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Tinto Talks #65 - 28th of May 2025

Hello, and welcome to another Tinto Talks, the happy Wednesdays where we talk about Europa Universalis V!

Today, we will discuss the mechanics of Eastern Christianity religions. We have grouped them into three main religions: Orthodoxy, Miaphysitism, and Nestorianism. So, let’s start without further ado.



Orthodoxy

This is the overview of the Orthodox religion:
Orthodoxy Tooltip.jpg

This tooltip needs some more love, as we’re not showing all the mechanics of the religion. That’s because, as usual, please consider all UI, 2D and 3D art WIP.

This is the country panel of the religion:
Orthodoxy Panel.jpg

Countries of Orthodox religion in Autocephalous Patriarchates, which are a type of IO:
Autocephalous Patriarchates5.jpg

Autocephalous Patriarchates2.jpg

Autocephalous Patriarchates1.jpg

Autocephalous Patriarchates3.jpg

I’m taking here the Autocephalous Patriarchate of Constantinople, which has the custom name of ‘Ecumenical Patriarchate’, as an example.

And here you have the existing Orthodox Patriarchates in 1337:
Autocephalous Patriarchates4.jpg

Countries can Join an Autocephalous Patriarchate, if they’ve just converted to Orthodoxy; or, when they already belong to one, they can Change to a different one, or Create a new one:
Autocephalous Patriarchates Join.jpg

Autocephalous Patriarchates Change.jpg

Autocephalous Patriarchates Create.jpg

The Seat of an Autocephalous Patriarchates defines the Leader of this IO, which unlocks additional effects and actions:
Seat1.jpg

Seat2.jpg

Autocephalous Patriarchates Relocate.jpg

There are also some other blocks in the Autocephalous Patriarchate, as its Saints:
Saints.jpg

And Holy Sites:
Holy Sites.jpg

The main currency of the religion is Religious Influence, which already appeared in the Catholic TT:
Religious Influence1.jpg

Religious Influence2.jpg

You can do a few things with your Religious Influence. First, you can canonize a former ruler, making him a Saint:
Saints1.jpg

Saints2.jpg

Saints3.jpg

The benefits you get from the canonization scale with the ruler stats. So better to make sure that you want to canonize a truly memorable former ruler!

You can also call for a Synod in your country:
Synod.jpg

Synod2.jpg

Synod3.jpg

Synod4.jpg

Finally, there’s a unique type of work of art, Icons:
Icons3.jpg

These icons not only give a modifier to the location where they are, but also can be used in a ‘Periphora’ to another location:
Periphora.jpg

Periphora2.jpg



Miaphysitism

Miaphysitism is similar to Orthodoxy, with some differences. Here is the overview of the religion itself:
miaphysitism.png

Same as Orthodoxy, it also has the mechanics of Canonization and Autocephalous Patriarchates, with these ones being the Patriarchates present at start:
miaphysite patriarchates.png

However, most of these are actually empty due to being occupied by Muslim countries, with only Ethiopia remaining as part of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Alexandria and the Armenian patriarchate as the only one containing more than one country.
armenian patriarchate.png

An integral part of each the Eastern Christians and their Patriarchates are their Tenets, defined in a series of laws:
Tenets1.jpg

Tenets2.jpg

The ‘Nature’ tenet is a hard–locked IO Law, that depends on each Religion:
Tenets3.jpg

composite nature.png

These Tenets can be changed, and there are multiple possibilites in each Law:
Tenets4.jpg



Nestorianism

There is no country having Nestorianism as its state religion at game start, but the religion is nonetheless still quite spread in some areas. Here is an overview of it:
nestorianism.png

nestorianism panel.png

Nestorianism also has its own holy sites:
nestorianism holy sites.png

And also its specific definition of the nature of Christ:
separate nature.png

A final remark on a common flavor for all these religions. First, they have their unique flavor monasteries:
orthodox monastery.png

miaphysite monastery.png

The modifiers are WIP, we want to make them somewhat different.

There's a Law in which you can define the policy of the relationship between the state and the religion:
Patriarchate Law.jpg

And that’s all for today! Tomorrow is Thursday, which means that we will publish a new ‘Behind the Scenes’ video, on Friday, we will discuss the Byzantine Empire in Tinto Flavour, and next Wednesday's Tinto Talks will be about Islam.

And also remember, you can wishlist Europa Universalis V now! Cheers!
 
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Two questions.

1. So what's the difference between Orthodoxy and Miaphysitism? Both seem to have the same mechanics.

2. Can a non-Orthodox country takr control of a patriarchate like the Ottomans in 1453 when they appointed their own patriarch of Constantinople?
1. The three religions share some common building blocks, although not exactly the same. Orthodoxy is more based around the APs and the different interactions available, while Miaphysitism is more based around the different tenets that each AP has. We're currently how the Tenets work, because on the one hand, they could also be shared by Orthodoxy with some tweaks, but on the other, it makes for a better differentiation between both religions.

2. No, because an Autocephalous Patriarchate is an International Organization composed of the Orthodox countries that belong to it. But there are some consequences if Constantinople falls, as in real history:
third rome panel.png

third rome.png
 
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What is the relationship between the Eastern Churches by default? If I play an Orthodox state, like the ERE or Georgia, and conquer Armenia, will the Miaphysites be Accepted, or otherwise be easier to become Accepted compared to Christians from Western churches?
 
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As someone pointed out already each patriarchate should have a Patriarch and not Monarch as its head, so I think it would be cool to have a historical/random charachter spawning in the court of each country that controls a patriarchate that can also be employed as a cabinet member, nothing to deep for now
 
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Why are the Eastern branches of Christianity able to modify core tenets of the faith via IO laws? I’m not aware of changes to Orthodoxy’s Christology during this time period, for example. This sort of modularity makes more sense for a reworked Protestant Aspects system imo

Edit: nevermind, I misread this as a feature between all three religions
 
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Who are the 4 Orthodox countries not in the Byzantine patriarchate at the start?
 
Another Paradox DD by the Patriarchy smh

Sorry, Patriarchate :oops:
Ottomans did the right thing when they smashed the patriarchy by bombarding Constantinople’s walls

edit: good to see byzaboos are still unable to handle jokes
 
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Will Iustinianus the Great and Constantinus I be saints at the start of the game? Those two are even saints in the Roman Catholic Church.
 
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Is there any content around the Hesychast controversy and its outcomes - and if so, can we see it?
Also, could you change the Miaphysite churches to their official name of Oriental Orthodox and 'Orthodox' to Eastern Orthodox? Miaphysitism is a doctrinal position, not the name of any church.
Something that we've already discussed previously: while it would be more correct to have 'Eastern Orthodox', 'Oriental Orthodox', and 'Church of the East', this is a videogame, and we want to have clear, differentiable concepts. That's why prefer to use Orthodoxy, Miaphysitism, and Nestorianism.
 
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Can you show us all the Nestorian patriarchates that exist at game start like you did for orthodoxy and Miyaphitism please?
 
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Orthodoxy is more based around the APs and the different interactions available, while Miaphysitism is more based around the different tenets that each AP has.
How are orthodox tenets defined , Each AP will have the same tenets then ?
 
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Something that we've already discussed previously: while it would be more correct to have 'Eastern Orthodox', 'Oriental Orthodox', and 'Church of the East', this is a videogame, and we want to have clear, differentiable concepts. That's why prefer to use Orthodoxy, Miaphysitism, and Nestorianism.
I think the terms Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox are pretty clearly differentiated and you're not giving your audience enough credit to read the words on their screen, but alright, you're the game designers.

Please at least add something to the description of Miaphysitism to say "The followers of Miaphysitism - officially known as the Oriental Orthodox churches - teach that..." and similar full, official names to the descriptions of the other churches discussed here. You make it seem like Eastern Orthodoxy is the only or most important branch of Christianity called Orthodox, when you refer to it alone as Orthodox.
 
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