A picture depicting religious spread
Religion represents organized religions. The situation and the spread of Religion can be checked in the Religion Screen.
Religions are founded when a player reaches 10 Population. As the number of Followers grows, the player who control the Religion is able to build Holy Sites add tenets to the Religion granting certain bonuses.
Each Empire has a state religion, while each Territory has a majority religion. The majority religion of a Territory is spread to its neighbors based on the Faith output of the Territory.
Founding a Religion[]
When the total Population (Units, Cities and Outposts Population) of the empire reaches 10 in the Ancient Era, the player will be able to found a Religion.
With Religion unlocked, one can choose one of the two initial Religions as the initial state religion:
- Polytheism
- +6Faith on Main Plaza
- Shamanism
- +2Faith on Main Plaza and Administrative Center
The founded Religion will be named as "[Culture Name] Polytheism" or "[Culture Name] Shamanism" by default. You may alter or change the religion name to anything you desire.
The founding Religion choice will also unlock the ability to construct the first Holy Site, the Religious District that outputs Faith.
Basic Religion Mechanics[]
The Populations that follow a Religion are known as the Followers of a Religion, and every Territory can have different Followers of different Religions.
The religion that has the most of Followers in a Territory will become the Majority Religion of the Territory or the Current Religion the Territory follows. When a Territory currently follows a Religion, the Territory will produce Faith for that Religion.
Holy Site[]
Holy Sites are special Religious Districts that are the main producer of Faith for a Religion, every Religion will have their own Holy Sites. Building a Holy Site is considered as a Shared Project.
The number of Holy Sites allowed to build is decided by the Tenets of the Religion. In addition, there are 7 Wonders that also act as a Holy Site for yields and bonuses, but don't count towards the Holy Site cap. Those being Stonehenge, Temple of Artemis, Statue of Zeus, Angkor Wat, Notre Dame, Saint Basil's Cathedral and Christ the Redeemer.
- The ability to build a Religion's Holy Site is not limited to the Religious Leader, but shared with all the Empires following the Religion.
Every Holy Site will have a base yield of +20Faith and +20Stability. Many yields offered by Tenets and Religion Civics will also apply to Holy Site as a District yield.
Religious Leader[]
The Empire who believes in a Religion and produces the most Faith will become the Religious Leader of that Religion.
Religion Tenets[]
Every Religion will have a couple of related Tenets, offering unique bonuses to the Empires that established the Religion as state religion. There are 4 tiers of Tenets, and a new Tenet tier is unlocked when the Followers of a Religion reaches a particular threshold depending on players in the game (25/65/125/165 for an 8 player game).
Only the Religious Leader of a Religion can pick a Tenet for a Religion, and picked Tenet cannot be canceled afterwards. In addition, all the Tenets are exclusive, and the chosen Tenet will be locked for all other Religions.
Each Tenet increases the maximum number of Holy Sites by 1.
Religion Spread[]
Every Religion can spread across the map and influence other Territories through its Faith production. Religion spreading is a passive process that are not directly controlled by the Empires.
The spreading of the Religion will be on a per-Territory basis, while being heavily influenced by Trade Routes and Border Treaties.
Religion and Empire[]
State Religion[]
Every Empire will have a State Religion, whether founded by the Empire or adopted from the others.
If a Religion different to the your current state religion has 20% or more religious influence in one of your Territories, it is possible to change the state religion to this new Religion.
- Changing the State Religion will lead to a Stability penalty for all the Cities for a few turns.
- During these turns, the player will not produce any Faith, and the Followers will be converted to the new Religion.
- Atheism is also a type of state religion.
Religion Civics[]
- When the Followers of an Empire's State Religion reach 10, the very first Religion Civic (Religious Rites) will be unlocked.
- There are a total of 6 Civics dedicated to religious affairs.
- The Irreligion civic will offer certain unique gameplays to state religion mechanics, including Secularism and State Atheism.
State Atheism[]
If an Empire picks State Atheism for the Irreligion civic, Atheism will become the State Religion of this Empire.
Atheism can spread to other Territories through Faith output from the Empire's territories like a normal Religion.
Atheism produces Faith pressure in Territories equal to the Influence production of the Territories.
- The State Atheism civic choice will also provide a +25%Faith bonus to Territories following Atheism. (does not appear to show up)
The Atheist Empire can have a special Grievance in the name of "Opium of the Masses", when Atheism spreads into Empires with a spiritual state religion.
Religion Grievances[]
If the state religion of an Empire converted a Territory in another Empire with a different state religion, the Empire can receive a Grievance in the name of "Oppressing the Faithful".
If an Empire chose Religious Hostility for the Religious Tolerance civic, the Empire can have a special Grievance in the name of "Heresy" against Empires with a different state religion.
If an Empire chose State Atheism for the Irreligion civic, the Empire can have a special Grievance in the name of "Opium of the Masses", when Atheism spreads into Empires with a spiritual state religion.
If an Empire chose Secularism for the Irreligion civic, the Empire will be immune to all the religious Grievances.
- This immunity includes the Atheist "Opium of the Masses" Grievance.
Historical Religion[]
As a Religious Leader, whenever your Religion unlocks a new Tenet, you can change the name of your Religion to one of the real-life Religions, as well as change the visual of your Holy Sites build afterwards. The change can be done though a dropdown menu on the Tenet window.
The historical Religions provided by the game are:
- Buddhism
- Christianity
- Hinduism
- Islam
- Judaism
- Shintoism
- Taoism
- Zoroastrianism
Every historical Religion will provide a unique Holy Site visual for all the Holy Site build afterwards, based on the said historical Religion. The visual of existing Holy Site will not change accordingly.
Historical Religions may also trigger special Narrative Events related to the Religion. Aside from that, historical Religions will only have name and visual changes.