Piety is a measure of your ruler's devotion to their faith and is crucial for interacting with the Church, performing religious ceremonies, and even launching holy wars. A high piety score can grant powerful bonuses and protect you from religious strife.
Sources of Piety
- Attending Religious Services: Participating in your faith's religious services, often represented by events or specific buildings, can grant piety.
- Pilgrimages: Undertaking pilgrimages to holy sites associated with your faith is a significant source of piety. The success and length of the pilgrimage influence the reward.
- Donating Gold to the Church: Giving gold to your religious head or to religious buildings can earn you piety and improve your standing with the clergy.
- Ruler Lifestyle: Focusing on the Faith lifestyle tree offers numerous perks that directly increase piety gain and provide other religious benefits. The "Zealous" perk, for example, significantly boosts piety generation.
- Character Traits: Traits like "Devout," "Zealous," or "Ascetic" can passively increase piety gain or unlock piety-generating events. Conversely, traits like "Cynical" or "Heretic" will actively decrease piety.
- Events and Decisions: Various random events and specific ruler decisions can offer opportunities to gain piety, often tied to acts of faith or religious contemplation.
- Converting Counties: Successfully converting counties to your faith can sometimes grant a piety bonus.
- Fighting Heretics and Infidels: Defeating those who oppose your faith in combat can also be a source of piety.
Using Piety
- Excommunicating Characters: With sufficient piety, you can petition your religious head to excommunicate troublesome vassals or enemies, weakening their standing and making them easier to deal with.
- Launching Holy Wars: Piety is often a prerequisite for declaring holy wars against rulers of different faiths.
- Appointing Bishops: A good relationship with your religious head, often bolstered by piety, can help you appoint bishops who are favorable to your rule.
- Gaining Divine Favor: High piety can lead to positive interactions with your religious head, potentially granting you divine favor or special boons.
- Preventing Religious Strife: A pious ruler is less likely to face internal religious dissent or peasant uprisings based on faith.
Maintaining a healthy piety level is essential for any ruler who wishes to wield religious influence and maintain stability within their realm. Neglecting your faith can lead to a loss of authority and increased religious opposition.