World Building; Religion.
Over the past few weeks I have been working on a new WIP, set in a complete fantasy world, and have found a few things more challenging than others.
Religion, I found, is one of the more ‘over thought’ aspects to world building. When I first started creating The Elemental Plane (get ready to read my upcoming book for any kind of context here) I wanted to know everything, from the foundations of the religion to how its perceived in the current time frame, to how it will progress in the future, and it took me a while to realise that this doesn’t really matter. I mean it does, for us as writers, to know what’s going on in our heads, but for the reader, they don’t need to know that Jim died and rose again as a god. Not unless its relevant to the story, and the majority of the time it isn’t.
Whether you’re going to modify an actual religion, or come up with your own from scratch, there are a few things that you will need to bear in mind. So here is a list of a few things you need to think of when writing your own religion.
Does your world have magic? If so, how does this tie in with religion? Does your magic stem from the gods? Are those with magic servants who use their power in support of the gods?
For more on magic read my post World Building; Magic
How important is religion to your civilisation? Where do religious figures sit, and now much influence do they have within the community?
How do people worship? Does it disrupt the daily routine of others? Is the city silent for an hour a day whilst the inhabitants pray?
How does it interact with other religions? Are there other religions? Are they considered outcasts or are they welcomed?
During the times of the roman empire, they considered gods to rule over the areas where they were worshiped. For instance, when in Egypt, soldiers would pay homage to the local gods rather than their own, as the local gods were the ones that determined the fate of those within that particular region. Whereas in Christianity, and other modern faiths, there is only one god, and all others are false idols. Do these ideals translate into your world?
And finally, is the religion real? Is it an actual thing? For instance, in The Elder Scrolls franchise, there are numerous gods and ideologies. Some of these have been proven to be real, others have not. And this plays heavy on the story of their games. How does this translate into your own writing? Have the gods been seen? Has their will been evident? How disputable are the facts?
Ok. That was a quick run through of the few MUST HAVE answers when creating your own religion, although there are a great many other questions. I will endeavour to go into more when we discuss religion lore, and how real religions have evolved throughout the years.
Anyway, until next time nation.
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