If there are troops in the region, a priest attempting to declare a religious state there is highly likely to fail.
This is intentional, and is not a "nerf."
Does that include monsters and undead? If I remember I tried once with no troops, once with only rogue troops and once with a single unit of only 35 men.
I agree with the idea of only allowing theocracies to perform RTO and making them decide on one religion as their main. It would be nice if they are allowed to arrest or attack heathens within their territory as well.
That could be cool. Another possibility is give all realms the ability to have a state religion which opens up the possibility for an RTO but theocracies get a bonus.
I'd reserve the right to attack or arrest only for pagans or people of a religion declared "evil". Maybe, and this is a big maybe, a person of an "evil" religion is subject to a ban when captured. There's also been talk of an option to convert to the enemy's religion rather then realm. Maybe it could be a choice they get. They can convert or be banned, and if caught again they can convert or be executed/deported. Idk just riffing. I've always felt BM could use more possibilities for death.
And say hello to all government types changing theocracies.
Changing government systems is a huge pain actually.