Have any religion ever controlled a tribe/people so much that if you did not sacrifice to them, the whole system would collapse (I'm sure that a lot of examples of societies where Gods were the very the center of the society and the society would collapse because part of what kept it going, the society, was the sacrifices/religion.)

I'm against it. There is already enough time sinks in this game .
With the introduction of repairing, that would just be really mean. But there is nothing that prohibits you, as a society, to make laws that requires your members to sacrifice to the Gods (the vaults of the tribe .)
Or you could put up a religious toll for outsiders entering your city to show their respect to your God(s).

The law system (which is supposed to be introduced somewhat before the release - I hope) will provide more than enough possibilities to create a very religious based tribe.
- For now you can't even attack tribe areas, though that will (again hopefully) be removed, I still vouch for the possibility of total and utter destruction - remember you still need to fight the tribe while destroying their city - NOT an easy task.) You won't see cities wiped from the map so long that it takes time to destroy buildings - it is limitted for how long you can keep a raid going.