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IN DEPTH WITH MEDIEVAL II: RELIGION
Religion was a huge part of medieval life. To mirror this, the religious system in Medieval II: Total War has more depth than any previous Total War title.
The five religions included in Medieval II are: Catholic, Orthodox, Muslim, Pagan and Heretic.
Religion can be affected by religious characters such as priests, heretics, inquisitors and witches, religious institutions like churches, and even natural drift.
In the grand campaign, players must manage the religion of their chosen faction throughout their provinces and spread its influence, whilst minimizing outbreaks of heresy. Controlling a catholic faction will also require the player to manage their relationship with the Pope in order to avoid the intervention of inquisitors and even excommunication.
As the campaign game progresses, players controlling catholic factions will be able to develop their religious characters to the point where they can even get their own cardinal elected as Pope.
Players will be able to influence the faith of their population by constructing various religious buildings within the provinces under their control. For example, churches and mosques will spread the influence of a player’s religion and help maintain and increase happiness levels within the provinces. For catholic factions, these buildings will also improve relations with the Pope.
Priests
Religious buildings also grant the player the ability to recruit priests. These are agents that can be used to move around campaign map, spreading the influence of the player’s religion. The longer they remain in a province the higher percentage of the province’s population they can convert. Over time priests build up their levels of piety. Eventually, senior catholic priests can be recognized by the Pope and get elected to the Collage of Cardinals. This gives the player influence in the Papacy and the potential for their cardinal to be elected Pope.
Heresy
Priests can also be used to stamp down on heresy. Heretics and witches can crop up in a player’s provinces or neighbouring provinces and spread heresy. This will eat away at the faith of the player’s population.
Priests can be used to denounce heretics and witches. However, there is always a possibility that a priest may lose his way and turn heretic himself, in which case they fall under AI control and spread more heresy, thus further undermining the player’s established religion.
Letting heresy spread has serious implications for catholic factions. If the player is deemed to have a problem with heresy in their lands the Pope may send out an inquisitor to deal with the situation. These agent characters are very effective at denouncing heretics and thus reducing heresy. However, they can be indiscriminate in the characters they put on trial and execute so players can quickly lose agents and generals once an inquisitor begins to wander their lands.
The Pope
The Pope will make various requests of catholic factions as the game progresses, and generally meddle in affairs. If the player accedes to his requests, he’ll begin to smile on them. If not he’ll become increasingly tiresome, and may even excommunicate their faction. Excommunication banishes the faction from the faith and makes them vulnerable to attack by catholic factions, who, prompted by the Pope, will close in on their lands.
Building cathedrals and converting people to Catholicism is a good way of improving relations with the Pope. As leader of the papal state faction, players also have to ensure that general relations with that faction are good in order to maintain a healthy relationship with the Pope himself.
Having the Pope as an ally offers significant benefits. Players can turn to him to request that he warns off other catholic factions from attacking, and he may even accept suggestions as to where to call a crusade.
When the existing Pope dies (for whatever reason) a new Pope is elected by the College of Cardinals. If you have a cardinal of sufficiently high rank, he’ll be a candidate in the election. You can then negotiate with the other factions to get them to vote for your cardinal by buying votes via diplomacy. Alternatively you can agree to sell your vote for their candidate. Players have to exercise some caution when toying with the politics of a papal election. The newly elected Pope will remember those factions who voted for and against him and this will influence his relationship with those factions once elected.
Crusades
Crusades will be much more of an event in Medieval II than they were in the original Medieval. The Pope commissions crusades as the campaign game progresses and all the catholic factions then have the option to join.
Players can sign up individual generals and their armies to a crusade. Armies driven by the cause of a crusade are awarded with an increased movement rate and the opportunity to recruit unique crusade units such as the Crusader Knights. Generals involved in crusades also develop unique traits and earn bonuses relating to chivalry and honour.
The faction that captures the target first will gain considerable prestige and wealth as well as significantly boosting their standing with the Pope.
As previously mentioned, as players gain more influence with the Pope they can begin to request crusades to be called on specific targets. This means the player can begin to position their armies before prompting the Pope to call a crusade on a nearby target in order to further boost their standing and coffers.
Jihads
Both Orthodox and Muslim religions have priests, and religious buildings that they can use to spread their religion. Muslim factions can also create Jihads.
Jihads can be called by Muslim priests with a sufficient religion rating. They can be called against settlements owned by non-Muslim factions that have significant Muslim populations. Once a player’s general decides to go on Jihad, he’ll have a range of low cost religious troops that he can recruit to the cause.
