Why is Harald Protestant?

[TyrannusRex]

I mean, I understand that most of Scandinavia/Norway today is Protestant, but Harald Hardrada lived and died long before the Protestant Reformation-- he was Catholic. In a sense, it is accurate to Norway as a civilization, but it's not accurate to say that Harald's religion was Protestantism.

 

[Greywulf]

Maybe it's more to represent the Norwegians in general, rather than one of their leaders. This would probably be controversial either way, come to think of it.

 

[kryat]

If I correctly recall, Germany is also shown as Protestant while Frederick Barbarossa lived before the reformation. I agree with Greywulf that it’s probably meant to be representative of the civilization as a whole. However, it’s not fully explanatory since most modern Iranians identify as Persians, but definitely aren’t Zoroastrian.

 

[steveg700]

Harald doesn't grant the church. That's just part of the civ. Only the unique leader ability necessarily reflects the leader's background. Teddy Roosevelt isn't the reason America gets Mustangs or Film Studios.

 

[Alexander's Hetaroi]

The real question is why did the developers make him talk like he worships the Norse pantheon of gods?
If it wasn't for him though it would just be America and England who favor Protestantism and I think the Dutch will too.

 

[Zaarin]

He's not. In Civ6, leaders whose religion isn't represented in game select a religion randomly, so he just coincidentally chose Protestantism. Ironically, of course, Harald's religion is in game: he was an Eastern Orthodox-influenced Catholic. Snorri Sturluson described him as devout with close ties to the Church, even if his personal life didn't exactly reflect that. "By Odin" indeed.

@kryat Barbarossa's preferred religion is Catholicism, but if a civ's preferred religion is taken they too select a random one.

 

[Alexander's Hetaroi]

In Civ6, leaders whose religion isn't represented in game select a religion randomly, so he just coincidentally chose Protestantism.

His preferred religion is Protestantism though found in the game files.

 

[Zaarin]

His preferred religion is Protestantism though found in the game files.

I just assumed that he was among the leaders with no preferred religion since the devs seem convinced he was a pagan. Bug that Firaxis has never deemed worth fixing, maybe? In Civ5 leaders preferred whatever religion their country ended up with--maybe they originally planned the same for Civ6 and Harald is a relic of that scrapped plan.

 

[Alexander's Hetaroi]

I just assumed that he was among the leaders with no preferred religion since the devs seem convinced he was a pagan. Bug that Firaxis has never deemed worth fixing, maybe? In Civ5 leaders preferred whatever religion their country ended up with--maybe they originally planned the same for Civ6 and Harald is a relic of that scrapped plan.

If it wasn't for him though it would just be America and England who favor Protestantism and I think the Dutch will too.

Here is what I said above earlier. Plus he is the only one who favors it that definitely tries to go for a religion, because Teddy and Victoria usually won't now after the patch. Not sure about Wilhelmina yet. She will most likely be Protestant but will fall under the category with America and England.

 

[Zaarin]

I don't think they'd make him prefer Protestantism just because there are only two other leaders who favor it. There are no leaders who favor Confucianism, Sikhism, Shinto, and Judaism, after all; at launch there were no civs who favored Zoroastrianism; at launch Hinduism was only favored by Gandhi and Buddhism by Hojo; Islam is still only favored by Saladin; and until R&F adds Georgia Peter is the only leader that favors Eastern Orthodoxy. I don't think the devs are concerned by the number of leaders who favor a religion. I still think that being a relic of Civ5-style religious favoring that they forgot or never bothered to undo is the best explanation.

 

[TyrannusRex]

Look in the Civlopedia. If the leader's real-life religion is present in-game, it's listed on their page under "Religion". Harald is listed as Protestant, even though he wasn't.
Also, Barbarossa is listed as Catholic, too, and in my experience, he will always found Catholicism unless someone beats him to it. Same with Harald and Protestantism, which isn't accurate. (Not that video games are supposed to be, but I'm awfully proud with how much Civ gets right.)

 

[TyrannusRex]

The real question is why did the developers make him talk like he worships the Norse pantheon of gods?
If it wasn't for him though it would just be America and England who favor Protestantism and I think the Dutch will too.

I just remembered that when Christianity was trying to spread to the Norselands, they tried to make it as "user-friendly" as possible. IIRC, the Norse were hesitant to give up their old ways, so they used the Norse mythology as a precursor to the Old Testament; after all, once Ragnarok happens and all the old gods die, the only creatures left are one man, one woman, and one tree they had hidden in. I can see how they'd parallel that with Adam, Eve, and the Tree of Knowledge to try and make the Bible more believable to the Norse.
(Although I suppose that, under that context, Ragnarok has already happened so Odin is dead, and he doesn't hold feasts in Valhalla anymore, but maybe Harald was more "Christian-in-name-only" than anything, I don't actually know how devout he was.)

 

[Zaarin]

I just remembered that when Christianity was trying to spread to the Norselands, they tried to make it as "user-friendly" as possible. IIRC, the Norse were hesitant to give up their old ways, so they used the Norse mythology as a precursor to the Old Testament; after all, once Ragnarok happens and all the old gods die, the only creatures left are one man, one woman, and one tree they had hidden in. I can see how they'd parallel that with Adam, Eve, and the Tree of Knowledge to try and make the Bible more believable to the Norse.
(Although I suppose that, under that context, Ragnarok has already happened so Odin is dead, and he doesn't hold feasts in Valhalla anymore, but maybe Harald was more "Christian-in-name-only" than anything, I don't actually know how devout he was.)

Snorri Sturluson says he was very committed to Christianity and the Church, but that his deeds didn't always match his faith (he was a man of violence--and may have been a polygamist). But remember he was also a Varangian Guard, exposing him to Eastern Orthodoxy. He probably wasn't what you'd call an upright orthodox Catholic, but there's no reason to believe he was pagan.