But as i say, we have literally nothing representing 40,000+ years of history for 2 of the worlds continents. I know it's easy to say we don't have "blahdeblah" so we can't have "blahdeblah" but in doing that you are in fact instituting a leveling system for religions again. There are plenty of examples of american religions in this thread already, but i think comparing them in the manner your suggesting is counter-intuitive based on the context of equality of representation across the huge number of variables that could be (or could not be) taken into consideration.
I say this because there's really no objective way to choose them. I can objectively say that the lands across the Atlantic have very little going for them with religion in this franchise compared to the rest of the world as it stands. My main trouble is I can't say i understand why they had to choose just 12 religions to represent in game. How long does it take to make a symbol? Would it really be much more cluttered to have 20 and a better spread of religious representation for the civs?
I don't mean to say american religions categorically deserve a place above and before the religions that you mentioned, there were a great many and regional differences even within each. What i do mean to say however, is i'm a little disappointed for an RPing point of view that we have such limitations for some civs in religious representation.
I guess i find the american situation particularly grating religion wise because for the large part it is now populated by the decedents of ethnic europeans for the most part who are Christians, yet in game the american civs are awkwardly pushed into Catholicism. Yes there was conversion etc, but that was after the empires of the americas represented in game had fallen really, especially for those outside the elite. So what are we doing with Catholic Inca's?
It is justified in the same manner that Mexico is a continuation of the Aztec empire, which is just absurd.
Let's start with:
But as i say, we have literally nothing representing 40,000+ years of history for 2 of the worlds continents.
If you mean the Americans, then no, your above statement couldn't have more issues. Rather than just a wall of text though, here are some dot points:
- "literally nothing" implies literally nothing, the fact that there are Incan, Mayan, Aztec, Iroquois and Shoshone nations suggests otherwise
- 40,000 years is quite an exaggeration and is taking the most out there current estimates of the crossing of Beringia, not the settlement of the whole of the Americas. The most significant migrations are generally estimated at around 16,500 years ago, and pushing the date back to 40,000 years is needless beyond over stretching your argument
- If by two continents you were suggesting North and South American, then continuing from the earlier point, even if 40,000 years was correct for the crossing of Beringia, it certainly was not for South America, which was at best around 12,000 odd years
On the point of "literally nothing representing 40,000+ years of history" for a continent, how about Australia? Not only is the accepted time of first arrival
at least 40,000 years ago, but estimates taking the same liberties as your's range as far back as 125,000 years. Unlike the Americans however there is actually no representation beyond two city states, both of which are modern European settled cities. There is no Indigenous Australian anything in the game, or even a modern Australian Civ, it's just Sydney and Melbourne in the game's eyes, and they were both added since Vanilla. But no, the Americans with only 5 Native Civilizations, 2 of which are from the USA and Canada, is
literally no representation.
I get that you meant religion, but ultimately Europe has
literally no religious representation either. Their religions are not in the game, and instead there are now 5 Levantine Religions. Don't start declaring Christianity in any form European by the way, as if we go down that slippery slope we can start calling various parts of Christianity American and ask why they aren't there. Let's be brutal about this, the Norse didn't take up Christianity much earlier than the Meso-Americans, yet nobody is shedding any tears over chucking them in as "Pantheon" religions. How is it any more bizarre to have a Islamic Nebuchadnezzar, Catholic Augustus or Orthodox Alexander than a Catholic Monty? Again, Europe is as unrepresented religion wise as the Americas or Africa, yet nobody sheds a tear.
You say that there is no objective way to choose the religions, but ultimately they have already found a very objective way. They picked the largest, most wide spread religions throughout history and they picked a good diverse set that covers the in game civs well.
Please, the pantheon argument makes no sense when the game includes Tengriism, Shinto, Daoism, and Hinduism. There's no real reason to favor Hinduism over, say, a religion representing the Ancient Hellenic world except that Hinduism is still practiced today. (Not counting new age, reconstructivist versions of ancient religions, like Neo-Druidry or Kemitism, as these are in no way the same as the actual ancient religion).
That's the major dividing line in terms of religions they chose to include; all of them are still practiced today. You'd be hard pressed to find any indigenous or African religion authentically practiced today that's not in some way syncretized with Christianity or Islam.
It has nothing to do with misguided attempts at claiming one religion is more primitive, or less deserving, or nothing but a "pantheon".
("Pantheon" is also a horrible choice to name what the game calls primitive religions. A pantheon does not imply anything in regard to the maturity of the religion; cult or folk belief would have been a much more appropriate name).
Tengrii is not a exactly Pantheistic religion
Hinduism is one of the largest and most significant religious movements in history, and it is far more than just a Pantheistic religion
Similar can be said of Taoism and Shinto
The key here is also the shear size of the religions. Tengrii was at a time of the major world religions due to the influence of the Mongols. Hinduism as it stands is third largest religion behind Christianity, whilst Shinto and Taoism are some of the largest religions. No religion larger than any included by modern (and from what I can find, historic following) are not in the game.