State religion not increasing(in%) but decreasing in fully controlled, old province!

[TheScourgeOfGod]

I'm playing as Himyar and have kept my state religion as Judaism. I have a tier-3 city shrine and a tier-3 town shrine in the provinces of Libya and Egypt, which I have now controlled for about 12 years(48 turns!) now..... I had my priests deployed in both the provinces till the % of judaism hit 80%. After a couple of turns(When it was 85% or so in both the provinces), the % began to drop! It's going down by 0.5% to 0.9% per turn for both provinces! Judaism has an 20+ influence in both of the provinces while Greek Christianity, Latin Christianity and Graeco-Roman Paganism have minor % and are gaining BIG no. of followers even though they have not more than 3 influence(each). I FULLY CONTROL THE NEIGHBOURING PROVINCES!(I fully control Aethiopia, Palaestinea, Tripolitana and Sahara).
This is very annoying since as a 'desert kingdom' your public order takes a big hit if your religion doesn't cross the 80% mark. In "Arabia Felix", Judaism has 92% and is not going further up even though I have 30+ influence and the only other religion, Semitic Paganism has 1 influence. What should I do to stop this?!

[Fanest]

did u move this priest somewhere else? its best if u just tell us provincial religion influence breakdown, this way its easy to calculate to what percentage religion is dropping to and also why

[Slaists]

80% and above are hard to maintain. I believe the "equilibrium" influence is the fraction of the total influence each religion takes. So, using what you mention (assuming no other religions present): total religion in Arabia Felix = 30 (Judaism) + 1 (Semitic Paganism) = 31. So, the best, Judaism can get = 30/31 = 98%. However, the closer the dominant religion's weight gets to the equilibrium and the higher it gets in absolute terms the slower the gains. So, probably, Judaism is still extremely slowly growing in Arabia Felix but that growth number shows as zero when rounded.

No idea about Libya and Egypt. Even small influence numbers can translate into a significant weight for minority religions. There are also events that can affect this. Visiting AI characters can have a significant impact too. There are some provinces that have a huge local religion boost depicted as a province wonder (Italy and Macedonia as examples). Outlawing certain religions can help reduce their influence significantly. Check the traits of your governors too. Some of them develop liking to minority religions and secretly boost those or reduce the influence of your state religion.

For the desert factions there is also a certain building chain that destroys your state religion's influence (the "companion" line). It gives a very nice income boost though. You're sure you do not have some of those buildings around?

[Slaists]

Just checked my Himyar save. Found a province where my religion was stable (not going either way) which happened to be Insulae Orientalis. My state religion: Judaism had influence of 29, while Greek Christian and Greco-Roman Paganism each had influence of 3 (from local tradition) for a grand total of 29 + 3 + 3 = 35. That distribution suggests, the equilibrium distribution 3/35 = 8.6% weight for Greco-Roman Paganism and Greek Christian (each) and 29/35 = 82.8% weight for Judaism. That's exactly what my province had: rounded to 83% for Judaism. 9% each for Greco-Roman Paganism and Greek Christian (rounded for display purposes).

Check your province details. Probably the local traditions for minority religions is higher than 1. Egypt, in my campaign, Judaism has 25 influence while Arian Christian local tradition is 4 and 2 others are at 1. Giving the maximum attainable weight of Judaism of 25 / (25 + 4 + 2) = 80.6%.