Philosophy and the Arts - Heliomance/Uncharted-Horizons GitHub Wiki

_{Focus Areas · Design document §3}

Available from: SO02 (Storytelling) + SO03 (Tribal Law)

19 breakthroughs — CORE 5 · STANDARD 7 · UNCOMMON 2 · UNIQUE 5 — Primitive – Atomic

Builds on: Stonework (1) · Observation (2) · Social Organization (9) · Construction (1) · Mathematics (3) · Trade (1) · Water Management (1) · Mechanics (1) · Electronics (1)

Leads into: Stonework (1) · Social Organization (2) · Metallurgy (1) · Construction (1) · Warfare (1) · Mathematics (3) · Medicine (3) · Mechanics (2) · Thermodynamics (1) · Chemistry (5) · Optics (1) · Computing (2) · Aeronautics (1)

_{The numbers count prerequisite links between this focus and the other. How to read the tables.}

The institutions of mind and spirit — faith, learning and art. Merged in v3.58 from Philosophy and Religion & Culture, the two thinnest early foci, so that the Temple, the University and the Scientific Method sit where a player funding thought and faith would look for them — as in Civ V, where Philosophy brings the Temple and Education the University — and so that the focus offers something in every era from the Primitive to the Modern. Breakthrough IDs keep their PH and CU prefixes; nothing that cites them changes.

flowchart LR
  n_CU04["CU04 Musical Instruments"]:::STANDARD
  n_CU12["CU12 Sacred Dance Tradition"]:::UNIQUE
  n_CU13["CU13 Talking Drum Networks"]:::UNIQUE
  n_CU02["CU02 Monumental Architecture"]:::CORE
  n_CU10["CU10 Sacred River Tradition"]:::UNIQUE
  n_CU15["CU15 Scholastic Theology"]:::STANDARD
  n_CU03["CU03 Artistic Tradition"]:::STANDARD
  n_CU05["CU05 Theater"]:::STANDARD
  n_CU11["CU11 Courtly Love Tradition"]:::UNIQUE
  n_CU14["CU14 Historiography"]:::STANDARD
  n_PH01["PH01 Formal Logic"]:::CORE
  n_CU06["CU06 University"]:::CORE
  n_PH04["PH04 Scientific Method"]:::CORE
  n_PH11["PH11 Systems Thinking"]:::UNCOMMON
  n_PH14["PH14 The Enlightenment"]:::STANDARD
  n_PH09["PH09 Existentialism"]:::UNCOMMON
  n_CU07["CU07 Renaissance"]:::STANDARD
  n_PH10["PH10 Information Theory"]:::CORE
  n_PH12["PH12 Harmonious Inquiry"]:::UNIQUE
  n_CU04 --> n_CU12
  n_CU02 --> n_CU10
  n_CU03 --> n_CU05
  n_PH01 --> n_CU06
  n_CU03 --> n_CU11
  n_CU05 --> n_CU11
  n_PH01 --> n_PH04
  n_CU06 --> n_PH04
  n_CU06 --> n_CU07
  n_PH01 --> n_CU07
  n_PH01 --> n_PH09
  n_PH14 --> n_PH09
  n_PH01 --> n_PH10
  n_PH04 --> n_PH11
  n_CU03 --> n_CU14
  n_CU02 --> n_CU15
  n_PH01 --> n_CU15
  n_PH04 --> n_PH14
  n_CU07 --> n_PH14
  classDef CORE fill:#dbeafe,stroke:#1d4ed8,color:#0b1b3b
  classDef STANDARD fill:#f1f5f9,stroke:#64748b,color:#0f172a
  classDef UNCOMMON fill:#dcfce7,stroke:#15803d,color:#052e16
  classDef RARE fill:#fef3c7,stroke:#b45309,color:#3b2005
  classDef UNIQUE fill:#fae8ff,stroke:#a21caf,color:#3b0a3f

_{Prerequisites within this focus. Box colour is the tier (blue CORE, grey STANDARD, green UNCOMMON, amber RARE, purple UNIQUE); dotted arrows are alternatives (“or”); a line can pass behind another box, so follow it from its start. 16 of these 19 breakthroughs also need breakthroughs from other foci, which the overview above lists.}

• Tier: STANDARD · Era: Primitive
• Prerequisites: SO02 + S01 (Tool Making)
• Unlocks: ⟨[Great Prophet] is earned [+10]% faster⟩ — music in ritual and worship. (Culture-spreading bards have no Unciv mechanism.)
• Leads to: CU12 Sacred Dance Tradition

• Tier: UNIQUE · Era: Primitive
• Prerequisites: CU04 (Musical Instruments) + SO02 + Tropical or Desert biome
• Unlocks: Dance Groundⁿ [replaces Monument; 40/1; +2 Culture, +1 Faith, +1 Happiness]. Civ unique: ⟨[+1 Happiness] [in all cities] <in cities with a [Dance Ground]>⟩ — cohesion in every city that dances.
• Notes: West African, Aboriginal Australian, Native American ceremonial dance.

• Tier: UNIQUE · Era: Primitive
• Prerequisites: SO02 + Dense forest/jungle biome
• Unlocks: Drum Towerⁿ [10/0; +1 Culture; ⟨Must have an owned [Forest] within [2] tiles⟩]. Civ unique: ⟨Resting point for Influence with City-States is increased by [10]⟩ — every neighbour hears the drums.
• Notes: West African-inspired. Relocated from the former Communications focus.

• Tier: CORE · Era: Ancient
• Prerequisites: CO02 + SO05
• Unlocks: Temple (and the Egyptian Burial Tomb and Songhai Mud Pyramid Mosque that replace it). Monumental faith. (Hagia Sophia, the Great Mosque of Djenne and the Grand Temple move to the University, CU06, their Medieval era.) ⟨[-25]% Culture cost of natural border growth [in all cities]⟩ — the stones mark whose land this is. Stonehenge, The Pyramids, Mausoleum of Halicarnassus (world wonders) — the first monuments, and the first alignments with the sky (Megalithic Construction, merged here in v3.102).
• Leads to: S11 Megalithic Observatory, ME16 Sacred Bronze Tradition, CO21 Ceremonial Road Network, CU10 Sacred River Tradition, CU15 Scholastic Theology, CH15 Greek Alchemical Tradition

• Tier: STANDARD · Era: Ancient
• Prerequisites: SO02 + any luxury resource
• Unlocks: ⟨[Great Artist] is earned [+10]% faster⟩ — a tradition that trains its own masters. (The Hermitage moves to the Renaissance, CU07; the Louvre and the Museum to The Enlightenment, PH14; the National Epic to Historiography, CU14.)
• Leads to: SO14 Oral Epic Tradition, CU05 Theater, CU11 Courtly Love Tradition, CU14 Historiography

• Tier: UNIQUE · Era: Ancient
• Prerequisites: CU02 (Monumental Architecture) + River biome + WM01
• Unlocks: River Templeⁿ [replaces Temple; 100/2; requires a Shrine in this city; +2 Faith, +1 Culture; ⟨[+1 Food] from [River] tiles [in this city]⟩]. Civ unique: ⟨[+1 Faith] from [River] tiles [in all cities]⟩ — the river is holy, and it feeds you.
• Notes: Ganges, Nile, Tigris-Euphrates sacred river traditions.

• Tier: CORE · Era: Classical
• Prerequisites: O06
• Unlocks: ⟨Gifts of Gold to City-States generate [+25]% more Influence⟩ — the structured argument persuades. ⟨[+1 Science] from every specialist [in all cities]⟩; ⟨[-25]% enemy spy effectiveness [in all cities]⟩ (<when espionage is enabled>) — scepticism as defence: Aristotle's logic and his account of knowledge (Epistemology, merged here in v3.105).
• Leads to: MA07 Binary Mathematics, MA13 Topology, CU06 University, PH04 Scientific Method, CU07 Renaissance, PH09 Existentialism, PH10 Information Theory, CU15 Scholastic Theology, MC13 Perpetual Motion Understanding, CH15 Greek Alchemical Tradition, OP09 Ibn al-Haytham's Optics, CP12 Sentient AI

• Tier: UNIQUE · Era: Classical
• Prerequisites: O06 (Natural Philosophy) + Diverse biome (3+ terrain types)
• Unlocks: Academy of Harmonyⁿ [100/1; +2 Science, +1 Culture; ⟨[+1 Science] for every known Natural Wonder⟩]. Civ unique: ⟨[+2 Science] for every known Natural Wonder⟩ — inquiry that walks the whole world. (Approximates the design's per-terrain-type bonus, which has no direct template.)
• Notes: Chinese natural philosophy, Greek peripatetic tradition.

• Tier: STANDARD · Era: Classical
• Prerequisites: SO04 + CU03
• Unlocks: Amphitheater; the drama festival via Events.json. (The Opera House, the Celtic Ceilidh Hall, the Sistine Chapel and the Theatre belong to the Renaissance, CU07.)
• Leads to: CU11 Courtly Love Tradition

• Tier: CORE · Era: Medieval
• Prerequisites: SO04 + PH01 (Formal Logic — epistemology)
• Unlocks: University (and the Siamese Wat); Angkor Wat (world wonder); Oxford University (national wonder — a great seat of learning, built on recovered knowledge: the Translation Movement, merged here in v3.100). (The theology wonders are Scholastic Theology's, CU15.)
• Notes: Bologna (1088), Paris and Oxford (12th c.), three centuries before the press.
• Leads to: PH04 Scientific Method, CU07 Renaissance

• Tier: UNIQUE · Era: Medieval
• Prerequisites: CU03 (Artistic Tradition) + CU05 (Theater) + SO06 (Codified Law)
• Unlocks: Royal Courtⁿ [replaces Amphitheater; 100/2; requires a Monument in this city; +3 Culture; Great Artist points 2]. Civ unique: ⟨When declaring friendship, both parties gain a [15]% boost to great person generation⟩ — courtship, made diplomacy.
• Notes: European/Japanese/Persian courtly poetry and culture.

• Tier: CORE · Era: Early Modern
• Prerequisites: PH01 + CU06 (University — the schools where natural philosophy was taught) + MC06 (Printing Press — observations fixed, shared and checked)
• Unlocks: ⟨[+25]% [Science] [in all cities]⟩ — Insight is science, so the design's game-changing bonus is this one legal unique. Experimental Laboratoryⁿ [190/2; requires a University in this city; +2 Science; Scientist ×1] — the experiment as institution (Empiricism, merged here in v3.100: Bacon's empiricism was the method).
• Notes: Game-changing.
• Leads to: SO16 Public Education, WA28 Drill and Discipline, MA05 Calculus, PH11 Systems Thinking, PH14 The Enlightenment, MD04 Vaccination, MD05 Germ Theory, MD15 Contagion Experiments, MC08 Steam Engine, TH01 Laws of Thermodynamics, CH05 Oxygen Theory, CH19 Systematic Element Analysis, CH21 Philosopher's Stone, AE01 Hot Air Balloon

• Tier: STANDARD · Era: Early Modern
• Prerequisites: CU06 + PH01 (Formal Logic — epistemology) + TR05
• Unlocks: ⟨Empire enters a [10]-turn Golden Age⟩ (a Triggerable on discovery — the Renaissance itself); Hermitage (national wonder); Opera House (and the Celtic Ceilidh Hall); Theatre; Sistine Chapel (world wonder) — music and drama for a paying public: opera began in Renaissance Florence, and the Sistine ceiling dates from 1512 (Opera, merged here in v3.100).
• Leads to: PH14 The Enlightenment

• Tier: UNCOMMON · Era: Modern
• Prerequisites: PH01 (Formal Logic — epistemology) + PH14 (The Enlightenment — the rational order it answered)
• Unlocks: ⟨[+2 Culture] from every [Artist]⟩ — the movement finds its voices. Existential-crisis events via Events.json.

• Tier: CORE · Era: Atomic
• Prerequisites: PH01 + MA07 (Binary Math) + EN01 (Vacuum Tube — the telephone and radio circuits it measured)
• Unlocks: ⟨[Great Scientist] is earned [+10]% faster⟩ — information made measurable. Prerequisite for Computing.
• Leads to: CP01 Programmable Computer

• Tier: UNCOMMON · Era: Atomic
• Prerequisites: PH04 + (MA14 (Chaos Theory) or MA09)
• Unlocks: ⟨[+5]% [Production] [in all cities]⟩; ⟨[+5]% growth [in all cities]⟩ — the whole seen as a system.

• Tier: STANDARD · Era: Classical
• Prerequisites: SO04 (Writing) + CU03 (Artistic Tradition)
• Unlocks: National Epic (national wonder) — the past written down, and argued over.
• Notes: Herodotus and Thucydides (5th c. BC).

• Tier: STANDARD · Era: Medieval
• Prerequisites: CU02 (Monumental Architecture) + PH01 (Formal Logic)
• Unlocks: Hagia Sophia, Great Mosque of Djenne (world wonders); Grand Temple (national wonder) — faith argued by logic.
• Notes: The canonical Theology's objects, in the century of Aquinas and the kalam.

• Tier: STANDARD · Era: Early Modern
• Prerequisites: PH04 (Scientific Method) + CU07 (Renaissance)
• Unlocks: Museum; The Louvre (world wonder) — knowledge gathered, ordered and shown.
• Notes: The British Museum (1753); the Encyclopédie (1751).
• Leads to: PH09 Existentialism