I believe the perfect and maximum number of pantheons for AoMR should be twelve. Let me explain.
Twelve represends completeness, unity and balance. It has a significant meaning around the world, across multiple mythologys, like the twelve olympian gods, the twelve zodiac signs and earthly branches in chinese mythology or the twelve worlds connected by Yggdrasil, the norse worldtree. It’s four times the amount of pantheons we started with, making it that much more diverse whilst retaining this feeling of stability. Every time a new pantheon is added it starts out with twelve gods, three major and nine minor. Ending it with the same number would be a great momento to it. Future community events, i hope they return, could dedicate one month to every pantheon and if every culture gets a fourth major god the chalanges could switch weekly from one major god to another, while remaining in the same space till next month. Lastly twelve makes for a perfect matchmaking number. Not just does a lobby hold up to twelve players, the ways you can fill that space becomes so satisfying. You can have someone from everywhere ones, three teams of entire cultures, six unlikely duos and much more.
I hate to say it but we also need to be realistic. There is simply no way every mythology will make the cut. The game cannot add so costly things forever. Sure, campaigns and scenarios are one thing but an entirely new thing is hard to implement. The work that goes in every new pantheon and culture is immense. Buildings, favour, godpowers, units, everything needs to be build from scratch to sell well and that is no easy feet. Twelve is a stretch already but it would be worth it.
The real question is, which pantheons should be added? There is no easy way to answer this question but there are some ways to approach it to get to an satisfying result. The community has clearly two favorites already. The Celts and the Mesopotamians (Babylonians). I fully agree that those two would make fine additions to the game. They fit the mould perfectly and because the community already wants them it’s a safe and lucrative bet, opening the way for more. Now here is the part where the countless discussions start. If i could pick the next pantheon after the last two i would go with the turks. The turks, because they break the mould. A Nomadic civilization which focuses on cavalary, moveable houses and has no farms but instead pens would add something completely new to the game. If you want to learn more about this culture check out @hasansan concept of them. To add further variety we could go back to africa and look at the yoruba. A second african mythology would do some good for the game, the continents history and larger playerbase. For the final pantheon i’m torn between the slavic and the vedic. Both of them are fascinating and would fit the game perfectly. Whatever the devs choose to add, i believe it will resonate and we the players will accept it whole heartedly.
On a last note, scince this became bigger than i thought, i’ve seen many people wanting a roman culture and others alike to be added as well. Personly i don’t like the idea of the romans joining the game, because i believe there believe is a greek variant and it’s units are partially in the atlantiens already. Yet i can understand them and so i think i might have found a compromise. With the pantheon pin-up event we got to choose which portrait of a certain god we like the most. What if we could switch an intere culture like the portrait? For example, you could change the greek pantheon to its roman counter part with one button press. Zeus would become Jupiter, Poseidon becomes Neptune, Ares becomes Mars and so forth. The god powers and technologies stay the same as well as the building UI. The only things that would change are the designs of the buildings, the god portraits with names, all the human units (including heroes) and the myth units, the rest remains. The same could be done for the Mayan. You switch the aztecs to there mayan counter parts. This only works for pantheons who overlap quite a bit and share some history together. This couldn’t be done to switch norse and celts, because they have nothing to do with each other. It may not be fair to reduce two prominent mythologys to a second option, but if the alternative is to not have them completely, would you say no?
