How often do you insert religions in your settings that are more than 'sun god' and 'god of booze'...

How often do you insert religions in your settings that are more than 'sun god' and 'god of booze'? I'm working on a setting based in a semi-realistic renaissance era and I was hoping Veeky Forums would be my soundboard on the major religious division in the setting. I have a mild anxiety that players will challenge me with 'why is x' and 'that makes no sense' comments so I like to have a very well thought out setting before I even begin to assemble a party. Also I have no party and working on settings is as Veeky Forums as I get anymore.

There are two major religions in the setting, both of whom are based loosely off of one mythological event wherein a young widow, Pava Pola, is struck by a shooting star and becomes pregnant. The widow and her prepubescent daughter, Pava Maia, then wander an arid region looking for shelter, while the widow rambles about the stars and the nature of the universe in a sort of delirium. Eventually the widow gives birth to 100 fully grown men and dies in childbirth, leaving her young daughter to 'raise' these fully grown but naive men.

Both religions are partially guided by written accounts of the widow's musings about the universe, in which she explains that the universe is governed by an Assembly of Heaven, made up of spirits of great men and women who ascend and join the assembly in death. This assembly guide fate and decide on a great many things, meaning that to earn a place in the assembly gives one the ability to shape the destiny of everything. These musings, as well as a series of parables about the widow and her daughter's wandering, make up the Credenda Pola.

Both major religions count the Credenda Pola among their holy scripture, though it is the significance of what comes next that splits the two religions.

The Maian religion believes that upon her death, the widow (Pava Pola) was chosen by the assembly as the perfect human and was struck by the stone to kill her before her eventual disgrace. In death, Pava Pola ascended to lead the Assembly of Heaven, combining all spirits that came before and would come after her into one cosmic entity. Her daughter, now her prophet, was to be protected by the 100 sons so that Maia could spread her mother (and later, her own) teachings. The Maian religion's other sacred texts are the teachings of Pava Maia and the laws she imparted to her brothers, stating that the daughter is the embodiment of the widow's spirit on earth. All major leaders of the Maian religion seek to trace their lineage back to one of the 100 sons or, in the case of the Great Mother, to Maia herself.

The Atlan religion includes no mention of the widow unifying the assembly and instead seems to focus more on the idea that the stars represent wise beings that look down upon the world and seek to guide and aid humanity. Atlans believe that only by observing and understanding the movement of the stars can their will be divined. The firstborn son, Ibhan ik-Pava, would lead his brothers to catalog and identify hundreds of stars and constellations, believing that each held domain over various aspects of the universe, and to invoke the correct spirit was necessary to receive guidance or blessing. This knowledge, as well as the wisdom of both Ibhan and Maia, was collected into a holy text known as the Night Atlas, a text that is both religious ideology and well studied astronomy. As the Atlas grew in length and importance, the spread of this knowledge and the protection of the faithful became the goal of the 100 sons, known as the first members of the Crusade of Stars. Even in modern times, the Crusade is an important part of the Atlan faith, serving as warrior-scholars intent on understanding the will of the stars and spreading Atlan influence.

>The Maian religion believes that upon her death, the widow (Pava Pola) was chosen by the assembly as the perfect human and was struck by the stone to kill her before her eventual disgrace.

That was misworded. ignore 'upon her death'

The schism of the faith is effectively the importance of the widow and her daughter. The Maians believe that Pava Maia and all of her female descendants carry with them part of their mother's divinely recognized perfection. This belief is the foundation of the Cult of Heaven, the powerful religious organization that believes that in order to ascend and become one with the Mother (Pava Pola), you must heed the will and seek the blessing of the highest priestess, who claims to be Pola's descendant and speaks on behalf of the Assembly of Heaven. A hierarchy of priestesses lends divine will in partial increments to each female member of the cult's oligarchy corresponding to how closely (and how strongly) they can trace their lineage to the divine family. As a result, positions of power in the cult are largely hereditary and pass from mother to daughter. Fathers and sons of priestesses enjoy great political power and wealth, as aiding in the lineage of Maia is considered a great contribution to the fate of mankind.

I think it sounds neat, but if your players are only interested in murderhoboring all that might be a bit too complicated.

After reading I have two questions that your players might also ask.
>Why is Pava Pola a widow? Is this of any importance? How did her husband die or does it not matter?
>I want to play a cleric! Does all this affect me?

The Atlans deny the idea that Pava Pola is significantly more important than any other spirit in the Assembly of Heaven and instead focus on the idea that any person can, through spiritual purity, scholarly devotion, or any great achievement, join the assembly as an equal to the greats that have come before. They believe that purity is measured in following the laws set forth by Pava Maia (basic thou shalt not be a cunt sort of stuff) as well as observing important customs and properly revering the Assembly's will. One of the most assured ways to gain entry to the Assembly is to join the Crusade of Stars, serving as protector of the faithful and seeking to further the knowledge contained within the Night Atlas. While most crusaders tend towards warrior or scholar, all are expected to have basic proficiency as both. The surly man-at-arms who patrols the roads between shrines must be well versed in reading the stars and understanding their movement just as the meek student pushing the bounds of known astronomy is expected to maintain at least some martial prowess. The Atlan religion is governed by the highest members of the Crusade of Stars, the council of six. These men and women hear newly organized theories and decided cosmic canon for subjects both spiritual and scientific.

>>Why is Pava Pola a widow? Is this of any importance? How did her husband die or does it not matter?
Pava Pola is a widow to distinguish her daughter from the 'virgin' birth of her sons. Pava Maia represents the idea that Pola's divinity can pass from mother to daughter in the usual way. His death (and life) is largely irrelevant except to prove the concept that if a human fucks a divine, you get divine kids, which is the basis for the Priesthood of the Cult of Heaven.
>I want to play a cleric! Does all this affect me?
I should have specified that I'm not running d&d and that my setting is extremely low in magic. However, players should feel encouraged to play members of the Crusade of Stars or Priestesses with weak lineages seeking to gain political power through pilgrimage or proselytizing.

Also thanks user, I was beginning to think I was alone in this thread.

Some things I need to work out

>Pava Maia and Maianism sounds like the Mayan people of Mesoamerica. I should probably pick a better name.

>The priestesses and especially the high Priestess of the Cult of Heaven probably need a better title. I like the use of the word Cult but Cult of Heaven needs work as well

>I should probably decide what scientific pursuits (aside from astronomy) fall into the purview of the Crusade. I imagine that the tenant of understanding the universe would bleed into other sciences which fits in a renaissance era campaign. I also imagine that areas with a heavy Atlan influence produce really good sailors and traders due to their focus on understanding the stars.

It's not little text to read.

Also, you said
>I'm working on a setting based in a semi-realistic renaissance era
And it just crossed my mind that all this doesn't sound like renaissance europe, if this is what you are going for. I mean if you tell me that this campaign will play in renaissance times I would imagine some not!-catholic church and maybe some dirty infidels and such.

Well, the Cult of Heaven claiming to speak on behalf of a divine cosmic entity was meant to sort of fill that not!-Catholic Church role. The Atlans, ever expanding their territory through their religion were meant to be a sort of not!-Islam. I was hoping not to put too fine a point on it, which apparently worked okay since you didn't immediately draw the comparisons. That's good, I'd rather draw inspiration from real things without my players going "So, they're French" every 5 minutes.

For a second I actually thought about the Atlans as muslims, but I couldn't really point out why and thought my inner /pol/ is coming out
And yes, the names need some work. But I'm also bad at fantasy names, so please don't ask me.

Yeah, the campaign is effectively a proxy war over colonizing !notAfrica between !notTurkey and !notSpain so religion as a theme seemed important.

The naming system was something I've been working on. Women are [Surname] Given name, the oldest male is Given Name ik-[Surname] and the other sons are Given Name bar-[Surname].

So the divine Family is the Pava family. Pava Pola's given name is Pola, her first born son is Ibhan ik-Pava and the other 99 are X bar-Pava.

I like the naming system and most of the names, but Maia needs work. Pola is a reference to Polaris, the north star. The !notTurkey kingdom is Ankara (like Antares the star) so maybe the daughter should be another star reference. It just can't be too obvious.

that should be Antara, not Ankara. I realize that Ankara is the capital of Turkey.

While I might not ever get the chance to put the setting to use I've been fiddling with the idea of various religious organizations and their interactions with the world as a whole and hopefully more then just it being the state religion of whatever city the PCs would be in.

For example, there is a all female religion where all the members are mechanically druids based loosely off of Wiccan. They have temples that act as boarding schools for girls who take the Tri-fold Vows (i.e. the vow of the Crone, the Mother, and the Maiden).

Similarly I've been trying to iron out a greco-buddhist style religion of sorts but that requires more reading on my part.

Pava Jauza works as a possible reference to the arabic name of Betelgeuse. Jauza may be a bit harsh sounding though.

I plan to fill in a lot of minor pagan traditions in between, with these two major religions representing the foreign influences entering the region. I agree that far reaching all powerful 'everyone is a member' religions aren't super complex story telling but they do have a place in a renaissance-inspired setting I think.

Yeah, obviously somewhere at some point you'll have a religion that is superficially the Abrahamic religions of that world that will have some kind of strong organization tied to it as well and they all have their place. Although, as one user already pointed out, if your players are just murder hobos or if they various organizations don't tie into the campaign in any meaningful way such lofty imaginations are best left for world-building and novel writing.

You make a very good point, user. I know that the Atlan religion will definitely be a major thing in the campaign (Islam in Africa being a pretty big thing) whereas the other faith will likely be more important to point out the stark us vs them themes present between the other kingdoms and !notTurkey. I'm hoping that playing something other than D&D and mentioning several times that the campaign will feature lethal combat and a lot of politicking and intrigue will tell the murderhobos to seek more friendly waters. Worse case scenario, I enjoy making this stuff up and I'm not afraid to break off into 'lets explore the dark heart of Africa and fight cryptids".

So... What were the mechanics of her actually birthing 100 fully adult sons, all of whom were actually larger than teir own mother I am guessing. Is her vagina basically a dimensional portal to hammerspace?

i got tired of polytheism and made "zoroastrianism" the main religion of the setting, just made the right blend of european christian culture and zoroastrian values and traditions, thanks to my obviously incredible paint skills i've made the holy symbol as well, the main god is called "The Exarch" and he's pretty much Ahura-Mazda

i'm doing this is a semi-realistic renaissance as well

Sons being born fully grown is a big thing in African mythology so this is just turned to 11. I mean, she did die in childbirth so there's no reason her stomach couldn't have just exploded and a bunch of dudes crawled out like disembarking from a clown car.

Going to switch Maia to Jauza since it's grown on me. Pava Jauza being the daughter and the followers of her faith being the Jauzani.

I think I'll stick to calling them priestesses, with positions of power being held by 'matrons' and the ladypope being called the Teta. Still working on it. We'll call the religion the Filial Cult of Jauza or, more commonly, the Jauzani Cult

I may also switch Atlan to Atlian but I'm undecided.