Greco-Roman Paganism Dev Diary 1
Hellenic Paganism is receiving a major overhaul in the mod. First of all, it will be reformable, based on the historical attempt by Julian the Apostate. The base, unreformed version of it will be called Greco-Roman, and will feature things like animal sacrifise to boost up piety and joining a wide variety of cults that will dulge you further into the mysteries of the Gods.
What's new!
- Reincarnation (Metempsychosis)
- Charity decision for reformed Hellenic
- More historical heresies, such as Hermeticism and Neo-Pythagoreanism
- Unreformed Greco-Roman Paganism will give you a bonus that makes it less likely for pagans to revolt in an exclusive law called Interpreto Romana
- The ability to reform into Julian the Apostate's own version of Hellenism, with an official Hellenic Church that has a formal priesthood and state hierarchy that puts importance on being pious and charity, led by a Pontifex Maximus
- The ability to, alternatively, reform into a different form of Hellenism. Take up Aurelian's dream and reform Greco-Roman polytheism into Sol Invictus. Praise the sun!
To reform Greco-Roman Paganism into Hellenic, you need to either hold Thessalonike or Rome. Due to the nature of Julian's reformation, you must also either hold the Scholar or Mystic trait.
Prior to this the holy sites were Rome, Athens, Thessalonike, Alexandria and Abydos. This meant that 4 were in the East while only 1 was in the West. Due to how this forced Hellenic players to go Eastwards and thus could ruin your game if you wanted to form a sort of Western Roman Empire, we decided to move a holy site from Athens to another important city in Greco-Roman history, Carthage. Carthage not only plays a significant role in history for its battle against Rome, but it also had a prominent role in Vergil's
Aeneid, making it perfect for a new holy site in the west. Now with two holy sites in the West, players won't feel as forced that they need to go take on the Eastern Roman Empire and do an invasion of Greece just to reform their religion.
Sacrifce
Greco-Roman's and other Hellenics also get a sacrifice decision similar to the Zoroastrian ones. These decisions give unique but temproary bonuses for a period of time. For example, sacrifising to Mars gives a levy reinforcement rate bonus and a morale bonus.
Please note this is a WIP and the final screen won't be as cluttered.
Cults
Joining cults will be based in historical accuracy of what was actually needed to join the cults and will be dynamic in that many things will happen, and different cults will require different requirements to join them. Some may require you to enter their mysteries on a certain month, some may require a sacrifise and some may challenge you with life or death on initiation. All these cults are historically accurate, both in what they are and initiation, but be careful. You may just slip up and lose more than the test of initiation...
Recreating Julian's Dream
We did a lot of research of what exactly Julian did in his attempts in reforming Greco-Roman polytheism and found that he essentially tried to emulate the Christian church. He set up a formal priesthood with state hierarchy and encouraged charity. He reformed the old religion into something much more close to a modern faith. In essence, if the Crusader Kings II "Reform Pagan Faith" button was present in real life, Julian hit it. Though due to Julian's reformations to turn the old Hellenistic faith into a true religion, his new Hellenic Polytheism discouraged syncrenization,
Interpreto Romana, that the Greco-Roman pagans been doing for centuries. Because of this, if you want to reform Greco-Roman into Hellenism, you'll need to change that law. We're emulating this reformation as closely as possible, as opposed to just generically making it the classical religion of old.
Bulgaria
In addition, Bulgaria can now convert to Greco-Roman religion if the following conditions are met:
- Is either a mystic or scholar
This is actually a historical option for pagan Bulgaria. After the conquest of what I guess was then Thracia and Dacia, Christinaity completely broke down at an organizational level without the Byzantines propping it up. Hellenic mystery cults, mainly Dionysian ones resurged into the open once again in some places and some adventurous Bulgarians did seem to join these cults. So now you can do that and become Hellenic Pagan without cheating or using ruler designer and is still a challenge but not impossible or implausible. (Source:
The Other God: Dualist Religions from Antiquity to the Cathar Heresy by Yuri Stoyanov)
That's all for now
More Dev Diaries for Greco-Roman paganism will come over time. There's many features we haven't even touched upon yet, such as Sol Invictus, reincarnation, heresies and the plans we have for Saturnalia. But keep patience. Raise your wine cups and praise the Gods!
Thanks to
@FritzofGermania for writing this up and planning it out with me
