Death Cults should get a covenant sacrificial edict

[Tannhäuser Cake]

The covenants with shroud patrons are demonic pacts with eldritch horrors. A very common trope, perhaps the very most common, is that demonic pacts for benefits come with two alternate price tags: you suffer severe personal consequences, unless you make sacrifices as payment. However, Stellaris still lacks the latter option.

If Death Cults offered that option, the potential synergy of trope, lore, flavour, roleplaying and fun is massive. Besides directing your empire's Sacrifices towards the patron of the covenant, turning your empire into a demon-worshipping cult to the Eater of Worlds or the Instrument of Desire, you could also be more pragmatic and only construct Sacrificial Shrine holdings on the worlds of your subjects, letting them be the ones to pay the price for your unnatural abilities. This would also have the benefit of providing an option for those who like the covenants, but dislike the randomness of the personal consequences of entering a demonic pact. Especially now that leaders are becoming fewer and much more valuable.

More specifically, the suggestion is that:

• Death Cult empires gain a new sacrificial edict if they are in a covenant with a shroud patron.
• The sacrificial edict can be used to block the negative consequences of the covenant, gain more Favor, and possibly also add to the benefits.

If an AI empire is Spiritualist and gets a covenant, it should be capable of reforming its government to swap a civic for Death Cult.

 

[Varren]

I like most of this, but I disagree with the third bullet. If you already practice mass human (or xeno) sacrifice, it should be easy to adapt to your shroud patron. Everyone else should have to pay to unlock it as usual. If you get Death Cult for free, then an RP build that starts with Death Cult is penalized by losing their early third civic slot.

 

[Tannhäuser Cake]

I like most of this, but I disagree with the third bullet. If you already practice mass human (or xeno) sacrifice, it should be easy to adapt to your shroud patron. Everyone else should have to pay to unlock it as usual. If you get Death Cult for free, then an RP build that starts with Death Cult is penalized by losing their early third civic slot.

How about this alternative?

• Covenant sacrifices give more Favor.
• After an empire (human or AI) confirms a covenant and reaches 20 Favor, it receives a friendly suggestion from the patron: there is a faster way to gain even more power than otherwise. Accepting the offer shifts the empire's ethics towards Spiritualist and replaces one (non-permanent) civic with Death Cult.

 

[Varren]

I just don't see why the player needs to be given the option to freely pivot into Death Cult at all. If the synergy exists, it should be up to the player to make it work if they want to, whether by starting out as a Death Cult to transition naturally into shroud sacrifices, by waiting until they get a third civic slot to use it, or by paying for an extra government reform to get the civic precisely when they want it.

 

[Tannhäuser Cake]

Ok, dropping that part.