犹太教

Judaism originated as the belief system of the Jewish people and currently believed to be evolved from an earlier polytheistic belief system among a limited number of Semitic Bronze Age tribes. By the era depicted in Crusader Kings II, it was a minority religion, with small Jewish communities scattered across Europe and the Middle East.

Playing as a non-nomadic Jew requires Sons of Abraham.

Religious mechanics

Map of Jewish holy sites.

• Judaism is an organized religion in its own religious group (Israelite), along with its heresies (Karaite and Samaritan).
• Jewish rulers have access to the Holy War casus belli.
• Missionaries: Like other organized religions, Jews can send out missionaries to pagan realms.
• Jewish rulers may receive Ashkenazi or Sephardi courtiers to their realm (see below).
• Unique decisions:
  • Jewish rulers may observe Passover, giving a bonus to relations with vassal rulers who also attended the feast.
  • Restoration of Israel: A Jewish ruler who reclaims the Holy Land has access to two unique decisions: "Create Israel" and "Build the Third Temple".
    • Only after creating Israel and the completion of the Third Temple can a Jewish ruler then decide to restore the High Priesthood, creating a religious head for the Jewish faith.
    • Uniquely for Judaism, the creation of a religious head requires a particular holy site (in this case, Jerusalem) to be converted to the faith.
• Unique trait effects:
  • Jewish AI rulers will not send their Court Chaplain to proselytize counties to Judaism unless they have the trait.

Judaism's holy sites are located around the Middle East.

• Jerusalem: The ancient capital of Israel, and location of the First and Second Temples.
• Sinai: The traditional site of God's revelation of the Ten Commandments to Moses.
• Damascus: Said to have been conquered by King David. Also a major scholarly center during the Umayyad caliphate.
• Dhofar: Site of Job's tomb.
• Hamadan: Home of the Persian Emperor Cyrus the Great, who freed the Jews from their exile in Babylon and is revered as "Messiah" by Jews.
  • Jerusalem and Damascus are important Silk Road counties.

Passover

Passover is a religious feast for the Jewish faith. All direct vassals following Judaism are invited, but they may decline the invitation. At the end of the feast, you gain 100 piety and 100 prestige and a relations bonus with the vassals who attended. After a few years have passed, you may hold another Passover festival; it's a good way to keep vassals happy. However, there are no special events that can fire during the feast, making it quite similar to pagan festivals such as Ukon Juhla. With The Reaper's Due, Passover festivities may increase Prosperity.

Create Israel

A Jewish ruler who controls all of the de jure Kingdom of Jerusalem may restore the Kingdom of Israel. In addition to full control of the Holy Land, the county of Jerusalem must have Judaism as its religion, and the ruler must have 500 Piety and 500 Prestige. Israel has a unique coat of arms and color different from Kingdom of Jerusalem and its ruler may build the Third Temple, but otherwise it is a normal kingdom.

Build the Third Temple

Jewish rulers who control the entire duchy of Jerusalem may spend 1,500 Gold and Piety to construct the Third Temple. Construction takes four years and the province of Jerusalem must be converted to Judaism before it can begin. Once completed, Judaism can gain its religious head through a decision in the intrigue menu. However, to make this decision visible, you must hold the kingdom of Israel personally. The Kohen Gadol—or High Priest—a formal religious head with the power to grant divorces and may sanction invasions against Jewish rulers, as well as declare Great Holy Wars against rulers of other religions. Rebuilding the temple also creates the Zealots, the only Jewish holy order in the game.

Strategies for converting Jerusalem

• If nomadic, completely pillage all holdings in the county.
• Ironically, being secretly Jewish may make county conversion easier due to the "prepare grounds" interaction.

Playable Jewish realms & rulers

During the era covered by Crusader Kings II, barring player intervention, Khazaria of the western steppe and Semien in East Africa were the only significant realms with Jewish rulers.

Axum/Semien

In 769/867 starts, Semien is a mountainous two-province petty kingdom, surrounded by feudal/tribal Christians. It is a relatively weak realm but so are its neighbors, aside from Abyssinia.

From 1066 onwards, Semien has turned into the duchy of Axum and now controls six provinces in East Africa. Axum is perhaps the strongest individual realm in East Africa, though this is somewhat balanced by the fact that all surrounding realms are hostile to you and can quickly rally to each other's aid in holy wars. After 1136, Axum shrinks to three province (Semien) and on the last possible start date, it's back to just two provinces.

Below are some tips when playing as Axum/Semien:

• Expand by fabricating claims initially as holy wars rapidly cause you to be overwhelmed by your neighbors.
• Use Business focus to get extra money via minting coins and trade route event. Save this money for mercenaries.
• AI Jews will not attempt to convert provinces unless they have Zealous trait (the Kohen Gadol is a known exception). Keep this in mind when landing courtiers.
• Your moral authority is bad so keep an eye for Dhofar, in case it splinters away from a bigger realm so that you can conquer it. Otherwise, you have little chance to convert your provinces to Judaism.
• Try to avoid a land border with Egypt until you have the rest of East Africa under control
• East Africa is littered with small duchies, so it's easy to create a Custom Kingdom of your own, instead of going for dejure Abyssinia/Nubia (especially with 1066 Axum).
• Aden is a good place for a capital due to the Silk Road & high tech levels.
• The best use of your daughters is to marry them to vassals for 'marriage ties' relation bonus and non-aggression pacts.

Patch 2.7 opens an alternate strategy. You can swear fealty to Abyssinia or the Arabian Empire/Egypt and falsely convert to respectively Miaphysitism or Islam, then expand within the realm using the "Secretly Jewish" society.

Khazaria

The Khaganate of Khazaria, a large nomadic realm on the steppes (tribal without Horse Lords), is Jewish from 867 onwards. Unfortunately, it is surrounded by rapacious Pagan neighbors. Fortunately, Khazaria shares borders with Byzantines/Georgia who can be raided and the northern branch of the Silk Road also goes across their territory. This enables the Khagan to earn money to upgrade his realm. Being a Nomadic realm, Khazars have all the usual perks of such a realm. It is possible to conquer the entire Kingdom of Jerusalem with an invasion and settle down. This turns provinces in the kingdom to Khazar culture & Jewish religion (depending on your population) and enables rapid formation of Israel. Alternatively, destroying all holdings in Jerusalem via pillages will also cause the culture and religion of the county to change to Khazar and Jewish respectively.

In 1066, the Khazars are greatly weakened and exist as tributaries of the powerful Cumans. While this gives Khazars some protection, 1066 is a much harder start in general because the Middle-East is contested by powerful Seljuks and Fatimids who both have access to powerful vassal mercenaries. Even on the Steppes, there are several realms more powerful than you.

After the year 1088, Khazars no longer exist and the Jewish presence disappears from the steppes, leaving Semien as the only Jewish realm in the game for later periods.

Note: You can play as Khazaria without the Sons of Abraham DLC if you have the Horse Lords DLC, as non-Christian nomads are playable without the need for religion DLCs. However, you cannot change your government type without converting to a playable religion, or it's game over!

Baghdad

In 1289 - 1290, historical Vizier Al-Dawla holds Baghdad, under the Ilkhanate. He is a Sunni, but is "secretly Jewish" and controls valuable parts of Mesopotamia. Likewise, his relatives (who are openly Jewish) control several provinces in Jazira. While this is a tough challenge, it certainly offers a relatively strong and safe starting position.

Yegorlyk

In 867, nomadic Alans have settled into a multi-religious tribal confederation. The bulk of the population are Tengri pagans, the ruler is Orthodox Christian and most of his vassals are of different faiths. One of these vassals is the Jewish chief Tsaerasan of Yegorlyk. Whether you want to overthrow your liege or expand towards Steppe, this start offers several choices for playing style.

Tribal Pagans

In the 867/1066 bookmarks, you can also start as one of the many tribal Pagans around Baltic Sea/Russia and easily change your religion by acquiring a concubine/wife from Khazaria. This means that you should have plenty of time to build up your realm, away from European/Middle-eastern powers.

Nomads

With their powerful CBs and military potential, nomads can easily build up a power base before invading the Kingdom of Jerusalem. This is particularly so in 769; a Tengri nomad can easily seize land from pagan tribals. By pillaging all holdings, the religion of Jerusalem will change easily, and with Jerusalem as a Jewish holy site, nomadic rulers can spend piety to adopt Judaism as a secret religion before open declaration. After the High Priesthood is restored, granting a temple to the High Priest will increase MA significantly.

Jewish courtiers and merchants

Jewish courtiers of Ashkenazi/Sephardi culture can appear in courts of Christian, Jewish, Muslim & Zoroastrian rulers as well as any ruler with Khazar culture. It is possible to use them to educate your heir, in case you wish to play as a Jewish ruler without the need for Ruler Designer. In addition, these courtiers may contribute to technology advances if they are in your council.

Alternatively, with the Conclave DLC, you can invite Jewish courtiers by using favors; use the character finder to look for suitable candidates. If your government/religion supports concubinage, you can use Jewish courtiers to educate girls with the Faith childhood focus. Then, by taking Jewish concubines, you can either spend piety or prestige to convert to Judaism.

Adapting either culture as ruler will also cause Israelite culture to appear in provinces, though it should take a few decades. Israelite culture has semi-decent retinue, but bear in mind that this can trigger liberation revolts in your demesne counties.

Jewish rulers who control Silk Road trade posts may borrow 200 gold from Radhanite merchants. Radhanites take no interest but expect repayment within a few years; failure to do so might result in loss of technology points. Additionally, Jewish rulers who have Khazar or Israelite culture may construct a Radhanite compound to their trade post, increasing its trade value and tech increase bonuses even further.

Christian, Muslim & Zoroastrian rulers can borrow 300 gold from Jewish merchants in their realm. This gives -10 relation penalty with temple vassals. To get rid of this penalty, the ruler must pay back 350 gold to the Jews.

Non-Jewish Kings & Emperors can also expel their Jewish population. This removes all non-landed Jews from the realm and gives the ruler significant amount of gold from confiscated property. The downside of this is that the ruler gains (If that ruler has an outstanding loan owed to the Jews) & -2 Diplomacy penalty, loses 100 prestige and national tax income is reduced by -10%. In addition, losing skilled members of the population may contribute to technological stagnation in the form of lost research points. Naturally, rulers cannot borrow money from Jews anymore.

Future rulers can invite Jews back by spending significant amount of gold. This removes penalties, returns the ability to borrow money again and has a 50% chance to give the ruler the "Sympathy for Judaism" trait.

宗教