Monastic Retirement

[Gwydden]

Under certain circumstances, rulers should be able to abdicate and retire into the monastic life, as some Christian and Buddhist rulers did historically. You would have to meet these requirements:

1. Your religion has the Monasticism tenet. This keeps things grounded and adds additional flavor to a tenet.
2. Your ruler would have to be 50+ years old. This way neither the player nor the AI can cheese it by retiring as a young ruler.
3. You would have to spend a huge amount of piety and/or have a certain level of devotion. The specifics are subject to balance, but this would limit the availability of the retirement option and make piety more useful. I'm all for traits mattering more, so perhaps have a discount for Zealous characters and a significant penalty or outright prohibition for Cynical ones.
4. Your heir should be 16+, to prevent rulers leaving the realm in the hands of underage heirs.
5. You must be at peace, for what I hope are obvious reasons.

These prerequisites met, you'd gain access to the "Retire into the monastic life" decision. Your current ruler loses all their titles and claims and becomes a monk/nun, while you switch to playing as their heir. Hopefully they'll eventually bring back sainthood somehow, in which case I foresee some good synergy with this mechanic.

 

[The Founder]

I think there is a Doctrine that allows you to commit suicide as a ruler, without the usual penalties. So for balance, look at that one.

 

[The Founder]

I think there is a Doctrine that allows you to commit suicide as a ruler, without the usual penalties. So for balance, look at that one.

I am 95% certain I saw it somewhere. A doctrine, trait or other thing that said something like "Persons above X Age can commit suicide without the usual penalties", or something like that.
But of course I can not find it right now!

 

[Gwydden]

I am 95% certain I saw it somewhere. A doctrine, trait or other thing that said something like "Persons above X Age can commit suicide without the usual penalties", or something like that.
But of course I can not find it right now!

It's Consolamentum. I think the Kushites and some Gnostics have it. According to the wiki, in order to take the decision you must be at least 60 years old OR be near death or dying OR be incapable.

 

[The Founder]

It's Consolamentum. I think the Kushites and some Gnostics have it. According to the wiki, in order to take the decision you must be at least 60 years old OR be near death or dying OR be incapable.

Ah, I knew it was there. Some stuff is propably faith gated and I had no game with the right Modifyable Faith.

In any cases, that is a good basis to start from. Your Idea is de-facto the same as "Free Suicide" for a player ruler.
Both decisions would remove the current Character and hand reins to the Heir on the players terms.

The cost is around 1000 Piety, except for a few faiths. And those that can not pick it in the first place. So if they just add a alternate version of Monasticism for 1500 it could be balanced.

 

[vyshan]

I agree with this.

Furthermore there should be the option to force people into the monastery forcing them to abdicate, which happened a number of times in Europe.

 

[The Founder]

I agree with this.

Furthermore there should be the option to force people into the monastery forcing them to abdicate, which happened a number of times in Europe.

That we already have:
1. Imprison*
2. Remove Titles
3. Recruit**
4. Force to take Vows**

*I asume they were de facto under house arrest, if not de jure.
**They should combine that I think. If I check recruitment, I should already be able to check the Vows too.