I haven't finished this list, but this is a taste of what I think Religion will do in the game.
1. ASTROTHEOLOGY (Icon: Power Star)
TOOLTIP:
Astrotheologianism is the ancient veneration of the Stars, manifested in various forms and ruled over by the Star Spirits, who grant Wishes to righteous beings. Astrotheologianism teaches that morally upright behavior and honor will receive direct divine favor and prosperity to its adherents. Power Stars and their infant form, Lumas, are the primary agents of the Star Spirits on the earth, granting immense abilities to their owners and keepers. Star Spirits come from their own race of special Stars that begin as Star Kids in the frozen mountains northeast of the Mushroom Kingdom. Upon maturation, they ascend to Star Haven and monitor the wishes of good creatures alongside other clerical duties.
IN GAME FACTORS:
+ Astrotheologians can accrue Wishes and Make a Wish to the Star Spirits.
+ Enjoys relations boost with other Astrotheologian characters.
+ Can receive bonuses for morally upright behavior.
+ Will receive extra punishment when orchestrating Kidnappings, Assasinations, and other wicked deeds.
+ Has an empire religious head, the Star Spirits.
+ All Astrotheologic rulers start as Absolute Cognatic and do not have malice towards female rulers and vassals.
+ Has no heresies.
SAMPLE EVENTS AND BENEFITS:
+ Sometimes, a Star Kid will end up outside your ruler's castle. You can choose to house him or her for the night or spend Wishes to convince him to stay in your court, where you will name him. From here, you can house him and treat him like a regular Courtier, and even marry him off or use him to your own devices (including landing him). However, upon the day he becomes of age, he will ascend to Star Haven and take all his worldly possessions with him. They become vassals of the Star Spirits. However, if you can acquire a certain Relationship with him or her (requires high Diplomacy and relationship wouldn't be just Opinion, because you could gift him before his birthday to stay), he will stay with you.
+ If you are very small and are defending yourself against someone who can destroy you in one Enforced Demand, sometimes the Star Spirits will hear your prayers and grant you a few hundred Coins to hire mercenaries or what not.
+ Astrotheologian characters receive no consequences when peacibly expanding to outer space.
EXAMPLE FOLLOWERS:
+Princess Peach
+Mario Brothers
+Most of the Mushroom Kingdom
+Largest religion by far
2. GREED (Icon: Coin)
TOOLTIP:
Greed is the vice of never being content with one's property or status, and a constant, consuming urge to increase one's status. It is one of the most notrious misdeeds amongst Mushroom Planet denizens as well as the most common. Characters adhering to Greed simply refuse to be comfortable with what they have and will take any risk to acquire more possessions.
IN GAME FACTORS:
+ Greed characters face the Conspicuious Consumption feature.
+ Base tax gain +10%.
+ Non-Greed characters have a negative opinion malus of Greedy characters.
+ Greedy characters gain Envy instead of Wishes or Piety. At the end of each year, ten percent of a Greed character's Envy points are added to his Coin points until he reaches one thousand points. After that, one percent is gifted. (For example, a character with three hundred Envy Points will receive thirty Coins, but a character with three thousand will also receive thirty coins. This represents complaency.)
+ Greed characters automatically gain many Stewardship Points at birth and lose Diplomacy Points.
+ Greed characters must pay a Bride Price because no one wants to marry someone who loves money only. (Uses Bride Price mechanic.)
+ Money CAN buy happiness! Greed characters can marry another of any religion if they are willing to buy love.
+ Has a ducal level religious head, the
Greed Spirit. (This "head" is actually a nuisance.)
+ Greed characters suffer no Prestige penalty when breaking Truces.
+ When at war, Greed characters cannot collect taxes because they are too busy decorating themselves in Bling of War. (Balance to avoid Greed owning everyone and everything.)
+ Can Exorcise the Greed Spirit. Subjugation destroys the Greed Spirit and grants you one percent of his vast wealth. (Requires control of four Greed holy sites, or two Greed holy sites and the Greed Spirit's home island.)
+ AI Greed characters will
never surrender their Titles without a fight.
+ AI Greed characters will
never join a Plot without being bribed first.
+ Gifts are more effective to Greedy characters when from non-Greedy characters.
SAMPLE EVENTS:
+ The Greed Spirit will occasionally steal your money in the night, unless your Intrigue is high enough. (Balance.)
+ The Greed Spirit will, once each year, insult you if your money is too low.
+ Vassals possessing the Greed religion will occasionally try to steal your money. If you catch them, you get a Righteous Imprisonment and they pay a small reparation fee.
+ Once a year, you can attempt to steal money from your liege, with success based on Intrigue. If you fail, he will try to Imprison you.
+ The Greed Spirit will randomly attack Empire-level Greed characters (similar to, but smaller than, the Rise of the Shia in the Vanilla game). If you lose against him, he will take a quarter of your funds.
+ The Greed Spirit will occasionally nag you to give him Baronies, if you hold any. If you agree, you will lose CC but gain an Approval amongst your non-Greedy vassals.
+ If a greed character becomes Bankrupt, he is given the option of switching to the Gambling heresy.
+ Greed characters can send their Diviner equivalent to a province one of their vassals rules over and embezzle money. This increases the Tax Income of the province but risks a significant penalty if discovered.
+ Players of a Republic demense can convert to Greed at any time, via Decision. However, the AI does not normally do this unless they are Cynical or have a trait common in Greedy characters.
EXAMPLE FOLLOWERS:
+ Wario
+ Some Dark Land vassals.
+ Scattered counties based on game lore.
+ Some Goombas.
---
3. GAMBLING [GREED HERESY] (Icon: the number seven)
TOOLTIP:
The prelevance of Casinoes throughout the world has lead to a large population with gambling addictions. Gamblers love to risk their entire life savings in the hopes of one day making bank.
IN GAME FACTORS:
+ Tax income -5% on non-religious holdings. You're always gambling your income.
+ Religious head is
Game Guy, but religious head can be replaced by a character who meets objectives. (Similar to Ibadi Caliph, expcet it replaces a head instead of spawns a head.)
+ Religious holdings under Gambling characters are Casinoes. If they like you more than they like Game Guy, they will pay you to patron their facility. (Equivalent to Catholic tax to Pope or you.)
+ Gambling characters can Become a Casino Tycoon if they control all Greed holy casinoes and have a certain amout of Prestige. If you Become a Casino Tycoon, all Gambling religious holders will instead pay you if they like you more than their liege.
+ Each year, Gambling characters will automatically gamble a portion of their money (this amount increments as the game ticks on and is also tied to one's demense). They then have a chance of winning back their money with small (say five percent) interest, losing it all, or hitting a Jackpot. While chance is the main factor in this, you can slightly increase your odds by having high Stewardship. Jackpots cannot happen more than once in a Greed character's lifetime.
+ Gambling characters always appoint their religious holders (like Catholics do with Free Investiture).
SPECIAL EVENTS:
+ Game Guy will occasionally give you the option of competing against him in a gambling Mini-Game. You can win or lose this based on raw chance, and nothing you can do will inrease it or decrease it. If you win, your wagered coins are doubled (like in his original game). If you lose,
your coins are his.
+ As a Casino Tycoon, AI players will do the same to you at random. You can take their money or pay them double. The House is more inclined to win, so the AI doesn't ask you as often as Game Guy does.
+ If you have high enough Stewardship and Diplomacy, you can randomly cause Greedy vassals to Become Addicted and turn them into Gamblers.
+ If the Gambling heresy overtakes the Greed religion, the negative tax modifier ceases to exist.
EXAMPLE FOLLOWERS:
+ Many Goombas and Goomba vassals. (
Goombas seem to have a serious gambling addiction.)
Other religions include:
* BOWSER. Obviously, the religion of Dark Land characters. Head is Bowser like the Islam Caliphs. Direct descendants of Bowser have a Trait like a Sayyid in the Vanilla game. Bowser can declare Invasions, and he will. He sure will. Sayyid-equivalent players can unseat Bowser and become the leader of the Bowser faith. Like Islam in-game titles held by Bowser characters are changed. They change from, say, Toad Town to [FIRST NAME]'s Toad Town. (Such as Bowser's Mushroom Kingdom.) Like Islam, Bowser inheritance is Open and based on power, but it is not Agnatic.
*
TWILIGHTER. Twilight characters are vegetarians who are terrified of pigs. They perform temple worship and center their lives around
Creepy Steeple. (They can make Pilgramages to it.) Twilight characters make excellent and humble vassals and rarely complain. They are also extremely difficult to convert. They can be Reformed into an actually useful religion if you control their Holy Sites and the Twilight Town Republic. (Basically, this religion is the hardest one in the game to make use of, much like the West African faith.)
* HAPPINESS: Yoshis center their lives on Happiness and can make Pilgramages to sites like the Super Happy Tree or the Yoster Isles. As long as you don't try to take their land, imprison them, or revoke titles, Yoshis make excellent vassals. The Happiness Faith can be Radicalized to "spread happiness" like a Mongol Tengri and invade the planet! BA HA HA HA! Yoshis can take Multiple Wives (like Islam), but can't force them like Concubines.
* SHROOB: Shroobs are invaders similar to the Mongols in the Vanilla game. Members of the Shroob faith and the Shroob Culture have Invasion Casus Bellis. Their head is whoever controls the Shroob Intergalactic Empire title. Shroobs can take Concubines.
