Hello! I've been following this game for a bit and I love it! I really hope I can see it completed one day.

But lets get on to the suggestion. From all i know this isn't a discussed feature currently, Now bare in mind, i am not on the discord, so i'm only going off the wiki, which is extremely bare-bones on the subject. Also, please note that the mechanics i am suggesting are using post stone age religious categories though it is possible that the mechanic could be applied to stone age religion, though i do not know enough about the subject to know for sure.

Now the hardest thing about designing a system for religion is that religion is a very complex subject dealing with the morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, and organizations of a wide variety of cultures.

Now because of this i think that any system related to religion shouldn't just be some random name which pops follow like EU4, and it should be more complex relating to a religion's theology and practices allowing for dynamic change throughout the eons, basically it should be its own unique part of the game and not just some vague and random name with buffs and debuffs.

Also it's in my opinion that specific religious categories and beliefs like mono or polytheism shouldn't be tech tree nodes like stone tools, because if that is mishandled it could make it look like the game is making statements favoring one belief or others. The best situation in my opinion is the emergence of specific religious categories with the emergence of the first religions which would be under those categories.

though i wouldn't mind Religion itself  being a node which symbolizes the emergence of more and more complex spiritual beliefs among the various species of a SOTE world, and this node could lead to the unique mechanics of religion.

Now for how to categorize the specific religions of a world, i think that the best system would be that there are what i'll call "belief bases", basically an essential belief multiple religions can share like Zoroastrianism and Judaism both believe in one god. i would design these bases around how many spiritual beings a religion worships, it would start with worshiping a multiple of gods (Polytheism) to worshiping one god (Monotheism) to worshiping no gods (Non-theism) "but how would religions in the same base differentiate themselves?" You may ask, well that's where we get into the religion trees. Now there would be 3 trees for each of the three bases, and would and would be similar to a tech tree, but instead of technology it's the beliefs, structure, and other aspects of the religion, allowing for a wide variety of differences even among religions which share a belief base, though i would lock some nodes behind technology like a Religion can't have a holy book if they haven't invented writing yet, and because of the they would stuck with an oral tradition.

"but how would do you simulate ideas which two bases can share, like monolatry?" (monolatry the belief in the existence of many gods, but with the consistent worship of only one deity)

that could be solved by what i call "syncretism trees". These trees would allow religions in neighboring bases to have beliefs which multiple trees could share, For example, henotheism, Though i'd probably lock most syncretism out unless religions of neighboring belief bases have contact

I would appreciate any comments or criticism you have of my idea.

and also, Thank you for reading my suggestion!

Edit: I made some improvements to my post and i added an idea if religon is in the tech tree.

Edit 2: I've fundamentally changed a lot of the beginning and i've cleared up some things in the mechanics suggestions

Edit 3: 100 VIEWS!