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Well, the standard malus is -50, so from that point of view the difference for being a populist religion is "only" -30. In my playthroughs with a messianic religion, this was manageable (you need a good spymaster protecting you, of course...)

However we could maybe accelerate the decrease of the malus (now +5 /year)? Maybe +10? This way you would get twice faster out of the dangerous zone.
 
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Well, I finally got a good ruler. He's about to die but I think he had a pretty good run. Succession is definitely the biggest problem plaguing populist rulers, so yes, I think an acceleration of the malus would be appropriate. We'll see if my heir survives the assassins. Also, do the populist laws upgrade themselves? I've been unable to upgrade them in the law screen, even when I have the prestige.
 
- Succession is supposed to be a big challenge for populist religions. If a player accepts to play a populist religion, he should expect a hard time ruling.

- Still, agreed on accelerating the rate of recovery from short reign malus. I am even thinking of making it 1 point /month (i.e. 12 /year). It would take a bit less than 7 years upon succession to delete entirely this malus for a ruler of your religion, instead of 20 as is now.

- The current version of the Populist module is beta and as such:
a. Access to Liberation War is not limited to Popular Liberty and Popular Autonomy as should be.
b. You do not have yet the related regional events (tax and levy modifiers will be in provincial events spreading or finishing the social revolution based primarily on your level of People's Power, and a series of other factors linked to your character)
c. You do not have yet the Decisions to establish Demagogic Guidance or Cult of the Personality. These will be available for rulers to decide, as you cannot expect vassals to willingly agree becoming the target of angry mobs led by a demagogic tyrant.
e. Demagogic Guidance or Cult of the Personality now grant you the right to revoke titles (for free in the case of Cult of the Personality). Also I think I will grant access to Liberation Wars to Cult of the Personality, because at this point your control on the masses is such that you can channel their revolutionary spirit as if it was spontaneous.

- Otherwise, by design, the first three levels (Popular Liberty, Popular Autonomy, Control) can vary automatically without your consent based on your authority level. This works both ways: with negative authority, you will fall into Popular Liberty; with too high authority, you will revert back to Popular Autonomy or Control as the masses get used to your rule and become calmer. Also you can loose Demagogic Guidance or Cult of the Personnality automatically if you do not meet the conditions anymore. But you cannot gain them unwillingly. Establishing Demagogic Guidance or Cult of the Personality is always a voluntary decision by the ruler. All this works in the current system except for establishing Demagogic Guidance or Cult of the Personality by Decision

I expect uploading the version with these changes tonight, hopefully... I will then also publish an appropriate Dev Diary to properly document the module...
 
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I've been unable to upgrade them in the law screen, even when I have the prestige.
I fixed this particular one, in addition to creating the decision. You can now instate Demagogic Guidance either through "legal" way of law change approved approved by vassals (requires "only" 500 authority), or by force through the decision (requires 8 diplomacy + 8 intrigue + 1000 authority).

The ruler in the save game you sent can now propose Demagogic Guidance as a Law... ;)