Throughout history, religion has shaped the course of Humankind in many ways, and we wanted to capture this in the game. Religion will evolve over time as they often form large blocs that spread across the map. Yet even two civilizations that follow the same religion may not treat it the same way. While some may be intent on spreading their religion, others may welcome foreign beliefs. Find out more about how religion shapes the identity of your people or influences your neighbors in the video and blog below.
Religions in Humankind start out small, with each civilization following their own religion, but will often consolidate into larger and more powerful blocs. Once your population grows enough, you are given the opportunity to lay the foundations of your first religion, either Shamanism or Polytheism, which will also grant you access to your first Holy Site. As your religion gains more followers through population growth or conversion, you will be able to adopt Tenets that grant different bonuses. You may also be able to adopt a historic religion that will grant you access to an additional Holy Site. Only the religious leader, the civilization controlling the most Holy Sites dedicated to this religion, gets to choose Tenets as the religion grows.
Just as each civilization follows a state religion, each territory will have its own majority religion. Every territory produces faith based on its religion, religious extensions, and civics, and if it generates more faith than its neighbors, it will increase its influence and eventually convert them. This can cause grievances and be a cause for war, so you may want to adopt a foreign religion to avoid these tensions, or perhaps to benefit from its bonuses and help it grow more quickly. This will take a few turns, but if a large part of your population believes in this new religion, you will benefit from increase stability during this reformation.
Whether your people follow the religion they founded or that of another civilization, Civics allow you to define how your society interacts with religion. Are religious rites a personal affair, or performed in the community? Do your people tolerate other religions, or reject them? Does your civilization prefer a secular separation of church and state, or does it reject religion entirely? Or do you leave religion up to your people, and invest your Civics Points in other areas?
Of course, some cultures will interact more directly with the religion system than others. For example, the Olmec are good at spreading their religion thanks to their Colossal Heads, while other cultures have Emblematic Quarters that synergize with Religious Extensions, like the Frankish Scriptorium. The Teutonic Knights even get a bonus when fighting units following another state religion.
While that is all we have to share about religion in Humankind for now, we also want to share some fun facts about OpenDev. Thank you all again for participating and providing so much feedback!
