Old God Obelisk (Civ6)

Old God Obelisk
Building of the Ancient Era
Introduced in Ethiopia Pack
Game mode	Secret Societies
Unique to	Voidsingers
Unique to	Voidsingers
Replaces	Monument
Replaces	Monument
Cost
Production	60
Production	60
Requires
District	City Center
Effects
+1 Loyalty +1 Culture +1 additional Culture if city is at maximum Loyalty. +4 Faith +1 slot for Great Works (any type).

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The Old God Obelisk is a building in Civilization VI. It is exclusive to the Voidsingers secret society in the Secret Societies game mode, introduced in the Ethiopia Pack. It is built in the City Center and replaces the Monument.

Standard

• Effects:
  • +1 Loyalty
  • +1 Culture
  • +1 additional Culture if city is at maximum Loyalty.
  • +4 Faith
  • +1 slot for Great Works (any type).

Heroes & Legends

• Effects:
  • +1 Loyalty
  • +1 Culture
  • +1 additional Culture if city is at maximum Loyalty.
  • +4 Faith
  • +1 slot for Great Works (any type).
  • If devoted to a Hero, contains 2 Heroic Relics slots.

Strategy

The Old God Obelisk's bonuses allow for some massive strategic advantages when it comes to civilizations which get bonuses from Great Works. Leaders like Menelik II, Mvemba a Nzinga, Eleanor of Aquitaine, and Jadwiga can get great use out of the bonus Great Work slot it provides.

Menelik II can leverage his Council of Ministers ability to get extra Science and Culture out of these buildings, especially if they contain Relics. This bonus can be blown out of proportion if Menelik's founded religion has the Reliquaries belief. Menelik can also stack the second Voidsinger promotion to get extra Science and Culture, as well as using the third promotion as a means of gaining easy Relics.

Mvemba a Nzinga can use the Kongolese ability Nkisi to use these extra slots as sources of income, Population growth and Production for his cities, allowing them to get off their feet faster by moving the Great Works there. While the Faith he gains from these buildings may not exactly be useful to him, there is nothing stopping him from using the Faith as a minor buffer later on with the second Voidsinger promotion, or using it to recruit a Rock Band or Naturalist later on.

Eleanor of Aquitaine also allows for some flexible uses of the building, namely with the usage of her ability Court of Love, allowing her to gain extra slots in her cities to make enemy cities disloyal much faster and without needing to immediately invest Production into building districts like the Holy Site or a Theater Square. Plus, the ability to put any Great Work into the Old God Obelisk's bonus slot allows you to save a lot of time trying to build a Temple and getting a Relic into it. Even if her ability boosted by this building is not enough, she can eventually get the third Voidsinger promotion to purchase Cultists, making cities disloyal even faster or even causing massive waves of rebellions through clever Great Work placement or Spy and Cultist application.

Lastly, Jadwiga will gain an extra +4 Gold and +2 Culture and Faith from Relics generated by Cultists when they expire, which can easily support either of Poland's main victory paths.

Civilopedia entry

In the “weird fiction” of and inspired by H.P. Lovecraft and others, the gods are thankfully forgotten. Lovecraft’s Old Ones are fundamentally unconcerned with humanity and contact inevitably results in madness or death. But not everyone has forgotten – weird fiction is full of examples of hidden cults having rediscovered markers of the Old Gods and turned them into objects of worship.

We have always recycled the religious detritus of older beliefs, especially ones that we do not understand completely. European magic of the middle ages and later often drew upon Greek or Egyptian symbols not because they actually contained some kind of esoteric knowledge, but because they seemed to hold in their very incomprehensibility the promise of some extra power. And it is not just Europeans who make appeals to the incomprehensible. The Mien people of highland Southeast Asia carry elaborate documents written in Chinese characters (which few of them can read) by a divine emperor guaranteeing them a right to live on mountaintops without harassment. Villagers in Tanzania seeking healing will prefer to go to a healer from a distant village, rather than from one who lives next door. And teenage wizards in popular fantasy books rarely call out their magical spells in English. The appeal of the unknown is that it might contain a source of power beyond our comprehension. Might as well put up an obelisk to it.

Gallery

Old God Obelisk in game

See also

• Obelisk (Civ6)
• (Old God) Obelisk in other games