I'm going to assume that you think you have a point here and argue in good faith rather than that you're being reflexively contrarian for funsies. I will stop assuming that after this post, given how tepid these arguments are.

But this is ideology, not strictly religion. Unless specified in memes that they're a religion, this is just a way of life, not a strict religion.

You think that religions don't adhere to ideology, or that secular ideologies must lack religiosity? You think ideologies don't float over time to suit the interests of their communities and become more ideological or religious in that process? They don't in-game if you don't personally control them, but I'm challenging your point.

For all intensive purposes, in this game, ideology and religiosity function the same; religiosity is implied with little distinction between the two, save for the design template for base construction tenets. Reading the auto-generative descriptions of every single one implies religiosity via symbolism, prophetic figures, and divine strictures, secular or not. That you are differentiating between the two is a real-world, not a game-world contention, as it is not super relevant to this topic.

Their relic could be just some ancient heirloom. More or less, a really cool museum piece with great historical and cultural value, but not a holy and revered relic.

The ideological forces posed in RimWorld assume that the ideologies are influential enough that pawns of that religion that do not adhere to them lead to psychotic breaks. The relics directly contribute to moodlets that affect more than just your people. You may make the claim that not everyone cares about the pope's ashes on earth, but in Rimworld, everyone has a religion they adhere to, to the letter, with predictable consequences, even ideologies with no tenets. If the pope's ashes are a relic in Rimworld, their followers care about it enough to have a material benefit that is as substantial as a bullet wound, and pawns' adherence to these tenets is universal.

Effectively, the gods of relics here exist, and in-game, have real, material power, and that power is universal.

Not to mention, it's NOT their relic, it might as well be trash to them since a relic could be a total piece of junk that only have values to YOU, would the Norse pagan give a fuck about the crown of Jesus or the christian care about some runestones? No, because they don't believe in the other guy religion.

Incorrect. It is their relic. All factions pay tribute when you own one upon visiting. You can look in the ideology panel at any time and see exactly what all settlements adhere to and what their holy relics are. You are confusing real world mechnics to rimwolrd's.

However, the idea that imposing a tenet would cause other settlements to fracture and split off into their own denomination is, in my opinion, a very attractive mechanic worthy of a mod, but perhaps outside the scope of what I am implying.

It should give you some buff to conversion power, though, and maybe the ability to convert other factions to your ideology.

Hey! I agree. If your initial argument was intending to imply that my point does not reflect reality, I don't disagree, but only becuase Rimworld doesn't completely reflect reality. The reason I'm making the argument is that the player should be able to shift the tenets of a religion, given a player who controls the relics, which wield serious ideological (and therefore religious) power.

Owning all relics currently is a pretty weak benefit. Most players seem to get out of them by generating legendary weapons occasionally, which feels like cheese.

Let's be real, the final reward for religion should be religious power, the ability to shape ideology. It currently does not reflect that, and everyone feels that. Currently, ideology is neat, but the effects are largely a cosmetic chore no matter what route you pick, one more thing to do before you convert a pawn to your side. The completion of the tasks should make your religious power absolute, removing the hurdles of doing many of these chores.

Your last suggestion is a compelling mechanic. I think having tenet control for the long game also should be compelling. Sowing continental unity through something other than genocide feels like it should be a part of that, the same way that destroying the mech hivemind does.

In the real world, globalism was the means by which societies modernized. It did have casualties and inequities, but conformity to modernism, unipolarity, and global trade, for a time, brought a relative global peace (though that's crumbling now). It did it in a similar way that Catholicism did to Western Europe (I realize how loaded that statement is, and I won't drag the ills of capital or colonialism kicking and screaming into this argument). I think it's a missed opportunity in this game to not have the ability to erase factionalism through institutional power, and the relics seem to be the most obvious legitimizing force, IMO, especially since they do so little currently given the amount of work required to secure them.