The base rate of decay is -0.25 per month.
How To Speed Up Tyranny Decay & Reduce Tyranny Gain
#1 Personality Traits
Only the Callous trait has any impact on Tyranny. This lowers Tyranny gain by -20%.
#2 Buildings
The Palace of Aachen, a special building found in the county of Aachen, also lowers tyranny gain by -20%. This is typically within the Holy Roman Empire, towards the north. The Shwedagon Pagoda is another option here with -10% Tyranny gain. This can be found in the county of Dagon, on the far east of the map.
#3 Perks And Lifestyle Traits
The Soon Forgiven perk from the Administrator tree lowers Tyranny by -0.15 per month. This is the largest active decrease of Tyranny available in the game. In the Theologian lifestyle, Defender of the Faith is another helpful perk that reduces Tyranny gain by -25%. This bonus is only available for religions with the Righteous doctrine.
#4 Dynasty Legacies
In the Guile Dynasty Legacy, the Venial perk reduces Tyranny by -0.05 per month. This is the lowest active reduction available.
#5 Religions
With the Pursuit of Power tenet, tyranny gain is lowered by -50%. You can add this tenet during a religious reformation. The Donyi-Poloism and Sedism religions that are also holding the holy site Pemako lower Tyranny gain by -20% as well. The Bidaism and Siguism religions offer both types of benefits, as long as they have the holy site Niani. They lower Tyranny by -0.1 per month and reduce Tyranny gain by -20%.
#6 Difficulty Levels
The difficulty level you choose can have the largest impact on Tyranny. On Easy difficulty, Tyranny gain is lowered by -25%, and on Very Easy difficulty it’s lowered by -75%. This only applies to the player character, unlike earlier examples.
What Happens When Tyranny Is Too High?
Tyranny gives a scaling debuff to vassal opinion, so you might end up with plots, factions, or other attacks at high Tyranny levels. Tip: high individual opinions and high dread can help to mitigate high Tyranny, since characters will either still like you or be too scared to do anything. Since the chance of factions forming is increased, multiple factions may form at once at high Tyranny levels. There is no maximum limit for Tyranny, and it can exceed 100, so be careful when taking multiple tyrannical actions and assuming you won’t face the consequences. While Tyranny-gaining actions are often useful for dealing with annoying characters, avoid using them too frequently to avoid mass revolts across your realm.
