Congress of Humankind

**Congress of Humankind** is a feature added to Humankind in the Together We Rule Expansion Pack. It is an international forum where players can debate Civics, enable Doctrines, and arbitrate international Crises.

To unlock this panel you have to reach the Early Modern Era, build a Embassy and meet all existing Empires.

## Laws

The players can collectively vote on Civics to make it universal across all Empires.

* The choice that wins the vote will be free for all players to enact.
* Each voting period last for a few turns and it has a **Session Leader** who can determine the Civic in question.
* The **Session Leader** will rotate for each voting period.
* During a session the votes cannot be changed once it has been made.
* Each Empire vote has a strength based on their Leverage.

## Doctrines

In this tab players can view what is considered the global Ideology, that is the average of the ideological positions from all other Empires in their respective 4 Ideology Axes as well as Independent Peoples that have a City. In this same view they can also see the ideological positions of individual Empires, marked by their empire's symbol on the ideology axes.

Furthermore players can unlock **Doctrine effects**: bonuses that apply to all empires regardless of their individual ideological positions. The effects depend on the current global ideology and require unlocking before they are applied. There are 4 Doctrine effects, one for each ideological axis, that can be applied simultaneously but the bonuses provided will change depending on the global ideology.

To unlock a Doctrine effect, players must spend Influence a set number of times. Each time a player spends Influence to unlock an effect, the cost of unlocking that specific effect increases but only for the player who spent in that unlock action. This process is shared among all players, so any player that spends Influence contributes to unlocking the effect for everyone else.

Once a Doctrine effect is unlocked, its bonuses will apply once the Doctrine updates. This update happens on a regular interval of turns, which is displayed on the screen.

If the global ideological position changes for any unlocked Doctrine effects, the bonuses provided will change the next time the Doctrine updates. The Doctrine screen will show both the current bonuses as well as the future bonuses that will apply once the Doctrine updates again, which will do so at the Turn indicated on the screen.

Changing an unlocked Doctrine effect requires shifting the global ideological position, not unlike the way an Empire's Ideology effect works but for other empires as well.

* Voting on Laws will force all Empires to either enact a Civic, which may shift their Empire's Ideology (and in turn, the global ideology) or take an Influence penalty.
* Completing the Manipulate a City Action on a City's Main Plaza or Administrative Center will generate a Civic Osmosis for the City's owner, which in turn may shift that Empire's ideology.
* Changing the ideological positions of an Independent People's through Cultural Proximity will also change the global ideology, as long as they own a City. This can be done with an Aesthete's Affinity Bonus or through Cultural Agreements.
* An Empire under another's Sphere of Influence will generate Civic Osmosis that may shift the influenced Empire's ideology.

## International Crises

A new option to deal with a Crisis is to elevate it to the Congress of Humankind, turning it into an **International Crisis**. When this happens, all players will have a voting period that lasts for a few turns, similar to voting for Laws, where they can weigh in on this crisis between Empires.

To elevate a crisis into an International Crisis, the player requires to have a minimum  War Support before they are allowed to do so. Once this is done, the International Crisis tab of the Congress will be unlocked while the crisis is in progress.

In this tab, all players can see both the Empire calling the crisis as well as the accused, their respective  War Support as well as all the active Demands from both players to each other. In addition, just like with Laws, you can see how each other player is voting along with the combined Sway of each side.

You have the choice to support either side with your own Sway, which can be boosted with **Bribes**, or you may choose to abstain from voting altogether.

After the Voting Session is over, the player whose side lost will be forced to make a choice: they can either accept the winner's Demands or they have to declare an **Unsanctioned War** that turn. If one of the Empires involved in the crisis declares War before the Voting Session is over, it will be considered an Unsanctioned War as well.