About Pantheons and Spreading Religions

In my current game, I chose Holy River (happiness if city is built on river) for my pantheon, but later in the game I conquered a religious city, a city of mayan Buddhists.
Deciding I wanted a religion in my empire I deliberately infected my capital city (Tenochtitlan, the city to rule all cities, the city of eternal glory, etc. etc.).
However, as I did so I noticed my happiness went down; where I used to get +6 happiness from religion, there was now only five.
Even though I fear i already know the answer, I must know for sure, does Religion completely replace the Pantheon?

(Also, pantheons should totally be called something like "local beliefs", as a pantheon isn't really a "lower" form of religion)

Religion trumps pantheon, but a religion's founding civ's pantheon is incorporated into that civ's religion. So, if you decide to let someone else's religion infect your cities to gain the benefit of their follower beliefs (and that can make a lot of sense, if you don't have your own religion), you get THEIR pantheon and follower beliefs, and your pantheon gets shoved aside.

Aww, chucks, I was relying on my panthon to balance my happiness, but I guess I'll have to find other ways ^^

I also took pantheon effects for granted. I realise now that they don't give bonuses to every city you ever build, unless the primitive beliefs reached all these cities. When, though, does the original belief stop spreading? Is it as soon as you gain your first religion, or do the original beliefs (sacred waters etc) keep spreading but just not as far or as fast as proper religions?

danangleland said:

I also took pantheon effects for granted. I realise now that they don't give bonuses to every city you ever build, unless the primitive beliefs reached all these cities. When, though, does the original belief stop spreading? Is it as soon as you gain your first religion, or do the original beliefs (sacred waters etc) keep spreading but just not as far or as fast as proper religions?

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ive noticed that a lot too, when i take something like messenger of the gods and expand rapidly most of my cities never end up even getting the pantheon before the ai has spread their lame religion to me at which point my pantheon seems to stop spreading itself. i guess to defend against this you'd have to invest heavily into your own religion and make sure it reaches and stays in all your cities.

danangleland said:

I also took pantheon effects for granted. I realise now that they don't give bonuses to every city you ever build, unless the primitive beliefs reached all these cities. When, though, does the original belief stop spreading? Is it as soon as you gain your first religion, or do the original beliefs (sacred waters etc) keep spreading but just not as far or as fast as proper religions?

Click to expand...

Pantheons will not spread to other civs or CSs. In the case of your own cities, pantheons don't so much spread as accompany your settlers (and in the case of cities founded before you get a pantheon, the pantheon just sort of magically appears in those cities), but only until you found your religion. Once your religion is founded, newly settled cities have neither your pantheon nor your religion - your religion (which includes your pantheon belief) needs to spread to the new city (either through pressure or forced conversion ith a GP or missionary).

In the case of cities founded before you get your religion, what you will observe is that the pantheon in those cities will eventually cease to be the majority belief in that city; you can mouse over, say, a 3-pop city that has 1 follower of your religion, one follower of your pantheon and one non-believer--in that case, neither your pantheon nor your religion is majority, and the city will not benefit from either set of beliefs. Some number of turns later, a second follower of your religion may appear, and that city will be majority your religion.