Religion

In this post we’ll discuss worldbuilding religions, looking at the fundamentals of what makes a religion, the different types of religious practices and orders, and how to implement them into your worldbuilding projects.

Hey everyone, my name is Matthew, at least that’s what’s written in the holy texts, and this post is part of a series where I will be going through a science-adjacent worldbuilding process step-by-step. For today’s discussion, we’ll be worldbuilding religions, looking at core beliefs, building mythologies, establishing rituals and practices, and discussing how gods are born.

Religion refers to the combination of beliefs and practices, wherein an individual’s beliefs shape or influence their behaviours. Religions may include the worship of deities, though while the presence of at least one deity is common, religions can exist without any deities involved at all.

At their most foundational level, religions are underpinned by a core belief, which we refer to as a religious philosophy. These religious philosophies define how followers of a religion view things like life, death, the afterlife, the world around them, the universe at large, and everything beyond. In other words, a religious philosophy is a religiously influenced view on philosophical topics. Religious philosophies are split into two categories, intuitive and reflective, where an intuitive religious philosophy refers to a concept that is easy to conceptualise without teaching and is cross-culturally ubiquitous, such as beliefs concerning the afterlife, miracles, or the supernatural, while a reflective religious philosophy refers to a concept that is more abstract and is likely to need to be taught in order to be understood, such as karma, or divine providence. Generally, we consider intuitive religious philosophies to be present earlier in the cultural development of civilisations, and therefore are more commonly the founding principles of early religions, which then evolve to include reflective religious philosophies.

Religious philosophies don’t just pop up out of nowhere though, they tend to develop through stories which teach the philosophy. In religious terms, these stories are referred to as mythology. Importantly, whether a mythological story is true or not is irrelevant to the founding process, so long as the meaning of the story is maintained. Let’s look at a well-known example. In Christian mythology, the ‘Feeding of the 5,000’ is the story where Jesus multiplied five loaves and two fish into enough food to feed five thousand people. This story tells of multiple reflective religious philosophies, such as the goodness of the Christian deity, and the importance of saying grace at meals, though the most core intuitive religious philosophy within the story is the importance of generosity, sharing, and not wasting food, values that are still held by many Christian followers today.

Religious philosophies can be worded in positive terms, telling followers what they should be like, such as in the aforementioned story about generosity, or they can be worded in negative terms, telling followers what they should avoid doing. We refer to these positively and negatively worded religious philosophies as virtues and sins. These virtues and sins are often then codified into law, either serving as the foundations for law or are attached thereafter, to provide a divine order as reasoning for why laws should be followed. In fact, the oldest codified set of laws that we know of, the Code of Hammurabi, was religiously influenced, said to have been handed to Hammurabi by Shamash, the Babylonian God of Justice.

Which brings us to a crucial point regarding religions: the presence of gods. Many religions have belief in divine beings or powers, which provide the answer to many intuitive philosophical questions, such as “what happens after we die?”, and “who or what made the universe?”. As worldbuilders, it’s important to remember that just because YOU know the truth of everything in your universe, doesn’t mean its inhabitants do. Any gods you create may not be reflected in the religions of your world, unless they are actively making their presence known. If they are making themselves known, then your religions are likely to be designed according to the whims of the divine, and accurately reflect how many of them exist and what they stand for. In almost all other cases though, there’s probably going to be very little correlation between actual gods and religions, and it is likely that cultures would form a variety of beliefs.

Religions can be monotheistic, meaning that they believe in the existence of a single deity, such as Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, polytheistic, believing in the existence of multiple deities, such as Hinduism, and the pantheons of Rome, Greece, or Old Norse, or nontheistic, believing in no deities but rather following a way of life, such as Buddhism. For each of these three categories, we’ve seen some trends throughout history.

Monotheistic religions tend to focus on order, controlling the behaviours of followers more strictly, as if someone doesn’t like or agree with the values of the religion, there is no alternative for them to turn to. In most cases, monotheistic religions tend to include tenants of intolerance towards other religions and hostility towards non-believers. Some monotheistic religions go so far as to consider any beliefs contrary to their own to be sinful, a concept which is called heresy. In fact, in many monotheistic religions, there is even internal conflict, where followers of the same deity dispute over varying interpretations of scripture and divine intention. It is not uncommon for these internal and external disputes to become violent, leading to monotheism having a higher prevalence of religious militarisation, and the spread of religion through conquest. Which religious philosophies are virtues and sins vary from religion to religion, though the consistency of values within monotheistic religions often allow them to spread across empires quite successfully, as they provide unifying ideals to be applied to all subjects.

Polytheism in contrast tends to allow greater freedom and variation in the behaviour of followers, usually allowing individuals to choose which deity, and therefore which values, they align with most. How tolerant polytheistic religions are of other religions and of non-believers varies heavily, but almost always they are more tolerant than their monotheistic counterparts, as diversity and the acceptance of diversity are key aspects of polytheism. This doesn’t mean conflict is non-existent though, and internal conflicts can arise over which deities should receive attention, as well as which deities are currently showing greater favour to a culture. In most circumstances, this presents within cultural politics, and religious representatives of each deity may vie for greater influence over government and the population, each following different virtues and sins depending on their deity. While this diversity leads to greater freedom, polytheism tends to make larger empires harder to keep intact, as the wider variety of ideals often does not support unification.

Finally, nontheistic religions tend to focus more heavily on the self, and self-improvement, with this emphasis often leading to more extreme control over follower behaviour. The most devout followers of nontheistic religions become paragons of their values, though nontheism has a very strong selection for virtues that are inwardly focused, such as honesty and temperance, which often makes them value non-aggression. This doesn’t mean cultures following nontheistic religions will never go to war, though it does mean that they have a higher prevalence of non-militarised groups. They tend to be more tolerant and accepting of non-believers than monotheistic or polytheistic religions, with examples like Buddhism having existed alongside other religions without hostility. Their singular self-reflective ideals often make them spread easily across empires just like monotheistic religions do, however their tolerance combined with lack of militarisation can make them easy targets for the more intolerant and militarised religions. Therefore, unless they have the support of large powerful empires, nontheistic religions tend to survive mostly in isolated hard-to-reach locations.

So, now that we’ve discussed virtues and sins, mythologies, and deities, let’s look at how to apply religions to a worldbuilding project. This is the map of Locus, the fictional world that we’ve been worldbuilding across this series, with the major cultures shown that have settled down at the end of the stone age, and the dawn of civilisation.

Before we can get right into it, it’s important to recognise that for mortal creatures that evolve over time, as we humans have, and as the sapient creatures on Locus have, the first and most basic implementation of religion often involves death, and the first intuitive philosophical question mortal creatures are likely to ask is “What happens to us after we die?”. While there are infinite different answers to this question, the important distinction here for worldbuilding is whether a religion’s beliefs value the preservation, destruction, or recycling of the corpse. Prehistoric cultures understand that dead bodies rot, causing smell, disease, and can attract predators, so something must be done with the body, and here we are going to apply our understanding of religions to three of the cultures on Locus that preserve, destroy, or recycle.

The humans of Locus originated in the equatorial rainforests, an environment where dead bodies are under threat of reanimation from Mortevello, a mushroom-like parasite that functionally turns corpses into zombies. To prevent this, the destruction of bodies within this environment would be critical, and as we do in real life, cremation is often the easiest strategy to achieve this, doubly so for rainforest dwellers on Locus, due to the presence of self-combusting plants called Ignistella. In prehistoric times, humans would plant Ignistella into corpses to burn them and prevent their reanimation. This has led to the cultural belief of fire being cleansing and divine, as well as physical resurrection being abhorrent.

The southern humans of Lindale tell the mythological story of Erus, whose lover died and whose grief made him keep the body in his home, mourning over his loss. The day after his lover died, a woman bearing flowers made of fire came to Erus, offering comfort and to help him move on, but he rejected her aid. After another day, a man with charred skin came to Erus to collect the body, but Erus told him to leave. On the third day, Erus awoke to his lover who had returned to life! But as he delighted, his lover attacked and killed him, and then they both went on to devour their whole village.

This story of warning has led to a polytheistic religion called Toreinism developing in Lindale over time, with the goddess of fire called Flumeria sitting atop their pantheon as the most revered, and the god of the dead named Scorus beseeched to ensure that an individual’s death is permanent. Intuitively, this leads to the belief in an afterlife, where Scorus takes the souls of the deceased away from the physical realm, functioning like a grim reaper. Over time, other deities would emerge within the pantheon, structured like a family, with Flumeria as the matriarch. Deities of important factors would emerge earlier and be given more prominent positions within the pantheon, and while their virtues may differ, all deities of the Lindalian religion consider handling corpses for any purpose except burning them to be sinful, and any form of necromancy is considered a serious affront.

On the other side of the world in the northern hemisphere, the bear-like Urakan of Senanatgru have evolved in a subarctic environment where resources are scarcer. There is real-life precedent of bears engaging in cannibalism without the consequence of disease, and to mirror this within the Urakan, they too will cannibalise their dead, providing an increase to the amount of food and resources available. Intuitively, this answers the question of “what happens when we die?” with the concept that the deceased spirit lives on in those who have consumed the body. In this way, a nontheistic ancestor worship religion is established called Alwa, with the mythology of the religion featuring the deeds of the deceased. One of their most notable mythological stories is that of Braka, a wise chieftainess who is offered safety and luxury in a rival village in exchange for revealing the weaknesses of her own village. Despite being physically outmatched by her huge male opponent, Braka stood her own and fought until help arrived, dying in the process but saving her village. As the story goes, Braka’s body was consumed by her family that she saved, who are now the settlement’s ruling family.  This teaches followers of Alwa virtues of bravery and loyalty, while condemning cowardice, sloth, greed, and treachery.

Over time, Alwa will expand to place great emphasis on the effects that anything ingested has on the body, with feasts having enormous cultural importance. Also, as we established when we designed the magic system of Locus, magic is primarily accessible through flora, which can be eaten to allow the consumer access to its associated magical power. In this way, magic itself would become deeply ingrained within Alwa, and religious practitioners called ‘zodru’ would also be some of the most diverse and well-versed mages on the planet.

Finally, moving over to Thuchus, the primary eastern Silarin settlement, we’ve already established that the reptilian Silarin revere the red moon of Locus, which the Thuchusians call Gudizho. Gudizho forms the basis for the Thuchusian monotheistic religion, called Dugatho, which true to its name places heavy emphasis on ‘the path’, a concept which is present in its mythology, rituals, and cultural influence. In Dugathian mythology, the story is told of Thusa and Hosika, who lived on Gudizho and were offered all they could need in food and drink. Over time, Thusa grew fat, eating so much that he could no longer walk, and Hosika grew bored, dissatisfied with her abundance. Tired of listening to Thusa eat and seeking novelty, Hosika killed Thusa, which angered Gudizho, who cast her down to Locus, pregnant with so many eggs that she died upon laying her clutch, which the Silarin species hatched from.

In Dugatho therefore, gluttony, wrath, and sadism are considered sinful, while temperance and compassion are considered virtuous. It answers the question of “what happens when we die?” with the deceased spirit ascending into the sky to return to Gudizho, which is viewed as both a deity and a concept of heaven both in one. According to Dugathian mythology, Locus follows what is called “Gudizho te Dugatho”, or literally ‘the path to god’, and one day Locus will physically reach Gudizho, and all the spirits of the dead will return to their bodies, resulting in a very Christian-like apocalypse. These beliefs strictly lead to the preservation of the dead, which in prehistoric times were buried but since the dawn of civilisation have resulted in ornate burial chambers, akin to Egyptian tombs and Gothic mausoleums.

While we’ve covered only Toerinism, Alwa, and Dugatho here, the cultures of Locus are likely to have numerous other religions, though it is these three that have the most influence moving forward into the ancient era.

So, to recap, religions have core beliefs called religious philosophies, which are separated into virtues and sins, and are passed down through mythology to form the foundations of religion. Religions then differ depending on whether they worship one deity, multiple deities, or no deity, with different trends like how tolerant they are of non-believers, how militarised they are, and how quickly they spread. Mortal cultures often start their religious journey centring around death, though an immortal creature or a world where real deities are present and involved may be established based on other principles.

Join me next time when we’ll discuss metals and mining, looking at where different metals can be found across the planet, the order they’re likely to be mined in, and how different civilisations establish metallurgy. And until next time… stay awesome!