Syncretism for Shinto

[Me_]

In the upcoming DLC the Tengri religion is going to get a new mechanics called Syncretism:

Tengri (Expansion Feature)
The Tengri faith added in 1.12 also gets some new mechanics in the expansion, with a focus on Syncretism. The Tengri nomads of the EU4 era lived alongside and frequently mixed their beliefs with Muslims, Buddhists and other religions. Our inspiration for this feature was Esen Taishi of the Oirats, who habitually changed his stated faith according to what was most diplomatically convenient at the time. Tengri countries have the ability to choose a Syncretic Faith, which can be any religion that they either own or border provinces following that religion. Having a Syncretic Faith changes which bonus you get from your religion, replacing the default Regiment Cost and Unrest reduction with something befitting your new Syncretic Faith. It also lets you treat all provinces you own of that faith as if they were Tengri for the purpose of tolerance and religious unity, but you will also be unable to convert those provinces to Tengri. Additionally, other countries following that faith will treat you as one of their own, meaning that an Oirat Horde that adopts Confucianism as their Syncretic Faith will find their Chinese neighbours to the south a good deal friendlier than they might otherwise be.

As there were not very many Tengri countries to choose from in 1.12 and 1.13, and Buddhist mechanics turned out to mesh poorly with always needing to be at war, we've changed the East Asian hordes to all be Tengri, with their previous religion set as their Syncretic Faith at the start of the game. Changing your Syncretic Faith costs 50 prestige.

I think that using this mechanics for Shinto would be much better than the current confusing Shinto -> Catholic mess. It would also be an opportunity to show the importance of Buddhism for Japan. A few Mahayana provinces could be strewn around Japan, allowing the Daimyos to choose between pure Shinto and Shinto with Syncretic Mahayana and when Catholics show up they could also choose Syncretic Catholicism (obviously, if other faiths made it to Japan, they could become Syncretic too).

 

[Undead Martyr]

Syncretism seems like such a useful feature to add. I hope it's widely moddable.

 

[Sackett]

*Blink*

This is the exact effect I suggested for Confucianism as a way to handle the whole "not really a religion" and the nonsense of making Buddhists, Confucianism and Shintoists heretics of each other.

A Suggestion for Improving Japan

And yes, please fix Shinto by moving it to Pagan and then implementing some kind of Syncretism effect for Shinto.

 

[Undead Martyr]

What I would really love is if Syncretism can be abstracted to religious tolerance in general... so an Edict of Tolerance actually works as such.
I don't think it will be possible given the history of making mechanics hardcoded, but one can hope.

 

[BrokenSky]

Syncretism changes your passive bonuses. An Edict of Religious tolerance shouldn't do that.

 

[Closet Skeleton]

Shinto should just be axed completely and Japan made Mahayana Buddhist. No Daimyo or Shogun was ever Shinto, it was for peasants (who were also Buddhist) and to some degree the non-represented Imperial Court. Shinto as a Buddhist heresy is a compromise. Pre-modern Shinto doesn't make any sense in Pagan because it was basically just a side-show to Buddhism. Modern Shinto is a form of neo-paganism invented by purging older forms of worship of Chinese and Buddhist influence but isn't relevant to the game. There wasn't even a Shinto priesthood at the time so the job had to be done by village elders or more often Buddhist monks.

Japanese Christianity was mostly seen as a weird Buddhist sect.

 

[Zelius]

I just think of the Shinto religion in-game as Shinto-Buddhism, in the same way I think of Protestant as the church of that particular country and not homogenous across countries...

Edit: Wait, that doesn't really make sense. I mean, rather, that I assume the name of the religion is a simplification for the sake of not being verbose, and for game mechanics.