Boris Gudenuf
Deity
The attempt here is not to completely Remake Religion, because that’s not going to happen until Civ VII at the earliest. This, instead, is an attempt to ‘tweak’ Religion into something more closely resembling what I think it should be: a system that is more only Implicitly under the control of the Civ or Player, rather than Explicitly as now. Complicating matters is that I am going to try to retain as many of the current features and mechanisms of Civ VI as possible, because I don’t think we can realistically expect a huge amount of effort and resources to be directed towards Religion in Civ VI compared to the areas of the game that are far more completely broken, like Diplomacy.
I want to make one thing completely clear: these are by no means all or even mostly my ideas, but my adaptations of good ideas from a host of CivFanatics and Modders. I have simply adapted (or warped) them to implement a religious system more to my liking.
So, the emphasis here is:
1. Make the Religions individually more important. Under the current system, whatever ‘Religion’ you found means nothing: it is only a title upon which to hang Beliefs. I’d like the fact that I’ve founded Eastern Orthodoxy rather than Mahayana Buddhism to actually mean something, while still keeping the ability to make many elements of the religion appropriate for my Civ’s in-game situation.
2. Take most religion spread, as it was historically, out of the hands of the Civ’s leaders. IF you actively want to spread your religion, you should have to direct considerable resources at it, and if you are pumping Missionaries into a another Civ that already has an established religion, you can expect to have a Holy Fight on your hands, just against the Passive Establishment if not against the entire Civilization, military as well as religious.
3. IF you are willing to direct resources towards it, give you more wide-ranging religious Buildings, Improvements and effects. Relate religion a little better to the current geography of the game, including ‘disasters’.
With those principles in mind, here are my suggestions to start a discussion going:
Great Prophets:
Right now there are 16 Great Prophets in the game. That’s enough for the current ‘official’ Huge Maps with 12 Civs plus about one step larger. They could be augmented by the following:
.....Classical Era:
Pythagoreas
Paul of Tarsus
Parshvanatha
Augustine of Hippo
.....Medieval Era:
Han Yu
Kukai
Adi Shankara
.....Renaissance Era:
Guru Nanak
Tlacaelel
Jakob Hutter
John Calvin
.....Industrial Era:
Avakum
Jakob Ammann
John Wesley
Joseph Smith
Baha’u’llah
.....Modern Era:
Helena Blavatsky
Mary Baker Eddy
Wovoka
Tsunesaburo Makiguchi
Sadafaideo
The reason for the ‘extra’ Great Prophets is not to start up entirely new religions, but as “Great Theologians”, “Great Followers” or “Great Reformers” to augment your religion after it is founded. Parenthetically, it also provides a use for Great Prophet points after your religion has been founded.
A Great Theologian/Follower/Reformer has 3 Charges, each of which can do one of the following:
Reform Allows you to Replace one Belief in your Religion with another of the same type, including Pantheon, Founder or Follower Beliefs, but NOT Worship Belief or Worship Building.
This can only be done Once per Great Theologian.
Restore Immediately converts all followers of another religion in one of your cities to your Religion.
Rebuild Immediately builds 1 Religious Building or Improvement of a type you are already ‘authorized’. Being built by a Great Man/Woman, this Building or Improvement provides +1 Faith per turn in addition to its normal attributes/bonuses.
Evangelize Immediately converts a foreign city, Civ or City State, to your Religion.
Only the first is limited: the other three can be done as many times as the Great Theologian has Charges left.
Religions
I’ve added a few religions, in some cases by ‘splitting’ current ones into major Sects. The 16 total would be appropriate for about two sizes of larger maps, which would help the Brobdinagian Mod versions of maps so beloved by many gamers (at least in CivFanatics forums!)
I considered, as was discussed in the CivFanatics Forum, attaching a Religious Wonder to each religion, but gave it up. First, because some religions in the list have no identifiable Wonder associated with them (Stonehengepredates Druidism by centuries, before you ask). Instead, as shown next, each religion has a specific Worship Building associated with it: choose the religion, get the appropriate Worship (3rdtier) building automatically for your Holy Sites.
Mahayana Buddhism
Theraveda Buddhism
Catholicism
Confucianism
Eastern Orthodoxy
Hinduism
Sunni Islam
Shia Islam
Judaism
Protestantism
Anglicanism
Shinto
Sikhism
Taoism
Zoroastrianism
Druidism
Calvinism
New Pantheons
There have been Mods made already that massively revise the Pantheon and other Beliefs. I have chosen not to go that route (at least for now) but there are some beliefs that need to be added to ‘fill in’ or ‘update’ the beliefs.
Sacred Groves
Holy Site district gets +1 Faith from each adjacent Old Growth (never Chopped) Woods tile
God of the Fires
+1 Faith from each active Volcano within a city radius; +50 Faith for each Catastrophic Eruption affecting any tile in your Civ.
The reason for these two should be obvious: there are ‘Sacred Groves’ on every single continent except Antarctica, associated with religious observances or shrines going back to prehistory. Volcanos, on the other hand, almost always have some kind of religious significance: Sri Prada, Fujiyama, Tahoma, Thera, and on and on. By linking the Religious Bonus to Eruptions, it gives another ‘balance’ to the destructiveness of the major eruptions. Since there are already Pantheons giving bonuses to Desert, Tundra, Floodplain, and Coastal Tiles (fishing boats), I feel that the other Storm and Flood Natural Disasters already have a religious balance, and that it makes no sense not to include Volcanos.
I made no changes to Founder or Follower Beliefs. Again, Modders have rummaged through these at length, and I am not against changing them, just haven’t got the time to go over all of them trying to balance the changes.
Religious Buildings:
The old "Worship Belief” third tier Holy Site buildings are now associated with the Religion you pick. Some of the associations are more strict than they should be, since historically, Pagodas, Wats, and Stupas were all used by Buddhists, Hindus, Taoists and Shintoists at various times and in various cultures, and of course, “Cathedrals” were used by both Catholic and Protestant faiths. For game purposes, Choices Had To Be Made. I tried to make a few changes as possible to the current buildings for continuities’ sake, because implementing this is still going to require 7 new Building Graphics in the game!
Even with the choices, a Building can be selected by more than one AI/Player in the game when it is appropriate for more than one religion chosen.
Cathedral - Catholicism
+4 Faith, +1 slot for Great Work of Religious Art
Gurdwara - Sikhism
+3 Faith, +2 Food
Meeting House - Protestantism
+3 Faith, +2 Production
Mosque - Islam, All Types
+3 Faith, Missionaries and Apostles +1 Spread Religion charge
Pagoda - Taoism OR Buddhism
+3 Faith, +2 Housing
Synagogue - Judaism
+5 Faith
Wat - Hinduism OR Buddhism
+3 Faith, +2 Science
Stupa - Buddhism, All Types
+3 Faith, +1 Favor, +1 slot for a Relic
Dar-e-Mehr - Zoroastrianism
+3 Faith, +1 Faith for each era since constructed or last repaired
Citang - Confucianism
+3 Faith, +2 Loyalty for this city
Honden - Shinto
+3 Faith, Military Units may destroy another Religion’s Missionaries, Apostles or Gurus within 2 tiles without being at war .
Sobor - Eastern Orthodoxy
+4 Faith, + 1 slot for Relic or Great Work of Religious Art
Mandir - Hinduism
+3 Faith, standard appropriate Adjacency Bonus for any district next to it, so +1 Gold for Commercial Hub/Harbor, +1 Production for Industrial Zone, etc
Abbey - Anglicanism
+3 Faith, +1 Amenity, +1 Loyalty for this city
Nemeton - Druidism
+3 Faith, Effects of any Woods tile within the city radius are Doubled
Kerk - Calvinism
+3 Faith, Can change Civics at any time without penalty
Worship Beliefs:
Now provide religious Improvements: None can be built adjacent to another.
Chapel
Provides +1 Faith, +1 extra Faith if in a tile with a Road, +1 Tourism if in a tile with a road after Combustion Tech is discovered
Can be built on any tile.
Cloister
Provides +1 Faith, +1 Diplomatic Favor
Must be built adjacent to a City Center or Holy Site, receives +1 Faith adjacency bonus from each such site.
Shintai
Provides +1 Faith from this tile, +1 Faith if adjacent to any Charming, +2 Faith if any adjacent Breathtaking tile
Can be built on any tile with a road of any kind.
Madrasah
Provides +1 Faith, +2 Science
Must be built adjacent to a Holy Site district that includes a Shrine
Menhir
Provides +2 Faith, +1 Loyalty to every city within 4 tiles
Must be built on a tile with Charming or Breathtaking Appeal
Scriptorium
Provides +1 Faith, +1 Science, 1 slot for Great Work of Writing
Must be built adjacent to a Holy Site that includes a Temple
Vihara
Provides +2 Faith, 1 slot for Relic
Can be built on any tile.
Sala
Provides +2 Faith, +1 Science
Must be built adjacent to a Holy Site district that includes a Shrine
This is a very miscellaneous collection, because I tried to avoid the Improvements already available from City States. IF anyone wants to also rework the City States, then Moai, Monasteries (with several possible sets of benefits, including Science, Religious, Military or even specialized Spies [Assassins and Ninjas, anyone?]), and such could be added to this list.
Spreading Religion.
Missionaries, Apostles, and Gurus would cost Double what they do now. If you want to field a carpet of Missionaries, you or the AI will have build up a mass of Religious/Faith-producing Districts, Buildings, Wonders, and Improvements first - and then may have your target produce a Great Theologian and wipe out most of your gains in one swell foop.
BUT Religious Pressure from existing population, Districts, Buildings, etc. would also be Doubled.
In other words, most of the spread of Religion would be Implicit, the product of Trade and ‘invisible travelers’ rather than Explicitly done by you. Obviously, this also means that going for a Religious Victory now requires some heavy emphasis on Religious Infrastructure (of which there is more than before) and is not something you can ‘fall into’ while pursuing other goals: you will need not only a Religion to spread, but lots of Religious Infrastructure to generate Great Theologians and enough Faith to buy expensive Missionaries, Apostles, and Gurus for the ‘final push’.
As said at the start, this is a Basis for Discussion, which I welcome. My goal is to produce a Revision of Religion that can be implemented in Civ VI without having to wait for an entirely new game.
I want to make one thing completely clear: these are by no means all or even mostly my ideas, but my adaptations of good ideas from a host of CivFanatics and Modders. I have simply adapted (or warped) them to implement a religious system more to my liking.
So, the emphasis here is:
1. Make the Religions individually more important. Under the current system, whatever ‘Religion’ you found means nothing: it is only a title upon which to hang Beliefs. I’d like the fact that I’ve founded Eastern Orthodoxy rather than Mahayana Buddhism to actually mean something, while still keeping the ability to make many elements of the religion appropriate for my Civ’s in-game situation.
2. Take most religion spread, as it was historically, out of the hands of the Civ’s leaders. IF you actively want to spread your religion, you should have to direct considerable resources at it, and if you are pumping Missionaries into a another Civ that already has an established religion, you can expect to have a Holy Fight on your hands, just against the Passive Establishment if not against the entire Civilization, military as well as religious.
3. IF you are willing to direct resources towards it, give you more wide-ranging religious Buildings, Improvements and effects. Relate religion a little better to the current geography of the game, including ‘disasters’.
With those principles in mind, here are my suggestions to start a discussion going:
Great Prophets:
Right now there are 16 Great Prophets in the game. That’s enough for the current ‘official’ Huge Maps with 12 Civs plus about one step larger. They could be augmented by the following:
.....Classical Era:
Pythagoreas
Paul of Tarsus
Parshvanatha
Augustine of Hippo
.....Medieval Era:
Han Yu
Kukai
Adi Shankara
.....Renaissance Era:
Guru Nanak
Tlacaelel
Jakob Hutter
John Calvin
.....Industrial Era:
Avakum
Jakob Ammann
John Wesley
Joseph Smith
Baha’u’llah
.....Modern Era:
Helena Blavatsky
Mary Baker Eddy
Wovoka
Tsunesaburo Makiguchi
Sadafaideo
The reason for the ‘extra’ Great Prophets is not to start up entirely new religions, but as “Great Theologians”, “Great Followers” or “Great Reformers” to augment your religion after it is founded. Parenthetically, it also provides a use for Great Prophet points after your religion has been founded.
A Great Theologian/Follower/Reformer has 3 Charges, each of which can do one of the following:
Reform Allows you to Replace one Belief in your Religion with another of the same type, including Pantheon, Founder or Follower Beliefs, but NOT Worship Belief or Worship Building.
This can only be done Once per Great Theologian.
Restore Immediately converts all followers of another religion in one of your cities to your Religion.
Rebuild Immediately builds 1 Religious Building or Improvement of a type you are already ‘authorized’. Being built by a Great Man/Woman, this Building or Improvement provides +1 Faith per turn in addition to its normal attributes/bonuses.
Evangelize Immediately converts a foreign city, Civ or City State, to your Religion.
Only the first is limited: the other three can be done as many times as the Great Theologian has Charges left.
Religions
I’ve added a few religions, in some cases by ‘splitting’ current ones into major Sects. The 16 total would be appropriate for about two sizes of larger maps, which would help the Brobdinagian Mod versions of maps so beloved by many gamers (at least in CivFanatics forums!)
I considered, as was discussed in the CivFanatics Forum, attaching a Religious Wonder to each religion, but gave it up. First, because some religions in the list have no identifiable Wonder associated with them (Stonehengepredates Druidism by centuries, before you ask). Instead, as shown next, each religion has a specific Worship Building associated with it: choose the religion, get the appropriate Worship (3rdtier) building automatically for your Holy Sites.
Mahayana Buddhism
Theraveda Buddhism
Catholicism
Confucianism
Eastern Orthodoxy
Hinduism
Sunni Islam
Shia Islam
Judaism
Protestantism
Anglicanism
Shinto
Sikhism
Taoism
Zoroastrianism
Druidism
Calvinism
New Pantheons
There have been Mods made already that massively revise the Pantheon and other Beliefs. I have chosen not to go that route (at least for now) but there are some beliefs that need to be added to ‘fill in’ or ‘update’ the beliefs.
Sacred Groves
Holy Site district gets +1 Faith from each adjacent Old Growth (never Chopped) Woods tile
God of the Fires
+1 Faith from each active Volcano within a city radius; +50 Faith for each Catastrophic Eruption affecting any tile in your Civ.
The reason for these two should be obvious: there are ‘Sacred Groves’ on every single continent except Antarctica, associated with religious observances or shrines going back to prehistory. Volcanos, on the other hand, almost always have some kind of religious significance: Sri Prada, Fujiyama, Tahoma, Thera, and on and on. By linking the Religious Bonus to Eruptions, it gives another ‘balance’ to the destructiveness of the major eruptions. Since there are already Pantheons giving bonuses to Desert, Tundra, Floodplain, and Coastal Tiles (fishing boats), I feel that the other Storm and Flood Natural Disasters already have a religious balance, and that it makes no sense not to include Volcanos.
I made no changes to Founder or Follower Beliefs. Again, Modders have rummaged through these at length, and I am not against changing them, just haven’t got the time to go over all of them trying to balance the changes.
Religious Buildings:
The old "Worship Belief” third tier Holy Site buildings are now associated with the Religion you pick. Some of the associations are more strict than they should be, since historically, Pagodas, Wats, and Stupas were all used by Buddhists, Hindus, Taoists and Shintoists at various times and in various cultures, and of course, “Cathedrals” were used by both Catholic and Protestant faiths. For game purposes, Choices Had To Be Made. I tried to make a few changes as possible to the current buildings for continuities’ sake, because implementing this is still going to require 7 new Building Graphics in the game!
Even with the choices, a Building can be selected by more than one AI/Player in the game when it is appropriate for more than one religion chosen.
Cathedral - Catholicism
+4 Faith, +1 slot for Great Work of Religious Art
Gurdwara - Sikhism
+3 Faith, +2 Food
Meeting House - Protestantism
+3 Faith, +2 Production
Mosque - Islam, All Types
+3 Faith, Missionaries and Apostles +1 Spread Religion charge
Pagoda - Taoism OR Buddhism
+3 Faith, +2 Housing
Synagogue - Judaism
+5 Faith
Wat - Hinduism OR Buddhism
+3 Faith, +2 Science
Stupa - Buddhism, All Types
+3 Faith, +1 Favor, +1 slot for a Relic
Dar-e-Mehr - Zoroastrianism
+3 Faith, +1 Faith for each era since constructed or last repaired
Citang - Confucianism
+3 Faith, +2 Loyalty for this city
Honden - Shinto
+3 Faith, Military Units may destroy another Religion’s Missionaries, Apostles or Gurus within 2 tiles without being at war .
Sobor - Eastern Orthodoxy
+4 Faith, + 1 slot for Relic or Great Work of Religious Art
Mandir - Hinduism
+3 Faith, standard appropriate Adjacency Bonus for any district next to it, so +1 Gold for Commercial Hub/Harbor, +1 Production for Industrial Zone, etc
Abbey - Anglicanism
+3 Faith, +1 Amenity, +1 Loyalty for this city
Nemeton - Druidism
+3 Faith, Effects of any Woods tile within the city radius are Doubled
Kerk - Calvinism
+3 Faith, Can change Civics at any time without penalty
Worship Beliefs:
Now provide religious Improvements: None can be built adjacent to another.
Chapel
Provides +1 Faith, +1 extra Faith if in a tile with a Road, +1 Tourism if in a tile with a road after Combustion Tech is discovered
Can be built on any tile.
Cloister
Provides +1 Faith, +1 Diplomatic Favor
Must be built adjacent to a City Center or Holy Site, receives +1 Faith adjacency bonus from each such site.
Shintai
Provides +1 Faith from this tile, +1 Faith if adjacent to any Charming, +2 Faith if any adjacent Breathtaking tile
Can be built on any tile with a road of any kind.
Madrasah
Provides +1 Faith, +2 Science
Must be built adjacent to a Holy Site district that includes a Shrine
Menhir
Provides +2 Faith, +1 Loyalty to every city within 4 tiles
Must be built on a tile with Charming or Breathtaking Appeal
Scriptorium
Provides +1 Faith, +1 Science, 1 slot for Great Work of Writing
Must be built adjacent to a Holy Site that includes a Temple
Vihara
Provides +2 Faith, 1 slot for Relic
Can be built on any tile.
Sala
Provides +2 Faith, +1 Science
Must be built adjacent to a Holy Site district that includes a Shrine
This is a very miscellaneous collection, because I tried to avoid the Improvements already available from City States. IF anyone wants to also rework the City States, then Moai, Monasteries (with several possible sets of benefits, including Science, Religious, Military or even specialized Spies [Assassins and Ninjas, anyone?]), and such could be added to this list.
Spreading Religion.
Missionaries, Apostles, and Gurus would cost Double what they do now. If you want to field a carpet of Missionaries, you or the AI will have build up a mass of Religious/Faith-producing Districts, Buildings, Wonders, and Improvements first - and then may have your target produce a Great Theologian and wipe out most of your gains in one swell foop.
BUT Religious Pressure from existing population, Districts, Buildings, etc. would also be Doubled.
In other words, most of the spread of Religion would be Implicit, the product of Trade and ‘invisible travelers’ rather than Explicitly done by you. Obviously, this also means that going for a Religious Victory now requires some heavy emphasis on Religious Infrastructure (of which there is more than before) and is not something you can ‘fall into’ while pursuing other goals: you will need not only a Religion to spread, but lots of Religious Infrastructure to generate Great Theologians and enough Faith to buy expensive Missionaries, Apostles, and Gurus for the ‘final push’.
As said at the start, this is a Basis for Discussion, which I welcome. My goal is to produce a Revision of Religion that can be implemented in Civ VI without having to wait for an entirely new game.