On the most basic level I feel the team could overlook a critical group of characters, because they are looking at in game events to grow and develop every character. I hope I'm wrong and that they do make changes. I feel that I will need to explain what is going on under the hood for non-modders to understand what is happening.

Let's start by explaining what template and pool characters are. A template character is a character designed for a specific role they have names like "peasant\_leader\_template" or "knight\_template" these characters are generated when the event occurs they are given certain traits to fill the specific role they are going to play. For example the "mystic\_template" characters will have the lifestyle trait mystic. Inside of each template there are multiple options characters. Within the "mystic\_template" file there can be a single/multiple character designs like "default\_mystic\_character" or "mendicant\_mystic\_character" these are what is dropped into a specific event. Now "pool\_repopulation\_character\_templates" are more generic characters these are the random characters that wander the world they have names like "pool\_repopulate\_prowess" or "pool\_repopulate\_spouse".  So all the characters with zero coin and piety come from it's these templates (this is part of what I mean when I say characters grow during the game and not before; This is a trend I really want you to notice.) 

Now that we have a basic understanding about what template characters are lets look into what a simple character template looks like (see image) in the image is "beautiful\_peasant\_character" from the "peasant\_template" her age range is shown, "random\_traits\_list" states she will get a beauty trait then "random\_traits" I speculate is not complicated code and has a low percent chance to only add a commander trait (I haven't found file location if someone knows I'd like to see the code) and that's basically it a very simple character. Most characters created this way aren't much more interesting.

Why are the simple character templates a problem you might be wondering. Time to turn focus on how the developers look at a characters growth which they want to occur during the game from events. Why do most template characters have zero gold not even a single piece? Why does a knight in his 30's have absolutely no gold or a councilor. Simple fix make the knight that you generate have some code that looks at age, dynasty etc and determine if they come into the game world with some gold. See this idea shifts these template characters growth to before they just magically drop into the game world, and it makes the characters feel like they have experienced life. 

This is the same reason that inheritable traits die off after a few hundred game years the template character being generated don't even have the slightest possibility to have those traits.

Time to take this gold idea a step further if we can make a character feel more alive by adding a few gold coins what else can we do? What should be a simple trait "pilgrim" which is an important part of this time period. The Christians did them and Islam required a person's first pilgrimage to be the Hajj. So why do so many template characters who's age range can be 18 through 60's not have this trait when many religions at the time required pilgrimages? Simple the templates don't include a pathway for the template characters to have the trait. A code can be written that uses age along with personality traits (ie. lazy, zealot, etc) to determine if the character has gone on a pilgrimage and gained the "pilgrim" trait. (Could this cause the trait to be over powered yes, but that's not what this discussion is about)

Let's even tread a bit deeper we can apply this same logic to all template characters giving them a chance to be a witch or a secret witch if they prefer, a character with a martial trait more likely to have commander traits or born in snow region to have "winter soldier".  Giving these pool characters more variety and depth will feel like they have lived. Now let's make it even more dynamic based on the kingdom they are born into. Say a liege is big into raiding you would think the template characters that are created would even just so slightly be more likely have the "raider" trait while liege who has a bunch of brewer buildings could have a slightly increased chance that a template character is a "drunkard". The options and depth to how you tie them together is almost limitless.

So how does this all tie back to By God Alone is that these template characters are basically born in a way that they are malleable and more filler for your character to complete goals instead of being their own person that might not align perfectly with your choices and you have to balance. I don't foresee template characters being given more depth to increase the tension or alignment. If they do it would be great, but I'm not going to hold my breath.

Please forgive any errors I don't use AI to proof read.

What I think is causing the game world to feel boring and flat and why I don't think the new DLC By God Alone won't fix it.