I wasn't a huge fan of my Wode artwork. What do you think of this alternative? Instead of a reskinned Eater of Dreams with a purple glow and a lot of flies (basically just black dots) around it, this is a Council of Esus Whisperer with the religion icon removed, a crown added, the Eater of Dreams phantom arms added, the sickly effect from Mary Morbus, and smaller purple glow just on the staff, and a bunch of moths (reskins of what I have started using for the Unblemished Reborn) flying around flapping their wings.
For the religious symbols, I notice that Undertow (which makes Neutral players Evil) is to the left of Kilmorph, which is to the left of FoTL. Whilst the order of the spheres might follow this, it seems odd for the alignment changes to have no pattern.
Yeah, I was worrying a bit about that already.
The position of the Undertow was based on the position of Danalin's Vault. If I had followed the order of the vaults exactly then the Danalin's vault would be above Mammon's and below Bhall's, which fits its theme quite well. Bhall's religion belongs on the evil bottom row now. You could argue that the Undertow belongs on the bottom row too, as it is really more a religion of Hastur than of the god who created the vault. Danalin's vault is currently a battleground where his angels are loosing to the invaders led by Hastur, Lord of Nightmares, the archangel of Mammon. (Kael revealed last year that Hastur and Condatis were once lovers, before evil gods and their angels had become corrupt enough for their disagreements to escalate into the Godswar, and that they have a daughter who rules the realm of Euphoria, a liminal plane connected to both the vaults of Danalin and Mammon.)
To reduce confusion though, perhaps I should move it to the end of the middle row right before reaching the evil god's religions.
Attached it another possible religion order. The top and bottom rows are unchanged, but the middle row of neutral religions are arranged in a way that seems to make more sense in game than the order in which the inner worlds were presented in Kael's reddit post.
The middle row starts with the Runes of Kilmorph, mostly because it is practically a good religion but also because that places it just above the Council of Esus. The connection there is that the most plausible story of the founding of the Council of Esus is that it began when Esus himself corrupted Priest of Kilmorph.
The Eternal Cabal second in this row, below the Brotherhood of Wardens and above the White Hand, because I'm using the religion to represent not only the worship of Arawn but also those who worship Laroth or Auric Ulvin as the new gods of death. Auric's connection to the White Hand is obvious, as he had become the god of that faith before Laroth's Netherblade bound him to the Otherworld and let Laroth use him to absorb Arawn's power. Laroth protected the Brotherhood of Wardens during the Age of Magic, giving them the one sanctuary that allowed them to survive and operate rescue operations to save refugees from the more corrupt duchies. He was the Duke of the Duchy of Logos, which was named for Einion Logos, the founder of the Order of the Elohim, and would eventually evolve into the kingdom of the Elohim. (The thought just crossed my mind that this might make him a physical ancestor of Ethne the White, a last reincarnation of Kylorin's wife, who was also an integral part of his plans to become god of death.) The Brotherhood of Wardens and the Eternal Cabal were the two most popular religions in his realm.
Next I put the Laeran Cord, below the Ringgivers and above the Stewards of Inequity. The vault of Oghma is also under assault by the forces of Hastur, with many angels of knowledge having fallen to become demons of the mind, but is is standing up to the assault better because the god has made it a fortress with many layers of defenses. In the outermost layer a mist robs everyone but Oghma's angels of their memories, so the assailants don't remember what secrets they were trying to steal. The Laeran Cord hero Gaelan Sedracious almost exclusively summoned creatures of Mammon, although his sect of the Laeran Cord is said to have really worshiped Ceridwen as the Goddess of Secrets.The connection to the Ringgivers is more tenuous, but the follows of Nantosuelta seek to train themselves towards excellence in all fields including the scholarly pursuits favored by the Laeran Cord.
I put the Fellowship of the Leaves right below the Unblemished, as the faith of course worshiped Sucellus before Sucellus rose again and founded the newer religion. Now that the Leaves follows Cernunnos, it has taken on bloodier themes. Cernunnos was always among the more violent archangels, and he has transformed the Wildlands from the peaceful realm it was under Sucellus to a place almost like Cammulos's Bloodfields, where everyone is prey until they toughen up enough to become the apex predator.
I don't have a great reason to put the Grey Council between the House of Plenty and the Anointed, I just wanted it to stay as close to the center as I could. I guess you could say it provided a balance between the Painted Lands where everyone has total freedom to create without guidance or direction and the temple of supplication where demons are trained to use their powers while being required to submit the the strictest of hierarchies.
The Foxmen being between the Order and the Ashen Veil purely because the other slots were full.
The Undertow is between the Matronae and the Ember Legion because Condatis/Clionda and Brigit/Sarabride were archangels of Danalin and Bhall respectively, because Condatis and Hastur were lovers who had their daughter Caer together, because Belphegor raped Clioda, and because Belphegor eventually corrupts Sarabride.
The Cult of the Dragon is between The Children of the One and The Coven mostly because there were not many placed left, but also because the Cult like the Luonnotar reject the worship of the gods, because one of the major dragon cults is to Abashi.
(Edit:I wonder if it would make more sense to swap the House of Plenty and the Ringgivers. That would put the three most peaceful good religions together. Amathaon, Oghma, and Mammon could be said to be more closely connected to each other, as the three gods most associated with knowledge and creative thought. Nantosuelta might make a better balance for Aeron, as both of their vaults great temples where souls are put through the most rigorous trials to train them as soldiers in the war of good against evil.
It could also make sense to swap the House of Plenty and The Order. Amathaon is obviously the direct opposite of Agares, and he is nearly as whimsical and free spirited as Tali. Amathon is the most chaotic good, Tali the most Neutral good, and Agares could be considered chaotic evil although obviously less chaotic than Cammulos. Junil is the most lawful good and Aeron the most lawful evil, with Dadga being the most lawful neutral. Angels of Junil and demons are Aeron are both very common in the Divine court, acting as prosecutors for the crimes of demons and angels respectively.)
Btw, what are the alignment shifts of the new religions?
Do you mean how do they effect the player's alignment when adopted as a state religion, or how do they effect the units' alignments used for purposes like whether the units return as an Angel of Manes?
For player alignment, the Empyrean, the Brotherhood of Wardens, the Ring-givers, the Unblemished, the House of Plenty, and the Runes of Kilmorph all turn evil players neutral when they adopt it as the state religion.
The Order still turns any player good.
The Children of the One and the cult of the Dragon cannot be State religions.
The Matronae, The Eternal Cabal, The Laeran Cord, the Fellowship of the Leaves, and the Foxmen do not change one's alignment when they become sate religions.
The Grey Council makes any player Neutral.
The Undertow, Council of Esus, White Hand (before the Draw ritual is completed), and Stewards of Inequity make good players Neutral.
The White Hand (the Draw ritual is completed), the Sons of Discord, the Anointed, the Ashen Veil, the Ember Legion, and the Coven make any player Evil.
Edit: I'm thinking of maybe making the Ringgivers also make players good, as Kael's
The Angel promotion makes any unit good. The Demon or Undead promotions make the unit evil.
The Grey Council, Children of The One, and Eternal Cabal make units neutral and ineligible to become Angels or Manes.
Matronae units are count as good and may become angels only if they have the Cathedral of Vigilance, gained when Basium joins the Matronae and retrieves the Font of Life. Otherwise they ae neutral and have no afterlife.
The Coven, Ember Legion, Ashen Veil, Anointed, Sons of Discord, Stewards of Inequity, White Hand, Council of Esus, and Undertow units are evil and may return as Manes.
The Empyrean, Brotherhood of Wardens, Ringgivers, Unblemished, House of Plenty, and Order units count as good and may return as angels unless they have
any of various promotions (like evil spell spheres, the Circle of Gaelan, any of the demon lord pacts, vampirism, Unholy Taint, Demon Posessed, Occisor, etc) that make them evil.
Cult of the Dragon units may be good if you are Kuriotates or on the same team as own Eurabatres, or evil if you are Sheaim or own Drifa, Acheron, or Thallatth. I just noticed that I have not updated this code since introducing 22 separate species of dragons. I think I'll change it to use some formula comparing the number of good and evil dragons
and Crossbowmen 100
conversion.
