Paradox's commitment to pushing the Europa Universalis game engine to its limits is both slightly bemusing (it was clunky enough when it debuted over a decade ago) and impressive in how much the team seems to be succeeding.
'It was more a matter of taking all the similar systems we've developed at Paradox Development Studio over the course of multiple games ( Europa Universalis, Crusader Kings, etcetera) and trying to find a better, unified way of realizing the same thing, with the added requirements of a character based game.' First, Crusader Kings II was another evolutionary step for the team.
I asked Fåhraeus about the influences and goals for the project, and he gave two main motivators.
