1. Cities with a dragon cult in them are -25% city defense against dragons.
2. Kuriotate and Sheaim only wonder that increases the spread rate of the cult.
3. The Kuriotate can build a special unit in cities with the dragon cult, the Sheaim can build a different special unit. (Other civs don't have any access to the cults special units).
4. The cult preceeds the dragon.
5. When either of the 2 dragons i made every non-sheaim/non-kuriotate city with the dragon cult in it has a chance of flipping to the dragons civ equal to the percent of its population that is following the dragon cult.
6. If the holy city is destroyed the cult is removed form the game.
7. Need more mechanic ideas.
Cults as a form of minor religions are interesting, might be useful in other cases than this one.
1. Makes sense.
2. Good idea. I'm wondering a bit about the spread, though. Will it be able to spread to cities with actual religions already in them, or do cities have to be "empty"? If not the religion should come quite early, so you don't already have fellowship or runes in all your cities by the time you get it.
How about giving a chance to spread the cult to any city conquered by either of the dragons?
3. Good. Can other civs still build Temples? I think they should be able to benefit at least a little from the cult, even if they don't get all the special stuff. Though, considering mechanic 5, it might be a very good idea to start mobilizing the Inquisition at the smallest sign of cult presence in either case.
4. Perhaps the tech it is tied to could be called "Prophecies of the Dragon" or something like that, to make it fit lore-wise. Awaiting the dragon, like other religions await a messiah. A later tech could then allow the dragon to be built.
5. Pretty cool mechanic, could be really powerful if used right. Would probably make a lot of human players very hesitant in regards to early Open Border deals with the Kuriotates or Sheaim.
6. Will the dragons leave too? What if the dragons are destroyed, will the cult still persist, awaiting a "Second Coming"?(perhaps there could be a possible, difficult and complicated, questline for that if a dragon died)
7. a) If there is only one cult, how will the relationship between Kuriotates and Sheaim be? I assume they'd still be mostly affected by respective alignments, as cults aren't state religions. But perhaps there should be some unifying aspects between the two civs as well, because both has a fascination of dragons.
b) I think I mentioned this before, but perhaps the presence of a dragon in a city with the dragon cult could grant a certain bonus, perhaps giving a smaller version of the God King-effect in that city/boost culture/increase defense bonus.
c) There is a literal ton of quest-potential in dragons, but that should probably be saved for later.