Well guess my first run of the new DLC is over.
Started as a scholar adventurer with the goal of a rag to riches story to become pope. Went around northern Italy and Germany farming aura piety and cash with my merry band of virgins, had no idea how to actually make the step to priesthood.
After faffing about for a decade chatgpt a divine voice told me I had to do the Buy Sacred Land choice from someone who A) I had done a mission for and B) Had a spare temple laying around (who doesn't these days).
Queue me mercilessly right clicking all over Europe to find the few people who where anything close to those 2 criteria. Boom, one of the Karlings (the grey blob one) had a temple and apparently I worked for before, BUT WAIT, I was gallowsbait because I refused to sleep in a crappy bed once, so I had to pay indulgences like a good christian ofc. One washing of hands later and presto, I was the Bishop of Candy or some german backyard whatever.
But what you weren't expecting dear reader, is that I've went and took the one tenet that makes it so I can just straight up buy clerical titles, Simony. Apparently that shit is cracked 'cus I just walked up to the Pope and he sold me the Arch-Bishopry of Romagna, for peanuts too.
So now I was one step removed from the Pope, time inmerse myself into the complex backstabbing of the College of Cardinals! Nvm my dude died, but hey, since he was lowborn I played as his highest title not his children, and the Arch-Bishopry of Romagna went to the next Pope. So mission complete, i guess?
First off playing as Head of Rite sucks dick. Because your title is handed from one old man to the next you barely play 10 years as each character before they get Joe Biden'd, and the fact they are not blood related makes it very, very hard to get attached to any of them. Not caring who your playable character is massively reduces inmersion.
This is when I realized Head of Rite and Head of Faith are 2 different things. I was a Pope but not the Pope. And you cant become The Pope until the Schism happens. Thus my next goal would be to mend the schisms since you know, how hard could it be.
Ooooh boy that one is tricky. Not entirely hard per se but if you aren't prepared (like 2 characters worth of preparing) it's impossible. The hard bit is getting 7 influential religious characters to pass a check to agree with mending the schism and then they have to be either Hook or Special Relationship to you (alternatively get 2 holy sites, you already own Rome but good fucking luck getting any of the others). If you refer to one of the previous paragraphs, I stopped caring about who I played as, so I ended up with a Steward Pope (which to be fair did print copious amounts of cash) when this basically requires a Diplomacy or Intrigue Pope. And you have a very limited time window to achieves this, a single faith chapter, which lasts less than a decade.
Anyhoo this post is getting too long. I failed, the Schism happened, I was the Catholic Pope for real, inmediately declared a Crusade for Jerusalem and the Muslims wiped the floor with the Christians, which is when I decided the campaign had failed.
7/10 in nomini pater, the kid and holy spirit amen.