I'm playing my first game since BtS was released, which means it's my first game with many of the new features, such as world spells and corporations. After founding FoL with my Malakim and getting several sources of Sun mana (for no other reason than to see what I could do with it), I decided to switch to Empyrean. My national hero (Teutorix) gives a bonus vote on the Overcouncil, and the Empyrean national hero (Chalid Astrakein) also gives a bonus vote, as well as being pretty awesome in his own right.
So now I'm sitting with both Teutorix and Chalid, all my cities are Empyrean, and I'm wondering what's the big deal? It seems like all of the other religions, both early and late, provide a number of substantial and significantly different benefits. I'll leave out Council of Essus, as I don't know anything about them, but here are some of what the others provide:
Runes - Soldiers for production bonus, Arete, nice priests, 3(!) heroes
Faith of Leaves - Ancient Forests, Guardian of Nature, tiger-summoning priests
Octopus Overlords - Aquatic dominance, Tower of Complacency, Asylums
Ashen Veil - Awesome priests, Sacrifice the Weak, 3(!) heroes, numerous special buildings
Order - Crusaders, Social Order, basilicas
By contrast, Empyrean offers worthless priests (or at least extremely situational), a single hero, and the ability to cast Blindness from the Radiant Guard.
The hero is certainly strong, but there are other religious heroes who are just as strong, or stronger (Hemah, I'm looking at you!). The Overcouncil vote is kind of interesting, but it's rare that it will actually make a difference, whether because the council options aren't all that powerful, or because members are voting with you anyway, or because everyone else is against you.
Maybe if I was able to upgrade some Vicars to Luridus I'd be less tempted to say the Empyrean priesthood is entirely worthless. As it is, though, Incense is the rarest resource in the game (I only seem to have it 1 out of 3 games), and you can only have a few Luridus.
So, what am I missing? Notice that each of the other religions grants something that fundamentally changes your empire. Is there some key to Empyrean that I haven't discovered yet? For a religion that comes so late, I would think it might at least be competitive with the others.
So now I'm sitting with both Teutorix and Chalid, all my cities are Empyrean, and I'm wondering what's the big deal? It seems like all of the other religions, both early and late, provide a number of substantial and significantly different benefits. I'll leave out Council of Essus, as I don't know anything about them, but here are some of what the others provide:
Runes - Soldiers for production bonus, Arete, nice priests, 3(!) heroes
Faith of Leaves - Ancient Forests, Guardian of Nature, tiger-summoning priests
Octopus Overlords - Aquatic dominance, Tower of Complacency, Asylums
Ashen Veil - Awesome priests, Sacrifice the Weak, 3(!) heroes, numerous special buildings
Order - Crusaders, Social Order, basilicas
By contrast, Empyrean offers worthless priests (or at least extremely situational), a single hero, and the ability to cast Blindness from the Radiant Guard.
The hero is certainly strong, but there are other religious heroes who are just as strong, or stronger (Hemah, I'm looking at you!). The Overcouncil vote is kind of interesting, but it's rare that it will actually make a difference, whether because the council options aren't all that powerful, or because members are voting with you anyway, or because everyone else is against you.
Maybe if I was able to upgrade some Vicars to Luridus I'd be less tempted to say the Empyrean priesthood is entirely worthless. As it is, though, Incense is the rarest resource in the game (I only seem to have it 1 out of 3 games), and you can only have a few Luridus.
So, what am I missing? Notice that each of the other religions grants something that fundamentally changes your empire. Is there some key to Empyrean that I haven't discovered yet? For a religion that comes so late, I would think it might at least be competitive with the others.