It's impossible not to notice the stark disparity in mechanical depth, flavor integration, and historical nuance between Islam and the other major religious groups represented in EU5. This post is a comparative breakdown, not out of outrage, but out of a call for parity and integrity. Islam is the second-largest religion on Earth. It deserves better than a recycled skeleton from EU4 with a cosmetic layer.
1. Comparative Complexity: A Shallow Pool
Islam in EU5, as presented, is essentially a rehash of its EU4 design. Scholars, Schools, and Piety return, minimally adjusted. In contrast:
2. International Organization: Or Lack Thereof
Virtually every other major faith has some kind of international cohesion mechanic:
3. Schools of Thought: Quantity ≠ Depth
The list of Sunni, Shia, Ibadi, and Sufi schools is long. But they act as shallow modifiers, not as true mechanical levers. There’s no theological development, no changing doctrines, no reactive systems. You don’t evolve or deepen your school, you just pick it.
Compare this to Protestant Aspects (pick 3, customize your doctrine, gain synergies), or to Hindu Avatars (change effects based on peace/war state, holy site presence, avatars rerollable). Islam’s schools are static labels. A tooltip.
4. Piety: Still a Flat Line
The Piety bar, Legalism vs Mysticism, is back from EU4. Yet nothing has been done to reflect the sophisticated intra-Islamic debates or institutions behind that split. No new mechanics tied to your position on the bar beyond two clicky buttons (get manpower or stability) and a gate to invite Sufi scholars.
Where’s the dynamic tension? Where are the reactive events? Where’s the societal transformation for leaning into mysticism (like embracing Sufi tariqas), or legalism (like enforcing Sharia institutionally)? It’s abstracted to the point of irrelevance.
5. Buildings and Laws: Generic and Forgettable
A "Madrassa" and a "Sufi Loge" are included. That’s fine, but where are the institutional interactions? Compare that to Protestant Church buildings, Icons in Orthodoxy, or the Gurgaddi in Sikhism. There’s no mechanical weight, no narrative consequence.
Same for the laws: A few toggles and a Shariah Jurisprudence law dependent on school. That's bare-bones compared to the doctrinal interplay in Catholic or Dharmic laws.
6. Disingenuous Representation
This is more than just mechanics—it’s about integrity. Islam was the dominant world system in vast regions for centuries, with deeply developed intellectual, legal, and mystical traditions. Treating it as an afterthought while building Catholicism and Dharmic religions into living, breathing ecosystems reeks of bias or at least of careless design prioritization.
7. Call for Action
This isn’t a plea for favoritism. It’s a call for balance. Bring Islam into parity with the other faiths. It needs:
Do better, Paradox. The Ummah is watching.
1. Comparative Complexity: A Shallow Pool
Islam in EU5, as presented, is essentially a rehash of its EU4 design. Scholars, Schools, and Piety return, minimally adjusted. In contrast:
- Catholicism has a fully-fledged International Organization (IO), the Curia, with Cardinal Seats, Papal Bulls, voting mechanics, excommunication systems, and even canonization of rulers and saints. It’s not just deep, it’s institutionally dynamic.
- Protestantism allows for full theological customization through Church Aspects, creating a distinct identity for each Protestant state. The player builds their own doctrine stack. Events, flavor, and mechanics interact with it richly.
- Eastern Christianity has Autocephalous Patriarchates, Synods, Icons, localized holy laws, canonization, and artistic mechanics like Periphora. Even lesser-represented sects like Miaphysitism and Nestorianism have more mechanical love than the entire Islamic group.
- Dharmic Religions (Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism) boast Avatars, Karma systems, dynamic emergence, multiple IOs per sect, law sets, and event-driven evolution (e.g., the Sikh Gurus). Jainism even prevents wars without Casus Belli. That’s real integration of philosophy into mechanics.
2. International Organization: Or Lack Thereof
Virtually every other major faith has some kind of international cohesion mechanic:
- Catholicism: Curia IO
- Orthodoxy: Patriarchate IOs
- Hinduism: Four sect IOs
- Sikhism: Gurgaddi IO
3. Schools of Thought: Quantity ≠ Depth
The list of Sunni, Shia, Ibadi, and Sufi schools is long. But they act as shallow modifiers, not as true mechanical levers. There’s no theological development, no changing doctrines, no reactive systems. You don’t evolve or deepen your school, you just pick it.
Compare this to Protestant Aspects (pick 3, customize your doctrine, gain synergies), or to Hindu Avatars (change effects based on peace/war state, holy site presence, avatars rerollable). Islam’s schools are static labels. A tooltip.
4. Piety: Still a Flat Line
The Piety bar, Legalism vs Mysticism, is back from EU4. Yet nothing has been done to reflect the sophisticated intra-Islamic debates or institutions behind that split. No new mechanics tied to your position on the bar beyond two clicky buttons (get manpower or stability) and a gate to invite Sufi scholars.
Where’s the dynamic tension? Where are the reactive events? Where’s the societal transformation for leaning into mysticism (like embracing Sufi tariqas), or legalism (like enforcing Sharia institutionally)? It’s abstracted to the point of irrelevance.
5. Buildings and Laws: Generic and Forgettable
A "Madrassa" and a "Sufi Loge" are included. That’s fine, but where are the institutional interactions? Compare that to Protestant Church buildings, Icons in Orthodoxy, or the Gurgaddi in Sikhism. There’s no mechanical weight, no narrative consequence.
Same for the laws: A few toggles and a Shariah Jurisprudence law dependent on school. That's bare-bones compared to the doctrinal interplay in Catholic or Dharmic laws.
6. Disingenuous Representation
This is more than just mechanics—it’s about integrity. Islam was the dominant world system in vast regions for centuries, with deeply developed intellectual, legal, and mystical traditions. Treating it as an afterthought while building Catholicism and Dharmic religions into living, breathing ecosystems reeks of bias or at least of careless design prioritization.
7. Call for Action
This isn’t a plea for favoritism. It’s a call for balance. Bring Islam into parity with the other faiths. It needs:
- A proper IO system (Caliphate, Ulama, something meaningful)
- Deeper School mechanics (interactions, evolution, tensions)
- Richer Piety effects (not just a glorified slider)
- Institutional flavor (Fatwas, Ijtihad, Qadi systems, Tariqas)
- Event chains that build identity and conflict
Do better, Paradox. The Ummah is watching.
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