Tell me about the fictional religions you've created, Veeky Forums.
And I really mean that.
Not gods, not pantheons, not mythologies - religions. I don't want to hear about your boring D&D-derived "classical" anachronistic "gods". I want to hear what theologies, philosophies, and organized systems of belief exist in your fictional worlds.
Bump.
Well, there's the Faith in my sci-fi setting, but it's really more of a confederation of monotheistic religions that the Varjren Empire that still ultimately places the varjrens at the top, rather than a single religion.
The basic tenet is that there is only one God. However, God reveals Himself to the various species of the universe in different ways according to their needs and His plans for them. The Faith posits that all examples of God in various cultures are the one God.
Of course, the Faith is still a political tool of the Varjren Empire, so the varjren version of monotheism is the "most" correct in their view.
Other tenets of the varjren religion that gets woven into all the religions of the Faith include the idea that blind faith is worthless, and that the lesser of two evils is still Evil and so shall still be punished. They also greatly object to the idea of the sacrifice of animals, to say nothing of sapient beings.
However since the Faith is inclusive it tends to be pretty accepting. If the varjrens rolled up to Earth they'd peg most Abrahamic religions as being compatible with the Faith...after some slight "corrections". God would not have a Son with humans (or anything), for example, although various Prophets are certainly possible, even probable.
I made several attemps at writing something, but it's not possible without mentioning the gods once.
Just remember that gods are products of religion, not the other way around, and it should be a trifling matter to explain the religion without invoking some dreadful mythology.
The main religion of humanity looks like Eastern Orthodox Christianity crossed with ancient Egyptian paganism, with more tits and racism. They teach that humanity was the first race created, that all other races are inferior to it, and that the destiny of the human race is to rule all, under the guidance of their Sun-God. Once every corner of the earth is purified, the Sun-God will send his bride down to rule the world in person, replacing the Emperor and ushering in a golden age without end.
According to their theology, the origin of suffering is fourfold:
> FLESH, which grants physical pain and suffering
> VOICE, which is used to spread heresies and blasphemies, and thereby cause spiritual pain to others
> FEAR, which causes people to flee from death and rightful duty, and shame themselves -- which causes pain to God
> MIND, which is used to understand the previous three sufferings, and causes spiritual pain to yourself
Most priests focus on the human supremacy bit, and believe that with service the spiritual and physical pain of existence will be removed. However, some other zealots take special care to try to sooth themselves of the Four Gifts. Paladins are judged to be blessed, in that they're spared the third Gift, but other priests choose to replace limbs with prosthetics, seal their lips with spells and even lobotomize themselves. High ranking zealots might look like a torso with biomechanical limbs, a pulsating lobotomized brain, and surface-level porcelain veneers cast into the images of beautiful, mute human youths. These are called Clockwork Priests, and it's wise not to fuck with them.
A natural outgrowth of this is the Arteficer's Guild, which believes it's the sacred duty of the initiated to ensure that technological advancement is done to serve Man, rather than replace him. That's why much of the machinery of the setting is either ancient, runs on humans in hamster wheels, or both.
>Just remember that gods are products of religion, not the other way around
This is really difficult when the gods of this setting were unknown to everyone until they performed the actions which defines them the one time they came down to earth, seen by mortal eyes and their words heard by mortal ears the first time. This is a fantasy setting, I can do that this way, gods are real there because I say so.
The only thing I may talk about without mentioning gods would be those sects that all have confusing ideas about reaching liberation stolen from hinduistic principle of mokṣa by destroying the binds that may be the body or the mind by the means of the body or the mind, to set the soul free. Which would mean reaching true 'god'head, so here we are again.
The majority of all peoples in the setting are so concerned with re discovering their own history which they know exists but has been lost possibly multiple times that they largely are not concerned with religion. Not that I think people with so much doubt would not look for answers in religion but I cover for my laziness in not making religions with the idea that they adhere to history for those answers. which is what makes a world where a tax form with the oldest certified date is considered a rock solid piece of evidence for authority. Or that if you can authenticate a song to be from a period older than a logbook it suddenly becomes a more useful historical document, despite the possibility of being nothing more than a popular tune.
However the one bit of religion that I have been able to think up is that there is a growing acceptance in the idea that what ever gods they do find out about as they uncover more information, those gods for some reason or another depending on who you ask WANT for the world to be un known. more moderate members of this "faith" believe that you should not speculate on the nature of the world. which makes them less likely to question known authority. OR if they are a little more curious, turns them into rudimentary enlightenment thinkers who are looking at the world in a "Well what can we know about right now? not earlier or later but right now?" much like religious scientists are to do. while the more radical members either hoard information and keep it hidden to avoid angering whatever gods they fear might plunge the world into darkness again for their hubris in attempting to know the world, or out right destroy it to keep people safe from such danger.
Gods are not known. They are proclaimed. There may well be extremely powerful beings in your setting that you believe deserve to be worshiped as gods, but they are not gods until they are declared as such. Furthermore, many will refuse to recognize them as divine, regardless of their power.
can gods declare themselves as gods? .
Of yourse. Look what Krishna did. But you also need to prove that.
Forgot that I have a pic for that.
so when some powerful figure shows up and says "im am and have always been a god," and then does some miracles and "proves" it was a god all along like it says then was it a god the whole time or only after the proclamation?
I just don't like it when people are like.
thats not a god its just a powerful thing, as if gods are anything other than just powerful things. if it was a god after the proof was made it was a god before hand as well.
The quality of divinity is never intrinsic. It's assigned by faithful. "God" is a title bestowed upon things, not a property with its own qualifications. Power is often associated with divinity but this is hardly a rule, and besides, the meaning behind worship is almost always deeper than "he got the big juju".
Religion is the attempt by people to answer the unanswerable - gods and magic and the rest of that supernatural stuff are just showy byproducts of the important questions like "Why are we here?" and "Why do bad things happen to good people?" Oftentimes gods and supernatural creatures are considered as extant but irrelevant, since they are not a part of the "ultimate reality" or may be malevolent or disinterested in humanity.
There are nigh-infinite ways to develop an interesting religion without even once invoking the name, powers, or personality of a god, even in the case that they are acknowledged.
The quality of divinity is never intrinsic. It's assigned by faithful. "God" is a title bestowed upon things, not a property with its own qualifications.
this satisfies my autism,
Oy vey I guess a thread like this just can't cut it these days, here's a 2D waifu to draw in the crowd
I'm having some trouble understanding this.
In settings where gods are active and easily evident, they usually are the answer to the questions you listed. Are you saying that people should come up with their own explanations even when one is readily available?
Let's say there's a creator deity; that it exists is a known fact and some questions put to it will be answered. It can tell its followers (or even those that don't follow it) exactly why they were created and even demonstrate this creative power. If I'm understanding your point, you think that even in this situation people will make up their own answers to develop objects of worship around? Why?
I admit I have not studied religion at all, but it seems to me that all the differing religions and theologies and such exist because the answers aren't readily available. Would a setting where they are available not change things somewhat?
Would an existing and active thunder god (or "powerful outsider", if you prefer) that can answer the question of why storms exist and demonstrably spare those with his favor not preclude the creation of another god or answer?
I'm just wondering why a universe with known and set metaphysics would have people who imagine their own version of events and not treat those people as ignorant. Like say anti-vaxxers who believe what they will despite evidence to the contrary. I get that these people will always exist, and may even gain ground, but treating it as gospel when there is actual truth to be found kind of mystifies me.
Am I just retarded for preferring the "divine fan club" method?
This thread is more for settings where the gods aren't active and easily evident, or at least where they don't interact with or reveal their secrets to mere mortals.
...
The Wheel of Life and Death.
The Master hits you with his car and runs over you with the right front tire. You live, you are worthy to enter His paradise. You die, you get eaten.
That's some mad max shenanigams
Close enough. Sacrificed people to it, too. Put it on a motorcycle chassis, stripped people naked, and I think you see where this is going.
>The autismo from that one worldbuilding thread still can't get over the fact that in a world with objectively powerful beings the religion will spring from the god rather than vice versa
>Still thinks it's his job to tell people how their settings should or shouldn't work
L M A O
M
A U T I S M
O
I do happen to have a setting in which there are no obvious gods, there are spirits and other weirder things which are rare and hardly ever manifest in the physical realm and have been called either gods or demons when they do, or when someone in deep meditation manages to reach a very high state of concience to somehow pry into other realms and stuff. That's how you usually get your prophets or saints and other mystics.
Religions are very varied, since I mostly just took inspiration from IRL cultures, so you get the typical animism or pantheism in the classical sense in some areas mixed up with some organized cults worshipping a saint which delivered upon them the "way" to cleanse oneself from sin and ascend to "paradise", some mystery cults here and there, some other typical evil cult of something or the other for hooks and the like.
I'll admit I don't usually go indept with them unless it matters for the session but I do have them sprung here and there for flavor, or when the inevitable conflict with some followers or cultists happens.
Wow, what a faggot
Wow, you are a super faggot.
Then why the fuck would you but a religion in the first place unless you were going to have some cool shit with it?
It'd literally just be putting something in to jerk off to how "creative" you are unless you wanted some kind of retarded ass thematic shit going on.
You seriously can't come up with a creative scenario to play around with if there is no magical beard man in the sky?
You can have lots of conflicts and interesting shit going on with religion without the cliche EVIL GOD AWAKENS (tm) WHAT DO.
I mean its totally fine if you do, you can even send your party gather the seven elemental magical shits or save the princess from a dragon. Those are all tried and true scenarios and if you wanna do those? More power to you. But that's hardly the only way to make religion or an adventure interesting.
To have a remotely developed setting? Because it's an important part of basically any historical culture and even if you're going Low Fantasy it'd still be important? Or because, even if you're going High Fantasy, maybe you're not going full "the gods that created the planet are always running around everywhere and frequently chatting with humans, explaining anything and everything they can in detail to them, quickly answering the god-phone whenever they call, and checking up on them regularly to see if they've forgotten anything or need anything else explained"?
>You seriously can't come up with a creative scenario to play around with if there is no magical beard man in the sky?
Way to straw man you dumb fuck.
If I'm not going to put in magical beard man why the fuck would I care about religion?
>lots of conflict and shit with religion
Fuck I can come up with plenty of conflicts where religion doesn't come up at fucking all. Why the fuck would I want to be all "oooo look at my super special people they believe in some shit that can't be proven in a different way than humans look how cool they are" unless it's relevant to the plot or the story I want to tell then it doesn't fucking matter at all.
>To have a remotely developed setting
It's [insert existing religion] but with different names.
Boom your religion with no cool shit is done I hope you enjoy it.
your fedora is showing
Sure, let's give this a shot.
The followers of the religion believe that they were created by an angry war god but were discarded as a failed creation for not being kill-ey enough. It's a universally accepted fact that despite the fact that their god doesn't care about them at all when they die their souls are still claimed and they go to their version of Valhalla. Which is a bad thing because that's where all the angry gods other creations go as well, which weren't disappointments, so it's essentially an eternity of getting curb stomped by giant hyper violent monstrosities in constant warfare.
This has lead to two main social patterns in different tribes. Some are hedonistic and nihilistic, believing that eternal punishment awaits them no matter what so they should enjoy the relative non-terribleness of mortal life whilst they can. The other major movement seeks to appease the war god through war and raiding, believing that they'll suffer less in the afterlife if they die in battle.
wut
That's boring as shit. It's not my fault you have no creativity. You really can't think about how the existence of things like magic might affect a culture or their beliefs?
> You really can't think about how the existence of things like magic might affect a culture or their beliefs?
Why would I even begin to care?
Because maybe you want to make something even slightly interesting? Or maybe you take some remote interest in anthropology, or religion, or just something other than sucking cocks.
ow the edge
>Because maybe you want to make something even slightly interesting?
>Religion is the only thing that makes settings interesting
>Religions without badass gods who give superpowers and shit makes settings interesting.
Unless your setting revolves around some kind of theme or something in the religion, it's just going to be another random detail that maybe some people will think is really cool.
>you take some remote interest in anthropology, or religion
Oh I do. I just got triggered by OP's faggotry.
The Sola faith is pantheistic faith similar in nature to hinduism and revolves around the various planets and celestial bodies in the settings solar system being emboidments of gods who both have positive traits as well as negative traits spoken of in a story originally created by the various sailors and would be star-gazers to help them remember what they are for navigation purposes (especially when they start going into space and going to these places) as well as to convey certain moral stories.
The big theme of the setting revolves around light and dark and the story essentially of a conflict between the various planets who are the children of the sun (Sola) with some wanting to explore the areas beyond her light and those opposed to it and the conflict that leads to the current shape of the solar system.
While there is no centralized manor of worshipping these gods they do also have various cults dedicated to their particular favorite gods on top of other religions that don't involve the Sola mythology as well.
What belligerent idiocy
ur mom
Fair enough. I guess it depends on what you're making. If it's something for just one game or one campaign vs something more permanent or that you plan to re-use a lot - especially if you're going sandbox, in which case it's definitely important IMO - and how much you're basing the rest of the setting on some historic culture. I mean, if you're just going pseudo-Late Medieval France with the names changed, then yeah you can just have pseudo-Catholicism with the names changed.
I like doing it because I think it's interesting and adds a lot to the world, and I guess I'm into worldbuilding in general. Plus, the way I see it, if it's a long campaign, or you're making a world that you're gonna use for a lot of campaigns, maybe even a permanent standby one, the players might want to be holy people, or RP that aspect of the society, or just wonder what it is. Plus there is a lot of conflict, and a lot of plots, than can come from that. Like, in any given pre-industrial society, that will be the massive thing that will likely touch every aspect of the society.
Admittedly, though, this mainly applies if you're not just explicitly modeling it after some Earth culture, or even if you are and they start going to some other part of the world (or play as non-humans if the setting has those).
See, that's all good and fine.
What gets me is fucking faggot OP being all "I don't want to see what you define as religion, I want you to meet my specific standards for a religion."
And when people don't want to deal with his bullshit he gets all whiney and "these days are shit" when he's the one being the fucking faggot.
He's asking for people to dance to appease him and then when they don't says "ugh people are shit."
>religion doesn't matter unless gods are real, powerful, and actively intervening in the affairs of the world
Please kys
>hardcore strawman
>completely ignores argument
>kys
/v/ plz leave.
Eh, fair enough I guess.
Religion and doctrine can form the direct basis for any number of plots. Religion informs the entire worldview of a society and is often the backbone of its culture. Religion provides an interesting platform for the discussion of serious topics in a fictional setting. Religion can be the origin of an aesthetic or mood for an entire game. Religion is interesting for its own sake.
Fuck you, D&Dfag, expand your fucking horizons beyond the cookie cutter, shallow, narrow range of stories you find APPROPRIATE for your thoughtless kitchen sink fantasy basyarrized wargames.
post religiums
>Religion informs the entire worldview of a human society and is often the backbone of its human culture
Fixed it for you, you unimaginative faggot