Religion is a key concept in Crusader Kings II, and the different religions and their interactions greatly affect how the game is played. Each character in Crusader Kings II has a religion, and the religion of the player's character determines what mechanics are available to the player.
Religious GroupsEdit
There are six main religious groups in Crusader Kings II. These are Christian, Muslim, Pagan, Zoroastrian, Indian , and Jewish. Each of these (except Zoroastrian and Jewish) is subdivided into multiple branches, which may in turn have their own sub-branches known as heresies. A list of religions is given below:
Christian
- Catholic (Heresies: Cathar, Fraticelli, Waldensian, Lollard)
- Orthodox (Heresies: Bogomilist, Monothelite, Iconoclast, Paulician)
- Miaphysite (Heresy: Monophysite)
- Nestorian (Heresy: Messalian)
Muslim
- Sunni (Heresies: Zikri, Yazidi, Ibadi)
- Shia (Heresies: Druze, Hurufi )
Pagan
Zoroastrian
- Zoroastrian (Heresies: Mazdaki, Manichean )
Jewish
- Jewish (Heresies: Karaism, Samaritanism )
Indian
By default, Christian characters are playable in Crusader Kings II. Muslim characters require The Sword of Islam DLC to play, and Pagan and Zoroastrian characters require The Old Gods DLC to play. Aztec Pagan characters require Sunset Invasion DLC to play. In addition, Hindu, Buddhist and Jain characters require Rajas of India DLC to play.
General FeaturesEdit
Religious Heads: Some of the religions in Crusader Kings II have heads. These people are recognised by the adherents of that particular faith to be the leader of the religion. These individuals may or may not be playable depending on the relgion, and often have unique mechanics. Pagan religions start without a religious head, but gain one once the religion has been reformed. The Norse leader is the Fylkir, a title held by a Norse ruler, which functions much like the Caliphate. The other pagan religions get a normal high priest who is a vassal to the ruler who reformed the religion.
Moral Authority: A religion's moral authority represents the power and sway of a particular religion is measured out of 100%. Certain actions such as excommunications, sanctioned invasions and relgious reformation require a minimum moral authority. Religions with higher moral authority more easily convert characters and provinces to their faith, while religions with lower moral authority are less likely to gain converts and are suscepitible to heresy. Katie wales personal pronouns pdf. A religion's moral authority is dependent on the attributes of the religion's head, the number of holy sites held by the relgion, success in religous wars and other considerations.
Holy Sites: Holy sites are religious holdings in the game with particular significance to a given religion. Holding holy sites gives religions more moral authority. 3 holy sites are required to be held for religious reformation to take place. Some holy sites are significant for multiple religions e.g. Jerusalem.
Great Holy Wars: Catholics, Muslims, Reformed Pagans, Zoroastrians, and Jews gain access to a special CB that allows them to fight for all of the territories in an entire kingdom to win them to the faith. The name of this CB changes by religion: Catholics have crusades; Muslims have jihads; the rest have great holy wars. Crusades and jihads are unlocked in the 11th century or in the case of major centers of religion to infidels or heretics, i.e. Rome falling to Muslim invaders. Once both crusades and jihads are unlocked, the reformed pagans will gain access to great holy wars. Zoroastrians and Jews immediately gain access to great holy wars upon restoring their priesthoods. Once a great holy war has been called, all members of that religion may join the war. The one whose war contribution is the greatest is awared control of the target territory if successful.
Heresies: Each religion has one or more heresies, which function as subgroups. Heresies are especially likely to appear and spread rapidly if the moral authority of the parent religion has been eroded considerably. Their spread is problematic because the relations penalty between heretics and members of the parent religion is severe and thus fosters feudal strife. Players can, however, choose to become heretics themselves. Heretics and their parent religions gain holy war CBs on each other. While this eases expansion for heretic lords surrounded by former co-religionists, heretics do not gain access to holy orders. Should the heretic religion become more widespread than the parent religion, the heresy will displace it and become the new orthodoxy. The holy orders will then serve the former heresy.
Pagan Reformation: Pagan religions begin without religious heads or access great holy wars or holy orders. Low-tech non-pagans gain a significant attrition penalty when fighting in pagan territory, but pagan religions have significant penalty to conversion and are more easily displaced by their organized neighbors. Unreformed pagan rulers also cannot force vassals to convert to their religion. A pagan ruler can reform the religion, giving it an organized clergy and holy texts, by controlling holy sites. Once the religion is reformed, it will gain a religious head, a holy order, and access to the Great Holy War CB once the crusades and jihads have begun. In the case of the Norse, the religious head is the reforming ruler and the mechanics function much like those of the Islamic Caliphate; for the rest, the religious heads are simply vassals of the ruler. Reformed pagans lose all the penalties and bonuses of the unreformed religion.
For more information on the different religions and their unique mechanics see their individual pages.
See alsoEdit
For an indepth religion strategy guide see:Religion & Keeping the Church Strong
To learn about popes and antipopes see:Pope (& Antipope)
Religion | |
---|---|
Catholicism • Catharism • Fraticellism • Waldensianism • Lollardy • Orthodoxy • Bogomilism • Monothelitism • Iconoclasm • Paulicianism • Miaphysitism • Monophysitism • Nestorianism • Messalianism | |
Sunni Islam • Zikri Islam • Yazidism • Ibadism • Shia Islam • Druzism • Hurufism | |
Generic Paganism • Norse Paganism • Tengrism • Romuva • Suomenusko • Aztec Paganism • Slavic Paganism • West African Paganism • Hellenic Paganism | |
Zoroastrianism • Mazdakism • Manichaeism | |
Judaism • Karaism • Samaritanism | |
Hinduism • Jainism • Buddhism |
UPDATE:Take note that as of Patch 1.06, Muslims are only playable via the Sword of Islam DLC. Attempting to use this guide, or even via cheats or modding without the DLC which would result in a GAME OVER once the game transitions to your new Islamic heir. This guide, however, would still be useful if you do have the DLC but do not wish to play any of the existing Sunni or Shia lords present in the game.
Also, with the upcoming The Old Gods DLC , pagan rulers will be playable, but again via purchase only.
So I have seen an increase in frustration because people want to play pagan or muslim and can't. The truth is you do not need mods or cheats in order to play as pagans or muslim, but I have to warn you, it is not easy being pagan in a Christian world. The process of becoming pagan is not as hard either but might require some paitence, and converting your populace to paganism and staying on the throne is the hardest part. I've decided to write a mini guide on how to play pagan.
1) Pick something to play. It is much easier playing and staying pagan If you play in eastern europe, where you have more potential pagan allies and less Christian neighbours, although the Russian dukes will provide you a challenge for survival. Now there are different types of pagans:
Romuva - Generally found in Eastern Europe. As far as I understand, it's a somewhat classic polytheistic (more than one god) religion. I'd pick one of the Russian Dukes for this one. I personally did it with the Duke of Polotsk. Has nothing to do with Druidism at all.
Norse - Found in northern Sweden and a few parts of Finland. Polytheistic religion, Thor, Odin etc. Again it is easier if you pick a Christian nation close to your pagan friends, although there are not many to choose from. Jarl Eric the Heathan of Uppland in Sweden is the most prevalent practicer, he occasionally becomes King of Sweden.
Tengri - Found in far eastern Euro-Asia. No idea what its about, and I never really tried turning to this religion. Tengrisim involves shamanistic worship of a Sky God. The word Turk refers to this God, and the word is still used in modern Turkish to refer to Allah.
Suomenusko - Finnish polytheistic pagan religion. Prevalent in Finland and northernmost part of Russia.
Pagan - That's it, a pagan religion named 'Pagan', just like Lt. Columbo's dog is called 'Dog'. Found in small quantities in subsaharan Africa. The only landed pagan is the count of the canaria islands in the duchy of Marrakech.
Zoroastrian - Old Persian religion. Still has some vestiges and devotees in bushier parts of Persia. Note that Zoroastrian faith does not belong to Pagan religious group; it has a group completely of its own, just like Christian, Muslim, or Pagan. Similarly to Pagan religion, Zoroastrians do not rule over any land.
2) Marry a courtier with the pagan religion into your court - yes they will actully do this. I found it easist to marry a pagan woman into my court, but make sure its an unimportant courtier, otherwise the High Chief (Duke) or who ever you try to take the courtier from, wont allow it.
3) Now that the courtier is in your court, he/she -WILL- educate your heir. Make sure the heir is educated at around age 6 because that is the time where they have a high chance to adopt the guardians religion.
4) Once your heir has been converted, then once your heir takes the throne you become pagan. And yes, it is dev confirmed you can play save games with them.
I have made a savegame with an example and provided screenshots of how I could become pagan. For this purpose I have taken the Russian Duke of Polotsk. He has a son that is 6 years old which is perfect. However he has a few sons who need assassinated. So I saved/reloaded until i managed to kill off the remaining heirs because they are too old to adopt the religion of a guardian.
http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa108/Palle1234/ck22012-02-1516-42-13-00.jpg
The Duke has quite a few sons. I believe i murdered two because they were too old to adopt the religion of a guardian. I was lucky to kill the first son at the beginning of the game. So while I wait for money to replenish I need to get a guardian for my soon-to-be pagan heir. First we find a pagan court, in this case I looked at the High Chief of Lithuania and found an unimportant female character which I married into my court to another of my courtiers.
http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa108/Palle1234/ck22012-02-1516-43-37-95.jpg
http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa108/Palle1234/ck22012-02-1516-43-49-81.jpg
Next step I find the pagan courtier I just married in to my court, to educate my coming heir. She accepts because she is in my court. If she was in another court she would not accept, which is why it is important they are in your court.
http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa108/Palle1234/ck22012-02-1516-44-20-52.jpg
Now I start the time again piling up gold for the assasination of my second son while the pagan is educating and converting my other son. At some point I murder him.
http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa108/Palle1234/ck22012-02-1516-45-04-84.jpg
This makes my new heir, the pagan son. Give it a few years before he converts though. But at this point save the game because it is not always that they will convert. For me he did not convert in the first try so I reloaded and this time he converted.
http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa108/Palle1234/ck22012-02-1516-54-31-20.jpg
Now to speed things even quicker up I got to get my current ruler killed. Sadly we cant do seppuku in this game, but what we can do is to try to assassinate some pagans. Keep assassinating and pray that they get discovered, because if you spam assassinations then they will attempt to asssassinate you likewise. And at some point this will succede like here. Now I die.
http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa108/Palle1234/ck22012-02-1516-55-58-27.jpg
Now I am a pagan. My church is pagan.
http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa108/Palle1234/ck22012-02-1516-56-07-41.jpg
http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa108/Palle1234/ck22012-02-1516-56-10-46.jpg
And to prove to you, you can still play them in a savegame then you can and I got a screenie. The game will remember you started out as a Christian, so you can continue your pagan game.
http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa108/Palle1234/ck22012-02-1516-56-33-21.jpg
And to prove to you, you can still play them in a savegame then you can and I got a screenie. The game will remember you started out as a Christian, so you can continue your pagan game.
http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa108/Palle1234/ck22012-02-1516-56-33-21.jpg
WARNING:
Playing Pagan is not intended though, and you can be at risk of facing huge Christian hordes. However it serves as a nice challenge, and a pagan Europe could be cool. Hope this guide provided help on how you can become pagan
Editor Note:
Guide written by Pallen on Paradox forums:
Holy Fury is an expansion for the strategy game Crusader Kings II. The expansion focuses on the Northern Crusades, also known as the Baltic Crusades. Most of all, the DLC enhances gameplay elements concerning religions, both Catholic and Pagan.
This is Crusader Kings II expansion pack.
Strategy|Economic|the middle ages|historical
publisher : Paradox Interactive
Game mode: single / multiplayer
Multiplayer mode: Internet, players: 1-32
Crusader Kings II: Holy Fury is an expansion for Crusader Kings II (originally released in 2012). This is not a stand-alone expansion, thus, it requires the base game to be installed first. Both of the mentioned titles were developed by Paradox Development Studio, also known for creating games like Hearts of Iron IV, Stellaris, and Europa Universalis IV.
Mechanics
Holy Fury does not introduce any radical changes to the original formula of Crusader Kings II. Instead, the authors decided to focus on adding new content and further developing particular aspects of the game. The expansion focuses on the so-called Northern Crusades (also referred to as the Baltic Crusades), which were wars waged by Christian countries against their Pagan neighbors in the north of Europe.Players can choose either side of the conflict.
In Crusader Kings II: Holy Fury, rulers of Pagan countries are given the option to reform their original religious beliefs and introduce new ones with different principles and rules. The gameplay is also enhanced by the inclusion of so-called Legendary Bloodlines, thanks to which the heirs of great lords will receive special bonuses. The game also includes many new events associated with the Crusades.
The DLC introduces Pagan warrior lodges, in which characters can climb in ranks, learn new skills, and gain new allies. Coronations also play an important role in the game; they force rulers to find clergymen, who are willing to confirm that their (the rulers) authority comes from the God himself. The game also offers an interesting opportunity to play on a fictional map of Europe, which in this case is composed of many small countries fighting for domination, what’s more, there’s also an option to play the campaign on a random map.
Moreover, in Crusader Kings II: Holy Fury, it is possible for devoted Catholics to attain the rank of saint; this brings glory to their heirs and significantly increases the importance of the land which has become their burial place. On the other hand, Pagan countries now have new laws governing succession. Elder Councils can influence the way territory is divided among heirs. Brothers were given the option to partake in duels in order to decide who should get the inheritance; this makes it easier to unify partitioned territories.
Expectations: 8.0 / 10 calculated out of 16 players' votes.
Similar games:
System requirements
PC / Windows
Minimum: ntel Pentium 4 2.4 GHz / AMD Athlon 64 3500+ 2.4 GHz, 2 GB RAM, graphic card 512 MB GeForce 8800 GT / Radeon X1900 or better, Windows 7
One thing I love about Crusader Kings II is the amount of flexibility they give for the player's Grand Campaign options, enabling the player to essentially start as a anyone, whether it be an Emperor or a Count. So basically you can start off a lowly Count with a never-before heard person/dynasty (thanks Ruler Designer) and actually expand and build your Kingdom or Empire from scratch.
The Legacy of Rome DLC particularly had me vying for control over the Byzantine Empire with my new Sicily-based dynasty. From there I began restoring the Roman Empire's borders (from Augustus Caesar's reign), since a new major decision available in Legacy of Rome is to actually replace the Byzantine Empire with the true Roman Empire once you have its borders restored. Since I also recently got the Sunset Invasion DLC, I was basically trying to expand fast enough within two centuries before the Aztecs landed in Western Europe potentially starting an 'end of the modern world' alternate history scenario in a game event similar to the emergence of the Golden Horde/Ilkhanate/Timurds except from the other side of the map. Not only was going to restore the Roman Empire but I'd basically be pitted against barbarians from every side just like good old ancient times.
Because I was so used to the Sicily start (was my preferred start even before the DLC) I had no trouble building up the Kingdom of Sicily, entering the Byzantine Empire and eventually having my own claim to the throne. After a brief blitz of Constantinople and friends due to a fractured Byzantine Empire (it's not very cohesive from the start) I was well on my way from restoring the Roman Empire.
How To Reform Religion Ck2 Holy Fury
Fast-forward through a lot of micromanagement, wars of expansion, multiple successful crusades and finally I've got my Roman Empire just in time to stop the invading Mongolian hordes in their tracks. The Ilkhanate in particular tried to pull a fast one with my Middle-Eastern holdings but that backfired on them hard, as their surrender request above shows.
A cool new event the Byzantine/restored Roman Empire gets for victories after a major war is a prestige-boosting opportunity in which you can dish out some gold to lavishly celebrate your victory:
This would typically be a good endgame for most people (there's not much else after successfully thwarting the Mongol hordes besides conquering the rest of the known world) but due to the impending Sunset Invasion, I wasn't done there. Considering I had both all of Spain and Britain under my belt (and was about to start a war of expansion over Scotland), I definitely faced a larger hurdle with the Aztecs. Unlike the Ilkhanate, who conquered my neighbors first at full-strength causing them to be whittled down by the time they tried encroaching on my turf, I'd be facing the Aztecs raw. That basically meant they'd be landing with a force of over 100k, kind of unprecedented compared with the wars I've dealt with up to me defeating the distilled Ilkhanate.
At this point I knew I had at least a year before they arrived. My strategy at this point was basically to raise the armies of my entire realm for the first time and concentrate them at Western Europe while leaving a huge navy in the English Channel to deal with shipping over troops in the case they were over at Britain.
Thankfully I had a good volume of armies and would be able to basically use the entire Mediterranean as a staging area for pre-deployment. At this point I had enough navies to concentrate all my Central European armies in Italy and ship them over in time for the fight. I actually would have a very small window for a counter-attack before I'd be forced to surrender to the Aztecs if they sacked enough of England (after losing a handful of counties the game surrenders you automatically for some reason, no matter how strong your remaining forces actually are).
While my war with Scotland was going well, I wasn't using as many forces up North (about 10-20k) to be able to divert and put up a fight as the Aztecs landed in Cornwall in a huge lump (~120k) and essentially they managed to grab two full counties (also cutting open the heart of one of the counts apparently; oh well -- they weren't too fond of me for conquering them first, so they did me a favor in that respect, heh) before deciding to fan out in thirds to try and subdue multiple counties simultaneously. That would be their biggest mistake, because I guess they did not anticipate one of my fleets carrying the first 60k troops of my counter-attack right on top of one of their thirds that was reduced to half the size of my force.
While I made short work of one of the Aztec army thirds (60k vs 39k gave me pretty good odds at a small cost), their remaining two-thirds attempted to merge and try to put up a formidable force but by that time I'd already landed the second batch of fresh Romans ready to shed some Aztec blood, since being Pagan was sooooo yesterday for them (as in a whole millennium yesterday!)
If I'd been too hasty with conquering Ireland I would've had a bigger mess in my hands. Thankfully for me, they weren't yet affiliated with me. The Aztecs presence in Ireland basically assured that Ireland would soon fall under Rome's wing, considering I had also just united Great Britain in conquering Scotland right on top of my first victory against the Aztecs in Cornwall and Devon, and there's no easier way to start a war than a religious one.
As much as I crushed them in England, their second landing force made short work of the fractured Irish counties (they weren't lucky enough to be united under the Roman banner yet), but that ended up being a blessing in disguise for me since it gave me the perfect excuse to land my own invasion force in Ireland and 'liberate' the Irish. Hey, I'd think being under the Senate and People of Rome is a much better fate than being enslaved and living under the constant threat of becoming a sacrifice to Pagan gods!
A new feature in the Crusader King II games from the latest patches and DLC is the ability to keep a personal, standing army outside of raised levies. This essentially enables you to pre-position raised standing armies in the form of retinues and declare war from there, giving you a great head start for invasions. From the combined forces of the retinues I raised for both my invasion of Scotland and the defense of England against the Aztecs, I had a a standing army of 220,000 right in front of Ireland and could declare war at the same time thanks for that force being entirely comprised of retinues (really expensive though; fortunately I had the entire economy of the Mediterranean funding me as the restored Roman Empire).
And that was the beginning and the end of the Aztec's presence in Europe. They would've been a lot more devastating and would've also been probably there to stay if I hadn't been around with the restored Roman Empire! Their unsuccessful invasion of my borders assured that the rest of my expansions would continue unperturbed, as there would be no concentrated military force left to challenge the combined might of my ever-growing empire. It was game over for everyone who wasn't Roman.
About a century later of being the largest fighting force around having thwarted invasions from all sides while holding invasions of my own, I've conquered the known world.
Roma Victor, as they'd say.
Three DLCs (didn't talk about the first one, Sword of Islam, but know that's pretty cool too) and forty hours later (eighty total hours considering the first forty I spent earlier in the year), Crusader Kings II is my most played game of 2012. Eh, at this point I might as well say it was my Game of the Year. I'm a huge fan of strategy games and Crusader Kings II basically converted me from being big on the Total War franchise to enjoying the grander strategy behind Crusader Kings II. I'm so invested in this type of strategy game now, I actually dug up Europa Universalis 3 and found a program that converts Crusader King 2 saves to EU3 saves! Unfortunately the actual Roman Empire doesn't exist in EU3 (which is all historical starts) so I basically opted to have it ported into the Holy Roman Empire. Anyway my Roman Empire is Christian, so I guess that title would be more fitting.
To be continued?!
Crusader Kings 2 Religion Reforms
Porting the save over to EU3 is probably coolest but most broken thing to ever happen. At the very least, unlike my historical counterpart, my Empire is actually both Holy and Roman. Nevertheless, this broken game would probably be the dark middle chapter of my grand strategy experience. I'd at least be able to finish the fight with the Aztecs and invade them proper! That being said, I'm probably going to take a break before taking on EU3 with my broken and probably overpowered save game.
By Jason Cristiano Ramon ; Updated September 29, 2017
•••Thinkstock/Comstock/Getty Images
Many Reform Jews believe that existence ends at death.
Judaism has never been a religion that has emphasized the afterlife, and as a whole, its concepts related to heaven or hell are much less developed than they are in Christianity or Islam. Despite the diversity of Judaic sects, each division within Judaism emphasizes the deeds accomplished in one's lifetime rather than what awaits them as award or punishment in the afterlife. For Reform Jews, the most progressive sect within the religion, views related to the afterlife are even less defined than other sects.
Ambiguity
Reform Judaism does not provide an official or clear-cut doctrine related to the afterlife; however, it does, unlike Orthodox Judaism, question the literal truth of afterlife concepts shaped within the religion, such as resurrection. While some Reform Jews clearly believe in some form of afterlife, others believe that life ends upon death.
Mitzvah
Like other Judaic sects, Reform Judaism places importance on the here and now, rather than the afterlife, and diligently observes faith through good actions, referred to as as mitzvah. In this sense, rather than believing in an afterlife to drive good deeds, which is common within other major monotheistic religions, Reform Jews believe that good deeds should be accomplished for their own merits.
Sheol
Traditionally within Judaism, Sheol has been mentioned as a place where souls congregate following death. For example, in Genesis 37:35 of the Hebrew Bible, Joseph says, 'No, I shall go down to Sheol to my son, mourning.' However, no universal belief or doctrine exists within Reform Judaism as it relates to Sheol. Much like other afterlife concepts, many Reform Jews do not believe in the literal meaning of Sheol.
Resurrection, Heaven and Hell
Many Reform Jews no longer literally believe in the resurrection of the dead, nor do they believe in Gehinnom, which is hell, or Gan Eden, which is heaven. Rather, Reform Jews emphasize a more ambiguous form of spiritual survival following death. Reform Judaic theology also supports the idea of some kind of spiritual life that proceeds one's death, although again, not all Reform Jews believe in an afterlife .
References
About the Author
How To Reform Religion Ck2 1
Jason Cristiano Ramon holds a doctorate in political science and a master's degree in philosophy. He has taught political science in China.