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Tinto Talks #61 - 30th of April 2025

Hello, and welcome to another Tinto Talks, the happy Wednesdays where we talk about our entirely super-top-secret game with the codename Project Caesar.

This week, we will examine the mechanics of Protestant religions and the final situation involving all Western Christian confessions, the War of Religions.

First is first, we differentiate the 3 main Protestant religions: Lutheranism, Calvinism, and Anglicanism. All the different branches of Protestantism, more or less strictly covered under these wide denominations, are later represented through Church Aspects, a mechanism we’ll describe now. The underlying system here is for every player to be able to customize their own Protestant Church. As an example, the early Anglican Church funded by Henry VIII was very different from the Anglican Church that developed in times of James I, and the further division that then happened with the Puritans; we aim to portray dynamically these theological aspects with Church Aspects, therefore.

Let’s take a look at a Lutheran country first:

Early Reformation.jpg
I’m using the same save as last week’s TT. The Reformation was born in Perugia, and after a couple of years, it has already spread to some countries, of which Denmark is the biggest.

Here is the overview of Lutheranism and its religious panel:
Lutheranism tooltip.jpg

Lutheranism panel.jpg

Similarly to Catholicism, and other religions, it also uses Religious Influence as a currency:
Religious Influence.jpg

This currency is used to add or change Religious Aspects to your Church, and it also allows us to perform Religious Actions (of which we can’t currently perform any, as we don’t fulfill any of their triggers).

Let’s take a look now at the Religious Aspects, which define each Protestant Church:
Religious Aspect.jpg

There are plenty of Aspects, that can be either shared between the different Protestant religions, or be unique to them. This is the list of all the aspects available to Lutheran churches:
Religious Aspect2.jpg

Religious Aspect3.jpg

Religious Aspect4.jpg

Religious Aspect5.jpg

And this is what it looks like when you decide to pick one of them:
Translated Bibles.jpg

The base number of Religious Aspects that define each Church is 3, although this is subject to review, as usual. And it is possible to have entirely different and unique aspects per religion, since it’s a scriptable/moddable feature. Furthermore, Religious Aspects can have an impact on the relations a country has with others who use Religious Aspects. Since the aspects are partially shared between the faiths, this could lead to unlikely friendships… and hostilities.

Let’s now move on to the next religion, Calvinism, which is quite similar in structure to Lutheranism. It also spawns during the Reformation situation, it also has Calvinist Preachers that spread it, and it also uses Religious Aspects and Actions:
Calvinist Preachers.png

Calvinism tooltip.jpg

Calvinist panel.jpg

Calvin.jpg

Fun fact, Calvin has ended up being the Bishop (=ruler) of Basel in our save game!

Finally, we have Anglicanism. This Protestant religion doesn’t trigger through the situation, but as an event for England that may trigger after the Reformation is active:
Act of Supremacy.jpg

Ignore the broken loc, it appears like that because I used a console command to trigger it.

If we decided to Take command of the Church, a new religion will be created:
Take command of the Church.jpg

Anglicanism2.jpg

This is its overview and panel; Anglicanism starts with some more Religious Actions available:
Anglicanism.jpg

Anglican Religious Actions.jpg

Last, but not least, we have a couple of religions that also share the religious aspects, but are not necessarily tied to the Reformation situation. This includes Lollardy and Hussitism, which will be created together with their corresponding reformer, and the earlier catholic heresies of Bogomilism, Catharism, Paulicianism, and Waldensian.

The last feature we’re going to take a look at today is another situation, the War of Religions. This is the ending to all the narratives related to the Catholic and Protestant Churches, a fight for the religious supremacy over Europe, centered over the Holy Roman Empire, with the Thirty Years' War as inspiration:
War of Religion1.jpg

War of Religion2.jpg

War of Religion3.jpg

Two International Organizations will be created, the Protestant Union and the Catholic League:
Protestant Union.jpg

Catholic League.jpg

And this is the panel for the situation, which both sides, their relative strengths, the possibility to join one side or the other, etc.:
War of Religion4.jpg

An inconclusive result may lead to the negotiation of the Peace of Westphalia between the members of both Leagues and will alter the religious laws of the Holy Roman Empire.

… And that’s all for today! Next week, @Johan will come back once again to show more of the most recent changes and tweaks in the game. Cheers!
 
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Would there be a possibility of "translated bibles" in some way giving your language a boost in terms of influence, or as a way of displacing Latin as your liturgical/court language?
 
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"Everything is Preordained" and how it applies to dice rolls I originally thought was a joke. Turns out it's not and it's not only meme-level history but it is super goofy for gameplay. Please remove it.
1746021750145.png


Seriously speaking though, maybe there could be a game rule at the start where you can set this modifier on or off depending if you want ”realism”
 
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Do you have to be a member of the empire to join the religious leagues? What about all the other countries?

Also, is there any practical difference/unique feature at this stage between the protestant and protestant-adjacent faiths? (Other than Anglicanism?)
The Union/League members will be strictly HRE members, but other Catholic and Protestant countries may be able to sponsor the leagues, and join the war if/when it breaks out.
 
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We haven't defined any (yet), so we're open to suggestions about any (if considered a good idea by the community).
Any limits on max number of holy sites?

Jerusalem should obviously be permanently fixed IMO.

The Capital of your head of religion.

Probably Hussite & other pre-reformation heresies that are counted as protestants, should probably be a mix....
 
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Hello, and welcome to another Tinto Talks, the happy Wednesdays where we talk about our entirely super-top-secret game with the codename Project Caesar.

This week, we will examine the mechanics of Protestant religions and the final situation involving all Western Christian confessions, the War of Religions.

First is first, we differentiate the 3 main Protestant religions: Lutheranism, Calvinism, and Anglicanism. All the different branches of Protestantism, more or less strictly covered under these wide denominations, are later represented through Church Aspects, a mechanism we’ll describe now. The underlying system here is for every player to be able to customize their own Protestant Church. As an example, the early Anglican Church funded by Henry VIII was very different from the Anglican Church that developed in times of James I, and the further division that then happened with the Puritans; we aim to portray dynamically these theological aspects with Church Aspects, therefore.

Let’s take a look at a Lutheran country first:

I’m using the same save as last week’s TT. The Reformation was born in Perugia, and after a couple of years, it has already spread to some countries, of which Denmark is the biggest.

Here is the overview of Lutheranism and its religious panel:

Similarly to Catholicism, and other religions, it also uses Religious Influence as a currency:

This currency is used to add or change Religious Aspects to your Church, and it also allows us to perform Religious Actions (of which we can’t currently perform any, as we don’t fulfill any of their triggers).

Let’s take a look now at the Religious Aspects, which define each Protestant Church:

There are plenty of Aspects, that can be either shared between the different Protestant religions, or be unique to them. This is the list of all the aspects available to Lutheran churches:

And this is what it looks like when you decide to pick one of them:

The base number of Religious Aspects that define each Church is 3, although this is subject to review, as usual. And it is possible to have entirely different and unique aspects per religion, since it’s a scriptable/moddable feature. Furthermore, Religious Aspects can have an impact on the relations a country has with others who use Religious Aspects. Since the aspects are partially shared between the faiths, this could lead to unlikely friendships… and hostilities.

Let’s now move on to the next religion, Calvinism, which is quite similar in structure to Lutheranism. It also spawns during the Reformation situation, it also has Calvinist Preachers that spread it, and it also uses Religious Aspects and Actions:
View attachment 1287570
View attachment 1287571
View attachment 1287572
View attachment 1287573
Fun fact, Calvin has ended up being the Bishop (=ruler) of Basel in our save game!

Finally, we have Anglicanism. This Protestant religion doesn’t trigger through the situation, but as an event for England that may trigger after the Reformation is active:
View attachment 1287574
Ignore the broken loc, it appears like that because I used a console command to trigger it.

If we decided to Take command of the Church, a new religion will be created:

This is its overview and panel; Anglicanism starts with some more Religious Actions available:

Last, but not least, we have a couple of religions that also share the religious aspects, but are not necessarily tied to the Reformation situation. This includes Lollardy and Hussitism, which will be created together with their corresponding reformer, and the earlier catholic heresies of Bogomilism, Catharism, Paulicianism, and Waldensian.

The last feature we’re going to take a look at today is another situation, the War of Religions. This is the ending to all the narratives related to the Catholic and Protestant Churches, a fight for the religious supremacy over Europe, centered over the Holy Roman Empire, with the Thirty Years' War as inspiration:
Two International Organizations will be created, the Protestant Union and the Catholic League:

And this is the panel for the situation, which both sides, their relative strengths, the possibility to join one side or the other, etc.:
View attachment 1287584
An inconclusive result may lead to the negotiation of the Peace of Westphalia between the members of both Leagues and will alter the religious laws of the Holy Roman Empire.

… And that’s all for today! Next week, @Johan will come back once again to show more of the most recent changes and tweaks in the game. Cheers!
Is
Hello, and welcome to another Tinto Talks, the happy Wednesdays where we talk about our entirely super-top-secret game with the codename Project Caesar.

This week, we will examine the mechanics of Protestant religions and the final situation involving all Western Christian confessions, the War of Religions.

First is first, we differentiate the 3 main Protestant religions: Lutheranism, Calvinism, and Anglicanism. All the different branches of Protestantism, more or less strictly covered under these wide denominations, are later represented through Church Aspects, a mechanism we’ll describe now. The underlying system here is for every player to be able to customize their own Protestant Church. As an example, the early Anglican Church funded by Henry VIII was very different from the Anglican Church that developed in times of James I, and the further division that then happened with the Puritans; we aim to portray dynamically these theological aspects with Church Aspects, therefore.

Let’s take a look at a Lutheran country first:

I’m using the same save as last week’s TT. The Reformation was born in Perugia, and after a couple of years, it has already spread to some countries, of which Denmark is the biggest.

Here is the overview of Lutheranism and its religious panel:

Similarly to Catholicism, and other religions, it also uses Religious Influence as a currency:

This currency is used to add or change Religious Aspects to your Church, and it also allows us to perform Religious Actions (of which we can’t currently perform any, as we don’t fulfill any of their triggers).

Let’s take a look now at the Religious Aspects, which define each Protestant Church:

There are plenty of Aspects, that can be either shared between the different Protestant religions, or be unique to them. This is the list of all the aspects available to Lutheran churches:

And this is what it looks like when you decide to pick one of them:

The base number of Religious Aspects that define each Church is 3, although this is subject to review, as usual. And it is possible to have entirely different and unique aspects per religion, since it’s a scriptable/moddable feature. Furthermore, Religious Aspects can have an impact on the relations a country has with others who use Religious Aspects. Since the aspects are partially shared between the faiths, this could lead to unlikely friendships… and hostilities.

Let’s now move on to the next religion, Calvinism, which is quite similar in structure to Lutheranism. It also spawns during the Reformation situation, it also has Calvinist Preachers that spread it, and it also uses Religious Aspects and Actions:
View attachment 1287570
View attachment 1287571
View attachment 1287572
View attachment 1287573
Fun fact, Calvin has ended up being the Bishop (=ruler) of Basel in our save game!

Finally, we have Anglicanism. This Protestant religion doesn’t trigger through the situation, but as an event for England that may trigger after the Reformation is active:
View attachment 1287574
Ignore the broken loc, it appears like that because I used a console command to trigger it.

If we decided to Take command of the Church, a new religion will be created:

This is its overview and panel; Anglicanism starts with some more Religious Actions available:

Last, but not least, we have a couple of religions that also share the religious aspects, but are not necessarily tied to the Reformation situation. This includes Lollardy and Hussitism, which will be created together with their corresponding reformer, and the earlier catholic heresies of Bogomilism, Catharism, Paulicianism, and Waldensian.

The last feature we’re going to take a look at today is another situation, the War of Religions. This is the ending to all the narratives related to the Catholic and Protestant Churches, a fight for the religious supremacy over Europe, centered over the Holy Roman Empire, with the Thirty Years' War as inspiration:
Two International Organizations will be created, the Protestant Union and the Catholic League:

And this is the panel for the situation, which both sides, their relative strengths, the possibility to join one side or the other, etc.:
View attachment 1287584
An inconclusive result may lead to the negotiation of the Peace of Westphalia between the members of both Leagues and will alter the religious laws of the Holy Roman Empire.

… And that’s all for today! Next week, @Johan will come back once again to show more of the most recent changes and tweaks in the game. Cheers!
Will there also be one for Orthodox Christianity?
 
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Is every Monastic Order able to become protestant and secularize like the Teutons/Prussia did? Do they get custom names? Could, for example, the Knights Hospitallier secularize and form a protestant mediterranean monarchy?
 
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Amazing dd as always! I just have one question about the Anglican church mechanics, wouldn't it make more sense for the "create a new church" option to be available to all major European countries, provided they meet certain prerequisites?

I think England should be heavily incentivized to pursue this reform path, while other countries should face disincentives, but it should remain a genuine possibility for them as well.
 
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The Union/League members will be strictly HRE members, but other Catholic and Protestant countries may be able to sponsor the leagues, and join the war if/when it breaks out.
Will there be special interaction or just by alliance with league member countries? Imo former is better to have in game.
 
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You can pick the Religious Aspects that fit them better, dynamically.
Anabaptism in particular would have emerged as a separate political movement, and often faced persecution -- even in Protestant countries. This wouldn't really model that very well. As I understand it, the implementation of aspects allows for player control from the 'top down'.
 
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Personally I feel like this was a missed opportunity and beg you all to reconsider adding in the Anabaptists and Presbyterian. If not at least change the name "Calvinist" to Reformed.
 
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I disagree. The Book of Common Prayer has been translated into many languages and with each translation Anglican theology is thereby given to the different peoples of these numerous cultures and languages. Just a few different versions and languages: the 1637 Scottish Wee Bookie, 1645 Dutch BCP, 1662 English BCP, 1712 Irish BCP, 1789 American BCP, 1852 Spanish BCP, etc. The Book of Common Prayer, which is the sum of Anglican theology in practice, is not bound by language or culture.
I'm not saying it shouldn't be able to spread at all, I'm saying that cultures that don't come from the British isles should prefer other protestant churches to Anglicanism, but could still have a chance to convert. You can't deny that Anglicanism was most widespread in Anglo countries.

EDIT: Unless they are introduced to Christianity/Protestantism through Anglicanism, then it makes sense for them to adopt Anglicanism
 
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This has to do with the Latin Church withholding the wine from the people allowing them only to partake of communion in one kind, meaning bread. Luther and the other reformers (drawing from Jan Hus) insisted that Communion must be in both kinds, that is to say, both bread and wine not just bread. This was taken from Scripture where Christ commands the apostles to "take eat" and "take drink".
eeeh, first I thought of that as well. Might even work for Hussites wanting the communion of the both kinds for the lay people.....

But! The 'Bread and Wine' is such a well-known phrase, a quote, with whole other meaning and implications behind it.... can't really see how Lutheran wish for the communion of the both kinds implies significant investment into more wine production & the games to entertain the masses....
 
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A minor thing re: the flavor text on the rise of Anglicanism. Cardinal Wolsey wasn't executed by Henry VIII, he was arrested for treason, but died of natural causes on his way to London.
 
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I'm no expert in Protestant theology but I undrerstand why neither the Lutheran nor Calvinist religion have a dedicated IO like the Catholic church, but shouldn't Anglicanism get one? The King of England is the supreme ruler of the church therefore England/GB should get some influnce over other countries that convert to Anglicanism unless it's only available for them, historically no other country converted to Anglicanism but if it were the case then it should be more centralized then other protestant faith otherwise any other country that converts to Anglicanism without recognizing the King of England as the head of the faith would mean that they are making their own protestant religion
 
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A) If England ceases to exist, can a different tag in Britain get Anglicanism?
B) Will we gain church power fast enough to do the full Divorced, Beheaded, Died, Divorced, Beheaded, Survived? Can we even behead our consorts?
 
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Can you clarify how does conversion to any of the Protestant faiths actually happen? I was hoping this TT will tell us more about the preachers, but alas, God didn't answer my prayers :p
You can do it regularly, clicking in the 'Primary Religion' button in the religious panel:
Embrace Reformation3.jpg

We can convert to Lutheranism or Waldensian, but not Judaism.

When the Reformation situation pops up, there will be a direct button on it to do this, just pointing to any Protestant confessions available in your country:
Embracing Reformation.jpg

Embracing Reformation2.jpg
 
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