Henry VIII did not reform his faith through piety, but because he had significant control over his realm, scholars willing to help him, and an existing Protestant base.
My suggestion for a new heresy system would be as follows
- Reformation is not an instant decision, but a process that you initiate
- You need to choose scholars or willing religious leaders to help you plan the religion (I would go for one main, and two optional supporting). A high combined learning stat means you have a higher probability of winning support for your reformation. If you are personally learned, this would also help.
- Vassals in your realm, neighbouring powers, and your religious head will take a side on your reformation. Vassals will either support it and convert, remain neutral, or oppose the reformation and join a war against you if the rebels reach sufficient mass or if the lord is sufficiently enraged. Foreign powers may intervene, but they will need to be angrier and stand a better chance of winning before they do so. The head of your faith will also take more action against you the more he opposes your reformation, up to a full-blown religious war involving all holy orders if he's particularly angry.
- The more heretical the religion you want to create, the more opposition you will face (if you want cannibalism and carnal exaltation, you're going to be in great danger).
- You now have a period of reformation in which you are starting to defy the religious authorities - you've not officially broken from the faith, but word of your activities spreads within and without the country, and you will get events depending on the nature of your starting faith (if you have a church head like the pope, you will get a papal envoy demanding to know if there is any truth to talk of heresy, and you will either fail to convince him, talk your way out of it, or openly declare your intent, this last option ending your reformation period early).
- You will also be able to get your scholars/religious leaders to preach (appeal to masses/convert provinces), write essays (appeal to theological leaders), or attend the courts of your lords in person (appeal to military nobles), though beware because a pious lord who doesn't like you might execute them, setting back your reformation or potentially causing it to collapse. You can bribe or use diplomacy to try and influence the people taking a side on your reformation with the goal of calming or converting your enemies ideally to avoid a war, but if not then at least to make the war manageable. Loyal courtiers with high stats would be vital in this process, and the personality of leaders would be influential in deciding where they fall.
- Personality traits, artifacts and modifiers might also affect support
- You then press the button to formally split with the original faith, and you will get reaction events and possibly also a war depending on how successful you were.
Steps:
1. Begin reformation (select scholars, tenets, doctrines)
2. Victoria II type crisis system whereby you try and influence people to support it or at least not to be willing to wage war on it
3. Launch the reformation before your piety gets too low and you get excommunicated. There could also be a time limit or some sort of representation of it collapsing due to its foes managing to exert enough influence to force away its core supporters.
The goal of this would be to make custom heresies more realistically difficult, more immersive, and more fun.
My suggestion for a new heresy system would be as follows
- Reformation is not an instant decision, but a process that you initiate
- You need to choose scholars or willing religious leaders to help you plan the religion (I would go for one main, and two optional supporting). A high combined learning stat means you have a higher probability of winning support for your reformation. If you are personally learned, this would also help.
- Vassals in your realm, neighbouring powers, and your religious head will take a side on your reformation. Vassals will either support it and convert, remain neutral, or oppose the reformation and join a war against you if the rebels reach sufficient mass or if the lord is sufficiently enraged. Foreign powers may intervene, but they will need to be angrier and stand a better chance of winning before they do so. The head of your faith will also take more action against you the more he opposes your reformation, up to a full-blown religious war involving all holy orders if he's particularly angry.
- The more heretical the religion you want to create, the more opposition you will face (if you want cannibalism and carnal exaltation, you're going to be in great danger).
- You now have a period of reformation in which you are starting to defy the religious authorities - you've not officially broken from the faith, but word of your activities spreads within and without the country, and you will get events depending on the nature of your starting faith (if you have a church head like the pope, you will get a papal envoy demanding to know if there is any truth to talk of heresy, and you will either fail to convince him, talk your way out of it, or openly declare your intent, this last option ending your reformation period early).
- You will also be able to get your scholars/religious leaders to preach (appeal to masses/convert provinces), write essays (appeal to theological leaders), or attend the courts of your lords in person (appeal to military nobles), though beware because a pious lord who doesn't like you might execute them, setting back your reformation or potentially causing it to collapse. You can bribe or use diplomacy to try and influence the people taking a side on your reformation with the goal of calming or converting your enemies ideally to avoid a war, but if not then at least to make the war manageable. Loyal courtiers with high stats would be vital in this process, and the personality of leaders would be influential in deciding where they fall.
- Personality traits, artifacts and modifiers might also affect support
- You then press the button to formally split with the original faith, and you will get reaction events and possibly also a war depending on how successful you were.
Steps:
1. Begin reformation (select scholars, tenets, doctrines)
2. Victoria II type crisis system whereby you try and influence people to support it or at least not to be willing to wage war on it
3. Launch the reformation before your piety gets too low and you get excommunicated. There could also be a time limit or some sort of representation of it collapsing due to its foes managing to exert enough influence to force away its core supporters.
The goal of this would be to make custom heresies more realistically difficult, more immersive, and more fun.
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