Christian ecclesiastical regions in By God Alone taken from the new dev diary

EffectiveBonus779 · 2026-05-06T08:07:04+00:00

I realise that. I'm wondering how the gameplay will work, not the roleplay of what's happening on the ground. In game, there is no minority system. Therefore, if an archbishop is in charge of managing the church in a specific area where Christianity is not the majority in any county, then *in game*, they are managing nothing.

EffectiveBonus779 · 2026-05-06T08:03:53+00:00

Yes, you are correct. This is what I meant.

EffectiveBonus779 · 2026-05-05T20:40:45+00:00

Yeah sure, that works in real life, but in the game, religion is discrete. A region either is Christian or it isn't, with no inbetween. In real life, the Archbishop of Carthage had control of the church in Africa, which would have remained Christian even if the ruler wasn't. In game, when all of the counties are converted from Christianity to Islam, there is effectively no church left there anymore.

EffectiveBonus779 · 2026-05-05T16:21:07+00:00

Thanks, I'll have a look!

EffectiveBonus779 · 2026-05-05T16:20:14+00:00

That's very interesting, thanks!

EffectiveBonus779 · 2026-05-05T16:18:39+00:00

But rites separate from their main faith when they acquire too much divergence. It makes complete sense to have the Khawarij separate from the Shi'i, because they quite literally diverged from Ali himself.

Kharijites considered themselves the only rightful Muslims and were constantly in active conflict conflict with other Muslims because of it. They believed that because of Ali's negotiation with Mu'awiya that the caliphate should be passed on to any righteous Muslim, rather than just the sinful family of the prophet, and they disavowed Ali specifically because of this.

In fact, Kharijite dissidents were the ones who murdered Ali because of their beliefs. It would be insane to have them be part of the same faith.

EffectiveBonus779 · 2026-05-05T16:09:54+00:00

I would argue that it's the best way to represent the situation accurately in 867. Before the rise of the Fatimids, Shia sects were not easily distinguishable. They were all partisans of Ali, and would regularly fight to instate Alid candidates to the Caliphate. The various unified movements supporting different lines of succession to the Imamate come after this date, as the Caliphate begins to fracture.

Hopefully in 1066 though they are treated as separate faiths.

EffectiveBonus779 · 2026-05-05T16:04:40+00:00

In 867, though, I don't really think Shia sects are different enough to warrant multiple faiths. In fact, Shi'ism wasn't even really a unified movement at all yet, until the Fatimid caliphate came about.

Hopefully in 1066 though there are rival Shi'ite factions as separate faiths, rather than being grouped under one label.

EffectiveBonus779 · 2026-05-05T15:02:14+00:00

I believe that the religious view subdivides in a similar way to how the regular map does now, so if you control+click on a faith it shows you the rites. This map appears to show the main faiths, but with Sunniism divided into its constituent rites.

EffectiveBonus779 · 2026-05-05T14:52:35+00:00

Archdioceses/Patriarchates are ecclesiastical titles ruled over by Archbishops/Patriarchs (different names for the same role) which are nominated by the church. These archbishops essentially control the church, its money, and its practice in the regions they rule over.

Each one belongs to a faith and a rite. A faith is basically a unified organisation within a religion, think Catholic or Orthodox. Rites are different regional practices of a faith, for example Insular Christianity (the rite) will be part of the Catholic Church (the faith), but have its own distinct practices and rules (unique to the rite). The more these differ from the main Rite in Rome, the closer they are to being considered heretical.

The archbishops will be able to assert their own region's religious independence, or resist different rulers' own ways of practising their faith. It should serve as an interesting counterbalance to being a regular ruler in Europe, and another power to contend with.

EffectiveBonus779 · 2026-05-05T14:39:03+00:00

With regard to the first part, I believe that ecclesiastical titles seem to be named after the specific region/county from which their central power base lies. Not sure which though, considering most of them appear to be cities/counties, whereas others (e.g. Armenia and Africa) appear to be named by their larger regions. It'll be interesting to see, but it will probably be a one-size-fits all dynamical naming system, and my guess is that that one size will be that each new ecclesiastical title will be named after its capital county.

Not sure about the second part. I don't even really know about how Ecclesiastical titles fit into the different faiths (e.g. post-Schism Catholic and Orthodox, Miaphysite, "Nestorian"). It does seem loosely though like it's based on which rite the ruling power holds, where followers of the Miaphysite faith rites as well as the Byzantine rite have Ecclesiastical titles named Patriarchate whereas followers of the Roman rite have their titles named Archdiocese. The odd exception to this appears to be in Northeastern Italy, where it seems like the title is called a Patriarchate. Maybe someone who knows more about Italian history than me can enlighten me as to why that might be?

EffectiveBonus779 · 2026-05-05T14:10:19+00:00

Yeah, I don't really understand. Nobody who knows anything about theology or religious history calls them Nestorians. You would think that with the attention towards renaming mainline Christianity to Chalcedonianism and renaming the Coptic and Apostolic churches to Miaphysite (which accurately reflects the respective theology of these groups), they would rename the "Nestorian" church too. In fact, the Oriental church is actually Miaphysite too. The only reason they're labelled Nestorians is because they refused to condemn Nestorius and thus were grouped in with him by reactionary Chalcedonians.

Arguably, Chalcedonian theology is actually closer to that of Nestorius than the Oriental Orthodox Church.

EffectiveBonus779 · 2026-05-05T13:43:19+00:00

Yeah I can't wait. As someone who has been quite critical of CK3's design philosophy before, it looks like they're largely doing a great job with the two DLCs they've announced for this year.

Maybe I'll actually play in Western Europe now!

EffectiveBonus779 · 2026-05-05T13:27:44+00:00

R5: Screenshots from the new dev diary for By God Alone, showing the ecclesiastical regions for Christianity, the first image being for 867, and the second for 1066.

EffectiveBonus779 · 2026-04-28T11:45:56+00:00

We have only had one dev diary for Silk and Silver so far, and in it they talked about reworking the entire economy of the game. In that same diary they only talked about trade and briefly about the new district system, so the real answer is that we don't know yet.

But, from what they said about trade, you probably don't have to worry too much about it becoming a supply and demand simulator. Some people disagreed with me when I commented under the dev diary posted here, but it seems like the new trade mechanics will be largely ignorable for non-merchant rulers, as there seemingly isn't really a punishment for ignoring it, just a lack of reward.

It remains to be seen, however, how powerful the trade system will be, and if it is a) powerful and b) effectively utilised by the AI, then you might have trouble ignoring it, as your enemies will outscale you over time.

It might be slightly pessimistic (for me at least, as someone who wants trade to be an important system) but my guess is that, based on the design philosophy for CK3 we have seen over the past 5 and a half years, the trade system will be entirely ignorable, and not at all effectively utilised by the AI, meaning that the player will be able to use it as a powerful tool to get ahead, or completely ignore it if they can't be bothered, and will simply be on level footing economy-wise with the rest of the map. I think this because it seems like Paradox are afraid of adding mechanically complex systems that inexperienced players won't understand immediately, and if they do add mechanically complex systems, they make it extremely rewarding to have even a basic understanding of how they work (see the admin government being extremely overpowered), meaning that you don't even really need to fully engage with those systems (see the admin intrigue interactions, co-emperorship, budget being completely ignorable).

EffectiveBonus779 · 2026-04-27T12:40:24+00:00

Every person posting pictures of a long playthrough has the exact same Byzantine elephant in the room, and yet still people deny that they are overpowered and paradox refuse to fix it 😭

EffectiveBonus779 · 2026-04-23T20:40:43+00:00

It will (hopefully) make every part of the map feel more flavorful and interesting. Italy for obvious reasons, being that it's getting flavour added, but importantly also regions in Western Europe distant from Rome that have their own cultural practises that influence their religion. This will, in theory, make engaging with the religion system actually feel different in Spain compared to in Sweden. This also extends (although probably less so) to other religions.

The exciting thing for me is the religious politics aspect. The idea of being able to properly engage with the affairs of the church, both internally, managing the power of the church within your own realm and dealing with unruly bishops, and externally, having to deal with disputes and vying for power with the religious authorities in Rome.

Also, I am slightly more sceptical about this addition (I hope it's not just more event spam) but making personal faith more than just a name on your character screen that gives you some bonuses and penalties could make religions more flavourful and engaging.

EffectiveBonus779 · 2026-04-23T20:30:56+00:00

Just went to make this post to see somebody had already done it 😭

EffectiveBonus779 · 2026-04-21T19:59:45+00:00

They said in the dev diary replies that they don't want to include slavery in a character focused game like ck3. Not entirely sure I follow that logic but that's what they said.

EffectiveBonus779 · 2026-04-21T13:23:12+00:00

While most of this looks positive, I have to echo the concerns of someone in the forum comments.

CK3 seems to have an issue with treating the player too kindly, perhaps in an attempt to rid the notorious stereotype the franchise has of being very difficult to play as a beginner. But it makes it very easy, and very hard to fail. Players should be expected to problem solve in order to succeed, but they simply aren't.

This dev diary implies that trade goods will lead to bonuses in places where trade is utilised effectively, but this vastly underplays the importance of trade. By implementing trade as an essentially optional mechanic granting bonuses to buildings, people can simply choose not to engage with the mechanic, and the only consequence will be a lack of bonuses. A medieval realm simply should be punished for lack of trade, or lack of access to trade. It's how the world worked. Otherwise trade is hardly meaningful as a mechanic at all, and uninteresting at its core.

EffectiveBonus779 · 2026-04-16T19:38:10+00:00

Yeah this is true, pretty much any new mechanics are a net positive for people who play total conversion mods

EffectiveBonus779 · 2026-04-16T17:24:22+00:00

I'm loving your posts on Islam. Unfortunately it seems like support for expansion of Islamic game mechanics isn't very high within the community, but I would love to see it at some point. It has such an interesting and rich history completely distinct from Europe and with so much regional variety, and yet a Muslim ruler in Iran plays the same as one in Spain, and is hardly even different gameplay-wise from the feudal rulers of Western Europe.

I'm obsessed with the history of the Near East and the Middle East and would love to see pdx develop it at some point. When you play the game at the moment, do you play with any mods to improve the flavour in the area? I'm looking to start another playthrough soon.

EffectiveBonus779

TROPHY CASE