Hermetic Order (Civ6)

Hermetic Order
Introduced in Ethiopia Pack
Game mode	Secret Societies

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The Hermetic Order is one of four Secret Societies in Civilization VI, exclusive to the Secret Societies Game Mode, introduced in the Ethiopia Pack. They are comprised of unorthodox scientists and alchemists. Their work focuses on Science, Great People and resources.

Introduction

Hermetic Order icon

Similar to the other Secret Societies, Hermetic Order membership lasts the entire game. Once joined, players will unlock a new Governor with four unique titles. This Governor operates on an international scale and thus does not need to be assigned to a city and grants bonuses to the entire empire.

Hermetic Order membership reveals Ley Lines, a new map resource. They give standard adjacency bonuses to Districts and grant bonus yields whenever a Great Person is earned. Members can also build the Alchemical Society, a University replacement that has all of the base University effects, plus extra Great Merchant points, Great Engineer points, increased Production, and Gold.

The Hermetic Order's base chance of sending an invitation after you discover a Natural Wonder is 100%. However, as with other societies, this chance will get slightly smaller with every other civilization that joins this society (meaning "popular" societies will be less likely to send you an invitation).

Titles

Promotion Title	Unlocked by	Effect
Initiation	Discover a Natural Wonder (100% chance).	Reveals the Ley Line resource on the map. Ley Lines give a standard adjacency bonus to all specialty districts.
Ritual	Reach the Medieval Era.	Allows you to construct the Alchemical Society, a powerful replacement of the University.
Indoctrination	Reach the Industrial Era.	For every Great Person earned, Ley Lines receive +1 yield equal to that Great Person's district type. Great Admirals and Great Generals earn +1 Science.
Master Plan	Reach the Atomic Era	Unlocks Occult Research, a city project that provides Gold while active. When completed, it grants Great People points, and Science for every Ley Line in the city.

Strategy

The Hermetic Order is, by far, the weakest and most unreliable society of the four. Their bonuses kick in and peak much later into the game compared to the other three societies. Their bonuses revolve heavily around Ley Lines, a new resource that only their members can see. The problem with Ley Lines is that you have no idea where they are, how many of them are available near your location until after you accept the invitation to join. Technically, in a single player game, although not advised, you can reload a save game if the Ley Line spawn is not favorable, but in a multiplayer game, there is no going back. Furthermore, until Industrial Era, for four eras straight, Ley Lines are nothing but dead tiles that take up space in your empire, have no yields and cannot be improved. They do provide a standard adjacency to every district built nearby, but that is hardly justifiable to pick the Hermetic Order when you consider what the Initiation bonuses for the other three societies are. When Industrial Era comes, Ley Lines are now more beneficial, since they can grant a lot of yields based on how many Great People Great People you have earned. However, if you really earn so many Great People Great People that each Ley Line looks busted with all the yields, you are most likely winning the game very hard and it should not matter whatsoever how many Ley Lines you are having in your territory. It is more of a classic case of a "win-more" factor, if you are winning, it helps you win faster, but it is definitely not an impactful enough factor to turn a losing game around. And that does not even take into account how many Ley Lines you own, which is entirely dependent on map generation!

The Alchemical Society, compared to the Old God Obelisk and the Gilded Vault, is also the least impactful of the three. It has two main selling points over a standard University: it grants Gold based on its Campus adjacency bonus, and it grants 1 Great Engineer point and 1 Great Merchant point. Compared to the Gilded Vault's Culture bonus, the Gold bonus is so much worse. Ignoring the fact that generally 1 Culture is worth more than 1 Gold, even if you play as Korea, a civilization with consistently high adjacency bonus on the Campus (+4), that extra 4 Gold is only enough to pay off the maintenance cost of the district, the Library and the Alchemical Society itself, so there will not be any left over to invest in anything else, and the majority of civilizations will have a much harder time to get a +4 on all of their Campuses. The extra Great Engineer point and Great Merchant point can be helpful, but these still seem pale if you compare to all the bonuses other societies reward their members with the Ritual title.

Recommended civilizations

Without Great People Great People, Ley Lines are dead tiles that you want to avoid more than use as a leverage for your empire. Any civilizations/leaders with abilities to generate a lot of Great People Great People, or have a unique, cheap district which they want to put down in every city to earn Great People Great People points can work decently well with the Hermetic Order. They are, most notably, Kristina and Sweden, Pedro II, Scotland, Russia and Greece. Also, colonialist and naval civilizations (the ones with bonuses to go exceptionally wide, and can spread their colonies on multiple landmasses and continents) can also work well with the Hermetic Order, since they have a lot cities (which translate into a lot of Great People Great People) and they can seek out Ley Lines far from their core territories to put down cities without fear of Loyalty pressure. They are England and Phoenicia, and to a lesser extent, Australia, Indonesia and Spain. However, as mentioned above, due to the unreliability and clear inferiority to other societies, almost all of these leaders/civilizations can work well, if not better, with another society. England under Eleanor of Aquitaine should definitely pick Voidsingers, Victoria and Philip II (Spain) can go for the Sanguine Pact for a Domination game, Diplomatic Kristina can choose Owls of Minerva, Indonesia can choose Voidsingers to bolster their religious strength, etc.

Civilopedia entry

Especially in times of great social change, when new knowledge and new ways of being show great potential to change the way that we live, societies often arise based around the cultivation and protection of this secret, world-transforming knowledge. While they might at first look like scientific societies, these orders were different in that they focused on the collection of secret knowledge, not its application. We can see examples of such societies in medieval Europe, Southeast Asia (especially as concerns tantric Buddhism), and East Asia; from ancient times to the present day. Here, the Hermetic Order seeks to model a late medieval alchemical society, as well as mystical/religious organizations that grew up in the later 19th century.

The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn was an English group concerned with cultivating esoteric knowledge around the early 20th century. For inspiration, the Order drew upon a variety of sources: medieval European (“hermetic”) magic, Kabbalah (Jewish mysticism), Egyptian and Greek myth, and individual revelation. Devotees – most famously the English occultist Aleister Crowley - focused on expanding their mystical knowledge via astral travel, clairvoyance, and other magical practices, and the movement attracted a body of individuals seeking a greater truth that they felt was lacking in an increasingly rational and disenchanted society. The Order drew in a wide body of influential people, including Arthur Conan Doyle (creator of Sherlock Holmes), the English horror author Algernon Blackwood, the Irish author Bram Stoker (creator of Dracula), and others. Chapters of the Order exist today, and the Order’s practices have been influential on the development of many New Age religions, as people still seek a greater truth.

Related achievements

Voice of Aiwass Earn all Governor promotions for the Hermetic Order Secret Society. Aleister Crowley claimed to have heard a voice of a non-corporeal intelligence who is then named 'Aiwass.'