Tech trees

[Archbaker]

I don't mean to spam, but I noticed there was talk of different kinds of monasteries and such, so I made some quick notes of my thoughts on the matter. Maybe useful, maybe not.

ASTURIA
Lots of Spanish/Asturian nationalism here. I figured Asturian bonuses should have to do with fighting against those numerically superior, so morale and defence have priority.

Monastery of Our Lady of Covadonga
This monastery is intended to protect and service pilgrims to a Marian shrine rather than to house members of a specific religious order.
Covadonga, the “Deep Cave”, is said to be the birthplace of modern Spain, and is the beginning of Asturia’s time as a great nation. This is where King Pelayo and his army were visited by the Virgin Mary and given the courage to spread the faith in the Lord.
The Virgin of Covadonga has been the patron saint of Asturies ever since.
(Happiness/morale or even armour upgrades could be used, and the Virgin Mary is the patron of Sailors as well)

Monastery to St. James
This monastery is intended to house the relics of a saint rather than to house members of a specific religious order.
St. James the Greater was one of the early disciples of Jesus and the first to be martyred. After his death at the hands of King Herod, angels sailed his body to Spain where he had done much of his work as an apostle.
St. James is the patron saint of Pilgrims, Horsemen, Blacksmiths, Apothecaries and Gallicia.
(Just remove mention to whatever areas of patronage will not be affected. Local name would probably be Santiago or Santiagu, depending on how much Castillano and Asturianu have changed since then)

Monastery of St. Pelagius
This monastery is intended to house the relics of a saint rather than to house members of a specific religious order.
Saint Pelagius or Pelayo is not related to King Pelayo. He was a young Asturian boy taken hostage by Moors who promised him his freedom if he would convert to their faith. When he had still not agreed to convert after three years, possibly spent as a male concubine in a harem, he was subjected to torture which he endured for three hours, still keeping his faith "A Christian I have been, Christian I am, and Christian I shall continue to be." The enraged Moors then gave him a martyr’s death and he was canonised shortly after his death.
Pelagius is depicted as a boy holding a sword in his left hand, his other hand missing.
(Pelayo died 925, and was canonised shortly after, so this event is well into the time period. However, I find that he fits the theme very well. Gives morale)


VIKINGS
I thought each Viking nation should have three different hovs which were different from the others like the Romans in vanilla. The idea behind the wooden church is that a Norse settlement can be made Catholic without turning the entire kingdom to another faith. This will make the citizens less happy, but make the local chieftain look better in the eyes of foreigners and thus improve trade.

Hov to Ægir
Although worshipped and feared as a god, Ægir is out of a Giant family and not one of the Aesir or Vanir.
Terrible Ægir lives on the bottom of the ocean near Hlesey east of Jutland from where he occasionally surfaces to drag a ship down with him to his hall.
The Æsir, on the other hand, are treated lavishly when they come to visit him, and it is said that his wealth is so great that during banquets his hall is illuminated solely with the shine from all his gold.
(sea, things like better ships?)

Hov to Njord
Njord is the god of the weather and protects fishermen and hunters. He is often invoked to protect sailors.
Njord is one of the Vanir, a group of gods associated with Elves and fertility that waged war with the Aesir. He came to Asgard along with his children Frey and Freya when the Aesir and the Vanir decided to exchange hostages to ensure peace in the future.
(sea or fertility)

Hov to Tor
Tor is the god of thunder and warriors. He gives strength and inspires ferocity and personifies both of these concepts. Thor is the subject of a multitude of myths, quite a few of which put him in embarrassing situations because his wits are not always equal to his strength. Tor has had many functions and even been a god of fertility at one point, but as more and more gods came about he was seen as a more specialised god of warriors.
One of the most popular gods in the late part of the age of Norse paganism, Thor’s hammer Mjolnir became a widespread symbol of the Asa faith.
(war, experience or weapon)

Hov to Tyr
Tyr is one of earliest Asir to be worshipped. His symbol is the rune T, an image which later became known as Thor’s Hammer.
Tyr is the god of war. Where Tor gives the warrior strength, Tyr gives the army courage. His own courage is never doubted as he lost his arm to the wolf Fenris when he, alone among the gods, was brave enough to put a leash on the great animal. Since then he has had to go into battle without a shield.
(war, morale, Danmark or Svea, I think)

Hov to Odin
Odin Allfather is the King of the gods and the god of kings. He is also god of a long range of other things including magic, wisdom, poetry and war. Odin is able to see all the world when sitting on his throne, and his two Raves Hugin and Munin bring him news from all the world.
Odin had to endure many sacrifices to gain his wisdom. He only has one eye because he threw the other one in Mimer’s well in exchange for a drink of its water.
Odin lives in Valhalla along where he keeps his private army of Einherjir, dead warriors selected among those who die in battle.
Odin is often depicted as a man with a raven on each shoulder or simply by a picture of a raven.
(law)

Hov to Freyia
Freya is the goddess of love and fertility and watches over crops and childbirth. Her hall Folkvang is filled with music at all times, and in it dwell those dead warriors who are not found among the Einherjir.
Freya is one of the Vanir, a group of gods associated with Elves and fertility that waged war with the Aesir. She came to Asgard along with her father Njord when the Aesir and the Vanir decided to exchange hostages to ensure peace in the future. Freya is also well versed in the use of magic, and has taught much to the Aesir.
(fertility, more towards health and happiness than Frey)

Hov to Freyr
Frey is a fertility god with many devoted followers. He inspires physical attraction and has power over the rain and grants good harvest.
Frey is also a warlike god and possesses a sword than can fight on its own. Another one of his priced possessions is the ship Skidbladnir which always sails by a direct route regardless of the wind and which can become small enough to fit in a pocket. Frey lives in the hall Alfrheim which may in fact be one of the Nine Worlds that make up Norse cosmology.
Frey is one of the Vanir, a group of gods associated with Elves and fertility that waged war with the Aesir. He came to Asgard along with his father Njord when the Aesir and the Vanir decided to exchange hostages to ensure peace in the future.
Some followers of the Vanir use Skibladnir as a holy symbol worn as a talisman hanging from their neck.
(fertility, should be Swedish, I think)


Hov to Heimdalr
Heimdalr is the protector of Bifrost, the rainbow bridge which leads to Asgard. His horn Gjallar will be heard everywhere in the word at the time of Ragnarok. He can see a hundred miles around him and hear the growing of the grass, and he requires no more sleep than a bird.
Heimdalr has nine mothers, so anyone can see that he is not just any god. In fact, he is a god of rulers and instated the Norse caste system with Thralls, Peasants and Warriors.
(law)

Hov to Frigg
Frigg is the wife of Odin and the goddess of motherhood and marriage, but she is also associated with wild nature and is said to know the destiny of all living beings.
(fertility)


Hov to Brage
Brage is the god of poetry and skalds. He is very eloquent and associated with lies and words with little relevance, but he is also invoked in serious oaths, and toasts in his name are used to ensure success in war or rulership or to remember fallen kings.
Brage is married to Idun who supplies the gods with the apples that keep them young forever.
(Brage may not have been a god at all in the early part of the time period, but there were already so many gods of fertility and I didn’t want to include too obscure gods)

Wooden Church
After Ansgar, the Apostle of the North, had converted King Eric of Danmark to Catholicism, Christians became more accepted in the Norse countries, but they were still wildly persecuted, especially during the pagan backlash after Eric’s death.
Nonetheless, a church was sometimes built near a marketplace where many foreign believers in White Christ wanted a place to gather. Although the locals would have preferred a proper god, it did help attract trade to their town.
(something like a trade bonus, but looses out on all the ordinary religious boni. Could have an upgrade to signify that the town was actually made Christian).

Hov to Ullr
Ullr is the god of physical exercise and especially fond of skiing and archery. Since the line between sports and a serious duel to settle an argument is often a fine one, he is also concerned with justice. He is associated with the yew, from which bows are often made, and watches over the fields.
(justice or fertility+missile upgrade.)

Hov to the Alfr
The Alfr, or Elves, are considered inferior to the Aesir, but their worship is ancient and since they take a very direct role in human lives and can grant good or (oftentimes) bad luck they receive frequent sacrifices.
One group of Alfr, the Svartalfr, is closely related to the Dwarves and supplies the Aesir with weapons and wondrous items. Other Alfr are concerned with fertility, and the helping or haunting spirits of households and nature are also closely to the Alfr.
(weapons bonus)

GENERAL CATHOLIC
I wanted these to have Fransiscan, Benedictine and Dominican monasteries, but only the Benedictine exist in the timeline, so I’m also using monasteries devoted to fairly random saints. There’s no real theme to these monasteries except maybe that of knights.

Benedictine Monastery
This monastery houses a community of monks who uphold the Rule of St. Benedict. This rigid code divides a monk’s life between sleep, work and religious pursuits and contains a plan for what activities are to be done at which hour of the day and a calendar describing how to observe each religious holiday.
It is important to know that the Benedictines are not a religious order in the sense of the later Dominicans or Franciscans. Each monastery is self-governing and there is no central leader of the Benedictines.
Benedictines are pacifists and believe in the value of hard work as summarised in the two mottos “pax” (peace) and “Ora et labora” (pray and work).
(health and order, could be recruiting place of discussed Hospitaller knights)

Augustine Monastery
This monastery houses a community of monks who uphold the Rules of St. Augustinian. These rules attributed to the early church thinker, reformed heretic and founder of at least one monastery in Africa seek to keep the monk away from any sort of temptation, especially of the carnal kind and encourage great humility. Augustinians believe that all possessions must be shared in such a way that each monk receives no more than what he needs, but acknowledge that a monk from higher society will have need more than a monk from a poor background.
Augustines are studious and allow a certain degree of freedom of thought. Historically, they became organised into proper orders in the thirteenth century and became important in preserving knowledge through the Middle Ages.
(health and squalor)

Monastery of St. Martin
St. Martin of Tours was born to pagan parents, but became a Christian at an early age. He joined the Roman army at age 15 and was later assigned to a garrison in what was then Gaul as a cavalry officer. Humble and generous, he refused to have his servants wait on him and once gave half his cloak to a beggar.
After being thrown out of the Roman army for perceived cowardice—his faith prohibited him from taking part in a battle—he studied under Saint Hillary and later did much to convert Roman pagans, sinners and followers of the Arian Heresy.
Martin later took up life as a hermit, but when the Bishop of Tours died he was chosen as his successor. Humble Martin did not want that title and stayed in the wilderness, but when Rusticus, a wealthy citizen of Tours claimed that his wife was ill he rushed to the city to see her. When he arrived he was caught and consecrated against his will.
St. Martin of Tours is the patron saint of horsemen and the poor.
(horses, squalor)

Monastery of Our Lady of Chartres
This monastery is intended to protect and service pilgrims to a Marian shrine rather than to house members of a specific religious order.
It is said that the druids in Chartres had foreseen that they would once come to worship a yet unborn woman and her son, and that they constructed a statue of the Virgin Mary and the infant Jesus long before they had heard of Christ.
When apostles did arrive, they were welcomed and the druids gladly converted.


BYZANTIUM
I only made one monastery for Byzantium, but obviously there could be some for different saints.

Orthodox Monastery
The monks and nuns of the Orthodox Church live even more secluded lives than their Catholic counterparts and do not take any part in the lives of laymen. This means that they do not teach, preach or tend to the sick except among themselves, but they are by no means selfish. They help the common man spiritually by praying for his soul. The Brothers and Sisters have chosen a life of asceticism and service to God, and they enjoy a great deal of respect for this.
(law+happiness?)