effect · retire_ideology_leader

Hands-On Usage

retire_ideology_leader is commonly used in flavor events or after national focus completion to forcefully remove the current party leader of a given ideology, causing them to permanently disappear from the game and be replaced by a successor candidate. Typical scenarios include political purges, post-coup purges following failed coups, and transitional handling during ideology line switches. For example, in a fascist coup event, triggering it removes the original democratic leader:

country_event = {
    id = my_mod.10
    # ...
    option = {
        name = my_mod.10.a
        # Remove the democratic party leader, allowing the next candidate to assume office
        retire_ideology_leader = democratic
    }
}

Synergy

• [add_popularity](/wiki/effect/add_popularity): Adjust the support rating of the ideology while retiring the old leader, making the political situation more aligned with narrative logic.
• [create_country_leader](/wiki/effect/create_country_leader): Immediately create a new leader role after retiring the existing one, precisely controlling the successor's traits and portrait rather than relying on automatic succession.
• [add_ideas](/wiki/effect/add_ideas): Pair the retirement event with new national spirits to simulate policy shifts resulting from leadership changes.
• [has_country_leader_ideology](/wiki/trigger/has_country_leader_ideology): Confirm the current governing ideology before triggering retirement to avoid unintended operations when the target ideology is not in power.

Common Pitfalls

1. Overlooking the irreversibility of "complete removal": This effect permanently deletes the leader from the game rather than merely removing them from office. If subsequent events still need to reference that character (such as specific event checks), the target character will not be found, resulting in silent failure. Character lifecycle must be planned in advance.
2. Specifying the wrong ideology token: The parameter must use the actual ideology token defined in-game (such as democratic, fascism, communism, neutrality). If misspelled or if a sub-ideology name is used, the command will not take effect and will produce no error, leading newcomers to mistakenly attribute the issue to other logic problems.