So, what exactly is going through the mind of the Duke of Fars, when I demand conversion from everyone in de-jure Persia and Sistan, with the sole exception of him?
Does he think to himself, "You know, I am probably being earmarked for title revocation, because my liege wants to convert the coastal portion of my duchy and the Silk Road trade post into a Khazar merchant republic, and divide the inland portions among the neighboring dukes?"
Because, I assure you - that's exactly what I was thinking, when I singled him out for non-conversion.
I can also assure you that, even once I finish beating the Sultan of Egypt into submission over his dishonorable refusal to surrender to a revolt (I wanted him to refuse, and grant me the pretext) and have imprisoned the last remaining Muslim Sultan, this thought will still not occur to him.
Even once the Night of Long Scimitars kicks into full swing, and I begin the religious revocation of the last remaining handful of independent Muslim Dukes, it will still not dawn on him that it would be extremely frustrating to my ambitions, and conducive to his own immediate survival, if he were to spontaneously convert to a religion over which I had no revocation rights.
Perhaps, vassals should make this calculation, based on the relative strength of their religion within the realm (as measured by the combined relative strength of co-religionists, excluding the imprisoned, and regencies who cannot join factions as such) and based on the recent history of religious revocations of titles of their religion. If they find that their religion is weak within the realm and its titles are being revoked, they should feel strongly compelled to convert.
I have written about the benefits of balkanizing Christianity in preparation for its eventual, complete dismantling - but within the context of this calculation, it would make sense for vassals facing revocation threat to consider balkanizing themselves.
Since a Catholic ruler can neither freely revoke Orthodox, Miaphysite or Nestorian titles, nor can he request their excommunication, the most pragmatic thing for a Persian Duke to do, if confronted by the collapsing strength of Islam under the newly installed Roman Catholic administration, would be to check his sub-realm, and the de-jure Kingdom and Empire which it belongs to, for holy sites belonging to a religion immune to both revocation and excommunication from his liege, notice that the de-jure Persian Empire contains two Nestorian holy sites, and spontaneously convert to Nestorian, (most likely continuing to practice Islam in secret,) thus minimizing the rights that his liege has over him.
Zealous vassals, naturally, should be immune to these practical considerations, and should go down with the ship. Cynical vassals should be entirely immune to ideological considerations, and decide purely based on their own interest. Neither zealous nor cynical vassals should have to have a strong case for their own self-preservation made, before the urgency of their survival instinct overcomes an inert reluctance to accept the reality that their God has abandoned them.
These spontaneous self-preservative conversions should, perhaps, sometimes happen as events which result in the simultaneous conversion of a bloc of vassals, as it can be reasonably expected that the same-religion vassals of a de-jure sub-realm or sub-empire would get together and plot for their collective survival. They should still sometimes happen as spontaneous events concerning only a single vassal, especially cynical ones, who would be wholly comfortable moving first for their own survival, leaving the other vassals of their sub-realm to catch up at their own pace.
Imagine how very annoying crushing the Saxon heathens would be, if they had had the good sense to spontaneously convert, rather than wait around for their duchies and kingdom to be granted to the heirs of Irish duchies and the Kingdom of Scotland. I would have had to deal with falsely baptized, secretly Germanic Saxons, who hated me as a foreign conqueror, until I devised some other pretext to purge them, or until my Court Chaplain discovered their secret heresies. Instead, conquest after conquest, I am faced with fatally defiant inconversos, who sit around watching me break apart their religious bloc, piece by piece, and do nothing about it.
Make it harder! Make them more cunning! Make it more annoying!
Also:
When the lone Zunist Duke in Persia received the beautiful news that I was going to press his claim for Zabulistan against the Tengri Khazars who had somehow conquered it, what did he think would happen?
Did he think that I was not going to immediately revoke it, angering absolutely no one else in the realm since he was my only Zunist vassal, and grant it all to my half-brother? Because, let me tell you - that's exactly what I did.
As titles which have been recently granted cannot be immediately revoked (I think they should be revocable with some reputation cost), it would stand to reason that titles which have been recently pressed should also be immune to immediate revocation. I should have been forced, by the fact that I pressed this Zunist's claim, to allow him to bask in his title for the standard "recently granted" period. Back to my first point, he should have spent this period of grace seriously considering whether or not he should convert to his liege's Catholic religion, his de-jure empire's preferred not-infidel-to-liege Nestorian, or his immediate neighbor's Sunni, to avoid his inevitable replacement with someone a little more... dynastic. He was the first to go, and the precariousness of his own position should have been so evident to him, that he should have acted first.
God forbid, if he were only cleverer, I could still be stuck with him as a vassal.
Does he think to himself, "You know, I am probably being earmarked for title revocation, because my liege wants to convert the coastal portion of my duchy and the Silk Road trade post into a Khazar merchant republic, and divide the inland portions among the neighboring dukes?"
Because, I assure you - that's exactly what I was thinking, when I singled him out for non-conversion.
I can also assure you that, even once I finish beating the Sultan of Egypt into submission over his dishonorable refusal to surrender to a revolt (I wanted him to refuse, and grant me the pretext) and have imprisoned the last remaining Muslim Sultan, this thought will still not occur to him.
Even once the Night of Long Scimitars kicks into full swing, and I begin the religious revocation of the last remaining handful of independent Muslim Dukes, it will still not dawn on him that it would be extremely frustrating to my ambitions, and conducive to his own immediate survival, if he were to spontaneously convert to a religion over which I had no revocation rights.
Perhaps, vassals should make this calculation, based on the relative strength of their religion within the realm (as measured by the combined relative strength of co-religionists, excluding the imprisoned, and regencies who cannot join factions as such) and based on the recent history of religious revocations of titles of their religion. If they find that their religion is weak within the realm and its titles are being revoked, they should feel strongly compelled to convert.
I have written about the benefits of balkanizing Christianity in preparation for its eventual, complete dismantling - but within the context of this calculation, it would make sense for vassals facing revocation threat to consider balkanizing themselves.
Since a Catholic ruler can neither freely revoke Orthodox, Miaphysite or Nestorian titles, nor can he request their excommunication, the most pragmatic thing for a Persian Duke to do, if confronted by the collapsing strength of Islam under the newly installed Roman Catholic administration, would be to check his sub-realm, and the de-jure Kingdom and Empire which it belongs to, for holy sites belonging to a religion immune to both revocation and excommunication from his liege, notice that the de-jure Persian Empire contains two Nestorian holy sites, and spontaneously convert to Nestorian, (most likely continuing to practice Islam in secret,) thus minimizing the rights that his liege has over him.
Zealous vassals, naturally, should be immune to these practical considerations, and should go down with the ship. Cynical vassals should be entirely immune to ideological considerations, and decide purely based on their own interest. Neither zealous nor cynical vassals should have to have a strong case for their own self-preservation made, before the urgency of their survival instinct overcomes an inert reluctance to accept the reality that their God has abandoned them.
These spontaneous self-preservative conversions should, perhaps, sometimes happen as events which result in the simultaneous conversion of a bloc of vassals, as it can be reasonably expected that the same-religion vassals of a de-jure sub-realm or sub-empire would get together and plot for their collective survival. They should still sometimes happen as spontaneous events concerning only a single vassal, especially cynical ones, who would be wholly comfortable moving first for their own survival, leaving the other vassals of their sub-realm to catch up at their own pace.
Imagine how very annoying crushing the Saxon heathens would be, if they had had the good sense to spontaneously convert, rather than wait around for their duchies and kingdom to be granted to the heirs of Irish duchies and the Kingdom of Scotland. I would have had to deal with falsely baptized, secretly Germanic Saxons, who hated me as a foreign conqueror, until I devised some other pretext to purge them, or until my Court Chaplain discovered their secret heresies. Instead, conquest after conquest, I am faced with fatally defiant inconversos, who sit around watching me break apart their religious bloc, piece by piece, and do nothing about it.
Make it harder! Make them more cunning! Make it more annoying!
Also:
When the lone Zunist Duke in Persia received the beautiful news that I was going to press his claim for Zabulistan against the Tengri Khazars who had somehow conquered it, what did he think would happen?
Did he think that I was not going to immediately revoke it, angering absolutely no one else in the realm since he was my only Zunist vassal, and grant it all to my half-brother? Because, let me tell you - that's exactly what I did.
As titles which have been recently granted cannot be immediately revoked (I think they should be revocable with some reputation cost), it would stand to reason that titles which have been recently pressed should also be immune to immediate revocation. I should have been forced, by the fact that I pressed this Zunist's claim, to allow him to bask in his title for the standard "recently granted" period. Back to my first point, he should have spent this period of grace seriously considering whether or not he should convert to his liege's Catholic religion, his de-jure empire's preferred not-infidel-to-liege Nestorian, or his immediate neighbor's Sunni, to avoid his inevitable replacement with someone a little more... dynastic. He was the first to go, and the precariousness of his own position should have been so evident to him, that he should have acted first.
God forbid, if he were only cleverer, I could still be stuck with him as a vassal.
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