Hello again!
Earth has been very distracting in the last few weeks, but Dawi Kiss has not been forgotten. While we wait for Holy Fury to drop, it seems like a good time to talk religion in Warhammer and Crusader Kings 2.
The Empire of Sigmar is a confusing place with a host of gods. We don't even know the names of all of them, though the most prominent gods are familiar to anyone who has gotten into Warhammer (or Geheimnisnacht). In the most part, citizens of the Empire pray to a god (or gods) that they believe are most willing and able to help them. When sick, a Reiklander calls out to Shallya. Before undertaking a river journey, the same man prays to Manann. If the fertility of plants (or people) is of great importance, our Reiklander turns to Taal and Rhya. But if one was to ask this man which god protects him, he answers "Sigmar!" While the Time of Three Emperors began in the 1500s with an unprecedented religious conflict between the Cult of Ulric and Cult of Sigmar, in which the Ulrican hierarchy labeled Sigmarites as Heretics, the other Cults of the Empire were bystanders. (Indeed, southern gods such as Myrmidia may have gained popularity in the Empire during this time.) By the time of the Vampire Wars, when Geheimnisnacht starts, the conflict had essentially collapsed with both Cults withdrawing their support from the lines they'd originally backed.
In the main Geheimnisnacht mod, this situation is represented by a family of religions that are mildly hostile to one another. None regards the other as a Heresy until a secular ruler achieves supremacy. That doesn't ring true to the lore and there's not much incentive for religious reform.
For Dawi Kiss, we took the faith of the common people as our starting point: everyone in the Empire of Sigmar is nominally Sigmarite, but they might belong to a religious Cult (represented as a society) to represent their personal beliefs. The plan going forward is to add more Cult societies to allow players to experience the different faiths of the Empire. Next, we want to add in supremacist heresies for the Cults of Ulric and Sigmar which present the player with new options. Finally, the religious reform mechanics previewed for Holy Fury will be integrated into the mod so that players who reunite the Empire can also establish the Conclave of Faith and create a new religious consensus in the North - or solidify the supremacy of their own patron god.
It's also worth mentioning religion in the other human lands of the Old World. Bretonnia's faiths are fairly represented in Geheimnisnacht, with every Bretonnian nominally under the protection of the Lady of the Lake. However, the role of Shallya (and other gods) is misleading in the base mod. Shallya is not a regional deity only followed in a tiny enclave - by population, she has more adherents than the Lady. But the Cult of Shallya is unambitious and leaves the faithful of the Grail to dominate Bretonnia. In Dawi Kiss, we got rid of Shallyan as a religious oddity, leaving the Cult society to represent Shallyanism. As with the Empire positions, new Cult societies will add fresh options for play in Bretonnia in the near future. We also want to implement heresies to Bretonnia, especially the enduring peasant belief that the Lady of the Lake is a servant of Shallya and the Vampiric heresy of the Dark Lady and her False Grail. At present, we don't intend to use the religious reform mechanics for the faith of the Grail because Bretonnia starts the campaign united.
Turning to the South, the lands of Tilea and Estalia are protected by Myrmidia but host dozens of other Cults. There's a long-standing disagrement between the Tilean and Estalian churches, though in the Warhammer lore this doesn't seem to flash over into violence on a large scale. Due to the paucity of lore on the subject, our plans for the South at the moment are unambitious. Again, the Cults will be present so your Tilean Merchant Princes can quietly revere Ranald or openly praise Manann for the bounty of the seas, but - aside from the Dark Pantheon - the heresies of this region aren't something we know about. It's likely that we'll use new options from Holy Fury to make the ending of the Tilean/Estalian schism more interesting, but that's a fairly low priority.
Cant wait :)
Great idea to continue this excellent mod for ck2.