The first thing you'll want is a scholar. If you're just starting the game this is the easy part. Just pick a scholar at character creation. You'll want to prioritize Rhetoric and Charisma, in that order. If you're in the middle of a game produce a scholar the old fashion way. :)

Next you'll need a vault. If you're starting a new game. Pick a map with a vault already built (and can be bought) or a map where you can place one with little difficulty.

If the only vault to be had is owned already and there is no place to build another. You're going to have to take it over. Or just kill the owners with thugs and buy it afterwards. But that sort of defeats the purpose of this guide which is to kill your enemies legally.

Now it's time to start making money. You'll need to upgrade the vault first chance you get. Start by hiring employees and upgrading the building so you can have more of them. The good thing about vaults is that their only real cost is employee wages. Also some pinewood. More on that later.

Start producing skulls, bones, ectoplasm. These are your base resources. Then start skull candles and bone bracelets. These can make you a lot of money very quickly. Also if setting up the manage building tab, make sure trading is set to manual. More on that later.

If the market gets flooded with goods. (Entirely possible given how fast they are made.) Start selling to counting houses/other city markets instead. Make sure the path is safe, don't need to lose your goods to robbers. This way you can make max profit and speed this up a bit.

Once you have enough money to upgrade to the second level building with some few thousand to spare do so. You'll need at least a level three scholar to do so. If you already have a level three scholar or higher, and have enough money you can upgrade the building level right away.

Alright you have an upgraded vault its time for the fun to start. Have your employees start making robes, and send your cart to get some pine wood. One stack each is all you will need. Make sure you upgrade your storage spaces and select Sorcerors Document I from the upgrade panel.

The Sorcerors Document is the key to the whole strategy. This clever little document can forge evidence against your rivals. They can't be allied with you however the document won't work if you are.

The document will create a random piece of evidence so you'll need to use it more than once. Even if the crime is murder it won't max out the court sentence so make sure you make as many as you can.

Also be sure your character is in your vault at the time of making them so you can just move the document into their inventory. This is why you wanted automated trading off. Otherwise your cart will just haul it off to the market wasting your effort.

Some tips on use: Sorcerors Documents can be used anywhere, even right in front of a crowd, and no one will call you out on it. The Documents have a 9 hour recharge so shuffle them around to other family members so you can stack up the evidence quickly. Finally if you upgrade the building once more you can get access to Sorcerors Document II which is twice as effective for twice the rescources used. Furthermore Sorcerors Document II has its own recharge timer, so it is a good idea to acquire them as well, as it will make your frame up x3 as effective if you use both.

So you have a nice pile of (falsified) evidence against your enemy. Now its time to use it. Go over to the court house and accuse them of crimes demanding a hearing. Note: You cannot be the mediator/reeve/magistrate when doing this, so have a different family member make the accusation if you are.

The family member who makes the accusation is the prosecutor in the case. So you'll want your charsima and rhetoric in top shape. Once the accusation is made check the important persons tab and look under trial participants. You'll need to befriend these people (minus your victim) before hand. This will make you're claims more believeable and should have greater impact on the sentencing.

Before you do that however take note of the court date. This can be done from your diary or from the court building using the "meetings" button.

If the court is stacked with more of your enemies, well I hope you saved up some money cause you're going to need poems and perfume to make them at least neutral so you can compliment and beguile your way to friendship.

You can also stack the deck further in your favor if you are playing a map with multiple cities. Before accusing your target, look at the cities to find one that is out of the way for your target. (Read: They don't live there). In such a situation they may not even show up to court on time and you can have them declared an outlaw without any further debate. The Guards/Baliffs will hunt them down and slay them before they know what is happening.

Also checking different city laws, under the laws tab. If you're hometown has "humane" sentencing and a town across the map has "severe" you'll want to make the trip there to demand a hearing. If you're victim does make it to court, they'll be in an unfamiliar place, with unfamiliar faces, and facing severe punishment.

Once you've made it to court you can begin ruining their day. You'll present the evidence against them, and the magistrate will ask what you recommend for the sentence. Scroll down and select death. Or if you are feeling merciful or just want to weaken them in another manner select loss of title. In truth you can select any punishment, and so long as the court is convinced of guilt and the sentence bar is filled passed the penalty desired, the desired punishment will be carried out.

The court hearing itself can be rather hilarious. For example: your prosecutor can accuse the defendant of their own murder and the entire court will believe them! Such is the power of necromancy. Once the sentence is passed you can begin your evil laughter as the (mostly) innocent rival is led away to the block.

Now that you've killed one rival in a completely legal manner, its time to finish off the rest of their dynasty in the same manner. You can charge a rival once per day. Eventually eliminating all adult family members which ends the dynasty.

You may also want to wait until the family has children. Those children stick around and become excellent candidates for marriage into your own family, and are never a threat otherwise.

Protip: With the vault set to manual trading you may wish to buy more horsecarts than you need. You can send the extras to the counting houses/trading posts, which occasionally have good deals you can take advantage of. Load up the cart with cheap goods and set them to "unload and return" from the market.

And that's it. Happy framing!