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Imperator Dev Diary, 10th of February 2020

Hi all,

As the eagle-eyed amongst you noticed last week, I included a subtle hint upon the subject of today’s DD.

Accompanying the Deity rework that you have already been introduced to, we’re working on a dynamic Holy Sites feature. In keeping with the organic way that Pantheons and deities work, we wanted holy sites to be entirely within player control - something you could dedicate, destroy, and utilise, without having a strict, pre-existing list of sites from day 1.


How will they work?

Any territory can be designated a Holy Site to a Deity which exists as part of your pantheon, and which does not currently have a designated Holy Site. The territory needs to be of the same dominant parent religion as the deity, and there will be a substantial cost for doing so. There can only be one holy site for a deity in the world (consider them a parent temple): if you want to acquire the site for a deity in your pantheon yet it is owned by someone else, you’ll need to resort to more violent means.

If you own and control the holy site dedicated to a deity, the passive and active effects of that deity will be increased. They will have a ‘level’ which is tied directly to the city status of the territory in which they are placed. This ties into some further goodies which I’ll explain more about in a future diary.

You can, of course own holy sites dedicated to Deities that are not part of your pantheon, though you will receive no additional bonuses for doing so.


What about historical sites?

There will be a bunch of pre-scripted holy sites such as the temple of Apollo at Delphi, or the Asclepeion at Epidaurus. Many deities will not have pre-scripted sites.


Can we destroy holy sites, once they’re created?

You will be able to desecrate holy sites, effectively removing the dedication for ephemeral bonuses, and allowing the site to be rededicated elsewhere. This will harm your relations with countries who worship this deity as part of their pantheon.


As a bonus, here’s a WIP wireframe of how your new Religion View might look, after the 1.4 update:


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Next week, we’ll be back to have a look at some of the Missions that will be coming as part of the paid Content Pack: Magna Graecia, that will accompany the 1.4 release, as well as a look at the revised holdings mechanic, which contains a new take on character land ownership.
 
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Your title is still dated for 2nd Feb !!
 
I hate to be that person but... is there any historical precedent in history for this? This is making religion way more important than it actually was during the period.
 
How does it work if someone else holds a dedicated site to one of your gods? Do you get like an opinion boost or something? And similar if you own the site of worship for another nations god?

Also I'm a bit worried this might turn into the same issue with valued trade goods that you get a first come and first serve type of deal. But I wonder if it should work a bit more like a religious authority type thing so if the holder likes you, you get some of the bonuses so it's not "I want this god so I have to conquer this province to get it".

Anyway, interesting stuff. Happy to see more uniqueness added to the map with economic weight behind it.
 
I hate to be that person but... is there any historical precedent in history for this? This is making religion way more important than it actually was during the period.
I'd argue this is a fine level of importance for religion for the period, given what is stated in the Dev Diary above. From the sound of it, this is only adding in the possibility of dedicating a temple to be the primary place of worship for a particular deity, which definitely was done during the time frame, with examples such as the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, or the Temple of Zeus at Olympia, or the Parthenon in Athens (devoted to Athena). Sure, there were plenty of other shrines and even temples, but these were the main locations for these particular deities. For a different religion, you have the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem as a main temple for Judaism.

Now, that being said, if religion is made into a source for crusades several hundred years too early, then yes, that'd be a major problem! But as it stands, it sounds like one merely is able to establish a particular location as the primary temple for worship of a deity, which seems modest enough to not be that immersion breaking.
 
I hate to be that person but... is there any historical precedent in history for this? This is making religion way more important than it actually was during the period.

Yes. Patronizing specific gods and building up costly cult centers for them is very much in line with the political role that religion played in the era :)
See Pyrrhus renovations at Dodona, The Ptolemaic shrines to Alexander, etc
 
Yes. Patronizing specific gods and building up costly cult centers for them is very much in line with the political role that religion played in the era :)
See Pyrrhus renovations at Dodona, The Ptolemaic shrines to Alexander, etc

What does this mean for the current embellish the temple to Optimus Maximus decision that Rome has?
 
What does this mean for the current embellish the temple to Optimus Maximus decision that Rome has?

This is actually a good question. We had not planned a special deity for it or anything, but this might be a cool opportunity to do something. I will see if I have time to change it into something new and fitting the system :)
 
Yes. Patronizing specific gods and building up costly cult centers for them is very much in line with the political role that religion played in the era :)
See Pyrrhus renovations at Dodona, The Ptolemaic shrines to Alexander, etc

Don´t forget like the acropolis under perikles which drained the athenian ressources very much. Actually I would like to see more of historical holy sites. Besides greece ones e.g. I hope you also include them in levante egypt etc. like Tyros or Kynopolis/Abydos for Anubis etc.
I would actually enjoy it very much to have more religious historial sites covered while still being able to build own one (less strong then).
Here just a map for historical sites in greece (sry best map I found was in french :D)
1280px-Delphi_location.png
 
Would it make sense for pops of a certain religion to also lose happiness when desacrating a holy site of said religion? Maybe owning a holy site could also give a slight happiness boost to pops of that religion, to make owning holy sites not associated with one of your pantheon a bit useful.
 
There's an English one:

Ah ok nice. I didnt find an english one. One thing I didnt fully understand yet was the thing with the seasons and so on. So 1.4 will come with the religions changes or will it also include the culture changes or is this for 1.5? Kinda lost the track on this season thing. One season one update? Or more updates? Help appreciated :D