Duct-Tape The Theism #2: Polypaganism.
Combining, reforming and protecting all pagan religions under the rule of the Saoshyant.
This is how I reformed and vassalised the 5 pagan High Priests, The Fylkirate, The Moabadan-Moabad and the 2 pagan Holy Orders and brought them all under the ever watchful eye of the descendants of the Saoshyant using vanilla 1.103 CK2 (+LOR +REP +TOG -SOI -SI) with no mods bar for 1 edited line increasing game end date to 1999. No console cheating or switching characters. All legitimate game play with admittedly a few reloads when things didn't go as expected.
For those that didn't see my previous Duct-Tape The Theism campaign to vassalise the Abrahamic religion's 4 Popes, 7 Patriarchs, 2 Caliphs and 6 Holy Orders... then you need to be warned that this is not a historically accurate play-through. Its gamey to the extreme and if you are offended by the blatent disregard for the feudal rights of your landed and religious subjects... then this thread is probably not for you.
Vassalised religious heads were:
Moabadan-Moabad (The Zoroastrian Church)
The Fylkir (The Fylkirate reformed Norse secular and religious leader)
Slavic High Priest (The Slavic Church)
Baltic High Priest (The Romuvan Church)
Finnish High Priest (The Suomenusko Church)
West African High Priest (The West African Church)
Tengri High Priest (The Tengri Church)
Varangian Guard (Norse Mercenary unit previously employed by the Byzantines)
Jomsvikings (Norse Holy Order)
I don't own Sunset Invasion, but the Aztecs can be vassalised the same way once they have made landfall.
Step 1: Start as Zoroastrian Karen. Dont die.
The start is very difficult and I really think its all about timing. I tried a couple of strats including swearing fealty to the Sunni
Caliphate and the Cumans and jumping out of those "alliances of convenience" when I saw the opportunity to gobble up some Persia. It did work but I liked watching Arumba's Zoroastrian Karen #2 playthrough which was more of a brute force effort through the north while RedInsignia went south west around the Caspian
To form the Zoroastrian Church and become Saoshyant is pretty straight forward game-wise once you have overcome the initial regional power imbalance.
The thing that will help you in vassalising the pagan religious heads is to use the Kingdom of Persia and EITHER the Kingdom of Khiva or the Kingdom of Turkestan... allowing the other to de-jure drift into a titular kingdom.
Step 2: How to Reform and Vassalise the 5 pagan High Priests
After you have got your Emperor of Persia title, holy-war your way through the north. Keeping an eye on the holy site counties and whenever you capture one install a Count with either the right religion or if you dont have one yet... a random heretic/heathen (Freely revoke-able)
When you have 4 out of the 5 holy sites for any particular pagan and are about to take the 5th, revoke all the holy site counties with the wrong religion Count and give them all to one guy of the right faith. He will auto-generate the correct priests for each of the temples.
Give this guy the titular Kingdom title. Holy war the 5th and last site and give that county to the King.
The AI will then reform the religion for you for free. When a single liege has control of all 5 sites it costs no piety or moral authority to reform the church.
Also, since he is a King tier rank, the newly created ducal level High-Priest will become his vassal.
Request he hand over the new High Priest vassal to you. He will do it, but will be unhappy about it. No problem! Because now you can revoke every last one of his ducal, county and barony titles (causing his King title to be destroyed, and available for you to re-create) and send him home landless to his mother. Replace the newly vacated abodes with appropriate friends.
Step 3: Vassalising The Fylkirate
The Norse religion's head is slightly different to the other pagans. You don't want to give this guy a King level title as the Fylkir is actually awarded to the Duke himself. Simply, if he is the one in control of all 5 Norse holy sites... he will become your vassalised Fylkir automatically.
Step 4: Vassalising the Jomsvikings, Norse Holy Order.
The Jomsvikings will appear in Stettin after 920 at which point you will be able to vassalise them when you are reforming either the Slavic or Rumovan pagans, as both of these require the holy site temple at Arkona. After you give the titular kingdom title to the pagan Count of Rugen you are using to reform the religion, press their county claim over Jomsborg. If you dont have the titular kingdom handy, you can create the Kingdom of Pomerania, press the de-jure claim for the same result.
Regrettably you wont be able to raise their troops unless you become Norse, but they wont be hireable by what ever else is left of the Norse religion after you've taken all the holy sites.
Step 5: Vassalising the Varangian Guard, Byzantine's Norse mercenary vassal.
Unfortunately the ERE AI never gives their loyal mercenary unit any landed titles, so the only way to liberate them from the hands of those filthy Orthodites is to decimate the Empire. To gain the Varangians as your own vassal rather than seeing them return to the nordic region as independents you need to holy war the shiite out of the ERE to the extent that the Emperor is left with 1 solitary county. Press the duchy claim on the county and you will receive the Guard as a perfectly hire-able mercenary unit. As it is with the Byzantines, you don't need to be Norse to raise their troops.
Im ready for the Theocracy DLC now Paradox. Bring it!
Combining, reforming and protecting all pagan religions under the rule of the Saoshyant.
This is how I reformed and vassalised the 5 pagan High Priests, The Fylkirate, The Moabadan-Moabad and the 2 pagan Holy Orders and brought them all under the ever watchful eye of the descendants of the Saoshyant using vanilla 1.103 CK2 (+LOR +REP +TOG -SOI -SI) with no mods bar for 1 edited line increasing game end date to 1999. No console cheating or switching characters. All legitimate game play with admittedly a few reloads when things didn't go as expected.
For those that didn't see my previous Duct-Tape The Theism campaign to vassalise the Abrahamic religion's 4 Popes, 7 Patriarchs, 2 Caliphs and 6 Holy Orders... then you need to be warned that this is not a historically accurate play-through. Its gamey to the extreme and if you are offended by the blatent disregard for the feudal rights of your landed and religious subjects... then this thread is probably not for you.
Vassalised religious heads were:
Moabadan-Moabad (The Zoroastrian Church)
The Fylkir (The Fylkirate reformed Norse secular and religious leader)
Slavic High Priest (The Slavic Church)
Baltic High Priest (The Romuvan Church)
Finnish High Priest (The Suomenusko Church)
West African High Priest (The West African Church)
Tengri High Priest (The Tengri Church)
Varangian Guard (Norse Mercenary unit previously employed by the Byzantines)
Jomsvikings (Norse Holy Order)
I don't own Sunset Invasion, but the Aztecs can be vassalised the same way once they have made landfall.
Step 1: Start as Zoroastrian Karen. Dont die.
The start is very difficult and I really think its all about timing. I tried a couple of strats including swearing fealty to the Sunni
Caliphate and the Cumans and jumping out of those "alliances of convenience" when I saw the opportunity to gobble up some Persia. It did work but I liked watching Arumba's Zoroastrian Karen #2 playthrough which was more of a brute force effort through the north while RedInsignia went south west around the Caspian
To form the Zoroastrian Church and become Saoshyant is pretty straight forward game-wise once you have overcome the initial regional power imbalance.
The thing that will help you in vassalising the pagan religious heads is to use the Kingdom of Persia and EITHER the Kingdom of Khiva or the Kingdom of Turkestan... allowing the other to de-jure drift into a titular kingdom.
Step 2: How to Reform and Vassalise the 5 pagan High Priests
After you have got your Emperor of Persia title, holy-war your way through the north. Keeping an eye on the holy site counties and whenever you capture one install a Count with either the right religion or if you dont have one yet... a random heretic/heathen (Freely revoke-able)
When you have 4 out of the 5 holy sites for any particular pagan and are about to take the 5th, revoke all the holy site counties with the wrong religion Count and give them all to one guy of the right faith. He will auto-generate the correct priests for each of the temples.
Give this guy the titular Kingdom title. Holy war the 5th and last site and give that county to the King.
The AI will then reform the religion for you for free. When a single liege has control of all 5 sites it costs no piety or moral authority to reform the church.
Also, since he is a King tier rank, the newly created ducal level High-Priest will become his vassal.
Request he hand over the new High Priest vassal to you. He will do it, but will be unhappy about it. No problem! Because now you can revoke every last one of his ducal, county and barony titles (causing his King title to be destroyed, and available for you to re-create) and send him home landless to his mother. Replace the newly vacated abodes with appropriate friends.
Step 3: Vassalising The Fylkirate
The Norse religion's head is slightly different to the other pagans. You don't want to give this guy a King level title as the Fylkir is actually awarded to the Duke himself. Simply, if he is the one in control of all 5 Norse holy sites... he will become your vassalised Fylkir automatically.
Step 4: Vassalising the Jomsvikings, Norse Holy Order.
The Jomsvikings will appear in Stettin after 920 at which point you will be able to vassalise them when you are reforming either the Slavic or Rumovan pagans, as both of these require the holy site temple at Arkona. After you give the titular kingdom title to the pagan Count of Rugen you are using to reform the religion, press their county claim over Jomsborg. If you dont have the titular kingdom handy, you can create the Kingdom of Pomerania, press the de-jure claim for the same result.
Regrettably you wont be able to raise their troops unless you become Norse, but they wont be hireable by what ever else is left of the Norse religion after you've taken all the holy sites.
Step 5: Vassalising the Varangian Guard, Byzantine's Norse mercenary vassal.
Unfortunately the ERE AI never gives their loyal mercenary unit any landed titles, so the only way to liberate them from the hands of those filthy Orthodites is to decimate the Empire. To gain the Varangians as your own vassal rather than seeing them return to the nordic region as independents you need to holy war the shiite out of the ERE to the extent that the Emperor is left with 1 solitary county. Press the duchy claim on the county and you will receive the Guard as a perfectly hire-able mercenary unit. As it is with the Byzantines, you don't need to be Norse to raise their troops.
Im ready for the Theocracy DLC now Paradox. Bring it!
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