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Historical Religious Colours (Colorblind Friendly)

This is compatible with any mods that don’t change the “00_religion.txt” file, though not Ironman.

(It is my policy that anyone can use the work I've done here, and modify or add it to their own mod, and publish it, though please note the original source.)

The purpose of this mod is threefold: Firstly, to give every major in-game religion a map color that has some historical and/or spiritual significance to its individual faith, secondly to make sure every religious map color is striking, aesthetically pleasing, and easily identifiable at a moment’s glance (and that religious groups share common themes as often as possible), and thirdly to make the religious map easily to read by players suffering from color blindness, such as myself. (Don’t worry, almost all of my color choices are determined by using the standardized RGB codes of the historical colors used)

You can view and compare the old to new choices (as well as the historical explanation) in this excel sheet: https://www.dropbox.com/s/d0239hch05jmf2l/RGB%20List%20-%20Religion.xlsx?dl=0

For those who can’t view it, here is the textual explanation:

Catholic: White: Classical Catholic Liturgical Color for Easter Season. Updated to better distinguish from no religion regions, and Austria.

Protestant: (Dark) Blue: Color of Advent (Coming of Christ) common to numerous Protestant Churches; Distinct from Catholics who lack blue Lit. color.

Reformed: Similar to above: Simply a brighter shade of blue. Updated to prevent color bleeding.

Anglican: Sarum Blue: for the Sarum Rite, which is unique to the Anglican Church.

Orthodox: Wine Purple: Classical Orthodox Liturgical Color for Easter Season. Updated to distinguish from other reddish faiths.

Coptic: Dark Purple: a partial compromise, since the in-game “Copts” actually represents several distinct Christian denominations of what is sometimes called Oriental Christians. The Dark purple is meant to represent the use of dark purple (of varying shades) across the Syriac, Egyptian, and Armenian churches. (The Ethiopian church varies significantly, though.)

Sunni: Dark Green: Across all of Islam Green bears special significance because of its Quranic association with Heaven or Paradise, even if its political usage is more recent (Muhammad and the Abbasids used Black more often). In this case, this shade of dark green is based upon the ones most common in Sunni flags.

♥♥♥♥♥♥: Fatimid Green: the shade of Green commonly associated with the Fatimid Caliphate, which bears particular significance to ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ as the Golden age of their faith.

Ibadi: OIC Green: Changed from previous green because it was also associated with the Persian Shia Safavid Dynasty. The new shade is one often used by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the Pan-Islam movement.

Theravada Buddhist: Saffron: Traditional color of Theravada Monks' robes.

Vajrayana Buddhist: Maroon: Traditional color of Vajrayana Monks' robes.

Mahayana Buddhist: Orange/Ochre: Due to different availability of dyes in Western Asia (lack of Saffron) Mahayana robes became more orange in appearance.

Confucianism: Black: Color traditionally associated with Heaven and order in China and Confucianism.

Shinto: Red: Color with numerous associations in Shinto mythology, particularly the sun and Amaterasu. Red based upon Emperor's standard, who claims descent from Amaterasu.

Hindu: Deep Saffron Red: the "Saffron" Flag (closer in color to the spice than the yellow dye) is a historical and international symbol of the Hindu faith. Updated to be more accurate.

Sikh: Pure Dark Blue: Numerous colors have religious significance in in the Sikh faith, but a dark pure shade of blue was chosen because of its use in religious ceremonies (Minister often where these colored Turbans) and its presence on the international Sikh flag (along with orange), and to distinguish them from the numerous other orange-red faiths in the region.

Animist: Rainforest Green: Unfortunately, since the three generic Pagan faiths represent a huge mashup of multiple unique faiths, many of which are lost to history, I could not pick one color with deep historical significance. So, at the moment they have colors more based upon being striking upon the map and easy to distinguish from possible neighbors.

Fetishist: Wood Brown

Totemist: "Harvest Gold": Changed to be a little more subdued.

Inti: Golden Yellow: Inti (the central god of the Incans) is most often depicted in pre-Columbian as a Golden yellow sun. Further, Gold (the metal) itself was often used by the Incas as a symbol of Kingship.

Nahuatl: Cochineal: This dark red dye is derived from an insect of the same name native to Mexico. As such, Cochineal was used heavily in Aztec art and had great religious significance as it was as a representation of both the Sun and Blood, both of which figured prominently in Aztec mythology.

Mayan: Jade: Jade was a highly-prized commodity in the pre-Columbian Yucatan, and also used prominently in Mayan art and sculpting, where it had special spiritual significance for symbolic ties to the Sun, Wind, and the cycle of life and death.

Norse: Dark Grey: Grey was presumably chosen by the developers because of the importance of Stone runes and iron jewelry in Norse iconography; I merely made the Grey a little darker.

Tengri: Light (Sky) Blue: A light shade of blue representing the clear sky is the most significant color in Tengrism.

Judaism: Tekhelet: This shade of blue has a long history, suffice it to say it has great historical significance to the Jewish faith. There is also some historical debate over exactly what the correct shade is, but I chose one more familiar to a modern audience as well as one that is more easily distinguishable from the other Abrahamic faiths.

Zoroastrianism: Flame: Chosen because of the Significance of Fire and Flames in Zoroastrianism. Updated to help distinguish from the new Hindu Saffron.