Crusader Kings 2 Holy Orders

[Carolina Bornman]

Holyorders are bands of troops that can be hired with piety to fight religious enemies. Holy orders can also operate as independent rulers, constructing castles and waging their own wars. Most religions only have one holy order; only Catholics have multiple orders.

During great holy wars, as well as when defending against infidels, holy orders have no wealth upkeep. During offensive wars, however, they have a substantial gold upkeep cost, similar to mercenaries.

Holy orders often operate on their own, without the contract of a ruler. They may ask rulers of their religion to allow them to build a castle in the ruler's demesne. The holy order only requires the local count's approval; the permission of the count's liege, if any, is not required. Once they get permission, construction will begin.

Holy Orders will continue to request the rights to build castles as long as they have enough wealth (300g), no county titles, and fewer than 10 controlled settlements. This will eventually put them over their demesne limit, and they will grant extra castles with appointment succession. If you have Imperial Administration or Iqta government, retracting these baron vassals will allow the Holy Order to build more castles. This is an inexpensive way to increase the strength of your realm.

Rulers cannot use the "de jure holdings" CB against holy orders of their religion. However, for 1000 piety, they can expel the holy order and seize all castles. Any debts with the Order will also be cancelled. The Order will no longer request to build castles in the ruler's realm.

Occasionally, an unmarried son or brother who does not stand to inherit may ask to join a Holy Order of their religion. They are more likely to request if Zealous , and will be more likely to join a Holy Order with an aligned cause or is more local (for example, a German would be more likely to join the Teutonic Order than the Knights Templar if both are formed).

If allowed, the courtier moves to the holy order and unmarries all spouses. If the allowing ruler shares their religion, the ruler gains 100 piety. Characters cannot marry or inherit as long as they remain in the holy order. Except for CM holy orders (Zun and Ibadi), the character also gains the Celibate trait.

Once in the holy order, it is possible for them to become the grandmaster of the order through Open elective succession, which selects the man with the highest prestige plus age. This can be very useful for your dynasty: Each holy order controlled by your dynasty gives you (and all other count+ rulers of your dynasty) +2 monthly prestige and +1 monthly piety. Holy orders controlled by your dynasty are also much cheaper to hire. High dynasty prestige can help your relatives win, as can the skills to obtain a council position within the holy order.

Aside from castle and hiring income, Holy Orders can also gain money from donations. Donating 300 Wealth to a Holy Order will grant you 100 piety and put you in good standing with the Grandmaster of that Order, your religious head, and all temple vassals. Note that you cannot donate to holy orders which you have vassalized.

You can also borrow money from a Holy Order. At any time you can borrow 300 gold from any Holy Order of your religion, so long as they have 300 gold to give. However, while in debt the Grandmaster can make various demands, either demanding a son or brother to join the Order or building a castle in your demesne. If this happens, you may either accept (canceling your debt), refuse (losing 1000 Piety and damaging your relations with your religious head), or pay back the 300 gold debt.

Holy orders are created by events when certain conditions are met. If a heresy becomes mainstream, they always join the new mainstream religion. Similarly they can be formed by a former heresy once it becomes mainstream except that Miaphysite and Nestorian holy orders can only be created by those religions (not their heresies). i.e. You cannot create a Holy Order as Messalian.Taoism does not have a holy order.

Transforms into the kingdom-tier Teutonic State upon winning a Northern Crusade war. The Teutonic State cannot be hired as a holy order unless they lose all land and revert to being the Teutonic Order.

Hired forces are predefined armies which may be temporarily controlled by hiring them with Gold. Hired forces cannot be used to raid. There are two types of hired forces, each one with its own tab in the Military menu.

Mercenaries are armies that can be hired by rulers for 3 years. The gold cost is paid upon hiring the Mercenaries and there is no additional cost associated with hiring them, but at the end of the 3 years, they will leave if their contract is not extended. Extending a contract for 3 years has the same cost as initially hiring the army.

Each culture generates between one and three mercenary companies depending on the number of counties of that culture, with each additional company being bigger and more expensive than the previous one. They will pick a county of their culture as their headquarters and will be available to be hired by anyone with capital within diplomatic range of that county. Range between Mercenary armies come with one or more specific men-at-arms regiments and will also contain a number of knights. Mercenary regiments reinforce 3 times faster than regular regiments. Character can hire mercenaries of their own culture from further away.

Rulers can create a holy order via the Found Holy Order decision. The decision costs and then requires the ruler making the decision to choose an owned castle or city holding as the order's headquarters. The designated headquarters title is leased and may be revoked at any time by the title holder and revoking a grandmaster's last lease will destroy the holy order. When a holy order is created the ruler who created it will become its Patron and the order's grandmaster will belong to its faith and culture.

Rulers of a holy order's faith may hire them if they are at war with a faith considered Hostile or Evil, regardless of casus belli. A ruler may only have one holy order hired at a time. Hiring holy orders costs Piety unless the ruler is the order's Patron, scaling on the maximum amount of Levies and Regiments the holy order has. Holy orders remain hired for as long as their employer is at war with someone of another faith.

Holy orders have 500 Levies, 2 Knights and 2 Regiments. Each Holding they own provides an additional Regiment and 200 Levies and every two Holdings they own provide an additional Knight. Their Men-at-Arms do not gain bonuses from the buildings in its Holdings, but rather from their employer's buildings.

Patrons of a holy order may hire them at no cost, as long as they belong to the same faith. They may also take any leased holdings from the order. A Ruler that is a Patron of a holy order may get events that allows them to grant holdings to the new holy order. If a Patron takes a loan from the order and does not repay it, the Order may choose a holding it wants (usually a city) and demand that it be leased to them.

If a holy order is hired by another character, its Patron can repay their employer the Piety hiring cost to hire the holy order. This option is not available in multiplayer if the holy order is hired by another human player.

It is often advantageous to establish a holy order or become one's Patron as soon as possible if you border hostile or evil religions. It acts as a free army in holy wars (except Crusades). They can grow quite large on their own with no oversight by the player, sometimes snowballing into a 5-6k heavy infantry stack by 1044.

Although you have to be at war with a hostile or evil ruler to raise them, they can fight armies of your faith in other wars. One strategy is to maintain one province minors of a hostile or evil religion on your border, so you can declare a holy war against a weak ruler at will. In a war against a ruler of your faith, you can declare a holy war against the one province minor, raise the holy order, and use them in the war against your stronger opponent.

All members of a holy order, including its grandmaster, gain the Order Member trait. Rulers may also use the Ask to Take Vows interaction to send courtiers to a holy order, as long as the following conditions are met:

If the courtier is a close family of the requestor the courtier moves to holy order's court, but since Invite to Court interaction is available on all holy order's courtiers, the absent courtier can still be moved back to requestor's court upon request. If the courtier is not a close family of the requestor the courtier doesn't move to holy order's court when taking the vows.

If a holy order's headquarters is lost, the holy order will select a new owned holding to fulfil the role, with a preference for holdings within the current patron's realm. However, if the holy order loses its last holding, it will be disbanded.

A holy order is an organisation of religious warriors which can be hired by a ruler of corresponding religion to fight for them. Holy orders cost piety to hire and require a monthly upkeep of a few gold. However, in a religious defensive war they have no monthly upkeep. The leader of a holy order bears a title of ducal rank, representing that order. Holy orders can be landed or unlanded, but are unplayable either way. If a holy order is in fief to a king or emperor, only that holy order's liege can hire it.

Holy orders use Agnatic Open Elective succession - one of the courtiers or vassals of that holy order will become head of the order upon the death of the incumbent. Christian rulers can order their sons to "take the vows", or dedicate their lives to religious duties. If a character who shows martial aptitude is ordered to do so he may choose to join one of the holy orders. Sons who join orders in this way may end up in charge of a barony controlled by that order, or may eventually become head of that order.

Almost all religions in Crusader Kings II has at least one holy order, but not all holy orders are extant at the game's start, and require certain events to come into existence. These are discussed on each individual order's page. Pagan religions require reformation for their holy order to appear, and the Jewish and Zoroastrian religions require restoration of the High Priesthood for theirs to appear. Heresies do not have holy orders, but the holy orders of the parent religion can become associated with a given heresy if that heresy becomes larger than the parent.

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