• We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.

CK2 Dev Diary #41: Secret Religious Cults

Hi folks!

This week is a big deal for me and for everyone else who has worked on Crusader Kings II over the years, because the game is just about to turn five years old! It was released on Valentine’s Day, February 14th, 2012. (So, if you’re running low on ideas for a gift to that special someone tomorrow, what could be more romantic than a copy of Crusader Kings II? Just saying.)

Five years on, we are still cranking out expansions and updates, all thanks to you folks! I have to say, the lifespan of this game has been pretty amazing compared to all the previous games I’ve worked on. I loved them all, of course - those games we no longer actively support - from Europa Universalis to Victoria II, but it’s been fantastic to be allowed to keep building on a game for so long, unlocking so much of its potential. CK2 is also special to me because I owned the vision and have done so much work on it personally. Stay tuned for a special anniversary dev diary tomorrow, where I will talk about the history and development of the game at length.

Of more immediate interest, we have essentially finished work on the upcoming expansion, Monks and Mystics, and it’s shaped up very well! You might already know, or suspect, that most of the new Societies will be part of the paid expansion, but there is one type of Society that actually comes with the free update; Secret Religious Cults (yes, this means that the Society framework itself is also free, so that modders can go nuts even without the expansion.) These Societies consist of followers who falsely profess faith in one religion while secretly belonging to another.

secret_cult_screen_01.jpg


Almost all of the main (non-heretic) religions have a corresponding “Secret Cult”. The membership consists of characters who fake belief in another religion in order to avoid persecution. Rulers can join any of these cults if the religion exists within diplomatic distance, and at the highest rank, the ruler can finally overtly embrace the religion and convert. Meanwhile, you get missions and powers to induce Sympathy for your real religion in other characters in the realm as well as the population in the counties. With careful groundwork, you can stage an extremely powerful religious revolt; as long as your subversive activities go unnoticed by your liege…

secret_cult_screen_02.jpg


secret_cult_screen_03.jpg


Next week we’ll start going over the patch notes, and don’t miss our anniversary stream later today or the special dev diary tomorrow!
 
Neat! But too bad it does not work with heresies, because if you want in this game to be an heretic king, you have to start out as a [main religion], then work your fingers off to ensure that the religion in question gets low moral authority, and then it's a dice roll to see if the heresy you want will pop up.
 
Almost all of the main (non-heretic) religions have a corresponding “Secret Cult”. The membership consists of characters who fake belief in another religion in order to avoid persecution.

So a ruler cant be secretly heretic in vanila?
How moddable is the system to make heresies possible to be practiced in secret? And is there a limit to how many religion cults there can be?
 
hi devs, if we are the leader say of a satanist cult and we have gained sufficient influence within our realm, can we change our displayed religion to satanist? or something around there, or will it always be just a society? just a thought.
 
To me it makes sense that your children would be born your public religion, as you wouldn't want them giving things away. Once they are older you can then invite them like everyone else, as there's no telling which faith your child will be a true believer in. The AI should also tend towards inviting their children when they have the chance.
 
Will each parent religion have a catch all secret religious sect for for their heresies pretending to be the parent religion? Or will characters be able to secretly be heretics without the the secret society to fall back on?
 
Please tell me theres a way to be a Christian on the surface but the part of a Greco Roman Pagan secret society? So I can reintroduce the true roman faith

After all you let me reinstate the Roman Empire why not let us do the same for the roman religion

MAKE JUPITER MAXIMUS GREAT AGAIN!
 
So, this is a super petty complaint (and I'm super hyped for the DLC!), but have you considered marking it as fictious?

I may be damaged by the Dan-Brown-mania from a while ago, but I'm really averse to everything portraying secret societies with extreme influence as real.
 
The AI should also tend towards inviting their children when they have the chance.
No, the AI shouldn't secretly become a faithful. Otherwise we have Romuva Germany and Sunni Britain in no time. If anything, they would be allowed to secretly become a sunni if they neighbor a sunni (so for those armenians and Asturias and maybe Aquitaine)
 
I may be damaged by the Dan-Brown-mania from a while ago, but I'm really averse to everything portraying secret societies with extreme influence as real.

To be part of a secret religion is VERY historical.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taqiya

And after the reconquista in Spain many Muslims and Jew converted but secretly kept their old religion. There is nothing fictional about it.
 
"Furtive Fraticelli", "Clandestine Catholic", "Two-Faced Tengri"

(Words are fun.)

"Secret Sunni-like Shia Jewish sympathizer who actually is Aztec"

Can we join multiple secret religion society at the same time? :p
 
To be part of a secret religion is VERY historical.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taqiya

And after the reconquista in Spain many Muslims and Jew converted but secretly kept their old religion. There is nothing fictional about it.
Yeah, the historical Spanish Inquisition whom everyone expects was (originally) mostly interested in that particular kind of heretic: people who got baptized for, say, the financial incentives (IIRC Isabella and Ferdinand had lower taxes for Catholics than for infidels) but still practiced their original religion in private.