The expansion focuses on the Abrahamic Religions. And yes that means they finally added a playable Jewish state. Here's a bit of a run down of what they talked about on the stream.
- The expansion is mainly event driven. It will have long branching event chains. There have been a lot of events added to the game and some of them will be available for free through the patch that comes at the same time as the DLC. The size of the DLC is comparable to Legacy of Rome and thus it will be cheaper than The old Gods.
- The patch that comes at the same time will have some tweaks to combat mechanics. There is a new bottleneck mechanic. If you find "bottleneck" terrain your smaller forces will be much more capeable of warding off larger forces. Being outflanked is much deadlier, especially if you lose your centre flank.
- Achievements will be added to the game. Only available through the new Ironman mode that is to be added ala Europa Universalis. I think this is something coming in the patch and not the DLC but I'm not 100% sure.
- There are more Holy Orders for all religions. Some of them are anachronistic (ie Immortals for the Zoroastrians).
- Holy Orders can be asked for favours, and money. In turn they will ask for favours from the player.
- Characters from your court can join holy orders and you can try to force courtiers to join as well (to get rid of those pesky unwanted sons).
- You can't play as the Pope. But you can influence the college of cardinals (comes with new College of Cardinal UI elements). You can ask the Pope for favours, such as getting him to call for a Crusade or ask for money. If you ask him for favours he will like you less.
- Muslims have had changes. There are now two theological schools Sunni muslims can choose from. There are event chains that go along with this. You need the Sword of Islam expansion to experience these changes. (No mention of changes to the decadence mechanic).
- Pilgrimage event chains have been added for other Abrahamic religions (Muslims already had them).
- Heresies have been expanded. Heresies have their own heads of religion now, for example the Fratticellis have their own Pope. Heresies spread better from "centres of heresy". Different heresies have different mechanics. For example the Cathars can have female priests. Heresies can also overtake their parent religion, when they do the Holy Orders flip over to them.
- Courtiers can spread their religion in your court now. For example if you are a Catholic character your Orthodox courtier can spread his faith in your court.
- Religious rebels for non heresies have been added. For example if you have a Catholic Kingdom you may get Orthodox rebels if you have an Orthodox territory.
- As mentioned before Judaism has been added to the game. The Khazars are the only Jewish state you can play as. However different kinds (different schools of Judaism? Not 100% what they meant) of Jews can show up in your court through various events.
- The Jewish faith can be restored, they have a "High Priest" (kohen gadol I think?). They mentioned they have their own events and mechanics but didn't go into much more detail.
- The release date is November 18th
- This is the beginning of "phase 2" for Crusader Kings. The next DLC will be much larger.
- They are not working on EU:Rome II