[Request/Help] Pagans playable

[unmerged(171993)]

So i bought CK2 with the goal to unite scandinavia under the finnish banners. TIL you can't play pagans, i can't imagine that it's hardcoded, it's surely a simple textthing that must be changed. Does anybody have a mod/ or can help me, so that i can play as a pagan character?

Btw: Is there any reason why we can't play as pagans?

 

[Cainrae]

You could always swear alligance to a Pagan lord (I'm thinking of the Norse Duke in Sweden) and shortly after he might inquire about you converting to the Norse religion

 

[Salik]

You could always swear alligance to a Pagan lord (I'm thinking of the Norse Duke in Sweden) and shortly after he might inquire about you converting to the Norse religion

That's not really what's being asked, though. OP is asking if it is possible to start the game as a Pagan character. I don't think it is, but you can probably tag change via the console on day one of a given game.

 

[Otto Bismarck]

The only way to play as a non-christian is by cheating in game and changing your character.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

If you only cheat, you can't load the game without cheating again though. For a completely hassle-free experience, use the following:

First, you gotta look up the ID of the ruler you want to play as. Easiest way to do this is to create a "Test" save for day one of the game, and then search for the monarch name in parenthesis. Since I'm shameless, I'll explain this with the High Chief of Karelia, who is named Aimo in the Grand Campaign.

1) I create a save file named Test, so I can look up monarch IDs easily.
2) I open the file in WordPad and search for "Aimo" (remember, parenthesis included so you find the name="x" line of the character instead of everyone with that combination of letters somewhere in their name).
3) I check Aimo's ID and write it down (it's 28004).

Now we have the groundwork done, so let's move forward.

1) Launch CK2.
2) Begin the game normally by selecting a Christian ruler.
3) Activate the following cheat: play [character ID] (in this case, I type in play 28004)
4) Voila, I now rule Karelia!

Next you'll probably want to remove the save game restriction, so you don't have to fuss about with ID checking all the time. To do this, we use an exploit in the game's mechanics, which normally allow you to play pagans that converted to paganism. Luckily, there's a cheat handy for this thing too:

1) As your pagan/muslim/zoroastrian, activate the religion [name of religion] cheat.
2) You have to convert to one of the Christian religions.
3) So, you type in (for example) religion orthodox
4) Now you're a god-fearing Christian. You need to return to your roots.
5) Type in the conversion cheat again, in our example case of Aimo and Suomenusko: religion finnish_pagan
6) Huzzah, you can now load the game for your pagan as well!

And there you have, pagans unlocked. Though now someone has to start modding in stuff for them, like Mercs and so on...

Anyway, here's a list of all the pagan religions names as the game recognizes them:

Suomenusko = finnish_pagan
Romuva = baltic_pagan
Norse = norse_pagan
Tengriist = tengri_pagan
Generic Pagan = pagan

Zoroastrians are their own religious group, Zoroastrian = zoroastrian.

Muslims and their various fun subsections:

Sunni = sunni
Zikri = zikri
Yazidi = yazidi
Ibadi = ibadi
Shiite = shiite
Bektashi = bektashi
Druze = druze
Hurufi = hurufi

 

[praguepride]

Playing as a pagan has many many hard coded issues, which is probably why they didn't allow it.

1) Pagan's don't have holy wars. Unlike Muslims and Christians who are organized enough to declare war on anyone not of their religion, the pagan groups are too disorganized to create a "Pagan Crusade".

2) Because Pagan's can't attack, they're basically big piles of land waiting to be grabbed up by the surrounding christian empires. This is historical, unfortunately, so can't fault Paradox for going this route. In order to prevent them from collapsing too early they are given special "cheat" buildings that dramatically increase the amount of levies they raise. That is why in 1066 at the start of the game each pagan land can muster up ~1,000 troops per while most regular areas give the rules 300-500. SO if you allow pagans to declare war there is a chance they will steam roll over the "lesser" christian empires, again not historical at all. They were beefed up to provide an obstacle, not to create an empire.

3) Complete lack of game support. No mercenaries, no holy orders, no religious events etc. etc.


So a Pagan mod would need to address those three big issues
A) How to realistically allow Pagans to declare war without resorting to Holy War CB's that don't make sense. Then again, "title claims" are really a Christian way of thinking, a Pagan lord (I believe) pretty much claims whatever he can take so perhaps a different form of Holy War, some sort of Pagan Raid CB that lets you take one territory at a time (no duchies/kingdoms etc.).

B) How to balance pagans so they can still be tough early game without overrunning the surrounding "Normal" empires.

C) Adding in pagan support. Mercenaries and "Holy Orders", religious events etc. etc.