Dev Diary 18 - The Empire of Brazil (Preview)

Religions

The religious icon of the Apostolic faith.



Cultures

History

Good tidings, all!It's been a while since v0.3 launched, and I feel like it went much smoother than the last version's launch. Hopefully we can get down to 0 hotfixes someday.Anyways, let's talk about the major new feature that will be introduced in v0.4 of the Fan Fork. I've been looking forward to implementing this feature for ages - in fact, it was one of the main reasons I decided to start the Fan Fork in the first place. That feature is the first offmap power in After the End - the Empire of Brazil.Although we have a basic version of the Empire working in our dev build, it's not in a state where we can show it off - plenty of localization still references China, and the art assets are ripped straight from vanilla. I'll instead use this dev diary to talk about the basic background, lore, and history of the Empire.The best place to start would be with the religious and cultural makeup of the Empire.In the current version of the Fan Fork, the Empire of Brazil operates much as it did in the pre-Fan Fork version - everyone has the same culture (Brasileiro) and one religion (Candomble). However, in v0.4, the Empire of Brazil will have three major religions within its borders - Candomble, Charismatic, and a new religion, Apostolic.Let's talk about the new religion first. Apostolic is a new religion in the Christian group, which is meant to represent a specifically Brazilian form of Catholicism. It's a descendant of the real-life Brazilian Catholic Apostolic Church, formed in 1945 by a former Catholic Archbishop. After the Event, this form of Christianity became dominant in Brazil. This was partially because of its tolerance of non-Christian faiths and partially because of its heavy promotion by the current Imperial House.The Apostolic faith will allow priests to marry and will allow divorces to be granted. It does not currently have a religious head, as we aren't sure how well that will work with the off-map power. However, should we add a religious head, he will be known as the Patriarch of the Apostolic Church. The Apostolic faith will be the starting religion of the Empire, but this may not always be the case...The other major religion in Brazil is Charismatic, the Evangelical heresy that is already present in the Fan Fork. Charismatic acts as a stand-in for the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God , the largest Protestant denomination in Brazil. We heavily debated representing it as a heresy of the Apostolic faith, but we eventually decided that having more than one new off-map religion would be a little too much. If the Charismatic faith ends up becoming the state religion of Brazil, non-Christians should watch out - the Empire will likely become much less friendly towards them...The final major religion in Brazil is Candomble. Currently, it is the only major faith in Brazil, but in v0.4 it will be a minority faith, practiced mostly in the Northeast by Baianos and by some groups in the Amazon rainforest. However, it was once the state religion of the Empire before the rise of the current imperial house, and it may become the state religion once more...As for cultures, I feel like I don't have to explain this as much. All four of the Brazilian cultures are already present in-game. There's Brasileiro, which represents "mainstream" Brazilians from the Southeast, and Amazonense, which represents inhabitants of the Amazon Rainforest, but there are two others - Baiano, which represents Afro-Brazilians from the Northeast, and Gaucho, which represents southern Brazilians, Uruguayans, northern Argentinians, and others.There has been one major change, though. Gaucho and Amazonense are no longer part of the Portuguese culture group - they have been moved to a new "Portunhol" culture group, to better represent their status as "border" cultures and so that certain events and policies work properly. The Amazonense culture has also been renamed to Amazonico, as Amazonense refers specifically to residents of the Brazilian state of Amazonas.Alright, now that we have explained the basic religious and cultural makeup of the Empire, it's time to talk about the history of the Empire.Although there was an Empire of Brazil before the Event, it was long dead by the time the Event struck and destroyed the world. However, its two Emperors, Pedro I and II, were never forgotten by the common people, and they were both eventually declared saints by the Apostolic Church.The post-Event Empire of Brazil was first founded on July 2, 2323 by Empress Fatima de Pelourinho. Empress Fatima was born in the city of Salvador, and was the only child of the city's ruler. Upon assuming control of her father's domain, she used a combination of war and diplomacy to unite the Northeast and Southeast, reforming the Empire of Brazil. For over a hundred years, she and her descendants would rule the Empire from their capital at Salvador, expanding the Empire further. It was at this time that many Amazonian tribes adopted the Candomble religion, as it was then the state religion of the Empire.However, the de Pelourinho dynasty would not rule Brazil forever. The fourth de Pelourinho ruler, Ulisses, was a cruel and unjust ruler, earning him the nickname "the Tyrant". There had already been a lot of tension in the Southeast because of the Northeast's dominance of imperial politics, but the cruelty of Ulisses was the last straw. At this time, a young man named Pedro emerged. He claimed to be a direct descendant of the pre-Event imperial house, the de Braganca dynasty, and led a rebellion against the Emperor. During a climactic battle outside Belo Horizonte, Pedro slew Ulisses, leading to the victory of the rebellion. On September 7th, 2443, Pedro de Braganca was crowned in Rio de Janeiro as Pedro III, Emperor of Brazil. The capital was moved to Rio de Janeiro, and the Apostolic faith became the state religion of Brazil.The de Braganca dynasty has held power since that point, although their history hasn't exactly been smooth. Within two generations, the Empire would see a bastard challenge and defeat the reigning Emperor in a duel for the throne, a militant Charismatic priest briefly seize the throne, and the sudden death of a beloved emperor due to a heart attack, leaving his incompetent son on the throne. In 2666, that incompetent son is the current Emperor, and the Empire is in a state of unrest...That's about it for now. Next time, we'll take a look at some new features for the Brethren and Consumerist religions. I hope you're looking forward to v0.4!