[WIP] Mormon State of Deseret Civilization. Need some art help.

[octo]

Hi everybody! So on and off for the past few months I've been working on my first ever civilization: The Mormons of Deseret. At this point, I'm just looking for somebody who's capable of making a decent leader screen, because after several attempts I simply am not. Additionally I submitted a request on the unit graphic request thread for their UU.

UA: (Latter-Day Saints) Free Temple in every city. Missionaries have 50% more movement and cost 50% less Faith to purchase. Free Great Prophet upon discovery of Archaeology.

UU: (Nauvoo Legionnaire) Replaces Rifleman. Can be purchased for 90 Faith. Can remove heresy or spread religion once.

UB: (Temple Square) Replaces Grand Temple. +8 Faith, +8 Culture. Great Work output in the city +50%, Doubles religious pressure emanating from this City.

Below is some of the artwork that I've created already for the civilization. I apologize for the crappy quality. I'm only just learning how to do pretty much all of this stuff.

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And below is the source artwork that I'm using in an attempt to put together a Brigham leader screen that looks immersive in the civ v world, if anybody is interested.

Background:

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Leader:

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So yeah... If anybody has any thoughts, or wants to volunteer to put together the leader screen, I'd be very grateful!

 

[AW Arcaeca]

Happy to help a brother in the faith!

I can redo the icons and map if you'd like, but my leaderscenes aren't very, ah, "immersive", as you put it.
I'd probably rename "Nauvoo Legionnaire" to "Mormon Battalion", or since Mormon would show up automatically as the demonym, just "Battalion". Temple Square could be renamed to Salt Lake City Temple, but I guess that's your call.
EDIT: You could also call the UA "Here is the Place"

The Beehive is good for the state of Utah in general, but since this is, essentially, an LDS civ I'd probably go with something more like this:


(I tried to copy the colors as closely as I could by eye... and failed. :/ )

 

[JFD]

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Lol, that's my parliament you've got on your icon!

The beehive is perfectly representative of Deseret, I think, seeing as you're making a civ based upon the state, and not based on the Mormon Church (though, of course, the two are inextricably tied; this is besides the point). Its the same with my Papal States mod. I'm representing the political entity, which happens to be the temporal sovereignty of the Catholic Church, but is not in itself the Catholic Church.

 

[AW Arcaeca]

The beehive is perfectly representative of Deseret, I think, seeing as you're making a civ based upon the state, and not based on the Mormon Church (though, of course, the two are inextricably tied; this is besides the point).

Well it is the symbol, but...

According to most descriptions, the Deseret flag was similar to the present-day flag of the state of Utah, but as it was not standardized, multiple other secular and religious alternatives were also used.[5]

And besides, which sounds more familiar - the LDS church, or the State of Deseret? I doubt most people outside of the church have ever heard of the latter. An LDS civ simply based in Utah is much the same, and would probably confuse less people.

 

[JFD]

Yeah, the Church sounds more familiar, certainly, but I think the author's intent is to name the civ after the state, which I think is a better idea. Otherwise, you're not going to avoid those people who will inevitably complain that "a Church can't be a civ."

 

[janboruta]

I've heard the name Deseret before and the LDS Church would rather be a foundable religion in Civ terms. Civ in general tries to name the states and indigenous peoples first. The Sumerians and the Mormons are not really equal in this situation. That said, I like the beehive icon very much

 

[Neirai]

Yeah, there's a large difference between a religion and a religious state. History points out a large number of religious states -- arguably at points in history, the Roman Empire and the nation of Egypt were both theological states, not to mention everyone's favorites, the Children of Israel (definitely a theo-state) and the Holy Roman Empire (ehhhh, maybe?)

 

[AW Arcaeca]

But then again, historians sometimes refer to the ancient/classical/medieval Israelites as Jews, and I don't think it would be unusual to refer to, say, the Fatimids or Ayyubids as Muslims, or most Indian empires as Hindus. (In fact, the numerals we use today are called Hindu-Arabic numerals, not Indo-Arabic.) You could also argue similarly about the Sikh Empire.

Anyhow, I made a new Temple Square/Salt Lake Temple icon:

and this is what I have so far with the map:

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I'm trying to figure out what to add next. A crinkled paper crease texture, no doubt, maybe a beehive...?

 

[TPangolin]

Oh hey, good to see you around - I haven't seen my icon in ages and i was wondering what had happened to it.

 

[octo]

TPangolin! Thank you for the icon! I still have the other ones that you made. I've been busy with a lot of other life stuff, but finally have the spare time to work on this again. It really feels like it's close to finishing, and I'm psyched to share it with people.

AgressiveWimp, That Temple Square icon is more impressive than anything I could have made, and that map already looks crisper and more professional than mine. I think I'm going to keep Deseret the state as the focus for the civilization, but I plan on inserting a custom religion with the Angel Moroni as it's special icon, that way I can hopefully capture both the religious and political aspects of the civilization separately. I'm not an expert on LDS history, but I have a fascination with mid 19th century American political movements and Deseret (along with Texas), always interested me the most.