There are several different agents featured in Medieval II: Total War. Agents may be under the control of the player, available to A.I factions, and also can appear due to certain gameplay mechanics.
Priests (Catholic and Orthodox.)[]
- Main article: Priest (Medieval II: Total War)
Priests are trained in a settlement or castle with religious buildings, and serve the following functions. They spread the faith of their faction in its regions along with whatever religious buildings have been built, and also provide a mobile way to spread their faith in other regions or territories. In addition, Priests will also denounce heretics and witches with their chances of success dependent on their Piety rating or level.
Priests in the service of a Catholic nation can be promoted to Cardinals in the Catholic church, making them immune to heresy, and giving their faction additional votes when the pope dies and the Papal elections occur.
Imam (Islamic)[]
- Main article: Imam (Medieval II: Total War)
Operates similarly to the Priests of the Christian factions, except they have no central church to call upon their religious war. While one must request a Crusade from the Pope, a Imam with sufficient piety is capable of calling for a Jihad.
Assassin[]
- Main article: Assassin (Medieval II: Total War)
Assassins are recruitable by all factions in the game and serve the purpose they did in previous games. Assassins are the only other way to deal with heretics and witches besides priests. They can carry out assassinations and sabotage missions. Success means the assassin will be better in future missions, failure can result in the assassin living to try again or dying.
Spy[]
- Main article: Spy (Medieval II: Total War)
Spy's are the hidden eyes and ears of a faction meant to gather intelligence on another factions troop numbers and cities. Similar to assassins, they become better with each success and failure results in them being discovered and possibly killed. If a spy infiltrates a city, they can spread discord and have a effect on public order, as well as have a chance to open the gates in the event of a siege.
Merchant[]
- Main article: Merchant (Medieval II: Total War)
Merchants can travel across the map, being placed on a resource and generating certain amounts of money depending on their Finance skill and the resource in question. Resources further away from your territory often garner more money. Their Finance skill also effects their success at acquisition of another merchants assets. Failure could result in your merchant being forced out of business, while success will force the opposing merchant out of business and your merchant taking their resources.
Heretic[]
- Main article: Heretic (Medieval II: Total War)
A heretic can appear randomly in a region, and can sometimes be a players priest converted into a heretic. Instead of spreading the faith of the major religions in the area, they spread Heresy which can effect public order. Priests will attempt to denounce the heretics in a trial that depends on the priests piety. Failure could result in your priest losing piety due to questioning their own beliefs or even turning into a heretic themselves. Success will mean the heretic is burned at the stake, removed from the map after being found guilty of spreading heretical teaching.
Witches[]
- Main article: Witch (Medieval II: Total War)
Like the heretic, the witch spreads heresy wherever she goes, and can often appear in regions with sufficient enough heresy . Witches have another function that characters like your faction leader or generals she approaches will be "cursed" and they believe that the witch has done it. This can effect their stats. Priests can put the witch on trial and success would mean the witch is removed. Failure however can result in the priest being "destroyed" by the witch or atleast thats what villagers will say happened.
Diplomats[]
- Main article: Diplomat (Medieval II: Total War)
Functioning the same in previous games, the diplomat can enter negotiations with other factions. Ceasefires, alliances, trade rights, this is the unit that helps you deal with relations of other factions.
Princesses (Catholic and Orthodox)[]
- Main article: Princess (Medieval II: Total War)
A princess is a female member of your family, that come of age and are ready to serve your faction. They operate similar to diplomats, however offer a special function. A princess' charm can influence a faction accepting something you offer, and can even marry generals in your faction or others and increase their loyalty if their charm is sufficient. Charm that is low often results in a penalty to loyalty and possibly producing children if married with a general. The princess can also be offered to another faction to marry the faction heir, thus creating a alliance between the two factions.
Inquisitors[]
- Main article: Inquisitor
Inquisitors are the agents of the Catholic church that are sent out to battle heresy when it becomes a issue in a region. They will begin targeting the obvious cause of heresy (heretics and witches) but will also start putting your own priests, generals, and even your faction leader on trial. Piety will effect how successful they are at defending themselves and failure will result in them being burned at the stake. A inquisitor will stay on the map, only being removed via old age or using a assassin to deal with them. Though should ones efforts to kill the agent be discovered, know that it won't look good for you as they represent the Catholic church itself.