Marriage is a very different system and much more useful in Mount and Blade 2: Bannerlord as opposed to how it was in Warband.
Your spouse can be a very valuable asset that can greatly help you in conquering all of Calradia if you manage to pay their parents first!
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Gone are the days of chivalry and diplomacy, where you could just charm a young man or woman and then befriend their father.
This is why we have worked to make this extensive guide that will explain the marriage system in Mount and Blade 2: Bannerlord and will get you to enjoy this amazingly effective mechanic.
Table of contents
- How Marriage Works in Mount and Blade 2: Bannerlord
- How to Get Married/Marry in Bannerlord
- Who are the Best Partners to Marry in Bannerlord
- How to Make Children in Bannerlord
There are special rules when it comes to marriage in Bannerlord. These rules are different for the player character and their siblings.
You, the player, can marry any character of the different sex as long as they are not faction leaders, and that spouse will join your clan. It does not matter if you are male or female.
Your family members can marry faction leaders and clan leaders, but if they do, they will join that clan. If they marry non-faction or clan leaders, the spouse will join your clan, giving you a new companion to use. This only works if your family member is a male.
If you marry your female family member off, they will leave your clan, and you will lose a controllable character.
What Does Marriage Do
The main idea is that marriage is a great way for you to get companions. Normally, there is a companion limit based on the clan tier.
However, you can get many new companions that don’t count as companions through marriage and children.
So, if your goal is to have a large, powerful clan, here are the rules:
- Marry someone quick to make children that will help you in the future.
- Marry male family members to non-faction or clan female leaders to get them in your clan.
- Don’t marry your female family members.
Exceptions:
- If you promote a male companion to be a noble, you can marry a female family member to make sure the new clan doesn’t die off.
- You can marry female family members to clans you plan on recruiting in the future.
How to Get Married/Marry in Bannerlord
Now, the only thing standing in your way is getting married. The main character in Bannerlord has a special mechanic that allows them to “charm” the possible romance option.
You can do this by approaching the possible marriage candidate in a castle or town hall and passing a few dialogue checks.
These will be based on the different skills you possess. However, you can easily pass them all by saving scumming (saving before talking to them and loading if you fail).
The only reason why the charming minigame is relevant is the fact that to actually get married, you have to talk to the clan leader and propose a trade in which you ask to marry your target.
So, to get married in Bannerlord, you need to approach the clan leader of your romantic interest and negotiate as you would normally negotiate for resources.
Select that you want to marry whomever you would like and then negotiate a price. You can either just give money or try to barter with various items you might have on you.
If you manage to charm the person you wanted to marry beforehand, the price for the marriage will be significantly lower than normal, ranging somewhere from 1k to 5k denarii (the normal price would be 10k to 30k).
When it comes to your character, the best people that you could possibly marry are people with high skills. It would be best to look for someone that has talents different from what your companions already have.
For example, if you have a really good medic and scout, get a spouse that has a good Steward skill and make them your quartermaster. This way, you can easilyincrease your army limit by more than 50%.
You should also choose someone young if you have a male main character. Marrying an older woman will lower your chances of having heirs.
When it comes to clan members, make sure to marry them in a way that won’t end up with them joining a different clan. Besides that, anyone will usually be good.
Also, try to marry them to clans you plan on working with so that your high relationships are actually useful.
If you are wondering about marrying companions, there is no way to do that. There also isn’t any advantage in marrying your companions.
You could, however, marry them once you make them nobles, but that would just destroy their newly formed clan, making the whole process useless.
How to Make Children in Bannerlord
Now that you got your spouse, you are probably wondering how to continue the process and get a baby.
To get someone pregnant in Mount and Blade 2: Bannerlord, the two spouses have to wait in a town for a couple of days. However, it can take many days until you get the notification that the wife is pregnant.
The notification will always come at the same time you pay the wages, so you can save scum again before that time since getting pregnant seems to be based on luck.
On the other hand, there are some things regarding children that aren’t luck-based:
- A younger female has a higher chance of birthing babies (an older one has a lower chance).
- Once a woman is over 45 years old, they won’t be able to birth children anymore.
- The more children a woman has, the lower the chances for her to get a new one.
- The child will be born 35/36 days after the pregnancy event.
There are also a couple of things that can happen once the birth of the child is over:
- The child is:
- Dead
- Born
- Are Twins
- The mother is:
- Fine
- Dead
These results are random and are not decided beforehand, so you can save the day before the birth and just reload if you don’t like the result.
The child’s culture will be the same as the mother’s, so either choose a woman with the same culture as you or choose someone from thebest culture group in Bannerlord.
That’s everything you need to know about how the marriage system works in Mount and Blade 2: Bannerlord!
Have any input or suggestions for this guide? Let us know in the comment section below.
