Most players new to games in the Crusader Kings franchise spend a while figuring out the complex mechanics, whether that's sending the kingdom's troops to war with France or taxing medieval peasants. The same is true for Crusader Kings 3, although people familiar with the series know all too well the extremes some players will go to with the game.
Reddit user Zak7062 had a goal in mind quite unlike the plans of most Crusader Kings 3 players, which usually include seducing hundreds of medieval women or conquering continents. Instead, this player wanted to cannibalize the in-game pope. It took great lengths to get to the point where eating Pope Gregorius VI would even be an option, and Zak7062's journey included conquering every holy site, defeating three crusades, and executing enough Christians to reform the Norse religion.
Crusader Kings 3 has mods for nudists, vampire overlords, and more mundane activities like custom haircuts, but eating the pope is entirely possible in a vanilla game. One of Crusader Kings 2 players' favorite additions to the game with the Holy Fury DLC was the ability for players to reform in-game religions, which is a feature included in the CK3 base game. Zak7062 told a PC Gamer journalist via DM that the "Ritual Cannibalism" tenet caught his eye as a potential reform option, and he set his heart on using this feature on the pope.
The conquering of every holy site... The defeat of 3 crusades... The executions of hundreds of Christians so I could reform the faith to become a cannibal... All for this moment. From CrusaderKings
The user played through a series of Norse rulers to gain piety points by slaughtering Christian enemies and collecting Norse holy sites. His character Bjorn became stressed enough that after sacking Rome in a glorious CK3 war, eating the pope seemed like a good option. After an in-game century and fifteen real-world hours, Zak7062 accomplished his unusual goal of devouring a religious leader.
Crusader Kings 3 is available now for PC.
Source: PC Gamer