Territories

Imperator: Rome tutorial #3 - pops and cities.

A paintable map of territories.

Territories are the smallest unit of land in Imperator: Rome, and they are the basic unit of territorial organization for most ingame mechanics, such as territorial ownership, pops with their associated output, culture, and religion, army movement, occupation, and recruitment, and more. Every territory belongs to a particular province, which themselves are grouped into regions.

Mechanics

Most territories can have an owner and be colonized, or not be owned by any country at all; unowned territories are considered uncolonized. Uncolonized territories are not necessarily uninhabited and can be colonized by neighbouring countries to directly take ownership of them. Ownership is not to be confused with having control over a territory, which is typically the owner but can also be an enemy occupier during times of war. Certain territories are uncolonizeable and cannot be properly owned or have a population; they may be merely uninhabitable but still accessible by armies or consist of completely impassable terrain. Separately, there are also sea territories, including major rivers, that cannot be owned and are inaccessible by armies, but can be traversed by ships.

All pops live in a certain territory, and they are the source of nearly every resource that a territory produces. A territory's population is limited by the territory's population capacity, which gives scaling penalties if exceeded, and the demographic makeup of a territory's pops determines its dominant culture and dominant religion. The owner of the territory, if there is one, determines who the pop's output is paid towards and what modifiers affect their happiness, which produces unrest if too low and in turn affects province loyalty. Pops can migrate from territory to territory of their own accord, with pops moving from territories of low to high migration attraction, and certain pop types - slaves, as well as tribesmen for tribal countries - can be instantly moved in and out of owned territories by the state at the cost of gold. It is possible for a territory to lose all its population to war or migration, which will automatically make it uncolonized if it is owned.

Each territory has a specific terrain type that affects food production, population capacity, movement cost, combat dice rolls, and more. Rivers, including major rivers, cross between and through many territories and also give a significant modifier. All terrain features are set at the beginning of the game and cannot be changed.

Armies are raised and ships built from individual territories, with the buildable types depending on the trade roots that the territory's province has access to. Every army and navy is always located in a particular territory, and can perform unit actions that may have specific effects on the territory that it is present in. Armies and navies can always move into neighbouring territories, as long as they have access; certain territories that are not actually adjacent but separated only by a narrow body of water may be considered connected across the strait.

Every territory has a certain type of trade good that is produced there, with the exact amount depending on the number of slaves compared to the slaves needed for local surplus' as well as any base resource production modifiers. The trade good of a territory is normally constant, but can be changed through certain actions and events.

A territory can have one of three ranks - settlement, city, and metropolis - which determines its population capacity and pop class ratios, and indirectly the main types of output that its population will produce. A country can invest gold and political power to upgrade a territory's rank, or spend tyranny to tear a city or metropolis down.

Depending on its territory rank, territories can have a number of buildings built in them that grant various modifiers and bonuses, particularly for increasing various types of pop output and happiness as well as modifying the pop ratio and increasing local civilization value. While settlements can only have one building built, cities and metropolises can have multiple buildings, capped by the territory's number of city building slots. Buildings can also provide fort level, which defends the territory from enemy occupation and requires a siege to reduce as well as lowering local unrest, and port level, which allows the territory to build and service ships. Wonders are a special type of building that are much more expensive in terms of gold and time, but equivalently have powerful, country-wide effects.

In addition to buildings, territories can be connected by roads, which significantly increases army movement speed, and hold holy sites honouring a certain deity, improving the territory's economy and enhancing the deity's bonuses if it is worshipped in the owner's pantheon. Every territory, except for country capitals, has a holding slot that may be granted or acquired by heads of family to increase their power and wealth, though they may also invest in their owned territories.

Every province has a single territory designated as its province capital; similarly, every country that owns at least 1 territory has a country capital. These capital territories get various bonuses and are important to control during wars, and can be moved around within the province or country to larger cities or more defensible locations.

Territories can also have territory modifiers that grant various bonuses and maluses to the territory and the pops that live in them. Certain special modifiers are permanently placed in certain territories at the beginning of the game, and cannot be gained or lost.

Every territory has a civilization value, representing the overall level of development and how settled the territory is, which impacts pop happiness, population capacity, and supply limit. Other territory modifiers and values include food, which is produced in a territory according to its terrain type and consumed by pops in the province; supply limit, which determines how large of an army a territory can support before it starts to take attrition; and barbarian power, which determines the rate at which barbarian hordes will rise up from barbarian strongholds in impassable terrain.

Finally, every territory always has the following base modifiers:

• +0.01% Monthly Civilization Change
• +10 Population Capacity
• +1 Migration Attraction
• +0.04% Local Population Growth
• +100 Provincial Food Capacity
• -30% Local Population Output

Territory rank

Every territory has a certain territory rank that broadly determines its economic role and general level of development. Each rank has a certain associated modifier that is the main determinant of a territory's population capacity and pop class ratio, as well as the buildings that are available to develop and specialize the territory. Every additional rank also grants an extra altar to any holy sites in the territory, allowing it to hold one more treasure.

A territory's rank generally does not change unless it is specifically modified by certain actions or events, and will retain its rank even if it is completely depopulated and then recolonized.

Settlements

Settlements represent more sparsely populated rural areas, typically with a heavy focus on agriculture and other primary production and comprising the vast majority of territories in the game. In monarchies and republics, they have a base population ratio of 16% citizens, 16% freemen, and 66% slaves, while tribal settlements have a base ratio of 11% citizens, 44% tribesmen, and 44% slaves, which means that they are generally the main source of trade goods and food in a province, as well as producing a significant portion of a country's tax income and manpower. Every settlement has the following modifiers:

• +5 Population Capacity
• -50% Ship Recruit Speed
• -5% Local Civilization Level
• -5 Slaves needed for Local Surplus
• -15% Population Output
• -25% Pop Promotion Speed
• -3 Migration Attraction
• -75% Migration Speed
• +2.5% Local Citizen Desired Ratio

Settlements normally can only ever have one building slot, but have their own unique set of powerful buildings that can be used to specialize settlements towards manpower, trade good production, or tax income. Adopting the Rural Infrastructure Civic Invention will give an extra building slot to every territory, though each building will still be limited one per territory.

City

Cities represent urbanized areas that have been granted city status, historically often a set of special civic privileges and political autonomy granted to a particular urban community that would become the commercial and political center of the area. Cities have a significantly higher population capacity than settlements and more importantly can sustain significant populations of nobles and citizens, which makes cities the main source of trade routes and research points. Cities have a bonus to Base Resource Production, but the lower proportion of slaves and higher surplus threshold means that cities are not especially efficient at producing large amounts of trade goods (though very large cities will still end up accumulating enough slaves to produce a significant amount of surplus trade goods). The large population and significant proportion of higher pop classes also means that cities will have significant food consumption, which in some cases will require the import of food trade goods to sustain. Unlike settlements, cities always have multiple building slots, with the exact amount depending on the city's population and many other factors that give local and global city building slot modifiers. Cities can be easily distinguished on the map as a group of buildings in the the territory, which shrinks and grows with the actual population of the city. At the start of the game, many cities large and small are found all across the civilized world, from the shores of the Mediterranean through the ancient cities of the Middle East and the great centres of Central Asia and India.

Every city has the following modifiers:

• +22 Population Capacity
• +2 Local City Building Slots
• +1 Base Resource Production
• +30% Local Citizen Desired Ratio
• +40% Local Freeman Desired Ratio
• +15% Local Noble Desired Ratio
• +15% Local Slave Desired Ratio

New cities can be founded from owned settlements at any time, allowing countries to slowly shape and develop the world according to its desires and reflecting the great city-building empires of the era. Founding a city takes 2 years to be complete, during which the settlement will get the City Under Construction modifier, giving -100% Population Output. Any settlement producing an agricultural trade good ( grain, fish, livestock, or vegetables) will switch to a new trade good once the city is finished; if city status is subsequently revoked, the trade good produced in the territory will revert to the old food trade good. While granting city status will not have any immediate impact on the population, the significantly higher migration attraction of cities means that pops in the surrounding territories will slowly migrate to nearby cities, particularly if it is also the province capital. Enslaving pops during wars can also be a good method of filling up cities with pops.

The base cost of founding a city is 200 gold and 50 political influence, adjusted by the Found City Cost Modifier. Some of the more important sources of the modifier are:

• -25% with Etruscan, Heraclean, and Zipoetic (Bithynian) heritage
• -25% with the Petition of Minorities Civic Invention
• -20% with Rural heritage
• -15% with Ptolemaic (Egyptian) heritage
• -10% with the Household Gods Religious Invention
• -10% with the Military Colonies (Greek Kingdom traditions), Colonial Integration (Levantine Kingdom traditions), and Klerouchoi (Persian traditions) military traditions
• +25% for Tribal countries
• +50% with the Nomadic Lifestyle Tribal law

It is also possible to revoke city status from a city as long as it is not the capital and no construction or other upgrades are ongoing in the territory, whether to centralize the population more effectively, force the demotion of unwanted nobles and citizens, or even simply as an act of spite. Revoking city status costs a base of 5 tyranny, modified by the Revoke City Status Cost modifier (with -50% for tribal governments as the only source), which will instantly downgrade the city back to a settlement and give the Revoked City Status modifier for 5 years, giving -10% Local Population Happiness and -2 Migration Attraction as well as preventing city status from being granted back as long as the modifier exists. The significant decrease in population capacity will usually put the territory well over the limit if it was a city with significant population, which will quickly decrease the population by emigration and pop death.

Metropolis

A metropolis is considered the peak of a city’s urban evolution and can only be made from the very largest cities of a region. Metropolises do not have any special mechanics that set them apart from cities, but instead have generally stronger modifiers that allows it to support an even larger and more productive population, making them advantageous to construct in a country's largest cities, particularly the capital by the mid to late game. The only metropolis that exists at the start of the game is the Mauryan capital of Pataliputra.

Every metropolis has the following modifiers:

• +30 Population Capacity
• +10% Population Capacity
• +4 Local City Building Slots
• +1 Local Import Routes
• +2 Base Resource Production
• +10% Pop Promotion Speed
• +2 Migration Attraction
• +30% Local Citizen Desired Ratio
• +30% Local Freeman Desired Ratio
• +10% Local Noble Desired Ratio
• +5% Local Slave Desired Ratio

Note that a city that has been upgraded to a metropolis is still considered to have city status.

A metropolis can be founded on an existing city that has at least 80 population and is the province capital. Founding a metropolis costs a base of 400 gold and 100 political influence; like cities, the process takes 2 years to complete during which the settlement will get the Metropolis Under Construction modifier giving -100% Population Output. It is possible to have multiple metropolises in a single province by simply moving the province capital to another city and building a new metropolis there; this will not destroy the previously existing one.

Like with cities, it is possible to revoke city status from a metropolis as long as it is not the capital and no building or upgrades are ongoing, which will downgrade the territory all the way back to a settlement. Revoking city status from a metropolis costs a base of 10 tyranny, modified by the Revoke Metropolis Status Cost modifier (with -50% for tribal governments as the only source) and has the same effects as revoking city status from a city.

Country capital

Every country that owns at least one territory has a capital territory, the seat of the government and usually the largest, wealthiest, and most important city in the country. The capital territory gets the following modifiers:

• +10% Supply Limit
• +0.02% Monthly Civilization Change
• +5% Population Output
• +10% Local Noble Desired Ratio
• +4% Local Citizen Desired Ratio
• +4% Local Freeman Desired Ratio
• +8% Local Noble Happiness
• +8% Local Citizen Happiness
• +10 Population Capacity
• +1 Local City Building Slots
• +25% Pop Promotion Speed
• +2 Migration Attraction
• +20% Pop Conversion Speed
• +20% Pop Assimilation Speed
• +1.50 Local Monthly Food

In addition to these baseline bonuses, the capital territory is also often granted permanent bonuses by a number of decisions and missions, most notably all country formation decisions and the generic infrastructure mission. This makes it advantageous to make the capital as large as possible, as pops in the capital are usually far more productive than pops in any other territory and usually have the highest citizen and especially noble ratio given the combined effects of the base capital bonus and the number of buildings that are typically built there due to its high population. By the midgame, the capital territory will often have outgrown its local food supply and begin to necessitate imports of food goods to feed its growing population, though the high proportion of noble and citizen pops usually means that the capital has many more import route slots than is needed to feed it.

The province and region that the country capital is in also have special modifiers and mechanics that generally make them more valuable than more peripheral areas, such as not being subject to a governor who would otherwise collect a portion of the taxes as his or her wage. Control of a country's capital is important during wars, as it is worth extra warscore and provides bonus war enthusiasm for countries that still control their capitals, as well as being one of the main targets that enslaved pops are sent to - slaves will generally go disproportionately to the capital territory, unless it has reached its population capacity. The capital is also the point from which diplomatic range is calculated from (for non-neighbouring countries).

If desired, the capital can be moved at any time to a territory of the primary culture (note that being integrated is not sufficient) and state religion in a loyal province as long as the country is not at war. The cost is 50 + 5 times the difference in population between the current capital and the new capital in political influence, with a minimum cost of 80 and a maximum of 250. This means that it is much cheaper to move the capital to a more populated territory than vice versa.

Provincial capital

Every province that a country owns or partially owns has a province capital, representing the center of the local administration. If multiple countries own part of the same province, each country's portion of the province will have its own provincial capital. The capital of the capital province is always the same as the national capital.

Provincial capitals get the following bonuses:

• +6 Population Capacity
• +10% Pop Promotion Speed
• +1 Migration Attraction
• +1 Local Monthly Food

Note that this is not applied to the national capital, which instead gets a much stronger modifier.

Province capitals are important in wartime as they determine who controls the province as a whole. Taking control of the province capital will trigger the occupation of all non-fortified territories in the province without needing to occupy each territory manually, armies can only resupply in foreign territory if the capital of the province is occupied, and a province cannot be demanded in a peace treaty unless its capital (as well as all forts) are occupied (though occupied territories can still be demanded individually). Province capitals are also the primary targets for receiving slaves when occupying enemy territory, generally taking priority after the national capital.

When a country acquires territory in a new province, the province capital is automatically set to the most populous territory that the country controls in the province at that point in time, but after that will generally remain static. Provincial capitals can be relocated during peace time at the cost of provincial loyalty, which can be useful if another territory is larger and/or has more potential for growth than the current province capital. Relocating the provincial capital to a settlement lowers provincial loyalty by 30, to a city lowers loyalty by 20, and to a metropolis by 10.

Only territories that are the provincial capital can be raised to metropolis status.

Terrain

Terrain types

Every territory has a fixed, predefined terrain type that cannot be changed. Terrain type has a significant impact on a territory's habitability through population capacity, food production, and civilization value modifiers, and is important to consider for army maneuvering and supply as well. Generic heritages are also assigned partly based on the terrain type of a country's capital territory at the start of the game.

Sea territories also have terrain types like land territories. The primary effect of sea terrain is to affect the movement speed of ships.

Terrain map.

Land terrain

	Name	Combat width	Modifiers	Description
	Desert	28	Population Capacity: -25% Attrition: +1 Movement Cost: +10% Local Civilization Value: -3% Local Monthly Food: +2	Arid, sandy plains stretch as far as the eye can see in every direction.
	Farmland	30	Population Capacity: +10% Local Civilization Value: +2% Slaves needed for Local Surplus: -2 Local Monthly Food: +5	This fine arable land is dotted with small clusters of fields, orchards, and grazing livestock.
	Forest	20	Attackers get a -1 penalty to their dice rolls. Population Capacity: -10% Movement Cost: +30% Local Civilization Value: -2% Local Monthly Food: +2	A densely wooded place, forest is often quite an obstacle for passing armies.
	Hills	20	Attackers get a -1 penalty to their dice rolls. Movement Cost: +20% Local Civilization Value: -2% Local Monthly Food: +3	This place comprises a series of shallow inclines and rolling hills.
	Impassable	10	None	Some types of terrain were just not meant to be traversed. Uneven, inhospitable, dangerous, or simply ill suited for navigation.
	Jungle	18	Population Capacity: -15% Supply Limit: -50% Movement Cost: +50% Local Civilization Value: -2% Local Monthly Food: +3	Verdant, humid jungle, packed with dense vegetation, can be slow going for those who are unused to it.
	Marsh	18	Attackers get a -1 penalty to their dice rolls. Population Capacity: -10% Supply Limit: -50% Movement Cost: +50% Local Civilization Value: -4% Local Monthly Food: +2	Waterlogged and often dangerous, marshland is hard to navigate, and even more difficult to inhabit.
	Mountains	16	Attackers get a -2 penalty to their dice rolls. Population Capacity: -20% Supply Limit: -50% Movement Cost: +80% Local Civilization Value: -4% Local Monthly Food: +2	Rocky, steep and treacherous, mountainous terrain can prove particularly difficult to navigate.
	Plains	40	Local Monthly Food: +4	A sparsely forested place, consisting of sweeping tracts of flat land.

Sea terrain

	Name	Combat width	Modifiers	Description
	Coastal Sea	30	Movement Cost: +15%	Along coastlines and in archipelagos the sea is generally more shallow and affords less room for maneuver.
	Ocean	50	None	Consisting of calm, glassy seas, as well as roiling waves, the sea carries the lifeblood of the ancient world: trade.
	River	10	Attackers get a -1 penalty to their dice rolls. Movement Cost: +15%	Most rivers are not fit to be navigated by ship but some are wide and deep enough for smaller ships to navigate them.

Climate

Each territory also has one of five possible climates depending on its geography, which gives an additional smaller modifier to population capacity and food production. Certain climates also have winter for part of the year, which has an effect on attrition.

Warm Climate is the most hospitable type and covers the largest part of the map, from the shores of the Mediterranean to the Fertile Crescent and the rich plains of India. Every territory with Warm Climate gets the following modifiers:

• +5% Local Population Capacity
• +10% Local Monthly Food Modifier

Temperate Climate is common directly to the north of warm areas, such as in Britannia, Gaul, Moesia and Illyria, northern Anatolia, and the south of central Asia. Territories with temperate climate have no default modifiers.

Frigid Climate represents colder areas of the map where harsher winters have a significant effect on habitability, such as in Scandinavia, Germania, and the north of central Asia. Every territory with Frigid Climate gets the following modifiers:

• -20% Local Population Capacity
• -40% Local Monthly Food Modifier

Alpine Climate describes cold mountainous areas, such as Tibet and parts of the Caucascus. Every territory with Alpine Climate gets the following modifiers:

• -25% Local Population Capacity
• -30% Local Monthly Food Modifier

Arid Climate describes desert regions and nearby drier areas, such as the areas around the Sahara, parts of the Arabian Peninsula, and much of Persia. Every territory with Arid Climate gets the following modifiers:

• -15% Local Population Capacity
• -40% Local Monthly Food Modifier

Rivers

Rivers were central to trade and transportation in this time period and the presence of a significant river usually made that area much more attractive to settle in, as well as being more defensible given the inherent difficulties of crossing a river. Ingame, a territory with a Nearby River gets the following modifiers:

• Attackers get a -1 penalty to their dice rolls
• +5% Population Capacity
• +5% Supply Limit
• +10% Pop Migration Speed

Parts of certain very large rivers, such as the Rhine, Danube, Nile, or Indus are considered major rivers, which makes them navigable by ships and crossable only at certain points. Mechanically, major rivers are considered sea tiles for most intents and purposes, with crossing points marked as straits, except that ports cannot be built in all territories next to major rivers (only those that already have a port at the start of the game). A territory that is Adjacent to Major River gets the following modifiers:

• +10% Population Capacity
• +10% Supply Limit
• +1 Migration Attraction
• +25% Pop Migration Speed

The population capacity bonus means that territories next to a river, especially a major river, are generally good city sites. Note that if a territory is both adjacent to a major river and has a nearby (minor) river, it will have the effects of both modifiers.

Coastal territories

Coastal territories also get small bonuses by virtue of their access to the sea, which like rivers often served to connect areas together even if there was no good port nearby. Ports can be built in any coastal territory to improve access for pops and and allow ships to be built and serviced in these territories. All coastal territories without a port get the following modifier:

• +5% Population Capacity
• +25% Pop Migration Speed

Note that this modifier can potentially stack with both river modifiers, if the territory meets all the requirements. While ports do not get this modifier, each port level gives a similar modifier to the territory.

Supply limit

See also: Attrition, Food#Army supply

The supply limit of a territory determines how large of an army it can sustain before the army begins to take attrition, with every point of army weight over the supply limit giving 1 point of attrition. As attrition increases food consumption rather than immediately causing loss of soldiers, being over the supply limit is not particularly problematic as long as the army is just quickly passing through or is adequately supplied with enough food to feed itself, but can become a significant issue with longer campaigns in low supply limit areas.

Generally speaking, more fertile, developed, and highly populated areas have a higher supply limit. All modifiers affecting the supply limit of a territory are listed below (note that national modifiers, e.g. inventions and deities, are based on the owner of the army, not the owner of the territory):

Type	Modifier	Supply limit
Base	Base	+10
	Population	+0.5 per pop
	Capital Territory	+10% per point
	Civilization Value	+1% per point
	Critical Food Supply	-25%
	Population Dying	-25%
Terrain	Adjacent to Major River	+10%
	Nearby River	+5%
	Coastal Port	+5%
	Marsh	-50%
	Mountains	-50%
	Jungle	-50%
Great wonder	Logistics effect	+5% per tier
Diplomatic Status	Owner	+25%
	Occupied	+10%
	Alliance	+10%
	Military Access	+10%
Inventions	Logistics Division ( Military Invention)	+10%
	Fighting Season ( Military Invention)	+5%
	Supernumerarii ( Military Invention)	+10%
	Delayed Baggage Train ( Military Invention)	+5%
	Central Reserve ( Military Invention)	+10%
	Army Surgeons ( Military Invention)	+15%
Deities	Armazi (Armazic deity)	+15% without owned holy site +18.75% with owned holy site
	Kakasbos (Cybelene deity)
	Pan (Hellenic deity)
	Diktynna (Cretan Hellenic deity)
	Turan (Etruscan Hellenic deity)
	Faunus (Italic Hellenic deity)
	Medeiné (Matrist deity)

Civilization value

A territory's civilization value represents its level of infrastructure and urbanization and is the biggest contributors to pop capacity, pop output and pop happiness, especially for nobles and citizens. While slow to grow and improve, civilization value is in general one of the most important economic modifiers that a territory can have, particularly for settled nations. Increasing the current civilization value of the capital to 40 is also one of the main requirements for a tribal nation to reform into a republic or monarchy, and some city buildings also require a minimum civilization level. Most countries, except for migratory tribes, will generally benefit from a higher civilization level in their territories.

A territory's civilization value spans between 0 and 100, with each point granting the following local effects:

• Local Population Growth: +0.003%
• Population Capacity: +0.25%
• Supply Limit: +1%
• Barbarian Growth: -0.005
• Population Output: +1%
• Migration Attraction: +0.05
• Local Citizen Happiness: +0.2%
• Local Freemen Happiness: +0.1%
• Local Noble Happiness: +0.3%
• Local Tribesmen Happiness: -0.4%

Civilization Value	Population Growth	Population Capacity	Supply Limit	Barbarian Growth	Population Output	Migration Attraction	Noble Happiness	Citizen Happiness	Freemen Happiness	Tribesmen Happiness
0%
+50%	+0.15%	+12.5%	+50%	-0.25	+50%	+2.5	+15%	+10%	+5%	-20%
+100%	+0.3%	+25%	+100%	-0.5	+100%	+5	+30%	+20%	+10%	-40%

Maximum civilization level

Each territory has a maximum possible civilization value, which is the sum of its owner's country civilization level and any province or territory-specific modifiers to local civilization level. The country civilization level is generally the most consequential, as it is applied across all the territories in the country, and its value is determined largely by a country's government form, its level of Oratory Advances, and positive centralization for tribal nations. Local modifiers can increase the civilization level of certain territories, much higher than the country-wide value and come mostly from buildings, particularly important in cities, as well as from certain decision modifiers (especially capital modifiers given when creating formable nations). Note that while a territory's maximum civilization is uncapped, its actual civilization level will never rise above 100 even if its maximum level is higher.

All static sources of country maximum civilization level are listed below.

Type	Modifier	Civilization Cap
Base	Base	+10%
	Centralization Level	+0.1% per point above 0% (up to +10% at 100%)
	Tribal vassal	+10%
	League city	+5%
Government	Settled Tribe	+5%
	Federated Tribe	+10%
	Autocratic Monarchy or Democratic Republic	+15%
	Other Monarchies or Republics	+20%
	Athenian Republic	+25%
Laws	Rights of Man (Tribal)	+5%
	Rights of Birth (Tribal)	+5%
National ideas	State Religion (Religious)	+5%
Technology	Oratory Advances	+0.5% per Level
	Clock Mechanics (Hellenistic Civic Invention)	+5%
Military traditions	Cradle of Civilization (Levantine Kingdom traditions)	+2% per Level
Trade goods	Gemstones capital surplus	+5%
	Glass capital bonus	+5%
Heritages	Icenian Heritage (Icenia)	+5%

Note that government bonuses are, of course, exclusive to each other.

All static sources of local maximum civilization level are listed below.

Type	Modifier	Local Civilization Cap
Terrain type	Farmland	+2%
	Forest	-2%
	Hills	-2%
	Jungle	-2%
	Desert	-3%
	Marsh	-4%
	Mountains	-4%
Territory rank	Settlement	-5%
Buildings	Foundry, Great Temple, Grand Theater	+5%
	Barracks, Slave Estate, Mine, Farming Settlement	+5%
	Academy, Court of Law, Forum, Mill	+3%
	Granary, Library, Market, Training Camp, Tax Office	+2%
	Fortress	+1%
Great wonder	Cultural Memorial effect	+5% in the province, for all tiers
Modifiers	Emergent Center of Civilization (from formable nations)	+5%
	Center of Civilization (from formable nations)	+10%
	Emergent Capital (from formable nations)	+10%
	Capital of the Subcontinent (from forming Bharatvarsha)	+10%

Civilization change

Maximum civilization level does nothing by itself, but allows the territory's actual civilization level to slowly rise to that level. Each month, the civilization value of every territory that is below its local maximum civilization level will increase by the value of the monthly civilization change modifier, which can be increased with various omens, inventions, governor policies, and other modifiers. If the local maximum civilization level is lower than the territory's current civilization level, it will instead decrease at a fixed rate of -0.10% per month until it reaches the cap again.

Type	Modifier	Monthly Civilization Change
Base	Base	+0.01%
	At Peace	+0.02%
	Barbarian power	-0.025% per point
	Tribal vassal	+0.01%
Offices	Royal Tutor (Monarchy)	+0.01% per Statesmanship-adjusted Charisma
	Tribune of the People (Republic)	+0.01% per Statesmanship-adjusted Finesse
National ideas	State Religion (Religious)	+0.02%
Inventions	Recording Tradition ( Religious Invention)	+0.01%
	Scribae ( Religious Invention)	+0.02%
Laws	Coin Minting Initiative (Tribal)	+0.03%
Religion	Chaldean	+0.01%
Deities	Upekkha Parami (Buddhist deity)	+0.05% without owned holy site +0.0625% with owned holy site
	Maponos (Druidic deity)
	Telephos (Aeolian Hellenic deity)
	Ariadne (Cretan Hellenic deity)
	Wisdom of Bhadrabahu (Jain deity)
Omens	Pañña Parami (Buddhist deity)	+0.04% per 100% omen power without owned holy site +0.05% per 100% omen power with owned holy site
	Eshmun (Canaanite deity)
	Attis (Cybelene deity)
	Gobannus (Druidic deity)
	Glanis (Alluvian Druidic deity)
	Asklepios (Hellenic deity)
	Amaya (Cretan Hellenic deity)
	Aita (Etruscan Hellenic deity)
	Goitosyrus (Heptadic deity)
	Arubani (Khaldic deity)
	Tannit (Megalithic deity)
	Guidance of the Moon (Ritualistic deity)
	Zalmoxis (Zalmoxian deity)
Buildings	Academy	+0.01%
Great wonder	Cultural Memorial effect	+0.02% per tier
Heritages	Etruscan Heritage (Etruria)	+0.02%
	Hellenistic Heritage (cultural)	+0.01%
Governor	Civilization Effort	+0.005% per 10 finesse of the governor, plus a base of +0.005%
	Just	+0.01%
Local	Capital	+0.02%
	Road Network	+0.001% per outgoing road
	Razed (unit ability)	-0.01%
	Enemy Occupation	-0.02%
	Looted	-0.03%

Uncolonizable territories

Certain particularly harsh or desolate territories are considered uncolonizable. These territories have no true owner or pops and for the most part cannot be interacted with, though they will be considered owned for the purposes of map colouring and naming purposes if there is a single country that owns (or otherwise has coloured in) a double majority of both the adjacent colonizable territories and all adjacent territories, including neighbouring uncolonizable territories. Similar behaviour is used to colour in uncolonizable territories in some other mapmodes, such as culture, religion, province, and region. This behaviour can be toggled on and off using the Fill in impassable terrain setting.

All uncolonizable territories have a culture, religion, civilization value, barbarian power value, and supply limit, which depending on the type of the the uncolonizable territory may have some gameplay relevance. Whether or not a territory is considered uncolonizable is set at the beginning of the game and cannot be changed.

Uninhabitable territories

Uninhabitable territories cannot be owned or colonized, but still allow armies to pass through them. They exist in a number of passes through many arid and desert areas, such as in the Arabian pennisula and Central Asia. Despite their low habitability, there are no special penalties for armies marching through uninhabitable territories beyond their low supply limit and inability to replenish food supply. Unlike impassable terrain, uninhabitable territories have a terrain type that helps to determine its supply limit.

All uninhabitable territories also have a culture and religion that is set at the beginning of the game, appears on the relevant mapmodes, and cannot be changed, though this is purely cosmetic and does not have any gameplay effect.

Impassable terrain

See also: Barbarians

Impassable terrain represents the harshest and most inaccessible areas of the map, and in addition to being uncolonizable also cannot be passed by armies and cannot be interacted with directly. Many exist as mountain ranges, inaccessible jungles, or unforgiving deserts crossing through even relatively developed areas, serving to isolate certain areas from one another and represent the difficulties that these types of terrain posed for states trying to exert their control across them.

Certain areas of impassable terrain hold barbarian strongholds, from which barbarian hordes will occasionally rise up to pillage and settle neighbouring territories. These barbarian strongholds can be particularly dangerous and require some military investment to control and hold off, but can eventually be pacified by raising the stronghold's civilization value high enough using the Civilization Effort governor policy in a neighbouring province.

Impassable terrain has a culture and religion that is used when generating barbarian hordes that rise up from that territory. However, in the culture and religion mapmodes the colour of impassable terrain will instead be determined by the majority colour of the surrounding territories according to the same rules as colouring for ownership, which may be different from the actual culture or religion of the territory.

Mechanics