ive gods should concern you. Each has their own area of interest, and they all crave adoration from you and your people. Build temples to make them pleased with you. When you build a temple, you are asked to select a god to dedicate it to.

Roman gods are jealous, however, and grow angry if you build too few temples for the size of your city, or if you dedicate fewer temples to them than to the other gods. If you anger the gods, they will make you and your city suffer.

The gods will each send you a mild disaster if you upset them. Take this as a warning. If you continue to treat them without respect, they become truly wrathful, and send you a serious disaster. Each god can make you suffer in a unique way.

The gods are by no means all bad, though. Should you particularly please any of them, they might bestow signs of gratitude on you, again each in their own special way.

You can also dedicate a festival to one of the gods, which causes it to think better of you. See Page 93, Festivals, for more information about festivals.

Ceres is the goddess of agriculture. Since everybody needs to eat, keeping her favor is a very good idea. Her moods can affect whether people eat abundantly, or starve.

Neptune, the god of the sea, watches over the province's sailors, both on trade ships and fishing boats. People say that Neptune's temper causes mighty storms.

Mercury is the god of commerce. All citizens who engage in commerce or industry expect you to honor Mercury, especially if their produce is precious to you.

Mars, the god of war, watches over your soldiers. If they feel that Mars is withholding protection, your legions might be less reliable when you most need them.

Venus is the goddess of love. When Venus is unhappy, she is apt to share the feeling with your citizens, noticeably depressing the mood of your city. She has also been known to play with citizens' health.

How well you give your citizens access to places of worship a ffects your city's Culture rating. Each religious structure has a capacity. Your Culture rating suffers if more people want to use each temple or oracle than its capacity allows. You have been warned!

Consult your Religion Advisor to find out what each god thinks of you. If you see lightning bolt symbols beside the word expressing a god's feeling towards you, it's time to act. The more lightning bolts there are, the more likely the god is to act out their anger. One or two bolts mean that you should have time to appease them. If four or five bolts are displayed, you might not be able to appease them in time to avert disaster. Of course, any action that you take to please them will serve you well in the future anyway.