Religion in Civilization: Pantheons

Religion, like culture is intertwined in the civilizations of the world. Just as the civilizations of the world differ in culture, so too do they differ in their religious practices. There may be two, three or multiple deities in a civilizations pantheon of gods. However, there may also be just one that is worshiped and the prophet may be worshiped as well. There are several religious practices that employ shrines, temples, sites, etc. Structures like these and more exist in the game. Take for example the wonder Stonehenge, which allows the player to gain +8 faith per turn. The starting religious building for all civilizations is the Shrine, which comes with researching the Pottery technology.

In the world of Civilization V, one is able to take the first step towards founding a religion when they have accumulated enough Faith. As stated, faith is gained on a point system, and can be gained by religious buildings. In addition, it could be attained by becoming Friendly or an Ally to a Religious City-State. The amount of Faith needed to found a pantheon is about 150, and once gained it is subtracted from your total amount of Faith. In any event, by gaining enough Faith a civilization is able to chose a Pantheon from a list of possible choices. This pantheon also depends who gained the ability to access it first, as it works on a first come first served basis.

Anyhow, for the Shoshone I chose the Goddess of the Hunt, which increases the food yield from Camps by +1. This serves as a link to the Shoshone, in that their territory ranged into the Great Plains, and that meant that they established camps to hunt the massive animal. In addition, they also were a Native American society that specialized in the way of horseback riding. That, and given the geography of my current map, there are at least three tiles dedicated to Deer,. By implementing this Pantheon, I'd be able to reap additional food from these Camps.

I decided to chose the Goddess of the Hunt Pantheon for my civilization.

Later in the game, if a civilization manages to amass about 600 Faith, they qualify for a Great Prophet. This unique unit allows the civilization to found their unique Religion, complete with a variety of different policies. For instance, the civilization could chose to worship a variety of different pantheons like the Faith Healer variant and move onto evolve the faith into a religion like Eastern Orthodox. There is a plethora of choices for the leader to choice from and like the various beliefs that are around the globe, they are everywhere on the globe.

It's interesting to note that while this pantheon is in place, it can be spread throughout the globe through several methods. The most prevalent method is trading, as through the exchange of goods with other civilizations there are also plenty of opportunities to spread your beliefs to others. This concept is one of the reasons that the Silk Road was a sort of hub of religions, as there were many variants of religion on the path to the Middle East, China, Europe and the Sub-Saharan worlds. So, with that knowledge in mind, it is important to understand that this is one of the best ways of exporting a religion without the use of Missionaries, Inquisitors, Great Prophet, or etc.

This is what the menu to select a religion will look like once the player has achieved the required 600 faith for a Great Prophet. If you'll notice, the initial pantheon belief is still there, with an additional four tenants. Think of this as an evolution of sorts for religion. In this instance, the Founder Belief represents the initial traditions of a religion. On the right of this photo are several options for the founder's civilization. They could choice any one of these and that would become their founder belief. Then there is the Follower Beliefs, and these bolster the cities, city-states, or civilizations who follow that particular religion.

All of this is very much what a religion appears to be like. In a traditional religion there is evidence of benefits from founding a religion for the founders, and then there are benefits from exporting that religion to the other parts of the globe. This is in a sense, religion broken down. This is excellent to reflect on, mainly in regards to why Zoroastrianism and Manicheanism failed in the Silk Road, despite being hybrids born on the Silk Road. It's a fascinating thing to observe in all honesty.

Reflecting on the similarities between this and World History,