I'm not sure there is interest in pushing ahead this topic (bear with me for a moment). This is about how religions might have a greater impact on civics, diplomacy, and behavior.
One assumption is that possibly
two religions could have an impact on a Civ:
1. Its official State Faith (if any)
2. The religion that is the most prevalent among its cities (at least more than half the civ's cities).
Another basic concept is that religions should have basic attributes on how "compatible" they are with each other. The gist is that for each religion there is at least one other diametrically opposed (hated). Religions can also be "Intolerant" of some others.
For example, religions diametrically opposed to each other could be:
1. Good vs. Evil -- the
Order vs.
Ashen Veil in particular
2. Life vs. Death --
Fellowship of the Leaves vs.
Veil
3. Light vs. Darkness --
Empyrean vs.
Council of Esus
4. Law vs. Chaos -- the
Order vs.
Octopus Overlords
5. Above vs. Below --
Fellowship of the Leaves vs.
Runes of Kilmorph
(etc?)
Opposing Religions: As demonstrated above, some religions tend to be more exclusive of others by design (the
Order, the
Fellowship, and
Veil each appear twice in the list. There are multiple consequences for making a religion one's State Faith:
1. Civs with opposing State Faiths cannot maintain Open Borders or initiate Trade.
2. There could also be hefty diplomacy penalties between them (defense treaties, permanent alliances, and vassalage may be forbidden).
3. Some State Faith may demand at last one specific civic, while others may/may not be available.
4. Opposed religions existing in the same city would provoke some unhappiness in that city.
Obviously, an
agnostic state would not suffer any of these effects, except that they should not have access to the Religion civic. Agnostic states can be therefore a lot more flexible than Civs with a State Faith, especially one like the
Order or the
Ashen Veil.
Intolerant Religions: Some religions, if they exist in a city, could make it harder for another to spread there,
especially one that is opposed. Here are some additional schemes:
The
Order: intolerant of all other religions
Ashen Veil: intolerant of
Empyrean
Fellowship: intolerant of the
Order
Empyrean: intolerant of
Octopus Overlords, Ashen Veil
Council of Esus: intolerant of the
Order
Octopus Overlords: intolerant of the
Order, Empyrean
Runes of Kilmorph: none.
Majority Religions: Depending on the religion most prevalent in a Civ, that civ might benefit from a modified set of bonuses/penalties from its chosen
civics. Majority Religion may not necessarily be its State Faith.
One event that could be added is
Religious Unrest -- which could result in a few population points lost and some religions getting suppressed in the affected cities. This could happen especially if a foreign religion starts spreading among one's cities. The point is that it could make the State Faith a minority religion if the player does not take action when earlier symptoms manifest themselves. There could also be Quest-style events for Civs picking the Religion
civic, demanding that the State Faith be spread to a certain number of foreign cities in exchange for an religious-based reward.
By the way. . . why aren't there any Quest-type events in FfH and FF???
General Character: Some religions could also be more appropriate for certain civs (easier to research, more attractive for the AI, or providing yet more bonuses/penalties). This may change during the game if a Civ's profile changes. For example:
The
Order: any large empire (need laws and stability to function).
Ashen Veil: any Civ that values the dark arts, scientific knowledge at any cost, magic.
Fellowship: elvenkind of course, and any Civ that honors nature, the "World Above," organic life, the elements of air and water, etc.
Empyrean: any civ that values Honor Above All.
Council of Esus: any civ that values Pragmatism Above All (rather than honor-based values).
Octopus Overlords: powers wanting to explore, trade, change and adapt, or grow quickly (barbarian empires, sea-faring traders for example)
Runes of Kilmorph: dwarvenkind naturally, or any Civ that honors wealth, the "world below," inorganic objects (stone and steel), the elements of earth and fire, etc.
Small or Primitive Civs (early in game) might favor religions like
Fellowship, Octopus, and
Runes. Other religion choices might be more attractive/useful later in the game, based on a Civ's actual size, alignment, geographic location (frequency of ports for example), general wealth, etc --
compared with other Civs in play at the time and other existing circumstances. This is to make sure that Civs don't end up playing the same way in every game. That sounds pretty vague (sorry), but I think it's important.
The benefits of switching religions later in the game ought to be more attractive than they are now. Few players want to give up their religious heroes and associated unique units, and therefore stick to their old religion, especially if they have its Holy City. But I could see a player wanting to switch religions at some point and actually come ahead despite the loss of heroes and such. Right now, the penalty of switching religions seems to exceed any gains.
Although I think they are logical in a general sense, I'm not sure the above ideas are welcome, or even practical given the present processing "workload" of all other features available in FF (let alone the additional new coding needed for something like that). These are just "pet thoughts" I wanted to toss on the forum.
![[to_xp]Gekko](https://civfanatics-data.community.forum/avatars/m/74/74677.jpg?1475248346){kind=avatar}
