Is it possible to refuse to become Emperor?

[Vasily]

I was playing as Duke of Antioch, having taken Emirate of Aleppo and was preparing for my campaign on the Emirate of Edessa but... I suddenly became emperor of Byzantium! I only wanted to play as a small duchy, not the whole empire... so is it possible to refuse the crown?

 

[unmerged(15337)]

As far as I know it is always possible to give away a title to one of your vassals or a member of your court. You then play on as the highest ranked title you still hold.

 

[Heyomif]

He can't give away his primary title though. What you could do is give your son/brother/favorite character the duchy title and play as him instead.

 

[Dogia]

This always annoyed me in ck1 when i liked playing the count of cherson. happily expandng my little domain, and the boom... Your in charge of a massive empire in rebellon and under attack.. not the stress i need

 

[Olaus Petrus]

Byzantium is elective monarchy so only thing you can do is to make sure that you're not heir. Being excommunicated puts you out of succession, but it has other nasty effects. So your best bet is to make sure that you're not strongest prince in the empire. Maybe you can share your lands and titles with your heir so that some other prince will become stronger than you and be elected instead of you.

 

[Ivan Rogov]

Being excommunicated puts you out of succession

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Byz Orthodox? Can Orthodox be excomm'd?

 

[Olaus Petrus]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Byz Orthodox? Can Orthodox be excomm'd?

They can, but you have to get event which excommunicates your ruler.

 

[unmerged(84239)]

You could also give away some provinces, a nice duchy to a not firstborn kid of yours, change byzantium to primogeniture, and load up as the duke-kid.