CK3 Religion Generation Tables + Church Schism Simulator

All right folks, new Crusader Kings game, that means its time for the greatest of internet pastimes, laughing at goofy shit people manage to do from the sidelines.

Also random tables, swiped directly from the wiki.

Tenets (d50, reroll 46-50)

The core of the faith's beliefs. Roll three times, rerolling any doubles. Some of these options will automatically populate Virtues and Sins - you can ignore those as you like, as a paradoxical beliefs are where the fun is at.

1. Adaptive - The faith has proven well-suited to many different cultures, nations, times and places. (Pluralist doctrine)
2. Adorcism - Possession of clerics by spirits is a common part of religious observance.
   
3. Ancestor Worship - It's good to know where you come from.
4. Aniconism - Your faith does not approve of material representations of the divine.
5. Armed Pilgrimages - Like normal pilgrimages, except with swords.
   
6. Asceticism - Giving up worldly pleasures and goods for solitude and reflection. (Temperate is Virtue, Gluttonous and Greedy are Sins)
7. Astrology - Study of the heavens and their movements, and their effects upon the world.
8. Carnal Exaltation - Sex is pretty great. (Lustful is Virtue, Chaste is Sin)
9. Catechism  - There's a book analyzing and cataloging the precise dogmas of the faith, and their reasoning. (Cannot be Fundamentalist)
   
10. Communal Identity - The faith is integral to the identity of the population.
11. Communion -Ritual oneness with the divine / the state of unity with the faith and its members as a whole.
12. Consolamentum - Ritual consolation and shedding of regrets before death.
    
13. Divine Marriage - Option A: Individuals can be ritually wed to their deity. Option B is the Hapsburg one.
    
14. Ecclesiarchy - The secular authority rules in conjunction with religious authorities. (Cannot be Pluralist)
    
15. Esotericism - Focus on the symbolic, obtuse, and spiritual.
16. Gnosticism - The physical world is corrupt, sinful, and fleeting, the spiritual world is good and eternal. (Temperate is Virtue, Gluttony is Sin)
17. Hedonism - Party party party, I wanna have a party, I need to have a party, you better have a party. (Gluttonous a Virtue, Temperate a Sin)
18. Human Sacrifice - The gods want blood - are you gonna fucking argue with them?
19. Inner Journey - The faith puts great emphasis on solitary meditation. (Patient is Virtue, Impatient is Sin)
20. Literalism - 'Round these parts, we do it by the book.
    
21. Legalism - It's moral because it's the law.
22. Mendicant Preachers - Begging for your bread.
23. Monasticism - Cloistered faith communities are common.
    
24. Natural Primitivism - Clothes, laws, social structure, who needs it? (No doctrines can be Criminal).
25. Pacifism - Violence in shunned, to various levels. (Calm a Virtue, Wrathful a Sin)
26. Pastoral Isolation - Out here in the fields... (Cannot have a Head of Faith)
    
27. Polyamory - Multiple partners are A-OK. (Male and female adultery are Accepted)
    
28. Pursuit of Power - Fuck everyone, get yours. (Ambition is virtue, Content is Sin)
29. Reincarnation - The soul is reborn after one dies.
    
30. Religious Law - A special code of behavior that is in play even if secular law changes.
31. Ritual Cannibalism - If you're going to eat someone, do it proper-like.
    
32. Ritual Celebrations - Really big, but relatively contained, parties.
33. Ritual Hospitality - Offered to friends, strangers, and enemies alike. (Generous is Virtue, Callous is Sin)
34. Sacred Childbirth - The act is of religious significance itself, and well-cared for.
    
35. Sacred Lies - Keeping intentions secret from those outside the faith is A+. (Deceitful is Virtue, Honest is Sin)
36. Sanctioned False Conversions - If you are forced to convert to a different religion, you have express encouragement to keep practicing this one in secret.
    
37. Sanctity of Nature - Take care of it, it takes care of you.
    
38. Sky Burials - The dead are offered up to carrion birds.
39. Struggle and Submission - Expansion of the faith via military means is encouraged.
    
40. Sun Worship - SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE
    
41. Syncretism - Faith contains many traits picked up from other religions.
    
42. Tax on Nonbelievers - What it says on tin. Indicates a significant minority group.
    
43. Unrelenting Faith - The faith prides itself on stamping out all doubt and questioning with surety. Tends to be a bit (a lot) militant.
44. Vows of Poverty - It's common for clerics to forgo property and physical possessions.
45. Warmonger - LET ME SEE YOUR WAR FACE

Doctrines

The faith's stance on matters. Roll for all of these.

View on Gender (And Inheritance)

• 1-2: Male Dominated
• 3-4: Equal
• 5-6: Female Dominated

Religious Attitude

• 1-2 Fundamentalist - You hate basically everyone who isn't you.
• 3-4 Righteous - Willing to be tolerant of other religions, if they stay over there.
• 5-6 Pluralist - Encourage acceptance and co-existance.

Clerical Tradition

• 1-3 Theocratic - There is a formalized, organized hierarchy of clerics.
• 4-6 Lay clergy - Anyone can become a cleric, no or low barriers to entry.

Head of Faith

• 1-2 None - There's no central leader.
• 3-4 Spiritual - A leader in religious matters only; temporal ones are left to temporal authorites.
• 5-6 Temporal - Has proper political power: lands, levies, vassals, all of it.

Marriage Type

• 1-2 Monogamous - Marriage with a single spouse.
• 3-4 Polygamous - Marriage with multiple spouses.
• 5-6 Consorts and Concubines - Marriage with a single spouse, with additional partners permitted.

Views on Divorce

• 1-2 Disallowed - Can't back out once you put a ring on it.
• 3-4 Must Be Approved - Have to make your case, and you might get rejected.
• 5-6 Always Approved - Just need someone to sign the paperwork.

Bastardry

• 1-2 No Bastards - Any provable parentage is legitimate.
• 3-4 Legitimization - There is a process to make bastards legitimate heirs.
• 5-6 No Legitimization - A bastard is always a bastard.

Consanguinuity

• 1-3 Close Kin Taboo - Don't fuck people you're related to.
• 4-5 Cousin Marriage - Cousins, preferably distant ones, are okay to fuck
• 6-9 Avunculate Marriage - Different branches of the same broad family group are okay.
• 10 The Hapsburg Option - I wonder if the gene pool has a dead end?

Clerical Function

• 1-2 Control - Keeping society ticking along to the desired status quo.
• 3-4 Alms and Charity - Caring for the poor and in need.
• 5-6 Recruitment - Gotta bring people into the fold.

Clerical Gender

• 1-2 Men Only
• 3-4 Either
• 5-6 Only Women

Clerical Marriage

• 1-3 Yes
• 4-6 No

Clerical Appointment

• 1-3 Temporal, revocable - Appointed and removed by the secular state.
• 4-6 Spiritual, revocable - Appointed by faith authorities, removed by the state.
• 7-9 Temporal, for life - Appointed by the secular state, here to stay
• 10-12 Spiritual, for life - Appointed by the faith authorities,here to stay.

These last few all have the same options: 1-2 Criminalized (Specific punishment), 3-4 Shunned (Folks don't like it but no special criminal punishment), 5-6 Accepted (It's cool)

• Same Sex Relations - Honestly this can be expanded to other gender stuff as well.
• Male Adultery - Dudes sleeping around.
• Female Adultery - Ladies sleeping around.
• Deviancy - We'll leave this open to interpretation.
• Witchcraft -"Magic type stuff that isn't ours."
• Kinslaying -Is murdering family normal murder, or extra murder?

Virtues and Sins (d30)

The faith's favored and disfavored attitudes. Roll 3 times for virtues and 3 for sins, rerolling doubles.

1. Brave
2. Craven
3. Calm
4. Wrathful
5. Chaste
6. Lustful
7. Content
8. Ambitious
9. Diligent
10. Lazy
11. Fickle
12. Stubborn
13. Forgiving
14. Vengeful
15. Gregarious
16. Shy
17. Honest
18. Deceitful
19. Humble
20. Arrogant
21. Just
22. Arbitrary
23. Temperate
24. Gluttonous
25. Trusting
26. Paranoid
27. Zealous
28. Cynical
29. Compassionate
30. Callous

Putting it in Practice.

Let's see what we've got.

Tenets: Unrelenting Faith, Adorcism, Ritual Celebrations

So we've got a very zealous faith that focuses around huge celebrations where clerics are possessed by spirits - likely the spirits whose honor the celebrations are being held in.

Doctrines
View on Gender: Equal
Religious Attitude: Fundamentalist
Clerical Tradition: Lay
Head of Faith: Spiritual
Marriage: Monogamous, divorce by approval.
Bastardry: No bastards
Consanguinity: Avuncular Marriage
Clerical Function: Recruitment
Clerical Gender: Either, marriage is approved
Clerical Appointment: Spiritual, revocable

Same Sex Relations: Accepted
Male Adultery: Shunned
Female Adultery: Shunned
Deviancy: Criminalized
Witchcraft: Accepted
Kinslaying: Shunned

Virtues: Content, Compassionate, Lustful
Vices: Fickle, Lazy, Craven

Church Schism Simulator

All right then so you've got yourself a religion. You know how to make that sucker interesting?

Heresies and schisms, motherfuckers.

Everything that you generated is a point of contention for someone.

Pick one of the things you consider the most important about your religion. Or more, more is good. Then replace it with something else. Roll, choose, doesn't matter. By default, I imagine that the religion you generated is well established and has a history. This means you can heresy-fy both forwards and backwards in time - what did you branch off of, and who is branching off of you.

Whatever that change is, it is going to have a cause - political, social, cultural, even technological. Use that to inform the rest of the world.

For this example, let's keep it simple.

• Schism: Unrelenting Faith replaced with Catechism, Ritual Celebration replaced with Inner Journey. A branch originating in the literati (and thus, those more influenced by foreign philosophy) that says that the channeling of spirits is primarily a personal practice of self-discovery and self-definition, rather than a communal one. To this end much of the priesthood has been replaced with a series of manuals and enchiridions detailing the types of spirits, their natures and behaviors, and the ways to best use them as guides during meditation.
  
• Heresy: Fundamentalist replaced with Pluralist - A swiftly-growing movement that believes that the spirits of other peoples and nations are equally legitimate, and so can and should be channeled by clerics. This attitude is not popular in the homeland, but has grown up in the diaspora community, as since they are very far away, the spirits cannot possess as strongly as their do back home. They are similar in practices and dogma with their parent faith in all other ways.

If you want to start with the very beginning and work forward, use the (very definitely stolen from Early Christianity) model presented below.

1. Original Teachings - No matter how revolutionary, these will be some variant of an existing faith.
2. First Generation - The religion is spread and taught by those who were among the original disciples and have first-hand experience of its origination.
3. Second Generation - The religion is spread and taught by people who have no direct connection to its originator. It has likely spread far enough to exist in multiple cultural contexts.

The first schisms and heresies will emerge between the first and second generations. You can make a good handful of them at this point on the big friction points.

At this stage, it's a good idea to look and see where the political power is. It's probably going to be with the parent faith, but time and distance has a way of corroding that influence. Things get fuzzy on the borders.

Eventually, one of these branches will catch the eye of political power, and from then it's off to the races. The other branches will either die out or transform to survive their obscurity, while the new politically-advantageous branch will in time have its own fragmentation over dogma. There aren't any strict stages at this point, but it's a good idea to make a timeline of major political events and see what changes will be wrought.

Always remember: the dumber the reason is for the schism, the more realistic it is. Like people died over the difference between homoousious and homoiousious and eagle-eyed readers might take note that that particular debate has very little to do with the practical ethics and business of living in the world.

This has gone on long enough for certain.