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[McDoomhammer]

One that occurred to me- Deities already show up in relationship pages, why not have them occasionally have sibling or parent relationships with other deities of the same civ?  If it's just for flavour, cool, but bonus points if it affects the relationships of their believers too...

[perilisk]

It would be interesting if religions evolved like real-world religions would if we had fantasy logic. That is, relationships between gods reflect real world events related to their spheres, their followers, their myths, .

For example:
* Town A has two main gods -- a god of flame and a god of forests. A terrible forest fire causes great destruction. The townspeople begin to believe the god of flame murdered the forest god, and add a sphere of murder. When the forest regrows, the people assign the forest god a sphere of resurrection. They believe the gods are arch-enemies, leading to strife between the worshippers of the two gods. As the forest god's worshippers come to dominate, the fire god's old symbol, the torch, becomes synonymous with evil to them. However, due to their close (inimical) relationship, belief in (not worship of) the fire god remains as strong as belief in the forest god. They are a sort of love-hate pantheon.

* Religion A sends missionaries to a foreign civ to spread the word of its religion. They find their ceremonies and gods have little traction there, so they create a hybrid religion where the least objectionable/most popular ceremonies of the native religions are preserved, and some myths and spheres are transferred to their god. Existing gods may be allowed roles as saints or sub-divine servants of their god.

* A human civilization consisting of loosely connected city states, each with a local deity, is in the process of becoming a centrally controlled empire. Religious strife is preventing imperial cohesion. A charismatic prophet assembles the vast array of deities gods into a pantheon -- very similar gods are merged into one; other gods are given familial relationships. After the imperial city's god, powerful religions get better spots in the pantheon. Priests that adapt to shared power thrive. Priests that object are tossed to the carp. As the people who remember the old ways die, the pantheon becomes accepted as fact.

* Two civilizations engage in many brutal battles in the early days of the world. Over time, each incorporates the other civilization's gods into its own pantheon -- however, as twisted evil entities its gods must struggle against for the good of humanity (beneficial spheres generally being replaced by negative ones).