Polytheism and other Religious Concepts

daft

The fargone
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Nations in the game, such as Aztecs(formal Azteca?), Maya (Mayans) and Inca should not be made to prefer Catholicism in the game as default. I'd say Aztecs, Incas and Mayas should follow their own forms of Polytheism.
Same with Celts, Vikings and a few others.
Why not make Polytheism one of the Religions in the game?
Of course great tribes like Romans(Roman Polytheism) or Greeks were once Polytheistic as well.
That is why Polytheism could be made into more of a hybrid Religion, where it is beneficial to switch to that nation's original polytheistic religion of choice once made available/discovered only to switch later on in the game (when available/researched) to a predetermined monotheistic belief, in case of the above mentioned tribes Catholicism, Protestantism or Orthodoxy.
Also Monotheistic Nations (perhaps only those who originally discovered that religion) could gain some kind of freebie warmongering benefit when waging war of conquest against a culturally(and technologically) backward Civilization which still has Polytheism listed as it's current Religion Status and thus enabling it to wage war on the Polytheists without any world opinion penalties from other Monotheistic nations.
Some of the more spiritual civs/leaders would hang on to their traditional Polytheism for much longer than necessary.
Polytheist status would only apply to nations with Polytheism as one of 2 words in it's Religion's name, eq. Norse Polytheism, Celtic Polytheism, Aztec Polytheism, Greek Polytheism, etc.

I may also add that Islam is not all one and the same Religion either, Sunni, Shiite.

Also, many Native North American Tribes followed a different type of Religious Beliefs before Christianity, a form of Monotheism? This could be reflected in the game.
 
IMO it's not enough to simply have polytheistic names, there should be a mechanic also that takes into account all those religions, and possibly the passage from polytheism to monotheism. (like in Civ4, although I feel a bit boring to have tech tree involved with that, so maybe that faith could serve to unlock more religions, or that religion upgrade could pass from polytheism to monotheism, with some effects lost in the process maybe, and other added)
 
I don't object to having other religions added, but I myself don't see a reason to have them work differently than any other religion. As is Hinduism and Judaism work the same if they pick the same beliefs. I'd guess the reason that they aren't in the game is that they didn't really 'spread' and stay prominent like the religious it does have.
 
Most polytheistic beliefs that used to exist in ancient Europe eventually evolved into Christianity because the believers started condemning primitive European polytheism and called it paganism. Many forms of polytheism all over the world reached a similar conclusion because in the Americas and also in Asia, polytheism was known too have existed. Africa also had Egypt which worshipped many gods and had ancient Israel leave Egypt and adopt more organized monotheistic beliefs.
 
Developers could further boost, balance Religions according with each Religion's tradition. To the one who discovers a given Religion in particular would acquire benefits of unique Religious Building and Unit becoming available for construction as a result.
What I mean by this is for example for Catholic Christian Religion discoverer would be able to build Crusaders, Knights Templar and Teutonic Knights, while those who convert to this Religion later the Crusaders also would become available (until obsolete).

I figure a lot of polytheistic tribes were forced to accept monotheistic faith in the past, by sword. This "Holy War" ability to go into war against a Religion with a "Polytheism" in it's name (for all the monotheistic nations) would a bit like what really happened in history.
Polytheism/Paganism of such tribes would be enough of a pretext to go to war against them, the repulsiveness of the Aztec or Maya "Blood Cult" Polytheism, although beneficial to them would put them into serious danger of Holy Wars or Crusades- named that way only if the attacker follows a Christian faith, and since Aztec and Maya are very spiritual they would be reluctant to convert to other faith.
 
I tend to see Pantheons as the equivalent of early polytheistic religions. Some Wonders also help fulfill this role, for instance the Temple of Artemis and Statue of Zeus.

The devs have treated polytheisms as sortof a precursor to modern religions - once you establish a religion with a Prophet you are getting a more developed and organised religious system.

However you have raised a good point. From looking at the list of Religions, there are none that include native American religions and there are few (if any) beliefs that are based of these religions.
It seems like the devs just chose the standard list of religions (Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism etc...) and made beliefs that are based on those religions.

Some religions certainly are polytheistic though - Hinduism
Maybe an option for this is that you found a religion you can choose it to be Polytheistic. What that means is you can't choose Founder, Enhancer beliefs and you can only choose 1 follower belief. Your other 3 beliefs will be Pantheons that haven't been chosen from other Civs already.

So once you found a religion you can choose 1 Follower belief and 1 pantheon and when you enhance you choose another 2 pantheons.
 
I tend to see Pantheons as the equivalent of early polytheistic religions. Some Wonders also help fulfill this role, for instance the Temple of Artemis and Statue of Zeus.

The devs have treated polytheisms as sortof a precursor to modern religions - once you establish a religion with a Prophet you are getting a more developed and organised religious system.

However you have raised a good point. From looking at the list of Religions, there are none that include native American religions and there are few (if any) beliefs that are based of these religions.
It seems like the devs just chose the standard list of religions (Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism etc...) and made beliefs that are based on those religions.

Some religions certainly are polytheistic though - Hinduism
Maybe an option for this is that you found a religion you can choose it to be Polytheistic. What that means is you can't choose Founder, Enhancer beliefs and you can only choose 1 follower belief. Your other 3 beliefs will be Pantheons that haven't been chosen from other Civs already.

So once you found a religion you can choose 1 Follower belief and 1 pantheon and when you enhance you choose another 2 pantheons.


Right on. Make the traditionally Polytheistic Cultures choose their own Religions, give the Celts their Druids through inventing their own Celtic Polytheism, let them create their own unique pantheon(s) and once the (example) Zoroastrian Persians declare Holy War on them, let the Persians get no warmonger penalties, for they are in the right, according to the Monotheistic (Great) Religion Rule. Could be interesting to play this out.
 
I don't think that you should get no warmonger penalties for fighting someone of a different religion, it removes a notable consequence for warring and honestly history doesn't work that way. People of the same religion might have dealt with each others warmonger more often and disliked people for fighting wars more because they were of another religion, but diplomatic changes due to shared/different religion already covers that.

Meanwhile, the ability to pick between multiple pantheons and the traditional sets of beliefs is actually pretty cool. Pantheons are quite strong though, so you probably shouldn't get three of them.
 
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