Worldbuilding - Religions

Every world needs some sort of belief system to help govern it. It can be something as simple as the belief that there is no life after death, or something as complex as a structured diety and mythology system, with holy days and daily practices that dictate the way your people live. Any sort of religion you have is important, because the beliefs associated with them affect how your pople think, how they live, and how they act. People who have no belief in a diety wouldn't pray, and very pious people wouldn't live their lives in a worldy manner unless their deity or deities dictate it. It is up to you to decide which best fits your world. I will merely provide some examples, and basic guidelines for each.

Let's start simple.

Your world can a few basic beliefs, which wouldn't really amount to a religion, but they're close enough to be included on this page. These beliefs can vary. Your people can have a belief that there is no life after death. If this is true, they may live for the moment, without thought to the eternal consequences of their actions, because there would be no eternity. Your people can also believe that there is an afterlife, and this afterlife may differ. It may be an eternity in a heaven with their diety, or an eternity wandering the world as a spirit. You could have a separate realm where the dead dwell, or degrees of heaven. Your people could also have a belief in reincarnation, or a belief that their diety doesn't affect them much, but is there. These are simple ideas and concepts that don't exactly amount to a full-fledged religion. My world of Tyther is one such example. The people of Tyther believe in a diety, called Fate, and that He determines their paths through the world, but that He does not play a larger role in their existence. They also believe that Fate has chosen servants, most of them nymph (elven), who represent various concepts, such as love (Eros), death (Tartarus), destiny (the Three Sisters), peace (Utopia), etc. My raptori worship Fate a bit more actively, but it is still not a very defined religion.

You can also plan out a religion, with more active worship. There are several degrees to this, as there are to the basic beliefs, and if you choose to go this far, you will have to decide how important this religion is in daily life.

One thing you will have to decide is how many dieties your religion has. One diety can often represent everything you want him/her to, while many more dieties generally take on attributes that they alone represent. An example of a one-diety (monotheistic) religion is Christianity. An example of a many-diety (polytheistic) religion is the Greek gods. I will have personal examples of these on my site in the encyclopedias of my worlds. I will also include basic descriptions of different styles here.

Another decision to make is how complex and involving the religion will be. It can be something as simple as meeting once a week to worship, and perhaps having a family shrine or a picture or a statue or something in the home. It can also be as complex as worshipping constantly, having churchmen sworn to their religion, having symbols and icons everywhere, and so on. This element is also independent of the number of dieties. Your monotheistic religion can be simple or complex, as can your polythesitic religion. You decide which fits best.

Simple monothesim is like some modern variations on Christianity. There is a belief in one diety, there is baptism (or some other method of induction to the religion), there is once-a-week worship, and so on. It usually isn't difficult to work with in writing, because it doesn't affect daily life as much, and members of this religion don't usually get as involved. They may be faithful, but it doesn't show as much, in their actions or their speech.

Simple polythesim is a slight step up. Instead of the one diety to worship, there are now two or more. I'll work with two, first. Having two dieties isn't much different from having one. Often, if they don't work in concert, they oppose each other. Dieties working together are often portrayed as twins, siblings, or spouses. Oftentimes they complement each other, such as night and day, black and white, etc. When they oppose each other, they are usually exact opposites, good and evil. This is closer to the monothesim than the complementing pair is, since the people will usually worship the good diety, and fear the evil. Sometimes, however, a person will worship the dark diety, and you might want to take this into account. Examples of these kinds of bitheism (or dualism) are abundant. An example of opposing bithesim (good vs. evil) could be my friend and cowriter's world, where there is a goddess who represents goodness and light, and another goddess who represents darkness and opposes the first. To add flavor to this setup, the writer has made the two goddesses sisters. In that story, each goddess has followers, but the religion is not, as of yet, very developed, leaving it in the "simple" category. She and I have also begun a cooperative bitheism in one of our collaborations. That world has a Lord and Lady who are the ruling dieties, though they don't play a very active role (yet).

Simle polytheism with more than two dieties can give more flexibility, especially if you leave enough leeway to add more dieties as you see fit. Often, in polytheism, each diety has its own area or areas of control. Examples of this are the Greek and Egyptian gods, and the dieties in my world of Mystica. However, these religious systems are more complex, so I will not go into detail about them right now. Often, with simple polytheism, there will be stories about different dieties and their exploits and deeds, and there will be basic worship, but it won't be involved.

Complex monotheism includes Catholicism, Islam, and some other versions of Christianity. It is more involved, and often your people will be living it in their daily lives. They will often pray, refer to the diety, quote scripture, make signs against evil, and other such religious and semi-religious actions. Religious symbols will be more prevalent in daily life, and the church may even set specific guidelines on daily living, guidelines which your characters may or may not adhere to, depending on their individual personalities.

Complex bitheism, again, is not far from the monotheistic variant. Take the structure for a complex monotheistic religion and give it two dieties, dividing up religious beliefs between the two. Again, it can be cooperative or opposing. You decide. A good example of this is my world of Tiammas and Oordon. Their religion focuses on the Twain, Mercios and Clementia. Mercios is God of Mercy, and Clementia is Goddess of Clemency. There are cathedrals and churchmen set to the Twain throughout the world, and the people often pray to either or both of the Twain. This religion still needs some more development in the way of small-town means of worship, religious symbols and icons, and so on, but it is fairly more complex than some of my other bitheistic religions thus far.

A good example of very complex bitheism is Kate Elliott's Church of Unities, in her Crown of Stars series. The religion is highly structured and plays a large part in the daily lives of the characters. It affects their actions and the turn of the story. For more information, read the series (King's Dragon, Prince of Dogs, The Burning Stone, and Child of Flame).

Complex polytheism, as I have mentioned before, includes Greek and Egyptian dieties, as well as the dieties in Mystica, my world. Other examples are the Roman gods (based off of the Greek gods), the gods of Norse mythology, and even the Hindu gods. Each religion or set of beliefs or myths organizes their dieties differently. Norse mythology is very depressing, while Greek and Roman mythology likes to focus on the great deeds or, often, misdeeds of the gods, demigods, and heroes. Egyptian mythology uses a lot of animal symbolism, and the Hindu religion has defined "good" and "evil" dieties. There are different ways you can organize a polytheistic religion. For some guidelines, read the mythology of different religions, and choose one (or more) to base yours off of. An easy way is to choose elements, aspects, obejcts, etc. for each diety to represent. They can represent more than one, or you can have one diety for each thing. For example, Apollo is both the god of the sun and the god of healing. In my world of Mystica, the polytheism is a bit more complex than just "this god represents this thing". I have one major diety and his wife. There are their two daughters (Light and Darkness), who don't necessarily oppose each other. They are just opposites for the sake of balance. Each daughter has 10 children. Light has five children who represent the element Earth, and five who represent Water. Darkness has five for Fire, and five for Air. This coincides with the four basic elements in the religion, and Light and Darkness cover the other two (Life and Death). The religion gets more complex than that, and you will probably have to read my description of it to get more ideas. Basically, though, I set up a family of dieties, and started a system of rings that are the religious symbols of this particular belief system. You will need to do the same. For more guidelines, send me an e-mail with a request for more details, and I will post them.

Geography Cities, Towns, and Villages Races
Languages Nomenclature (Naming) Religions
Cultures Music and Storytelling Non-sentient Creatures
History Magic Rules

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