How do you convert your religion?

[Pewt]

I was playing a fairly successful Kingdom of Sicily (was winning a crusade in the holy land, had inherited most of italy and some of burgundy, etc) but had made the mistake of marrying an orthodox wife and having an orthodox heir as a result (by random chance). When my king died on the crusade my orthodox heir inherited, and cue 20 years of mass vassal revolts and invasions from other people, not to mention my levies getting much smaller. I tried marrying a catholic but all my kids were still orthodox, and eventually all the major catholics (HRE etc) started attacking me and I left.

So: How do I convert back to catholicism if this happens, or is it just a "you lose" button?

 

[Zarine]

I know 3 ways but none are certain :

- put your heir with a catholic guardian, he might convert him
- have the chance to have a liege who might ask you to convert
- have a friend who will ask you to convert

All 3 cases are event based and thus you can never be sure those will happen.

 

[Dsuke]

(by random chance)

I could be wrong but I've not seen any randomness in this game when it comes to which culture and religion a child ends up with at birth. Regular marriage = father's culture and religion, matrilineal marriage = mother's culture and religion. And then there's the guardian. When you send your kids off to be educated there's a chance he/she will adopt the tutor's religion and culture.

I tried marrying a catholic but all my kids were still orthodox

To change the kid's religion to catholic, have it tutored by a catholic. Or, wait until he/she comes of age and demand that he/she converts.

 

[Aloriel]

Two methods:
1) You should have a decision to convert to your liege's religion, or an event to convert if your liege presses it. This assumes you have a liege.
2) When you raise your heir, make certain to educate them with someone of both your preferred culture and your preferred religion. Conversions happen a lot when your child's educator is of another faith than their own. Same with culture.

I had this happen with the demo. I was running the extended time mod on it, and ended up with an orthodox/Irish duke in the middle of England. It all happened because of education. They actually happened separately, and the Irish because of trying to undo the orthodox. I had my Saxon/catholic duke marry an eastern European. She raised the heir, and converted him. When he came to power, I noticed it. In a panic, I started raising his children with the best catholic in my court... an Irish lady. She didn't succeed at turning the child back Catholic, but did switch his culture!

It wasn't for several more generations that I was finally able to get back to being Saxon AND catholic.

 

[Julyan]

If your court chaplain is catholic then you could send him to "head local inquisition" in your capital. He should sort you out soon enough.
edit. looking at the event files it may be that this doesn't actually work on main character. Children would get converted though.

 

[Zarine]

I'm quite unsure about it...

In demo version, I saw a catholic chaplain converting character to the same heretic faith than my ruler...

 

[Pewt]

1) I had no liege.

2) My father was catholic & mother was orthodox (in a regular marriage), so it definitely wasn't based off the religion of my dynastic parent.

3) I was tutored by catholics in every case and never converted to catholicism.

4) I can't appoint a catholic court chaplain if I'm orthodox.

 

[Blastaz]

1) I had no liege.

2) My father was catholic & mother was orthodox (in a regular marriage), so it definitely wasn't based off the religion of my dynastic parent.

3) I was tutored by catholics in every case and never converted to catholicism.

4) I can't appoint a catholic court chaplain if I'm orthodox.

2) In CKI it was something like an 80%/20% split Father to Mother what your culture and religion were. I assume its the same in CKII and just reversed for matrilineal marriages.
3) The chance of conversion is random, you just have to hope it will work for the next generation, and make sure you only marry catholics.
4) This option is to convert back your children, while you are still the right religion.

 

[LordTempest]

I'm quite unsure about it...

In demo version, I saw a catholic chaplain converting character to the same heretic faith than my ruler...

You mean the "Embrace Cathar Heresy" event? That's in the full game, i've seen it.

 

[Zarine]

You mean the "Embrace Cathar Heresy" event? That's in the full game, i've seen it.

No, I really mean that converting (from the converting job) if the ruler is an heretic will convert people/province toward heretics.
The "Embrace Cathar Heresy" event is from the cultural the job.

 

[LordTempest]

No, I really mean that converting (from the converting job) if the ruler is an heretic will convert people/province toward heretics.
The "Embrace Cathar Heresy" event is from the cultural the job.

Ah.