Zeal and Orthodox Factions

[hlawrenc]

I have been playing MTW VI and most of the mods for almost a year now and have found this forum to be great help in improving my play, but have never posted, the old adage that it is sometimes better to keep silent and be thought a fool than to speak and have it confirmed theory I guess.

However I am curious about the importance of zeal for Orthodox factions (Byz, Nov, Rus, etc). I know that being able to improve zeal in a province is an important factor for Muslim and Catholic factions especially to get the most out of launching Jihads or Crusades, but is it possible to raise zeal if you are playing an orthodox faction and is it really necessary?

When playing orthodox factions I always get religious agents into new provinces as quickly as possible to bring the province over to my religious view to hopefully reduce rebellions, etc. but often find that after conquering a new province and getting it converted that zeal drops dramatically in that province. As an Orthodox faction does this matter?

Thanks

[matteus the inbred]

i suppose it weakens travelling crusades faster, as they will lose more men if your provinces are all 100% Orthodox and very zealous about it? this in turn would make them more likely to fail (and therefore more likely to hang around your lands dying off slowly and looting stuff, maybe), whether that is something you prefer to take advantage of in strategic terms i don't know.
Affects loyalty if you have a very zealous or very secular ruler...perhaps all your Emperors so far have not been very zealous?

[Martok]

In my experience playing as the Byz, I haven't seen zeal really affect how I play. Of course, low zeal affects Crusades passing through my territory, as they lose men along the way, but that's about the only real effect I've ever noticed. As far as I've ever been able to tell, zeal doesn't have any direct impact on Orthodox factions.

[NodachiSam]

High zeal governors would improve zeal, of course that might not be fiscally appealing all the time.

[Ludens]

High orthodox zeal is bad for other religions occupying or crusading through the region, and will cause unhappiness if the governor is not very pious, but otherwise it is of no influence. An Orthodox player cannot increase zeal like Catholics (inquisitors) of Muslims (Imams) can, so you can ignore it.

[NodachiSam]

Which is kind too bad. That they can't crusade is also a shame. I know it can be modded and I wonder how it works when you do mod it. Slightly off topic I know but, does anyone with any such mod know whether orthodox crusades are able to go against catholics and whether they give the pop mula?