Preferred religions

AchedTeacher

Chieftain
Joined
Nov 27, 2014
Messages
3
Are preferred religions still a thing in BNW? I know with G&K just released, all Civs had a preferred religion, if available they would create that (but I don't think they would necessarily choose following that religion if already built over creating a brand new one).

America: Christianity
Arabia: Islam
Aztecs: Christianity
China: Taoism
Egypt: Islam
England: Christianity
France: Christianity
Germany: Christianity
Greece: Christianity
India: Hinduism
Iroquois: Christianity
Japan: Shinto
Ottomans: Islam
Persia: Zoroastrianism
Rome: Christianity
Russia: Christianity
Siam: Buddhism
Songhai: Islam

Austria: Christianity
Byzantium: Christianity
Carthage: Islam
Celts: Christianity
Ethiopia: Christianity
Huns: Tengriism
Maya: Christianity
Netherlands: Christianity
Sweden: Christianity
Spain: Christianity

Mongols: Tengriism
Inca: Christianity
Polynesia: Christianity
Denmark: Christianity
Korea: Confucianism
Babylon: Islam

This is a list I could find on this forum for G&K, now obviously obsolete with the splitting up of Christianity into three religions and a few more civs in the game I think. Anyone know the XML file I can find these?
 
I'm not at my home computer right now, so I can't look up the filepath, but it's in the same files in which the civilization data is kept. The filepaths go something like these...

Vanilla: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Sid Meier's Civilization V\Assets\Gameplay\XML\Civilizations\CIV5Civilizations.xml
Vanilla Updated For BNW: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Sid Meier's Civilization V\Assets\DLC\Expansion2\Gameplay\XML\Civilizations\CIV5Civilizations.xml
G&K: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Sid Meier's Civilization V\Assets\DLC\Expansion\Gameplay\XML\Civilizations\CIV5Civilizations_Expansion.xml
BNW: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Sid Meier's Civilization V\Assets\DLC\Expansion2\Gameplay\XML\Civilizations\CIV5Civilizations_Expansion2.xml
Specifically Ethiopia Updated for BNW: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Sid Meier's Civilization V\Assets\DLC\Expansion2\Gameplay\XML\Civilizations\CIV5Civilizations_Expansion2_Inheirited.xml

You'll need to check those filepaths to see if I misspelled any part of them, but they go something like that.
 
Thanks. That's cool. I would argue Rome should be Orthodox though, since the Catholic/Orthodox split didn't happen during the Western Roman Empire's lifetime... Oh well, semantics.
 
Thanks. That's cool. I would argue Rome should be Orthodox though, since the Catholic/Orthodox split didn't happen during the Western Roman Empire's lifetime... Oh well, semantics.

Why though? The main Christian church installed by Saint Peter was clearly Catholic... Eastern Orthodoxy developed in the east, most prominently in Greece and the surrounding Hellenistic regions. I think Rome being Catholic is more historically accurate. During the Western Roman Empire's existence there was only one type of official Christianity dominated by the establishment at Rome. Although at that time it was not called the "Catholic Church", this early center of religious power did eventually give rise to Catholicism as we know it today.
 
Why though? The main Christian church installed by Saint Peter was clearly Catholic... Eastern Orthodoxy developed in the east, most prominently in Greece and the surrounding Hellenistic regions. I think Rome being Catholic is more historically accurate. During the Western Roman Empire's existence there was only one type of official Christianity dominated by the establishment at Rome. Although at that time it was not called the "Catholic Church", this early center of religious power did eventually give rise to Catholicism as we know it today.

Arguably the original Christian church was Orthodox. Once you start calling it Eastern Orthodox, sure, but then you'd have to rule out Ethiopia as that is not Eastern Orthodox, merely another branch of Christianity altogether.
 
Arguably the original Christian church was Orthodox. Once you start calling it Eastern Orthodox, sure, but then you'd have to rule out Ethiopia as that is not Eastern Orthodox, merely another branch of Christianity altogether.

That is true, I'll give you that. If the Orthodox religion found in game wasn't accompanied by the Seiyaku then I would be in the same boat as you. If it were up to me, I would try to include as many different sects as I could for historical and regional representation, but I understand that Firaxis has neither the time, resources nor the desire to do such. In the end, semantics suck :lol: I'm just a stickler for historical accuracy, and sometimes that's a really bad thing :yeah:
 
The Pope's dominance only started because he was left alone in the West as Imperial power withered and Islam conquered three of the other Pentarchs.
 
This has been the subject of some heated yet tedious discussion before. The issue of why the Celtic civilization (who were an ethno-linguistic group probably spreading from central Europe -- not much to do with modern Ireland and Scotland) prefer Catholicism (which didn't exist at the time) or Carthage is Islamic when it ceased to exist nearly a 1,000 years before that religion was invented is one we certainly need to rehash!
 
This has been the subject of some heated yet tedious discussion before. The issue of why the Celtic civilization (who were an ethno-linguistic group probably spreading from central Europe -- not much to do with modern Ireland and Scotland) prefer Catholicism (which didn't exist at the time) or Carthage is Islamic when it ceased to exist nearly a 1,000 years before that religion was invented is one we certainly need to rehash!

In my view there is no issue. Civilizations have a preferred religion based on the religion their civilization followed in the timeframe depicted in the game. If that religion does not exist in the game, they use the religion of the modern day land area or a religion closely related to the one of their time.

I haven't checked every civ, but I believe that rule applies universally.
 
wow didn't know zoroastrianism and tengriism is a thing...my history is seriously bad
 
The Pope's dominance only started because he was left alone in the West as Imperial power withered and Islam conquered three of the other Pentarchs.

Yes that is actually a very interesting & intriguing subject. Initially (after the fall of Western Rome that is) the Bishop of Rome & the western Nicaean Church was guaranteed protection by The Eastern Roman/Byzantine Empire. As the ERE was still the undisputed superpower in the Western World in the 5th/6th century and still operated under Emperor Constantine's old "One Emperor, One God, One Empire" philosophy - for instance the Barbarian kings in the West would not dare assume the title of Emperor and were given the title of Patrician or Consul if they submitted to the authority in Constantinople.

However there is a few contributing events that seemed to split Rome from it's more Orthodox roots.
1) Obviously the decline of classical civilization: At its peak trade and the sharing of ideas and culture kept the Roman Empire 'Roman' and this was true for the church. The first Ecumenical Council was called to solve disputes - at this time there was really only 1 church and bishops could be called from everywhere to attend a single meeting.
After the fall of Rome, East (Greek speaking) and Rome (Latin Speaking) became separated and due to growing language, cultural and distances the Roman church was isolated from the Greek speaking East which really was the heartland of Christianity in that period.

2) During the barbarian invasions Augustine of Hippo wrote many theological doctrines which strongly influenced the teachings of the Western Church. As the Western church was cut off from the East at this time (due to the barbs) these ideas were never debated in an ecumenical council. Hence some doctrines in the Catholic church particularly Original Sin can be traced to Augustine.

This is important because exploring christian concepts like sin, human nature, and the state of the soul goes to the heart of the christian faith. E.g. is the body inherently wicked - as Calvin later taught - (he in turn was heavily influenced by Augustine's writings) or is human nature good & made in the image of God but now under the influence & power of sin because of the fall...... (from what I gather the latter is sort of how the Orthodox Christians view it which is very different to that of Roman Catholicism but I'm not good at trying to explain the details.
But to summarize I think it was the inclusion of many of Augustine's teachings and he was heavily influenced in his early life by pagan philosophies. He also never completely mastered Greek, and that was a problem because much of Christian philosophy had been written in Greek.
The original biblical manuscripts were also in Greek so without a full mastery of Greek trying to copy a Greek manuscript into Latin without introducing error is probably impossible and it is likely that he introduced some ideas into the Roman Church that would have been rejected in a full ecumenical council.

3) The rise of Islam is probably the most important factor in what led the Roman Clergy to swing toward a military state. The spread of Islam co-incided with the decline in power and influence of the Eastern Roman Empire and probably was the main reason why the Bishop of Rome crowned Charlemagne as Emperor. So now the Pope had authority over political statesmen.

Saint Peters Basilica in Rome (which was outside the walls) was actually raided by Arab muslims in 846.

Around this time Byzantium was probably at it's weakest point and the Franks were growing in strength so the power dynamics in Europe were changing enough that the ERE wasn't the only power that the Bishop of Rome could rely on for support (especially at that time because Justinian's 6th century re-conquests into Western Europe were nearly all lost).

It was actually the Pope that took authority of Rome during that crisis in 846 in which case the church can hardly be blamed as there was no secular power in the region that could protect the church at that time - so the Pope had to assume authority because no-one else was able to help. So the Vatican's move to being a military power started as a reaction to the aggressive spread of Islam through the Mediterranean and the importance of this can't be understated. For centuries the Mediterranean Sea was the lake of the Roman Empire and was central to commerce. Once the Islamic Caliphate conquered the ports in Syria and Egypt muslim pirates went out and plundered, raped and enslaved the people in virtually every bit of coastline they could find. This had a massive impact on society and signaled the end of late-classical urban culture as people sought refuge behind walls and castles for safety. Trade also disappeared as the silk road was cut-off and people were largely reduced to subsistence living.


4) Iconoclasm would also have played a part and this period which was later regarded as a heresy by the Orthodox but it would have strained relations at the time. Rome actually excommunicated the Iconoclasts.
 
Moderator Action: This discussion has wandered fairly far afield from the thread's roots. Please take non-game discussion of the split of the various favors of Christianity to the World History forum. Thanks.
 
In my view there is no issue. Civilizations have a preferred religion based on the religion their civilization followed in the timeframe depicted in the game.

The game depicts a time frame from the dawn of agriculture to the 21st century. Maybe you mean the leader. Civilizations don't necessarily have a religion anyway.

If that religion does not exist in the game, they use the religion of the modern day land area or a religion closely related to the one of their time.

I haven't checked every civ, but I believe that rule applies universally.

Celts. They portray them as an exclusively Scottish/Welsh/Irish people with the capital in Scotland. The largest civ5 religion in Scotland and Wales would be Protestantism (though probably outnumbered by "no religion"). Together Scotland and Wales have a larger land area than Ireland, which is majority Catholic.

Indonesia. It didn't exist at the time Gajah Mada lived. He administered the Majapahit Empire, which was Hindu.
 
Regarding the Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, I didn't do all the calculations, but I think Catholicism may have the highest population overall since more people in Scotland and Wales classify themselves as nonreligious. Population makes more sense than land area anyway.
 
Celts. They portray them as an exclusively Scottish/Welsh/Irish people with the capital in Scotland. The largest civ5 religion in Scotland and Wales would be Protestantism (though probably outnumbered by "no religion"). Together Scotland and Wales have a larger land area than Ireland, which is majority Catholic.

Celts basically get a very early pantheon and tonnes of faith so they get a religion very early. That is probably the issue. So they end up founding Catholicism around 2000 BC instead of adopting it around 400-500 AD......
If you wanted to be historical the Romans, Greeks, Celts and Britons(well basically all ancient cultures for that matter) in Civ 5 spirtuality is portrayed as pantheons. Religion in Civ 5 is a more developed organized and unified & structured belief system.

There isn't really a great way to distingush between the two - Ancient Judaism was clearly a well developed and organized religion.
I don't think the same can be said for the Greek & Roman gods although they did have elaborate temples & festivals etc there wasn't really a comprehensive & well developed religious law & philosophy that governed it.

The solution would probably be for Pantheonsto have had a bigger role to play especially for Civs that don't get to found religions. Maybe to allow the native Pantheon to remain even if the city is converted or otherwise to use faith to purchase cult buildings
 
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