Changing Religion Realistically

[tuareg109]

Hey guys I'm playing as King Alfonso of Leon, and I'm planning on eventually converting to Sunni and taking over the entire Iberian peninsula.
Now, I'm roleplaying (doing what a person with my character's traits would ACTUALLY do), and Alfonso has a high intrigue for a starting character (21), as well as the cynical trait. I've decided to have him betray Christendom for his own gain!

Now, how do I go about doing this? I've decided it's okay to use the [religion Sunni] cheat, because it seems realistic that a character can change his religion at will (maybe once or twice per lifetime), but that isn't everything. How do I get more Sunni courtiers, how do I get ALL my vassals and courtiers to like me so that they convert, how do I get my provinces to convert before I publicly declare that King Sancho is a Muslim?

Any help, even a bit on a tangent, is appreciated.

 

[ZechsMerquise73]

If your courtiers already like you, you can demand they convert if their relations are over 35. You can get over the 'wrong religion' relations malice by holding a tournament, festival, or feast. Winning a civil war or a war against an infidel is also a big buff to relations. Another good trick is to use money to convert dukes, and they'll eventually convert the counts under them, and the mayors under them.

It would probably be more plausible that the King converts before the populace decide to on their own.

 

[RobRoy3]

"Realistically" is highly subjective, of course. I always prefer not to use console commands, and going with in-game mechanics that allow you to do the same thing, though they tend to be somewhat slower. In this case, I think the in-game mechanisms are more realistic. Some of them can feel gamey, but I still feel they're better than the console commands (think of gamey mechanics as abstractions that poorly model the difficulty of what you're trying to do).

Getting muslims into your court is fairly easy: male claimants can be invited, single females will often marry you or your courtiers, and single males might marry matrilineally or might marry zealous courtiers (who can then be invited back). If you're attractive, the women tend to be even easier. Once you're muslim, the auto-generated vassals and replacements for deceased mayors (sometimes) and bishops (always) will be your culture/religion.

For conversion, a pretty sure way is to have a muslim tutor your heir; takes a generation, though. There is some chance they won't be that influential, but they usually succeed; zealous and diligent help a lot. There's also a slim chance, if you have a muslim friend (from one of the feast type events) that he can persuade you to see the light

 

[tuareg109]

Getting muslims into your court is fairly easy: male claimants can be invited, single females will often marry you or your courtiers, and single males might marry matrilineally or might marry zealous courtiers (who can then be invited back). If you're attractive, the women tend to be even easier. Once you're muslim, the auto-generated vassals and replacements for deceased mayors (sometimes) and bishops (always) will be your culture/religion.

For conversion, a pretty sure way is to have a muslim tutor your heir; takes a generation, though. There is some chance they won't be that influential, but they usually succeed; zealous and diligent help a lot. There's also a slim chance, if you have a muslim friend (from one of the feast type events) that he can persuade you to see the light

Thanks. I knew about the tutoring of the heir, but since I'm roleplaying, I don't use any of the gamey mechanics, and that's really the only "cheat" I've though of that isn't gamey in my opinion. If there was a cheat to lower prestige and piety by about 100 or so, the cheat would be complete and that'd be the way to go (once or twice in a lifetime, like Henry IV of France).
Will the bishop replacements work only if I have Free Investiture (which I do), or even with Papal Investiture (just curious)?

If your courtiers already like you, you can demand they convert if their relations are over 35. You can get over the 'wrong religion' relations malice by holding a tournament, festival, or feast. Winning a civil war or a war against an infidel is also a big buff to relations. Another good trick is to use money to convert dukes, and they'll eventually convert the counts under them, and the mayors under them.

Hey, thanks! I didn't think of that, converting the dukes under me first.

 

[unmerged(464016)]

Hey guys I'm playing as King Alfonso of Leon, and I'm planning on eventually converting to Sunni and taking over the entire Iberian peninsula.
Now, I'm roleplaying (doing what a person with my character's traits would ACTUALLY do), and Alfonso has a high intrigue for a starting character (21), as well as the cynical trait. I've decided to have him betray Christendom for his own gain!

Now, how do I go about doing this? I've decided it's okay to use the [religion Sunni] cheat, because it seems realistic that a character can change his religion at will (maybe once or twice per lifetime), but that isn't everything. How do I get more Sunni courtiers, how do I get ALL my vassals and courtiers to like me so that they convert, how do I get my provinces to convert before I publicly declare that King Sancho is a Muslim?

Any help, even a bit on a tangent, is appreciated.

Well firstly I think using the console is no more gamey then using the current marriage system (people will marry in the most unrealistic ways , every game I see the ability to marry matrilineally my daughters to heirs of Kingdoms much larger than my crummy realm , and don't get me started on the whole Count of Ireland marrying some noble Ethiopian).


With that in Mind the best way would be to simply have high relations with your direct vassals. Once they are over 35 , you can ask them to convert. They will then convert their vassals and so forth.

 

[unmerged(494787)]

Using the prestige/piety cheat works to lower the relevant scores, just add a - before the number. (New) Bishops will work under any investiture (or even if you don't have it, ie muslim/orthodox). You could also code in a decision to convert, but I'm not entirely sure how to do that.

 

[tuareg109]

Using the prestige/piety cheat works to lower the relevant scores, just add a - before the number. (New) Bishops will work under any investiture (or even if you don't have it, ie muslim/orthodox). You could also code in a decision to convert, but I'm not entirely sure how to do that.

Ah, that's great. I always just typed [prestige] or [piety] into the console and got 5000 of each (back before I played once on Tutorial Island without cheats and got my mind blown learning how to play).
And so, if any of my Bishops die and there is no designated successor, they will become randomly-generated Imams of my culture?

 

[unmerged(494787)]

I believe so yes. Alternatively, if you have the proper Crown Authority you can just revoke their titles and generate new ones, and they should be the proper culture/religion.

 

[tuareg109]

I believe so yes. Alternatively, if you have the proper Crown Authority you can just revoke their titles and generate new ones, and they should be the proper culture/religion.

Am I stupid or what!
I forgot all about the "Invite Holy Man" and "Invite Nobleman" intrigue decisions!
Wow, all I have to do is this!
Thanks so much for reminding me!