Why can't I appoint a Marshal?

[Extreme Unction]

Old Marshal just decided to up and leave my kingdom for greener pastures and another realm. The only dude available in my realm to replace him had a Martial score of 1. So he won't do.

Solution: Use character finder to find some guy out there in diplomatic range who has decent Martial stats and is willing to join my court.

Find dude, invite him to court, he accepts. I go to appoint him Marshal, and I can't. He doesn't show up in the list of options for appointees. Still just the one dude with the Martial score of 1. And the "Appoint Councillor" button was grayed out on the diplo menu.

So I recruit another dude. Invite him to court, he accepts. Same thing. Can't appoint the new dude I have just recruited. Click the "Appoint" button, new dude simply doesn't show up as an option. "Appoint Councillor" button continues to be grayed out.

So I recruit a third dude. Same thing. Can't appoint the third dude. Click the "Appoint" button, third dude simply doesn't show up as an option, and still no "Appoint Councillor" button available.

But then I had an idea! I would use the "Change Council Position" on my Steward and make HIM my Marshal. And then I tried to appoint a new Steward. And voila, all the dudes who were NOT showing up as options for my Marshal appointment were showing up as options for my Steward.

So I appointed one of my new recruits as my Steward, and then tried to use the "Change Council Position" option to switch him into the Marshal position.

No dice. Doesn't work. I am not given the option to swap him into the Marshal role. I can make him a Chancellor, a Spymaster, or a Holy Dude, but I can't make him a Marshal.

Nor can I swap my former-Steward-now-Marshal back into his Steward role. The option simply isn't there. I can make him Chancellor, Spymaster, or Holy Dude, but I can't make him a Steward.

Can anybody explain what's happening here?

 

[Kurblius]

It might help if we knew more about the culture/religion you're currently playing as as they impose restrictions on what kind of people you can recruit. For example, I think Orthodox chaplains always have to be landed.

 

[Extreme Unction]

It might help if we knew more about the culture/religion you're currently playing as as they impose restrictions on what kind of people you can recruit. For example, I think Orthodox chaplains always have to be landed.

Playing as the Maldives. Buddhist religion.

 

[Kurblius]

He's hindu of the Brahmin caste. They can only be non-military officials. You need Kshatriyas hindus or any non hindus.

 

[TL_]

Kurblius is correct, but I would also like to add he can't be your Upadhyaya because he's not of your religion.

 

[Kurblius]

Kurblius is correct, but I would also like to add he can't be your Upadhyaya because he's not of your religion.

This is something I never fully understood. Why is it that I can sometimes appoint councilors of different religions but sometimes I can't? The chaplain must always be of your religion, that's fair, but with everything else it seems to depend on I don't know what

 

[Lord_Bean]

This is something I never fully understood. Why is it that I can sometimes appoint councilors of different religions but sometimes I can't? The chaplain must always be of your religion, that's fair, but with everything else it seems to depend on I don't know what

You can always appoint characters not of your religion as councilors, except for the chaplain position.

The defining mechanism isn't with their or your religion alone, it is with the caste system, as the others have pointed out. Since Hindus care about the caste system, they need to be Kshatriyas to be marshal and Brahmin to be Upadhyaya (and the latter is only possible if their liege is also Hindu obviously).

 

[Immortal88]

I can't think of are any more limitations (apart from gender) beyond what was already discussed in this thread.

Many pagan religions allow women to be in the religious councilor role and the spymaster position. Later tolerance laws or game rules modify it even further so that women can do anything, though the pope still won't like them and Muslim women are currently bugged out from what I read (I think their Iqta government overwrites the gender laws somehow).

 

[Heiliges Thüringens Reich]

When you buy favors from people, they'll have some time to get back at you with one of them as well. They can do it to install themselves as a councillor - and you cannot remove them from office if they do so.
Perhaps that happened in your game, perhaps not; but it's good to have it in mind