Pantheons I would love to see added

[smiki5five]

@connorjl

Mongol: this isn’t a super popular mythology, but Mongolian peoples have been well-represented in Age of Empires, and a nomadic civilization with a 100% cavalry-based military and portable buildings would be a really cool mechanic. Myth units, could include the zilant, olgoi-khorkhoi and almas. Naturally, this would be a good civ to play against the Chinese, Canaanites (read: Muslims) and Slavs.

I’d go with a general Tengrist pantheon, venerated by Mongols, Turks, and some other nomads of the Eurasian Steppe. It’s been my most wanted addition to the game ever since I learned that they have myths about mammoths:

What would be like to see released in 2026?

Tengrists, so that we can have mammoths as a unit. Fun Fact: In Tengriism, there is a kind of mythologized memory of the disappearance of the mammoths. It is claimed that when Kaia banished Erlig to the 9th layer of the underworld, after a heavenly war; he dragged the mammoths along with him, to have livestock down there, and placed a curse that makes them freeze any time they try to escape back to the surface. The Turkic peoples of Siberia are the ones who have the most vibrant and colorfu…

@connorjl

Persians: the classic enemy of the Greeks, Babylonians and Egyptians. The biggest challenge in adapting them is that they were the original monotheists, so they would probably only have two major gods (Ahura Mazda vs Ahriman) with minor gods replaced by the lesser yazatas or angels (see my Canaanite build for how this could be implemented).

Persian religion was polytheist before Zoroaster, so there’s no challenge: Ancient Iranian religion - Wikipedia

@Akleoni

Also Hindus are apparently very protective of their mythology getting represented and would be trickier to make (especially if you pretend to sell in India)

I’d focus on the Rigvedic gods who don’t have active temples anymore (Indra, Surya, Vayu, etc.) and ignore gods that are most popular today (members of the Trimurti and the Tridevi, their major avatars, Ganesha). Maybe also co-develop it with an Indian studio like it was done for the Chinese.