This idea is to differentiate between small and historical heresies in the Catholic religion. I'll focus on Catholicism because since I like to think that I know a little about such matters I can say something interesting and let more learned minds speak out on how to change the heresies of other religons to work in a more interesting fashion for them.
To start with my idea is to divide Catholic heresies between small heresies and historical heresies. Small heresies can pop up as they do in current system while historical heresies come like a storm when some set circumstances are in place. I shall, to exemplify my points, give three small heresies and one historical, below.
Small heresies
The idea behind small heresies is that instead of having for example Lollards pop up now and again for almost 700 years here and there, you'll get unique heresies drawn from general groups with a unique set of mechanics. The idea is to show how very different various heretical teachings could be and to provide more oppertunity for players. For example they might get a heresy with some really nice mechanics that they are very interested in converting to, or a heresy with aweful mechanics that they go full crusader on. Because in my experience the four different heresies we get for the Catholics feels kind of bland by this point. I understand that this is a more random and chaotic system but its one that I like.
Thus what would happen is that when a small heresy spawns it is named after its leader and put in a theological group, which offers some nuances but isn't the same between different heresies. Two heresies from the same theological group would for example still consider each other as different religions.
The theological groups are as following.
Gnostic - They are the wild cards with the greatest range of different mechanics potentially drawn from all other religions and heresies in the game and tend to focus on social mechanics like absolute cognatic succession, allowing concubines and stuff like that. They can gain followers both high and low but probably have some problem with gaining support from learned individuals due to their fairly radical departure from orthodox Catholic tradition with their often dualistic theology.
Anti-Clerical - They are hostile to the organized clergy and will both, often but not always, seek to abolish the college of cardinals, alllow the killing of priests without penalty, as long as they are not entirely innocent, and vastly reduce the power of ecclesiastical title holders. They tend to focus on removing mechanics tied to the power of the church like exommunication. These people find little to no support among the official clergy and most nobles will be hostile to them while the masses are likely to be more receptive. Thus they have it easier to convert provinces but harder to convert characters, and almost impossible to convert clergy characters.
Literary - They are normally based on the clergy and comes from a new interpretation of the scripture which could be very attractive to learned individuals and often incomprehensible to the masses. They would often provide learning bonuses and research but at the same time have it much harder to convert the masses of the provinces or characters with a learning below 7.
Reformist - The kind of "vanilla heresy". They can come in almost any shape and have mechanics drawn from across the game's range. They seek to reform the church in one of a million ways and have neither penalty nor advantage to convert anyone.
But enough theorizing and instead some examples of how this kind of stuff could work in practice. Below are three heresies; Karlism, Fintanism and Giovannnism. All of them with different mechanics as based on their teachings which may or may not be attractive to the players. In the Catholic tradition the different heresies are named after their leaders and so Karlism is a heresy lead by a guy called Karl and so on.
All of them use the Catholic religion as a base with the followingt modifications, which are that 1-3 mechanics of the religions are replaced with something else.
Karlism (Anti-clerical)
Removed Mechanics: Excommunication, Collage of Cardinals, Investiture
Added Mechanics: Decadence, Polygamy, Absolute Cognatic Succession
Fintanism (Literary)
Removed Mechanics: Sanctioned Invasion
Added Mechanics: Can designate heir
Giovannism (Reformist)
Removed Mechanics: Holy Wars, Crusades
Added Mechanics: Autocephaly, County Conquest
Historical heresies
In contrast to the starkly random ways of the small heresies I should also offer examples of historical heresies. In this example namely Catharism which is the great heresy of Medieval Catholicism that I know best. So it will serve as role model for how I imagine this to work.
The idea is that when a set of circumstances is in order, then a heretical storm will open up and sweep across a region. For example in the case of Catharism you might need about 10-12 provinces of Occitan culture with a third of the titles held by women, at a certain time after AD 1100. When this happen the Cathars emerged but they don't just pop up in a single province. Instead they'll instantly flip may 6-8 Occitan culture provinces and loads of characters while at the same tim offering to title hodlers to 1, Convert to Catharism 2, Tolerate the Cathars, 3 Oppose the Heretics!
Thus getting the Cathar heresy on the map in a big way rather than single provinces here and there, now and then, across some 700 years.
I imagine that other historical heresies can also spread in a similar manner but that they would mostly keep the same mechanics they have today.
To start with my idea is to divide Catholic heresies between small heresies and historical heresies. Small heresies can pop up as they do in current system while historical heresies come like a storm when some set circumstances are in place. I shall, to exemplify my points, give three small heresies and one historical, below.
Small heresies
The idea behind small heresies is that instead of having for example Lollards pop up now and again for almost 700 years here and there, you'll get unique heresies drawn from general groups with a unique set of mechanics. The idea is to show how very different various heretical teachings could be and to provide more oppertunity for players. For example they might get a heresy with some really nice mechanics that they are very interested in converting to, or a heresy with aweful mechanics that they go full crusader on. Because in my experience the four different heresies we get for the Catholics feels kind of bland by this point. I understand that this is a more random and chaotic system but its one that I like.
Thus what would happen is that when a small heresy spawns it is named after its leader and put in a theological group, which offers some nuances but isn't the same between different heresies. Two heresies from the same theological group would for example still consider each other as different religions.
The theological groups are as following.
Gnostic - They are the wild cards with the greatest range of different mechanics potentially drawn from all other religions and heresies in the game and tend to focus on social mechanics like absolute cognatic succession, allowing concubines and stuff like that. They can gain followers both high and low but probably have some problem with gaining support from learned individuals due to their fairly radical departure from orthodox Catholic tradition with their often dualistic theology.
Anti-Clerical - They are hostile to the organized clergy and will both, often but not always, seek to abolish the college of cardinals, alllow the killing of priests without penalty, as long as they are not entirely innocent, and vastly reduce the power of ecclesiastical title holders. They tend to focus on removing mechanics tied to the power of the church like exommunication. These people find little to no support among the official clergy and most nobles will be hostile to them while the masses are likely to be more receptive. Thus they have it easier to convert provinces but harder to convert characters, and almost impossible to convert clergy characters.
Literary - They are normally based on the clergy and comes from a new interpretation of the scripture which could be very attractive to learned individuals and often incomprehensible to the masses. They would often provide learning bonuses and research but at the same time have it much harder to convert the masses of the provinces or characters with a learning below 7.
Reformist - The kind of "vanilla heresy". They can come in almost any shape and have mechanics drawn from across the game's range. They seek to reform the church in one of a million ways and have neither penalty nor advantage to convert anyone.
But enough theorizing and instead some examples of how this kind of stuff could work in practice. Below are three heresies; Karlism, Fintanism and Giovannnism. All of them with different mechanics as based on their teachings which may or may not be attractive to the players. In the Catholic tradition the different heresies are named after their leaders and so Karlism is a heresy lead by a guy called Karl and so on.
All of them use the Catholic religion as a base with the followingt modifications, which are that 1-3 mechanics of the religions are replaced with something else.
Karlism (Anti-clerical)
Removed Mechanics: Excommunication, Collage of Cardinals, Investiture
Added Mechanics: Decadence, Polygamy, Absolute Cognatic Succession
Fintanism (Literary)
Removed Mechanics: Sanctioned Invasion
Added Mechanics: Can designate heir
Giovannism (Reformist)
Removed Mechanics: Holy Wars, Crusades
Added Mechanics: Autocephaly, County Conquest
Historical heresies
In contrast to the starkly random ways of the small heresies I should also offer examples of historical heresies. In this example namely Catharism which is the great heresy of Medieval Catholicism that I know best. So it will serve as role model for how I imagine this to work.
The idea is that when a set of circumstances is in order, then a heretical storm will open up and sweep across a region. For example in the case of Catharism you might need about 10-12 provinces of Occitan culture with a third of the titles held by women, at a certain time after AD 1100. When this happen the Cathars emerged but they don't just pop up in a single province. Instead they'll instantly flip may 6-8 Occitan culture provinces and loads of characters while at the same tim offering to title hodlers to 1, Convert to Catharism 2, Tolerate the Cathars, 3 Oppose the Heretics!
Thus getting the Cathar heresy on the map in a big way rather than single provinces here and there, now and then, across some 700 years.
I imagine that other historical heresies can also spread in a similar manner but that they would mostly keep the same mechanics they have today.
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