What's the deal with zeal?

[bamff]

Something that I had never really considered in great detail before, having mainly played as Catholic factions....but what is the how is the liklihood of troops joining a passing crusade affected by zeal in an Orthodox province? Is it just the same old "higher zeal means more hopping on board" or is there some form of modifier to reflect the fact that we are talking about a different faith (albeit both nominally christian), or are Ortho provinces unaffected by passing crusades.

I will confess that as the Byz I never noticed (possibly because they were all aimed at me anyway - curse those Catholics from the west!), and I have yet to see a crusade pass through my Serbian empire....

[Mouzafphaerre]

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AFAIK high zeal in Cath provinces increase the chance of your crusading armies growing. Similarly, Muslim provinces with high zeal contribute more to the jihad armies.
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[I of the Storm]

Zeal in orthodox provinces seems irrelevant to me. I had crusader armies passing through my lands (as Byz) and nobody of my troops joined them. Likewise, playing as the catholics, I never experienced byzantine troops join my crusade.

[Martok]

Zeal in orthodox provinces seems irrelevant to me. I had crusader armies passing through my lands (as Byz) and nobody of my troops joined them. Likewise, playing as the catholics, I never experienced byzantine troops join my crusade.

This has generally been my experience as well. I don't think Orthodox factions are affected by zeal one way or the other.

[caravel]

Orthodox factions have no agents capable of raising zeal in a province. Zeal is only relevant to crusades and jihads.

[amritochates]

Well!! Well!! coughs significantly!! checks year and finds out that he is indeed a centenerarian today!! and starts to reminscince:

Well, back in my day when we used to consult those excellent guides by lady frogbeastegg which are so prominently stickied in the guides forum for all such queries:

Never the mind I will answer your queries to best of my abilities, sorry as they are-

As we all know the otrhodox factions cannot crusade, in compensation for this their generals are immune from inquisitors besides those who were orignally christian, and their troops do not join crusades.

However a crusade will and does siphon money from your provinces as long as they are there. The amount of money is proprtional to the zeal of said province. Hence for orthodox factions it is of utmost importance to deploy agents so as to reduce the zeal in all subject provinces.