release date, price, and what you need

Silk and Silver releases on 17 Nov 2026. Paradox announced the date in a press release on 19 Oct 2026, and the Steam store page lists the same day. On 9 Nov 2026 the store marks it as coming soon. Paradox calls it a Major Expansion.

The announced price is 29.99 USD, 25.99 GBP, or 29.99 EUR. You need the base game, Crusader Kings 3, on Steam. The Paradox add-on page offers a wishlist button and a link to Chapter V. It does not mention a separate pre-order.

The way to pay before release is the Chapter V expansion pass. It has been on sale since 20 Apr 2026. On 9 Nov 2026 Steam lists it at 43.99 USD or 36.99 GBP. Pass owners get Silk and Silver on the day it unlocks. The pass already delivered By God Alone on 30 Sep 2026.

A GamingOnLinux headline gave 19 Nov. Paradox, Steam, and the dev diary announcement all say 17 Nov 2026. Plan on the 17th.

• Chapter V
• By God Alone

What Silk and Silver adds

The store lists two new governments: Merchant and Republic. It lists a trade system with over 40 trade goods, two new bookmarks, a civic carnival activity, and a Guelphs and Ghibellines conflict in northern Italy. Dev Diary 8 counts 44 trade goods.

The free update that comes with it changes every player. Dev Diary 1 says all regular buildings are removed. Counties get district slots instead, and buildings go inside districts. Development splits into Settlement Size and Prosperity. Control and popular opinion trend toward a baseline instead of always climbing to the top. Those changes are free with the patch. The current rules are on domain and economy.

Italy gets a redrawn map, with Amalfi back, and new cultural traditions. The developers say Italy is not the main focus. Dev Diary 1 also rules out naval warfare for this expansion. There is trade across water, but no naval battles.

If you are new to the game, read what Crusader Kings 3 is first. Silk and Silver changes how money works. The heir, the house, and the map stay the same.

• Domain and economy
• What is Crusader Kings 3

Merchant companies

A merchant is landless. You lead a family company from a domicile in a city. Your patron is whoever holds the county your palace sits in. Dev Diary 3 calls that a new tributary link: you are their Beneficiary. Every route you start begins at your domicile, and moving the company destroys all your routes.

A count or a duke can become a merchant through a decision, if their culture allows it. Patricians and adventurers can take it too. A merchant can later buy land from their patron, or join or form a republic. Asking your patron for favors is the main way to turn gold into prestige, and one favor is a marriage into low nobility. Marriage and alliances covers how matches work today.

The store names three specializations: Caravaneer, Creditor, and Artisan. Dev Diary 6 lists four company purposes, with Reputable as the default. A Creditor lends gold for a Strong Hook that lasts as long as the debt. Open interest asks for 25% more back. Disguised interest asks for 15% more. A new Usury doctrine decides whether a debtor's faith lets them void the loan. Intrigue and hooks explains what a strong hook does.

Rival companies fight over markets. Dev Diary 6 shows schemes to steal trade secrets, challenge or sabotage a competitor, merge two companies, or attempt a hostile takeover. Landed rulers can also hire you for Commission Routes, which last 10 years.

• Intrigue and hooks
• Marriage and alliances

Playable republics: Venice, Genoa, and more

Republics exist on today's map, but you cannot play them. Silk and Silver makes them playable. The press release names Venice and Genoa. Dev Diary 1 goes wider: Italian republics, free cities of the Holy Roman Empire, and the Hanseatic towns of the Baltic. Florence and the Commune of Rome are named as examples. Venice has its own realm page.

You play a patrician family. A doge or podesta holds the top title for a term, and elections are the usual succession law. An Assembly votes on laws, decrees, and election rules. Republics do not use crown authority. Revoking titles, for example, is a law the Assembly has to pass. Push the laws toward despotism and the title changes, from Doge to Prince. For today's succession rules, see the succession crash course and disinherit or elective.

Every republic has an administration. Venice starts as a Maritime Republic, the type that trades furthest. A county-tier republic is stuck with Communal administration and a tight domain limit. Republics grow tall: a bigger capital unlocks a tier law that raises domain and vassal limits. Compare that with the feudal, clan, and tribal governments, and with how domain limit works now.

Patricians build Trade Posts in other rulers' counties. Owning one opens a Conquer Trade County casus belli against neighboring or coastal counties. Republics can also join Trade Leagues. Watch the capital's popular opinion. When it drops low, a Capital Uprising faction can form.

• Venice
• Feudal, clan, and tribal
• Succession crash course

Trade routes and the Silk Road

Every de jure duchy is a market. A route buys a good where a market has a surplus and sells it where a market has a need. Buildings have needs. A met need turns on the building's bonus. An unmet need just leaves it off. Merchants and republics run Profit Routes for gold. Feudal, clan, tribal, and administrative rulers get Distribution Routes. Those move basic goods between two of their own markets and earn no gold.

Distribution Routes depend on rank. Dev Diary 8 gives 1 for a duke, 2 for a king, 3 for an emperor, and 4 for a hegemon. They are served before any merchant. A market owner sets tolls on sales, and every market starts at Medium, a 3% toll. A market owner can also grant monopolies.

Entrepots resell goods further down the line. Dev Diary 5 names Cairo, Baghdad, Constantinople, and Venice, with more along the Silk Road. Roads link the markets. The Late Tang road between south and north China is one of the roads already built at the start.

The Silk Road situation came with All Under Heaven. Dev Diary 6 says it opens to every Silk and Silver owner, because merchants on the Silk Road join it. Its effect on the dynastic cycle only matters if you also own All Under Heaven. That ties trade to the Chinese hegemony and the hegemony rank.

• Chinese hegemony
• Hegemony

The 1066 and 1178 bookmarks and northern Italy

Channels of Commerce is the new 1066 bookmark. It is built around famous merchants and a world trading in spices, silk, and silver. Guelphs and Ghibellines is the new 1178 bookmark, set in northern Italy between pope and emperor.

The Guelphs and Ghibellines situation runs in both. In 1066 it starts in a quiet prelude phase. Henry IV rules the empire then, and Matilda of Tuscany holds Tuscany as his vassal. Dev Diary 7 says the leaders get the Investiture Controversy if they play through 1075.

In 1178 the situation starts in Repose. Legnano in 1176 and the Treaty of Venice have just ended the fighting. Frederick Barbarossa is the emperor of that bookmark. A Guelph victory frees the imperial vassals of northern Italy. A Ghibelline victory makes Italy de jure Holy Roman Empire land and costs the church authority.

The church side ties into By God Alone and the Papacy. Faith rules today are on faith and conversion.

• Henry IV
• Matilda of Tuscany
• Frederick Barbarossa
• Papacy

Venice, Byzantium, and the 1082 charter

In May 1082 Alexios I Komnenos granted Venice a chrysobull, a charter under a gold seal. Vasiliev's history says Venice received it in return for the aid of its fleet. Venetian merchants could buy and sell across the empire free of customs and port dues. They also got a quarter in Constantinople and three landing places.

Vasiliev places the charter beside Robert Guiscard's Balkan war. Robert of Apulia is the 1066 seat for that Norman duke. Alexios took the throne in 1081, between the 1066 and 1178 bookmarks. The Komnenos and Byzantine Empire pages follow those seats.

In the game, Constantinople is one of the named entrepots. Dev Diary 6 says the Conquer Trade County casus belli is meant to echo Venetians taking Greek islands. No dev diary names a scripted 1082 event.

• Alexios I Komnenos
• Komnenos dynasty
• Byzantine Empire

How it fits Chapter V and By God Alone

Chapter V is an expansion pass. Paradox announced it on 20 Apr 2026, the same day as the 1.19 update. It holds four items: Symbols of Authority, a clothing pack; Songs of the Realm, a music pack; By God Alone, a core expansion; and Silk and Silver, the major expansion.

By God Alone came first, on 30 Sep 2026, with the 1.20 update. The hub's data patch, 1.20.1.2, is a By God Alone hotfix from 21 Oct 2026. Silk and Silver closes the pass on 17 Nov 2026.

The two expansions touch. Dev Diary 6 says trade and merchant modifiers are being hooked into the new tenets from By God Alone. Silk and Silver adds a Usury doctrine to faith rites. The full pass is on Chapter V, and the faith half is on By God Alone.

• Chapter V
• By God Alone
• Patch 1.19

What to do before 17 Nov 2026

You play on patch 1.20.1.2 until release. Merchant and republic play are not live. Use the time on habits that carry over.

Raise skilled children. Dev Diary 6 ties a trader's performance to their skills. Dev Diary 8 builds the Doge of Venice's competitiveness partly from his skills. Education and guardians shows how to aim a child at stewardship or another focus.

Hold troops and forts where you collect taxes. Dev Diary 8 says the control baseline comes mainly from stationed troops and fortifications. Men-at-arms timing and domain and economy cover stationing today.

Build renown. Dev Diary 6 names a new dynasty legacy that raises the Trade Post limit. Dynasty and renown explains how legacies are bought. Marriages still form alliances, so marriage and alliances stays useful.

• Education and guardians
• Dynasty and renown
• Men-at-arms timing

Traits tied to republics and trade

Patch 1.20.1.2 already has a republican education line. Town Dweller gives 1 learning and 1 stewardship. Mayor Trainee gives 2 of each, Town Maven 3, and Republican Heir 4. They exist in today's files. No dev diary says how Silk and Silver uses them.

Silk and Silver adds new traits. Dev Diary 6 names Dealbreaker, a fame trait for a merchant who cancels a Commission Route. Traders gain experience in a Merchant trait. A Creditor trait also gains experience.

Some current traits matter to tolls. Dev Diary 8 says greedy, indebted, or warlike AI market owners push tolls toward Very High. Generous ones drop to Low. See Greedy and Generous. Avaricious raises holding taxes today. Add skills up in the trait calculator.

• Republican Heir
• Greedy
• Trait calculator