VR doubles the number of religions included from those in vanilla M2TW. Religion will play a much more significant role than in standard M2TW, with regions much harder to convert, many factions having the ability to change their official religion, and religious populations providing recruitment and building options for settlements. Below is a brief description of each religion and its historical importance, in order of the pic shown:
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1. Roman Catholicism While less dominant than in vanilla M2TW, Catholicism will remain a very influential religion in VR, held by a more factions than any other faith. The Pope feature will be kept from vanilla, however new features will be implemented such as the ability to create anti-Popes, the foundation of monastic orders, and historical titles for Bishops and Archbishops should add a lot more flavour for the rolepaying of a faction with this religion.
2. Celtic Christianity - This unique branch of Chistendom is still influential in the more remote parts of western Europe, notably those which retain some form of Celtic identity. Celtic Christianity is the dominant religion of Scotland, Ireland, and also has influence in Brittany in France. Playing as Scotland or Ireland, players will have a choice between developing Catholicism to improve ties with their European counterparts, or maintaining the dominance of Celtic Christianity, with its unique features regarding the calculation of the date of Easter, and its system of monasteries and missionary work.
3. Orthodox Christianity - As in vanilla M2TW, the Orthodox faith will be dominant in Russia and Byzantium. These factions will benefit from new features similar to those being implemented for Catholicism, with the additional bonus of being able to appoint Patriarch's, the head on earth of their faith, whether of the Russian or Greek Orthodox churches. In addition to those, the Orthodox faith has an entire new front in VR, with the map extended southwards to include Makuria and the Ethiopian Zagwe dynasty offering very different challenges to players wishing to try Orthodox factions!
4. Judaism - No faction has Judaism as its official religion in VR, indeed the last officially Jewish empire before 1073 was the long extinct Khazar Khanate. The only settlements to have large Jewish populations are those in Israel, however all throughout Europe there are Jewish communities in many towns and cities. In game, these will provide special buildings, giving bonuses in particular to trade and income.
5. Sunni Islam - The Sunni faith is the more puritanical of the major Islamic denominations, strictly opposed to the idea of sainthood and idolatry. In particular, the Murabitun, originating from the Sahara, threaten to carry their holy war across the Iberian peninsula and perhaps even beyond. Sunni Islam is by far the dominant branch of Islam, dominant throughout north Africa, Arabia, the Levant, Iraq, and to the east of Iran.
6. Shia Islam - The more moderate branch of Islam, the ceremony involved in the Shia faith is in stark contrast to that of their puritanical Sunni counterparts. Only the Fatimids begin as Shia, however there are Shia populations spread dotted around the Sunni world, and in particular being dominant in eastern Iraq and parts of Iran, as well as having expanded through its influence over certain groups of Turks.
7. Zoroastrianism - This religion is a remnant of the beliefs the Parthian nomands once held in Iran. Their beliefs are derived from the prophet Zoroastra, who built a monotheistic faith, based around the divine God Ahura Mazda. A very unique faith amongst the greater Muslim and Christian conflicts of nearby areas, Zoroastrianism is based mainly Iran, where it still has a sizeable number of followers since Islam reached the region in the seventh century.
8. Hinduism - Although there are no Hindu faction in VR, Hinduism is the dominant religion of the far south-east corner of the map, most notably in Sindh and the Indus, and the west-Indian territories held by the Islamic Ghaznavid Empire. Hindiusm is unique in that it is the only polytheistic religion in VR, and Hindu regions will provide many exotic and diverse units, including lots of elephants!
Paganism and Heresy are also included in VR, playing a similar role as they did in vanilla M2TW.
