14. Religion & Faiths

New in v0.3. Religion is now a nation attribute alongside government, economy and currency. Six invented world faiths cross borders; each nation has a fixed official stance – from compulsory state faith to enforced state atheism – that decides how freely citizens may practice, preach and convert. Like the system itself, a nation’s stance is immutable (decided v0.4: fixed like its government – no supermajority or revolution can change it); laws can only move enforcement within the stance’s band.

Ground rules for religion in Harimu

All faiths are invented. None is a stand-in for a real religion; none uses real scriptures, prayers, symbols, titles, dress, holy places or calendars. They are built from broad, widely shared archetypes (a scriptural hierarchy, ancestor veneration, a seasonal folk faith, a patron devotion of travelers, a contemplative path, a charity movement).
Respect over satire. Every faith is presented as meaningful to its believers, with virtues and a community worth belonging to; satire in this game is aimed at power, never at belief. No faith is ‘the evil one’.
Only the player chooses a citizen’s faith. States can reward, pressure, restrict or ban practice within capped limits, but no leader, system or missionary can change a citizen’s faith attribute.
In-game faith is not real faith. Moderation never treats a citizen’s in-game faith as information about the player, and harassment over real-world religion is banned (Section 21).

14.1 The six world faiths

Faith	Archetype	Core teaching (invented)	Practice & clergy	Festivals (game time)	Holy site
Lumen Canon	Hierarchical, scriptural faith	Truth is light passing through a clear vessel; a life of honesty, duty and clarity lets the light through.	Daily Vigil, weekly Stilldays, pilgrimage; orders of Lamplighters, Glaziers and Wardens; Lumen-Masters; headed worldwide by Ilmar’s Supreme Oracle.	Long Light (midsummer vigil); Clearing (new-year renewal of vows)	Prism Spire, Mirrorhall (Ilmar)
Kinward Rite	Ancestor and lineage veneration	The living are stewards between those who came before and those who come after; keep your oaths and your name.	Household hearths with carved name-stones; rites of birth, marriage, death and oath-taking; Hearth-Keepers and Name-Readers.	Night of Names (remembrance); Oath Day	Hearth of First Names, Highspire (Aurelle)
The Round	Seasonal folk faith	All things turn and return; live in step with the seasons and the community.	Open-air circle gatherings at each season’s turn; painted season-posts; Circle-Elders chosen by lot; no central head.	Turning Days at each of the four seasons (every 7.5 real days)	The Old Ring, Veldwood
Fair-Wind Vow	Patron devotion of travelers and traders	A company of patron virtues – Honest Measure, Safe Return, Good Fortune – watches over those who travel and trade fairly.	Vows before voyages and deals; votive ship models; Harbor Chaplains and Pilots; chapels in ports.	Launching (start of sailing season); Safe Return	Harbor of Vows, Arcport (Fulmara)
The Quiet Path	Contemplative, non-theistic practice	Attention, restraint and compassion can be trained; no god is required.	Daily stillness practice; retreats; Teachers rather than priests; may be held alongside one other faith.	Still Week (retreat); Lantern of Attention	High Retreat, in Korund’s mountains (closed unless Korund grants access)
The Open Hand	Universalist charity movement	All are equal before the Giver; what you hold is held in trust for those in need.	Bread halls and almsgiving; Almoners and Stewards; strong voice for the poor – sometimes for strikes and reform.	Bread Day; Day of the Open Door	Bread Hall, Meetwater (Confluence)
Unaffiliated	Secular / no faith	—	A valid choice everywhere; in Korund it is the official doctrine (state atheism).	Civic holidays only	—

The Commons – Concord Stones: a shared holy site sacred to the Kinward Rite, The Round and the Open Hand. It cannot be bought or captured; custody passes only by a joint custody treaty, and access for pilgrims is a recurring diplomatic flashpoint [design intent]. Faith names are working names pending the trademark search and sensitivity review (Section 1.4).

14.2 Official stance by nation

Figure 7 – Religion map: each nation’s official stance and the holy sites of the six faiths (illustrative positions on the Figure 1 map).

Nation	Official stance	State / favored faith	Other faiths	Freedom to choose, convert, leave	Enforcement band (laws may move within it)
Kindle	Secular pluralism (strict separation)	None	All free; religious parties allowed	Fully free	Assembly sets tax-exemption rules; may never favor or ban a faith
Confluence	Secular state, registered faiths	None	Legal once registered with the Bureau of Faith Affairs; missions licensed	Free; Party cadres may not hold clergy office	Registration strictness; license quotas for missionaries
Meridian	State-supervised religion	Approved national associations (Kinward, Round, Fair-Wind, Quiet Path)	Lumen Canon (foreign-led) and Open Hand private only	Conversion only into registered associations; Party members Unaffiliated	How many associations are approved; SEZs may be looser
Korund	State atheism – religion suppressed	None (scientific collectivism)	All banned; underground only	Professing any faith is illegal	Crackdown intensity (raids, Suspicion weight) – never legalization
Aurelle	State church with crown supremacy	Kinward Rite (Monarch = Keeper of the Hearth)	Private worship; commoner dissenter levy	Leaving Kinward costs Royal Favor; Counts and Dukes must conform	Size of the dissenter levy (0–10% of income, capped [ASSUMPTION]); private-worship rules
Ilmar	Theocracy – state faith compulsory in public	Lumen Canon	Fair-Wind Vow and Quiet Path registered minorities with own endowments; others private	Joining the Canon encouraged; Lapse = Piety loss and clerical-rank bar for 30 real days	Strictness of public duties; minority endowment rules
Hoarvale	Established ceremonial church + full freedom	Kinward Rite as the Crown’s Rite (ceremonial only)	All free	Fully free; no rank or honor needs membership	Ceremonial only
Varkand	Regulated tolerance via the Chaplaincy Corps	None (a Directorate may court one)	Registered; private only at Red Alert	Free; officers must declare their faith	Registration rules; Alert Level
Veldwood	Secular pluralism (Grove civic festivals)	None	All free	Fully free	Groves may adopt civic festivals; never ban or privilege a faith
Fulmara	Chartered pluralism	Fair-Wind Vow customary (no compulsion)	Free with a temple charter	Fully free	Temple-charter fee (capped)

Figure 8 – Faith status matrix: what each faith may do in each nation, and how freely citizens may convert or leave.

14.3 Penalties and their caps

All faith-related penalties are capped like every other punishment and enforced as AI behavior constraints (Section 8.18): Korund raids lead to Correction Duty ≤ 7 real days; Ilmar’s Lapse bars clerical ranks for 30 real days and costs Piety but nothing else; Aurelle’s dissenter levy is capped; Varkand can only move gatherings to private worship.
No penalty removes access to the daily loop, voting rights the system grants, or real-money purchases. No citizen can be forced to convert, and conversion prompts are always opt-in.
A citizen may change faith at most once per 60 real days [ASSUMPTION], to stop faith-hopping for bonuses.

14.4 Religion gameplay

System	Design
Faith attribute	Chosen at character creation from what the nation allows (in Korund the only public option is Unaffiliated, with an optional hidden faith held in secret); changed later only by the player.
Devotion (0–100)	Rises with worship, festivals, charity, pilgrimage and clergy service; decays slowly. Gates clergy offices; gives small social rewards (festival roles, morale, reputation within the congregation). In Ilmar, Lumen Devotion is Piety and raises the weight the AI Oracle gives a citizen and unlocks clerical ranks (Section 8.13). Devotion never boosts production or combat [design rule, confirmed v0.4] – no ‘best religion’ meta.
Congregations	Player organizations (like parties or houses) attached to a temple or meeting house in a city; members, clergy, donations, a private channel; registration or temple charters where required.
Clergy roles	Congregation roles per faith (Lamplighter, Hearth-Keeper, Circle-Elder, Harbor Chaplain, Teacher, Almoner…), open to human citizens because they are service within a congregation, not state office (Section 5.6); AI Notables fill gaps. Clergy lead services, festivals, weddings and funerals (heir ceremonies), run charity that raises Wellbeing, and counsel members. Each faith has a cross-border, advisory Faith Council of senior clergy – except the Lumen Canon, headed by Ilmar’s AI Oracle; Ilmar’s state clerical offices (Elders, Synod, High Judges) are AI.
Holy sites	Seven sites (Figure 7). Visiting one is a pilgrimage quest that grants Devotion and a cosmetic token; the custodian nation sets access, and foreign pilgrims need visitor or pilgrimage access (Section 13.2). Holy sites cannot be damaged, desecrated or destroyed – war only changes custodianship of a captured site.
Festivals	Each faith has two or more festivals in game time. A nation can endorse (public holiday: Stability +, one fewer shift that game day), tolerate, or – where its stance allows – ban (Grievance among adherents). Festival cosmetics and décor follow Section 26.
Temples and meeting houses	Buildings in sacred districts; size grows with congregation activity; serve as social hubs and, in pluralist nations, as polling places and soup kitchens.

14.5 Stability, legitimacy and Religious Harmony

Religious Harmony (0–100) per nation rises with endorsed festivals, clergy charity and holy-site access, and falls with raids, bans, disputes between congregations and denied pilgrimages. It feeds Stability (Section 10.1).
Legitimacy links: Aurelle’s coronation needs the Hearth-Keepers’ blessing; Ilmar’s whole state is the Canon; Hoarvale’s Crown’s Rite gives ceremony but no power; a Varkand Directorate that wins a faith’s public blessing gets a small plebiscite bonus; in democracies, faiths act like any civil-society group.
Reform politics: the Open Hand can call charity strikes that raise pressure on governments over poverty; congregations may endorse AI candidates where the law allows (Kindle, Hoarvale, Veldwood, Fulmara), and congregation turnout is a petition-weight signal the AI leaders read.

14.6 State atheism and suppression (Korund; restrictions elsewhere)

In Korund, faith is a forbidden, private act – like the hidden radio. A hidden shrine (a home item obtained through the gray market, never sold in the store) lets a citizen practice, gain Devotion and meet in underground congregations (secret channels, like plots).
The AI State Security organ investigates shrines and meetings by rule (Suspicion signals, informer reports by human citizens); each discovery adds Suspicion and may lead to capped Correction Duty. Active suppression raises Stability now and Grievance later; underground congregations add Revolutionary Pressure while banned (Section 10.3).
The AI Chairman can order a Thaw (lighter enforcement for a Plan period: Stability bonus, less Grievance) or a Campaign (harsher enforcement) – the stance itself never changes.
Low-key by design (decided v0.4): underground worship stays playable but quiet – an optional background activity, never part of the tutorial, store or marketing. Discovery is abstract (an ‘inspection found a shrine’ notice; no arrest scenes, violence or desecration shown); a first discovery adds Suspicion only, and Correction Duty (≤ 7 real days) applies only to repeat discoveries; a congregation can be raided at most once per 14 real days [ASSUMPTION]; State Media may not name individual believers; and a Campaign raises enforcement only inside these caps.
Meridian’s restrictions on the Lumen Canon and the Open Hand, and Varkand’s Red Alert limits, use the same tools at lower intensity.

14.7 Theocracy’s reach: Ilmar and the Lumen Canon abroad

The AI Supreme Oracle is head of the Lumen Canon everywhere it is allowed. Abroad, Lumen clergy obey local law first (Charter Limit) but can carry the Oracle’s Counsels – non-binding guidance; following them raises a believer’s Devotion.
Great Pilgrimage: once per game year the Oracle can call the faithful to Mirrorhall; mass foreign arrivals boost Ilmar’s prosperity and soft power, and host nations must grant or refuse pilgrimage access.
Veil: once per Age per target [ASSUMPTION], the Oracle may declare a Veil on a nation that persecutes the Canon: Lumen believers there gain Grievance, and treaty costs between Ilmar and the target rise. A deliberately powerful, rare diplomatic weapon; it never compels any player.
Other faiths’ Faith Councils have softer cross-border tools (appeals, aid drives), so the theocracy is the only state that wields a faith as foreign policy.

14.8 Missionaries and conversion across borders

At launch (decided v0.4): cross-border missionaries are live from Early Access (the MVP three), not deferred – with the cooldowns below: one invitation per citizen per 14 real days, at most one faith change per 60 real days (Section 14.3) and a full mute option.
Missionary is a career. Abroad it needs a visitor pass plus the host’s permission: free in pluralist nations, licensed in the Confluence, Meridian (registered associations only) and Varkand, Kinward Rite only in Aurelle (other faiths are private-only there), banned in Korund and – for non-Canon faiths – in Ilmar.
Missionaries hold open services, run charity and raise a city’s Faith Presence (which unlocks temples and festivals there). They can send a citizen at most one invitation per 14 real days [ASSUMPTION]; citizens can mute missionaries entirely. Conversion happens only if the citizen accepts.
Illegal preaching risks arrest, deportation and a visitor ban (capped); a missionary’s home nation takes a small World Reputation hit if its missionaries are repeatedly expelled.
Missionary work is never a cover for spying – espionage is a separate career with its own risks (Section 15.5).

14.9 Sensitivity and production notes

Each faith gets a short ‘faith bible’ (beliefs, practices, art and music kit, what to avoid), reviewed by sensitivity readers from several real religious and secular backgrounds before reveal [to recruit].
Art and music are original: no real liturgical texts or chants, no real religious symbols or vestments, and no motif that closely resembles one (Sections 24–25).
Codex entries describe each faith with respect and note that it is invented; satire is aimed at rulers who exploit faith, not at belief.