You've built your embassy and gathered your leverage, now it's time to prove yourself on the stage of international diplomacy. Will the world be united by common laws and a shared ideology, or will you exploit the power of the Congress to resolve conflicts without bloodshed... in your favor, preferably.
Together We Rule: Congress Of Humankind
The Congress of Humankind will help to reshape the political and diplomatic landscape in the late game and may even become involved in conflicts between two empires. Founded at the earliest in the Early Modern Era, when one empire has built an embassy and met all other empires, the Congress can vote on international laws, promote global doctrines, and arbitrate Crises.
Each session, one empire chooses one of their unlocked global civics (marked on the civics screen with a different icon) to be voted on. For the next few turns, each empire can cast their vote for either option of the civic. These votes are weighted by the empire's Sway, a measure of their diplomatic power determined by their total leverage against other empires and bolstered by Independent People they have as a client state. In a pinch, you can also spend some of your leverage to bribe other empires, boosting your current vote at the expense of future voting power. Once a law is passed, every empire will receive a special osmosis event, allowing them to enact the winning choice for free or reject it by paying influence.
With some obvious exceptions like international trading or nuclear disarmament, why would you care how other leaders run their empires? This is where the Doctrines come into play. Any empire can spend influence to promote an ideology axis. If an axis gets promoted enough, its Doctrine effects will be unlocked, powerful bonuses based on the average ideology of all powers in the world (including independent people). The end of one axis might give you access to free strategic resources, while another axis might make it impossible for your cities to enter rebellion. But don't count on these bonuses too much for your long-term plans, as they will be lost and possibly replaced with other bonuses if the average ideology shifts.
Of course, even if all empires agreed on all ideologies, trouble might still arise. Luckily, the Congress of Humankind can help arbitrate such conflicts: If the Congress has been founded, any crisis between empires can be escalated into an international crisis, in which each empire can back either of the involved parties, much like when voting on civics. Once the crisis vote is resolved, the loser will immediately be forced to give up their demands and accept those of their enemy, or go to war over them.
Metternich Update: Independent People
Between their impact on the global ideologies and their potential to contribute sway to any empire, Independent People are an important part of the Congress of Humankind, but we have also worked to give them a greater role in the base game, changing both the benefits of patronage and how to gain it.
In the new system, patronage still builds slowly over time, but rather than growing in parallel to unlock benefits at fixed, absolute thresholds, you now gain access to various treaties based on your share of the total patronage contributed by all empires. At each threshold, you can sign only one of the treaties at a time, so for example you may be forced to choose between buying their resources or hiring their armies, and while some of the treaties will be familiar, others will be new.
Perhaps the most notable of the new treaties is the ability to turn an Independent People into a Client State, allowing you to continue to benefit from the other treaties while preventing other empires from taking over your patronage. Not that this is particularly easy now that bribing and praising are limited per turn investments and deep pockets no longer instantly buy you the keys to the city...
That's it for the last of our spotlights on the features of Together We Rule and the Metternich Update. We hope you're looking forward to it, and can't wait to hear your stories of how you shaped the politics of the world!