Will Fanatics switch to loyalists?

[Haend]

The short guide does mention that loyalists will not become fanatics, but what about the other way around? Is it possible for fanatics to convert into loyalists?

[Caledor]

They can not be both at the same time, but they can switch.
A sermon of doupt in your temple reduces the number of fanatics. They first become neutral and then can become loyalists.

[Haend]

Right. But they can't switch directly from fanatics to loyalists? Say, if I keep doing the sermon of faith and have them on high happiness

[Caledor]

Not 100% sure. From my over 100 hours I played this game I always go for sermon of faith and I end up with a good mix of loyalists and fanatics.

[Gedsaro]

My understanding(which could be wrong) from the in game info, and playing the game is that they are one or the other, and while they are one, they can't become the other, so to 'switch' they would have to lose their current status first, and then gain the other.

I'm kinda assuming this as, otherwise fanaticism would help make people more loyal to you(being fanatic gives a mood bost, high mood overtime is at least part of what gives you loyalists) and the game states that peasants can only be loyal to one thing at a time (either your King, or the church)

[Haend]

Yes. They can only be loyal to one thing, but what I'm not sure about is if they will be able to change directly. From what I see loyalist is just outright a reward if you manage your town very well and everyone is happy, while having fanatics is punishment with a tiny "reward" (you don't get the agnostic debuff), since you can't even hire them as soldiers unless you reach sainthood, which can be detrimental depending on circumstances, and you actually gain fanatics if they are too unhappy for too long, so it makes sense that it's a punishment.

If they can't "upgrade" from fanatics to loyalists you're kinda forced to become an agnostic ruler just to field soldiers from peasantry, which is rather weird to me and I don't see any benefits of performing sermon of faith. Caledor's experience also seems to imply that they can change to loyalists directly, since they perform sermon of faith all the time yet still getting a mix of loyalists and fanatics.

IF they can, this becomes a trade-off. With faith sermons it will be much harder to hire soldiers from peasantry, but the majority will be loyalists, which will be really good. On the other hand, if you turn everyone agnostics, you can hire everyone but it will be much harder to keep them happy. I wish there is a clear answer to this.

[SavageCrow]

Ideally you don't want to be recruiting from your peasants anyway. Recruit from your prisoners or level 3 mercs. Recruiting from peasants decreases your population which is more important than your army. I've had over 100 warriors without recruiting any of them from my peasants.

The "reason" you can't recruit fanatics is because they are loyal to the bishop/church/matriarch -- not the King.

I don't use Sermons on my peasants because I prefer loyalists.
I use Sermons on my warriors and on my prisoners.
I have separate temples (and entire economies) for each.