Religion In Civilization 5 Gods and Kings

Religion is one of the main features that God and Kings on Civilization 5. Religion was in Civilization 4 and even so it was intended to go into the original Civ 5 it was omitted from the game, as Apolyton found out. Now with Civilization 5: Gods and Kings, religion returns.

Religion does not just return, but returns in a new form to Civ 5. In Civ 4, it just flavored the game the benefits the various religions game very similar. In Civ 5: G&K, religion is modular, it is based on building blocks: The Beliefs.

The Beliefs group into four categories, the Pantheon Beliefs, the Founder Beliefs, the Follower Beliefs, and Enhancer Beliefs. The Pantheon Beliefs are basic Beliefs and constitute a pre-religion. The pre-religion can be turned into a full religion by adding a Founder Belief. A Founder Belief can be added by a Great Prophet. Founder Beliefs only benefit the founder of a religion. To a religion two Follower Beliefs can be added. Follower Beliefs benefit anyone who follows the religion. And finally an Enhancer Belief can be added, to enhance the spreading of the religion.

In brief here is the list of beliefs to be chosen:

• Pantheon Belief
• Founder Belief
• 1st Follower Belief
• 2nd Follower Belief
• Enhancer Belief
• Sixth Belief

The sixth Belief is only available to the Byzantines. For each of the six categories only one Belief can be chosen. And if a Belief has been chosen nobody else on the map can chose that Belief. This means you have to hurry to choose chose the Beliefs you want for your religion. Obviously, you will end with an individual and highly customized religion. But to choose your Beliefs you need Faith.

Faith is a new resource in the game you can collect and you need to get Great Prophets and Beliefs. Faith can also be used to buy unique buildings (like Cathedrals) and units (like Missionaries), or to buy normal Great People. This needs the right Social Policy for the desired Great Person type:

• Order for a Great Engineer
• Autocracy for a Great General or a Great Admiral
• Freedom for a Great Artist
• Rationalism for a Great Scientist
• Commerce (probably) for a Great Merchant

Faith has also a symbol, it is the Dove of Peace . Faith can be collected from exploring ancient ruins, from religious buildings, religious wonders, or from special abilities like the Celts who can collect Faith from forest tiles, or get it from their Pictish Warriors who gain Faith in combat.

Great Prophets

Great Prophets are religious units they show up when a civilization has accumulated at least 300 . With each turn of enough Faith the probability that a Great Prophet shows up increases. The first Great Prophet enables you to found a religion, adding to your Pantheon Belief, a Founder Belief, and a Follower Belief. The second Prophet enables you to add a second Follower Belief and an Enhancer Belief. The Beliefs can be immediately chosen when a Great Prophet has shown up. Great Prophets like Missionaries can convert cities directly and remove the influence of other religions. Great Prophets can also build special Holy Site tile improvements.

Founding religions

Each player can found a religion. However, the costs of Faith increase with each religion on the map, so that practically only half of the civilizations on the map can found a religion. It may be advantage to not found a religion, because founding and pursuing a religion gives benefits, possibly up to a religion victory, but also costs for building shrines temples and other religious activities. If you don't found a religion you can still benefit from the Follower Beliefs of other religions. If you found a religion you can chose from a list of symbols and names. The names can be changed to your likings. The symbols and names are just that names and symbols they do not give you any benefits. The benefits are chosen by the beliefs. Here is the list of symbols and names you can choose from, there is also a wiki link to each to get an idea what these religions are in the real world:

Symbol	Name	Info
	Buddhism	wiki
	Christianity	wiki
	Confucianism	wiki
	Hinduism	wiki
	Islam	wiki
	Judaism	wiki
	Shinto	wiki
	Sikhism	wiki
	Taoism	wiki
	Tengriism	wiki
	Zoroastrianism	wiki

When a religion is founded. Also a Holy City is designated. A Holy City has a high influence on the surrounding cities. If a civilization loses a Holy City, then the Founder benefits are lost. This means the conqueror does not get the founder benefits, but they are just not available, until the founder civilization reconquers the Holy City. Religions cannot be destroyed by destroying civilizations.

Spreading Religion

A full grown religion spreads within 10 tiles on its own. How the religion spreads is determined by the time and the religious pressure. The religions pressure is within the 10 tiles the same. The religious can be increased by Missionaries and decreased by Inquisitors. Missionaries and Inquisitors are bought with Faith. Missionaries have a strength of 1000 Faith and thus can convert two times. Prophets have a strength of 2000 Faith and can thus convert four times. The Missionaries and other items that are that can be bought with Faith are getting more expensive at the end of the Renaissance, until they can't be hardly bought in the Industrial Age. So spreading religion is done early in the game, when the minds for the truth of the believers is not too much clogged by reality. This also influences diplomacy, other civilizations will consider your religion while negotiating. They will consider it more during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance and will consider it less during the Industrial and Modern Ages.

Beliefs

Pantheons

Pantheons are basic beliefs. Pantheons can be chosen when a civilization has collected 10 Faith. However, this increases with each civilization that has founded a Pantheon on the map. Each civilization can only chose one Pantheon from a pool of 23 known Pantheons. The symbol of a Pantheon is a lightning bolt. Pantheons spread automatically to each city that was founded by the Pantheon founder civilization. Pantheons do not spread beyond the borders of the founder civilization. Pantheons give mainly basic bonuses, concerning Food, Production, Culture, and Faith, which are tied to certain terrain types. Here are the details:

Name	Effect
Ancestor Worship	+1 Culture for every Shrine in your civilization
Dance of the Aurora	+1 Faith from Tundra tiles without Forest
Desert Folklore	+1 Faith from Desert tiles
Faith Healers	+30 HP healed per turn if adjacent to a friendly city
Fertility Rites	10% faster Growth Rate
God of Craftsmen	+1 Production in cities with population of 3+
God of the Open Sky	+1 Culture from Pastures
God of the Sea	+1 Production from Fishing Boats
God of War	Gain Faith if you win a battle within 4 tiles if your city
Goddess of Festivals	+1 Culture and +1 Faith for each Wine and Incense
Goddess of Love	+1 Happiness from cities with population of 6+
Goddess of Protection	+30% increase in city Ranged Combat Strength
Goddess of the Hunt	+1 Food from Hunting Camps
Messenger of the Gods	+2 Science in cities with a Trade Route
Monument to the Gods	+15% Production of Ancient/Classical Wonders
Mother Goddess	Gives a Food bonus
One with Nature	+2 Faith from Natural Wonders
Oral Tradition	+1 Culture from Plantations
Religious Idols	+1 Culture and +1 Faith for each Gold and Silver
Religious Settlements	+15% faster border growth
Sacred Path	+1 Culture from Jungle tiles
Sacred Waters	+1 Happiness from cities on rivers
Stone Circles	+2 Faith from Quarries

Founder Beliefs

Founder beliefs give bonuses only to the founder of the religion. Follower beliefs give direct bonuses for each city that follows the religion. So the more cities the religion follow whether own or foreign the bigger are the bonuses. This rewards spreading the own religion. There are 10 known Founder beliefs, here are the details.

Name	Effect
Ceremonial Burial	+1 Happiness for each City following Religion
Church Property	+2 Gold for each City following Religion
Flourishing of the Arts	+10% Culture if not at war
Initiation Rites	+100 Gold when each City first converts to this Religion
Interfaith Dialogue	Gain Science when a Missionary spreads this religion to cities of other religions
Papal Primacy	+15 to Influence resting point with City-States following this religion
Peace Loving	+1 Happiness for every 5 followers of this religion in non-enemy foreign cities
Pilgrimage	+1 Faith for each foreign city following this religion
Tithe	+1 Gold for every 4 followers of this religion
World Church	+1 Culture for every 5 followers of this religion in other civilizations

Follower Beliefs

Follower Beliefs give bonuses to all cities that follow the religion, whether they belong to the founder or not. This way, civilizations without a religion can profit from the bonuses a religion gives. Follower Beliefs give either general bonuses to the city, or to buildings or wonders that are built in the city, or they allow the city to built faith buildings that are built with Faith and give bonuses to the city. There are 16 known Follower Beliefs, here are the details:

Name	Effect
Asceticism	Shrines provide +1 Happiness in Cities with 3 followers
Cathedrals	Use Faith to purchase Cathedrals (+1 Faith, +3 Culture, +1 Happiness, Artist Specialist slot)
Choral Music	Temples provide +2 :Culture: Culture in Cities with 5 followers
Divine Inspiration	Each World Wonder provides +2 Faith in city
Feed the World	Shrines and Temples provide +1 Food each in city
Guruship	+2 Production if city has a Specialist
Holy Warriors	Use Faith to purchase pre-Industrial land units
Liturgical Drama	Amphitheaters give +1 Faith in cities with 3 followers
Monasteries	Use Faith to purchase Monasteries (+2 Faith, +2 Culture, more with Wine or Incense)
Mosques	Use Faith to purchase Mosques (+3 Faith, +2 Culture, +1 Happiness)
Pagodas	Use Faith to purchase Pagodas (+2 Faith, +2 Culture, +2 Happiness)
Peace Gardens	Gardens provide +2 Happiness in city
Religious Art	Hermitage provides +5 Culture in city
Religious Center	Temples provide +2 Happiness in cities with 5 followers
Religious Community	+1% Production for each follower (max +15%)
Swords into Plowshares	15% faster Growth rate for city if not at war

Enhancer Beliefs

Enhancer beliefs enhance the spreading of religion. There are 9 known Enhancer beliefs, here are the details:

Name	Effect
Defender of the Faith	+20% Combat near friendly Cities that follow this Religion
Holy Order	Missionaries and Inquisitors cost 30% less Faith
Itinerant Preachers	Religion spreads to cities 30% further away
Just War	+20% (+30%?)Combat near enemy Cities that follow this Religion
Messiah	Prophets 25% stronger and earned with 25% less Faith
Missionary Zeal	Missionary conversion strength +25%
Religious Texts	Religion spreads 34% faster (68% with Printing Press)
Religious Unity	Religion spreads to friendly city-states at double rate
Reliquary	Gain 50 Faith each time a Great Person is expended