Worldbuilding exercise

Come up with a religion where the focus isn’t about worshipping deities

a rough draft of a religion in one my games;
>There are no Gods, Angels or Demons- only monsters with many masks and methods, luring souls to the gates of the afterlife to devour them.
>Life is a cycle of reincarnation, true and pure, but these creatures from the beyond interrupt this.
>Live as best you can, for this material world with all its faults is still better than the nothing those that dwell beyond.
>Those that wish to help our brothers and sisters, become strong- you can use that strength to fight the beasts for as long as possible when you pass over, helping as many souls get through to their next life as possible before, inevitably, you are struck down and devoured or without strength left to fight, pass on to your own next life.

Off the top of my head I see three main ways to do this:
1. The gods aren't really gods, they are powerful spirits who have tricked humans into worshiping them. AKA fantasy atheism and for some reason you get darkness powers or anti-magic or some shit because balance.
2. The religion is about connecting with an all-powerful force that permeates everything, such as in Star Wars. It can be very similar to god-worship in terms of flavor and substance but is technically different.
3. The purpose of the religion is to guide its followers to enlightenment. ie Buddhism; there are gods (or pagan-god level spirits depending on who you ask), but they are secondary to the religion.

that's cool stuff

>Self-perfection is the subject of worship
>Specifically, the act of improving the favoured aspect(s) of oneself to their peak (or at least as close as humanly possible)
>The most intelligent, the most physically fit, the most skilled artists and artisans etc. are revered and asked to pass on their ways to the newer generations
>Completely optionally of course, no task would be forced on such people
>However, it is a difficult position to maintain. Being the absolute best in your field is no easy task and, although a number of the top practitioners are held in high regard, if enough people surpass you it's likely that your position of privilege won't last

In my setting two religions do not focus on worshipping gods

One is Neoplatonism mixed with Veeky Forums
The other is buddhist style escape from rebirth memes mixed with Veeky Forums

What both adherants do not know is the one who made both religions was the same dude whose two main disciples took their own twists on his teachings and the original religion is long gone

The beast races have God-Mother’s, who are revered, but not worshipped, they worship some aspect of astrology (moon for wolves, sun for cats, etc.).

I also have a steampunk religion based on pseudo sciences like astrology and numerology. Atheists in that setting are referred to as skeptics.

What would happen if members of families worshipped each other?

>People worship the elements of life, death, air, earth, fire, lightning, and time

NOT!Taoism/The Force/Stoicism. Religion A is based around becoming one with The Way/The Force/The Will of Nature. Meditative practices, exercises, and yoga alongside a right mindset make one in tune with the The Way/The Force/The Will of Nature and grant one powers. The ultimate goal is to take your soul and basically distribute it among the rest of the universe until it is so dilute that you personally don't really have a soul of your own and instead The Way/The Force/The Will of Nature itself is your soul. Villainous usages of this turn to evil Jedi who are completely moral and upstanding people who are on a quest to distribute everyone's souls such that everyone is ascended like they are. This is bad because it's pretty painful, but then pain is merely an illusion so who cares if the quest for forced enlightenment hurts a little, right? Most followers of the Dilution path don't think like that however because it requires a LOT of mental gymnastics to get there, bordering on delusion.

They are opposed by [Some religion name] that similarly has meditative practices, exercises, and yoga alongside a proper mindset but they believe that one should instead draw in extra soulness from The Way/The Force/The Will of Nature such that your soul becomes hyper concentrated. Particularly evil people turn to starting up pyramid schemes where soulness is transferred up the hierarchy until you get a madman at the top, but those schemes tend to fall apart because they end in death; most followers of the Concentration path are perfectly fine (if narcissistic) people who gather soulness from The Way/The Force/The Will of Nature via meditation, exercise, yoga, and mental cultivation.

oh, technically applicable to the setting i'm cooking in my head, where people placate nature/fae spirits for boons and protection. The exception being the sun worshippers, who place their reverence above all others, because it's the goddamn sun and it burns away all imperfections and evil.

Unfortunately, worshipping the Sun involves years meditating in isolation over untranslatable texts until you come to the Ephiphany that the sun hates you and the memetic virus locked in said texts activates and you immolate alive (most worshippers consider it a form of ascendancy). The founder of the religion realized what the Sun wanted most from humanity is to die, so to limit the spread of the virus to those who TRULY wished to placate the Sun, established an elaborate and obtuse religion around it to discourage casual worship.

Particularly strong followers of the path of Concentration can even transcend death as their soul has become powerful enough to sustain itself without a body. The original founder of the path of Concentration is still alive via this manner. Similarly, powerful members of the path of Dilution can transcend death because without a soul you sort of short circuit the whole "dying" thing entirely; your body just never shuts off until it's smashed to suitable bit. The original founder of the path of Dilution is also still alive, but via this manner instead (albeit as a skeleton held together through sheer oneness with the universe).

Both paths end up with its adherents losing more and more of themselves as they either shed away what makes them them or suck up so much of the universe that "them" gets drowned out. Some find this horrifying, others peaceful.

Neither path denies the reality of the other, they just argue (sometimes violently) about which one should be taken up.

Both paths' founders fully admit that they came up with their stuff on their own and were not told it by he Way/The Force/The Will of Nature. For bonus fun, they're secretly the same thing and what said is true.

is one called Natty

>NOT!Taoism

was about to post something like this.

but i imagine it would be hard to RP a belief system like Daoism. even the chinese fucked it up with dieties and confucian/buddhist fanfic.

Not!Confucianism.

>he uses Buddhism for inspiration for a godless religion
笨鬼子!

>Come up with a religion where the focus isn’t about worshipping deities

I picked Confucianism

Ancestor deities are still deities

You know de wey

Ancestor worship.

I had a religion similar to this in one of my games a few years back. Praying directly to the god who taught these virtues was a sure way to be struck with a curse of bad luck -- instead of praying for wisdom or strength, you pray to get the god's attention before you do something amazing, like vanquishing a foe or overcoming a challenge.

One of the key themes was that bullying the weak was considered poor form and a good way to fall out of favour with the other faithful, because the best way to prove one's superiority was to compete with others of your skill level. While aiming for someone higher than you is admirable, foolhardiness is not always a virtue.