For Pope or Patriarch?

[Helios Panoptes]

If the Schism is mended, Catholicism becomes a heresy of Orthodoxy - all its holy orders will transfer.

 

[Dakilla TM]

Go Orthodox, marry into the ERE royalty, and try to get one of your heirs into the throne. Honestly in your case you could go either way and still dominate, so pick whichever one you like.

 

[Wakizashi]

I would go Orthodox, if only for the alternate history you could create that way. An Orthodox Poland just sounds fun, IMO.
Also, mending the Schism could definitely be a fun option to pursue if you were to join the Orthodox flock.

 

[Anastasius]

This thread,the schism,all over again.

 

[Lord_P]

There are three ways to go in my opinion:

The Catholic Route

1. Become Catholic
2. Become an Emperor
3. Anti-pope
4. Install antipope
5. Conquer the world with Crusades sanctioned by your own puppet Pope

The Orthodox Route

1. Become Orthodox
2. Get the throne of ERE
3. Mend the schism (all Catholic holy orders become Orthodox)
4. Conquer the world with a ton of holy orders and the might of the True Roman Empire

The Pagan Route

1. Conquer the Russian lands
2. Reform the Slavic faith
3. Conquer the world with Slavic Great Holy Wars (will be difficult with all the Orthodox running around)

All opinions are fine in my opinion. Crusades will maybe allow a bit faster growth, but requires you to actually be an emperor first for best success. You have plenty of time to try to acquire the Byzantine throne, their muscle could be used to crush the Muslims in Arabia and Andalusia. Reforming Slavic would give you a lot of bonuses you don't get with Catholicism and Orthodoxy, but conquering a world filled with the purple religion will be HARD.

BONUS:

The Strange Route

1. Attempt to find Jews
2. Tutor your heir with Jewish faith
3. Make Poland Jewish
4. Conquer Germany
5. Laugh because you just conquered Germany as Jewish Poland

 

[Gans]

There are three ways to go in my opinion:

The Catholic Route

1. Become Catholic
2. Become an Emperor
3. Anti-pope
4. Install antipope
5. Conquer the world with Crusades sanctioned by your own puppet Pope

The Orthodox Route

1. Become Orthodox
2. Get the throne of ERE
3. Mend the schism (all Catholic holy orders become Orthodox)
4. Conquer the world with a ton of holy orders and the might of the True Roman Empire

The Pagan Route

1. Conquer the Russian lands
2. Reform the Slavic faith
3. Conquer the world with Slavic Great Holy Wars (will be difficult with all the Orthodox running around)

All opinions are fine in my opinion. Crusades will maybe allow a bit faster growth, but requires you to actually be an emperor first for best success. You have plenty of time to try to acquire the Byzantine throne, their muscle could be used to crush the Muslims in Arabia and Andalusia. Reforming Slavic would give you a lot of bonuses you don't get with Catholicism and Orthodoxy, but conquering a world filled with the purple religion will be HARD.

BONUS:

The Strange Route

1. Attempt to find Jews
2. Tutor your heir with Jewish faith
3. Make Poland Jewish
4. Conquer Germany
5. Laugh because you just conquered Germany as Jewish Poland

Uh, no. Mending the schism doesn't make Catholic holy orders Orthodox. It just makes Catholicism an Orthodox heresy. To get the Holy Orders to acually convert you have to first convert to Catholicism after mending and after that flip to Orthodox again. More trouble than it's worth, sorry.

 

[Sergeant Flutter]

Uh, no. Mending the schism doesn't make Catholic holy orders Orthodox. It just makes Catholicism an Orthodox heresy. To get the Holy Orders to acually convert you have to first convert to Catholicism after mending and after that flip to Orthodox again. More trouble than it's worth, sorry.

Nope, all the Holy Orders transfer to Orthodox.

I'd also go Orthodox. Catholicism has been weakened. A Crusade against the Abbasids or Umayyads would fail. That'd tank MA, and heresy would pop up everywhere. It won't be good.

Orthodox is more stable and powerful.

 

[Gans]

Nope, all the Holy Orders transfer to Orthodox.

I'd also go Orthodox. Catholicism has been weakened. A Crusade against the Abbasids or Umayyads would fail. That'd tank MA, and heresy would pop up everywhere. It won't be good.

Orthodox is more stable and powerful.

Bwahahahahaha. I've done mending the schism many times so you are very welcome trying to prove me wrong. With some screenies

 

[Sergeant Flutter]

Bwahahahahaha. I've done mending the schism many times so you are very welcome trying to prove me wrong. With some screenies

I feel like the tooltip mentioned that, though.

 

[Gans]

I feel like the tooltip mentioned that, though.

'Paradox Studios' and 'the accurate and apt tooltips' can not and do not exist on the same planet at the same time.

 

[JonathanOfArc]

Damn, I've been going back in forth about it in my head and still can't come to a final decision. Thanks for all the suggestions and input. I've played games that have gone around 400 years, but never to the end so I'm taking more care into the world I'll be living in for the span of CK2 and EU4. I'm definitely not trying to be the best.

As a Catholic, I wouldn't want to make the Pope a vassal. Anti-Popes maybe, but not to overthrow the Pope. I'd want to be more of a Papal protector. I'd like for them to exist in the EU4 era as they would normally. Could use an Anti-Pope at some point if I felt I could use some extra money, or wanted to cause some heresy (not to join, but just for the chaos). Crusades would be fun, although I am a little worried we might get sent out to India if I'm NOT the puppetmaster of the Pope. I like the mechanics of the Catholics in CK2+EU4 and that's what makes me think going Catholic is the way to go.

As Orthodox, I wouldn't want to join the ERE. I wouldn't even want my own Empire but I feel like that just might have to happen. I would enjoy seeing the ERE break up into multiple kingdoms though i doubt that will happen. I'd prefer to let them grow or die on their own accord. The alt-history of this option is what interests me most about this option. I've been fighting the Catholics for years, keeping them at bay, and raiding them to high hell. Now that Orthodoxy is at my doorstep maybe I'll say hello.

A turn for Jewish could be fun but I'm just not in the mood for that sort of challenge at the moment. I'll be holding onto this save though so I can revisit it sometime and trying taking a Jewish path. I'm in a nice position to establish a decently strong Jewish kingdom out of the blue.

Not feeling a reformed Pagan run. I love starting as a pagan but rarely keep it through the entire playthrough. Will be holding onto the file though so a pagan reformation of some sort may be coming to this world at some point, but not this time.

 

[Helios Panoptes]

Catholics really should not be able to vassalize the Pope. The entire thing of Catholicism vs Orthodoxy is that the Emperor has no authority over the Church.

 

[Woifee]

Catholics really should not be able to vassalize the Pope. The entire thing of Catholicism vs Orthodoxy is that the Emperor has no authority over the Church.

It should be possible, it shouldn't be that easy to gain and less easy to keep.