Imperator: Rome – Magna Graecia religion guide: Pantheons and holy sites

Imperator: Rome‘s Magna Graecia content pack adds a lot of objectives and mechanics for long-time fans to try out. This also goes hand-in-hand with patch 1.4, the Archimedes free update, which is free to all players. Here’s our mini-guide to help you out with your nation’s religion, pantheon, and holy sites.

Note: With regards to Magna Graecia‘s focus on the expansion of Athens, Sparta, and Syracuse, you can read our Greek missions guide. For more information about Imperator: Rome, you can check out our guides and features hub.

Imperator: Rome – Magna Graecia and Archimedes religion guide

As mentioned in our preview article, Imperator: Rome‘s Magna Graecia DLC and Archimedes free update have many new features for players to sink their teeth into. Unfortunately, there are also a number of shortcomings whether it’s the opaque UI or how mechanics don’t mesh well together.

Given these concerns, this guide aims to provide an outline of what you can expect from the religion system overhaul. Likewise, while some fixtures such as gods and goddesses and holy sites are generated by events, missions, or apotheosis, we simply look at the ones present once you start your Imperator: Rome campaign. Of course, the means of adaptation and end results will still depend on the player’s choices. For beginners, we also advise you to check out our “Things to do before you unpause” article to get a gist of the basics.

Religion: The Hellenic Pantheon

All pantheons in Imperator: Rome represent the four cornerstones of your fledgling empire: war, culture, economy, and fertility. Specific deities may be assigned to each. They provide a passive buff (P) and an active buff (A) that’s initiated when you call down an omen. For now, we’ll focus on the Hellenic Pantheon for the three featured Greek nations in the Magna Graecia DLC.

War

• Athena Nikopheros (Syracuse start) – monthly military experience (P); morale of armies (A)
• Athena Promachos (Athens start) – morale of armies (P); discipline (A)
• Athena Polioukhos (Sparta start) – army maintenance cost (P); discipline (A)
• Ares – cohort starting experience (P); morale of armies (A)
• Poseidon – ship starting experience (P); morale of navies (A)
• Herakles – wrong culture happiness (P); discipline (A)
• Apollo – primary culture happiness (P); manpower recovery speed (A)

Culture

• Arethousa (Syracuse start) – national population growth (P); manpower recovery speed (A)
• Athena Parthenos (Athens start) – monthly political influence (P); research points (A)
• Hyakinthos (Sparta start) – oratory tech investment (P); primary culture happiness (A)
• Athena – monthly political influence (P); research points (A)
• Asklepios – national citizen happiness (P); monthly civilization change (A)
• Zeus – monthly ruler popularity (P); aggressive expansion change (A)
• Tyche – monthly stability (P); mercenary army maintenance (A)
• Hera – population capacity (P); national citizen happiness (A)
• Helios – primary culture happiness (P); monthly ruler popularity (A)

Economy

• Apollo Didymaios (Syracuse start) – primary culture happiness (P); national citizen output (A)
• Athena Ergane (Athens start) – civic tech investment (P); national commerce income (A)
• Apollo Karneios (Sparta start) – national citizen happiness (P); national commerce income (A)
• Hephaistos – military tech investment (P); fort maintenance (A)
• Hades – build cost (P); national tax (A)
• Hermes – national commerce income (P); national freeman happiness (A)

Fertility

• Artemis Alphaia (Syracuse start) – national freeman happiness (P); global monthly food (A)
• Demeter Potnia (Athens start) – state religion happiness (P); global monthly food (A)
• Helen (Sparta start) – global monthly food (P); monthly ruler popularity (A)
• Aphrodite – population capacity (P); monthly wages (A)
• Pan – supply limit (P); hostile attrition (A)
• Artemis – global monthly food (P); manpower recovery speed (A)
• Demeter – national population growth (P); global monthly food (A)
• Dionysos – global monthly food (P); national freeman happiness (A)

Apotheosis: The deification of your ruler

Imperator: Rome‘s greatest rulers can attain godhood by way of Magna Graecia‘s apotheosis mechanic. Here are the requirements:

• Have 200 political influence to spare.
• Your ruler has to have a popularity of 90 or higher.
• Your ruler’s family must have 800 prestige or higher.
• The form of government that your nation has must not be a republic that doesn’t focus on theocracies. For instance, since Sparta is a monarchy, you’re able to deify your ruler if you’ve met the other requirements.

Holy sites

Many holy sites exist already once you start your Imperator: Rome campaign and you can see these if you switch to the religion map mode. Should your chosen faction already control one, then you’ll see a slight increase to a deity’s passive and active buffs.

Holy sites can also have sacred treasures/holy relics “socketed” to give extra boons. The number is dependent on the settlement’s level. Now, if you’re in control of a settlement with a holy site, you can choose to desecrate/destroy it so your faction can obtain these treasures. Desecrating a holy site is the only way to “unequip” your own treasures if you somehow made a mistake. This is not advisable since rededicating another holy site can be costly.

Note: Holy sites are specific to a being’s name, including their epithet, even if they’re the same god or goddess. As such, a holy site dedicated to “Athena” does nothing for “Athena Promachos” or “Athena Parthenos.” The same applies to “Zeus” versus “Jupiter.”

Building a holy site

You can build a holy site dedicated to any deity as long as no other holy sites exist for that divine being. You may need to desecrate existing ones in faraway lands if you wish to create these in nearby territories.

In any case, just click on any owned settlement and mouse over the obelisk icon (seen below). This will set you back 400 gold and 100 political influence, but the construction will be instant.

Holy sites in Imperator: Rome’s campaign start

Italy and Sicily:

• Arritim – Tinia
• Velcal – Turan
• Cisra – Apulu
• Roma – Jupiter
• Capua – Diana
• Lokroi Epizephyrioi – Persephone
• Akragas – Heracles
• Syrakousai (Syracuse-owned) – Arethousa

Greek mainland and Macedon:

• Dodona – Zeus Naios
• Delphi – Apollo
• Thebai – Dionysos
• Athenai (Athens-owned) – Athena
• Olympia – Zeus
• Argos – Hera
• Epidauros – Asklepios
• Delos – Poseidon

Asia Minor, Crete, and Egypt:

• Lemnos (Athens-owned) – Hephaistos
• Ephesos – Artemis
• Rhodos – Helios
• Tarrha – Karmanor
• Knossos – Ariadne
• Hieraptyna – Diktean Zeus
• Alexandreia – Alexander “The Great” Argead

Imperator Rome‘s Magna Graecia content pack releases on March 31. You can find it on Steam. For more information about Imperator: Rome, you can check out our guides and features hub.