Line #84 Main/HenotheisticSociety


1	Fantasy settings are rife with {{Fantasy Pantheon}}s. Nearly every story involving gods has some that receive worship.
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3	But even in settings where multiple gods are recognized, not all of them are worshipped equally. In fact, some gods may be favored by a person, group of people, or even an entire country above all the rest even though said god isn't all-powerful. This is what's known as a henotheistic society, where a god in a recognized pantheon of worshipped gods whose favor is more important to a certain individual or group of people.
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5	A single god is favored more than others in henotheistic societies because their domain is most relevant to an individual or group. For instance, a ProudWarriorRace will take a WarGod as its patron deity, holding them in the highest esteem over the OddJobGods. A seafaring village may hold an ocean or storm god in higher regard than a NatureSpirit.
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7	The most important aspect in determining if a society is henotheistic is that a god is ''selected'' by the individual or group as the focus of worship. Someone may ask for the favor of various gods on occasion, but if one doesn't hold one particular god among the bunch above the rest, then the society is not henotheistic.
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9	TheTheocracy may enforce this trope to suit an end, while having an active PatronGod may justify it.
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11	A SuperTrope to EthnicGod. Compare PatronSaint.
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13	----
14	!!Examples:
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18	[[folder:Comic Books]]
19	* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'': In [[ComicBook/WonderWoman1942 the Golden Age]] the Amazons considered gods to be mere impermanent "ideaforms" while worshiping Aphrodite. [[ComicBook/WonderWoman1987 Post-Crisis]] they worshiped the Olympian pantheon with a focus on their patron goddesses: Aphrodite, Athena, Artemis, Demeter and Hestia.
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22	[[folder:Fan Works]]
23	* In ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'' fanfic ''Fanfic/LetTheWorldSmile'', Hylians worship three Goddesses, but the Hyrulian Royal Family prioritizes Din over the other two.
24	* This is a plot point in the ''RWBY'' fic ''Fanfic/LetUsBeYourPoison''. Like most people from Atlas, Weiss's family follows the Faith of Decum Luna. There are ten different gods but Atlasian families only worship one of the gods as their guardian. The family's chosen god determines whether they're soldiers, artisans, or craftsmen. Families only marry into families who have the same religious beliefs as them, but Weiss' parents are a rare case of a mixed-belief couple. As a result, Weiss feels some InternalizedCategorism that her FictionalDisability of being disconnected from her soul has to do with her parent's taboo marriage.
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27	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
28	* ''Film/ClashOfTheTitans1981'': Zeus says that Thetis is the patron goddess of the city of Joppa.
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31	[[folder:Literature]]
32	* In ''Literature/TheBelgariad'', each race has its own patron god. The Alorns have Belar the bear, the Arends have Chaldan the bull, the Nyissans have Issa the snake, the Murgos have Torak the dragon, the Marags had Mara the bat, the Tolnedrans have Nedra the lion, and the Ulgos have UL the albatross. There's also Aldur the owl, but he adopts one disciple from each race, rather than being a patron god to a single race. [[spoiler:The later books also introduce Eriond the horse, the new god of the Angaraks, who may end up becoming the god of all other races.]]
33	* In ''Literature/DarkShores'', people living in the West worship the Six Gods but each nation seems to have their chosen deity that they treat with most respect (and who in turn provides them blessings). For example the [[BornUnderTheSail sea-faring]] Maarin worship the sea goddess Madoria, while the peaceful farmers of Katamarca worship the earth goddess Yara.
34	* ''Literature/TheDeathMageWhoDoesntWantAFourthTime'': The world of Lambda once worshipped the Eleven Founding Gods, with certain people honoring one god over the others. After a massive war with the Demon King, three of them were killed and others went dormant, then they got split up even further after a conflict between the gods Alda, GodOfOrder and Vida, [[LoveGoddess Goddess of Love]]. By the time of the story, the only one of the remaining founding gods that continues to receive worship is Alda and his subordinate gods. The protagonist Vandalieu changes that when he helps spread the worship of Vida and her allies while deliberately snubbing Alda and his subordinates, all in preparation for the inevitable rematch between gods.
35	* In ''Literature/TheFarawayPaladin'', everyone selects one of the gods and goddesses that watch over the world as their patron once they come of age. The particularly faithful and favored may be granted a blessing by their patron deity so that said deity can achieve something through their blessed champions. Among adventurers, it's not uncommon for one to call upon the name of their patron deity as a BattleCry.
36	* Creator/NKJemisin's ''Literature/InheritanceTrilogy'': The Arameri Empire is [[PhysicalReligion sponsored by]] and exclusively worships Itempas, the GodOfOrder and Light, after a DivineConflict where he murdered his sister, enslaved his brother Nahadoth, and recalled the lesser godlings from the planet. After the first book ends his monopoly, cults of Nahadoth return to open worship and godlings start attracting adherents.
37	* In ''Literature/IsItWrongToTryToPickUpGirlsInADungeon'', adventurers are required to pledge themselves to a god and become one of their "children" in order to receive their falna, a blessing that grants them the superhuman abilities required to tackle the dungeon. Because of this, they're generally required to do as their gods ask. However, most gods will still receive respect from mortals unless they possess a poor reputation. In addition, the gods are officially on vacation as part of their descent to the lower world, so they're rarely worshiped in an official capacity anymore.
38	* ''Literature/TheReluctantKing'': People in Novaria and surrounding regions seem to believe in many different gods. However, many individuals and countries often give particular devotion to one as a PatronGod.
39	* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'': Most worshipers of the Seven pray to them either as a group or to specific gods at the appropriate time. The [[NunsAreSpooky Silent Sisters]] are sworn to the [[TheGrimReaper Stranger]], whom they honor by tending to the dead.
40	* ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive'': Honor, who for a long time was called the Almighty, is the patron god of humans, whereas [[GodOfEvil Odium]] is the patron god of the Parshendi/Singers, though the Singers did worship Honor once.
41	* Dogs and wolves in ''Literature/SurvivorDogs'' worship {{Nature Spirit}}s in a manner similar to deity worship. They revere various Spirit-Dogs, however they tend to feel a connection towards one in particular. Lucky's favorite Spirit-Dog is the Forest-Dog, while Martha (who is a newfoundland) is associated with the River-Dog.
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44	[[folder:Myths & Religion]]
45	* ''Myth/ClassicalMythology:'' In both real life and the stories, there were cults devoted to the worship of one member of the pantheon above all the rest. For instance, the Maenads were female worshippers of Dionysus who drove themselves into a frenzy of dancing and intoxication.
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48	[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
49	* This is pretty ingrained in ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'', to the point where there's usually a dedicated space near the top of the character sheet for a PlayerCharacter's patron deity. In most settings, the spirits of mortals travel to their deity's personal residence in [[AnotherDimension the Outer Planes]] when they die.
50	** ''TabletopGame/{{Eberron}}'':
51	*** The Sovereign Host and the Dark Six are the Good- and Evil-aligned sides of the same polytheistic religion. Devotees may pick a primary deity but offer prayers to the others (even the evil gods are prayed to for protection from disaster), or worship an entire side of the pantheon at once.
52	*** The Church of the Silver Flame accepts the existence of other deities but only worships the Silver Flame, through which and only through which the Purified believe the world can be rid of evil and made perfect.
53	** {{Invoked}} in ''TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms'', where the souls of those who refuse to worship any of the gods become [[AndIMustScream trapped within the Wall of the Faithless]]. However, the exact details vary DependingOnTheWriter - in some depictions being merely irreligious will send you to the domain of a random god who shares your ideals, and the "Faithless" consist only of those who [[NayTheist actively reject the whole system]].
54	** The ''TabletopGame/{{Greyhawk}}'' campaign setting, several countries have a specific patron deity:
55	*** TheTheocracy of the Pale is ruled by worshippers of the deity Pholtus and takes him as its deity.
56	*** In the early years of the game, the Archclericy of Veluna was dedicated to the deity St. Cuthbert.
57	** Usually, members of the cleric CharacterClass choose not only a patron deity, but one or more "domains" reflecting concepts such as Animal, Fire, [[GodOfGood Good]], [[WarGod War]], etc., each granting specific powers. Each deity has a canonical list of domains which their clerics can access, though sometimes this list is modified for clerics who belong to a specific order or [[TheHeretic heresy]] within the faith.
58	* In ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}'', the CelestialBureaucracy includes some gods whose domains are concepts such as or places such as countries, rivers or ''trees''. Some of them became jobless and homeless after their places were destroyed during the [[ApocalypseHow Great Contagion]].
59	* ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'': Golarion follows the same basic pattern as most D&D settings (the game started as a setting for 3E), with all gods being accepted to exist but most people worshiping one or more in particular. 2nd Edition introduced the concept of [[https://paizo.com/community/blog/v5748dyo6sh2v "pantheons"]] where a character can devote themselves to a small selection of gods rather than a single patron.
60	* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'': Servants of Chaos can either worship the four Chaos Gods as a whole as "Chaos Undivided", or pledge themselves to a single one and receive different gifts and curses depending on who they worship. Each god used to have an entire Space Marine Legion dedicated to them, but these are now broken down and serve as EliteMooks: Khorne's World Eaters are bloodthirsty berserkers, Slaanesh's Emperor's Children are hedonistic rockers with superpowered guitars, Tzeentch's Thousand Sons are powerful sorcerers and animated suits of armor, Nurgle's Death Guard are nearly-unkillable walking masses of cancerous growths.
61	* ''TabletopGame/WarhammerFantasy'': The human nations recognize a fairly wide pantheon of deities and, while laymen will general pay lip service to most of them, most religious people tend to follow a specific god in exclusion of all others. Hunters and woodsmen follow Taal, the god of wild beasts and hunting; sailors and fishermen Manaan, the LordOfTheOcean; soldiers and everyday citizens Sigmar; Middelanders revere Ulric; thieves and merchants worship the trickster god Ranald; and so on. The more devout a given worshipper, the more likely they are to disdain all but their chosen god and to actively look down on or distrust the others. This is in marked contrast with the Elves, who while often holding one of their deities above the others routinely honor them all situationally as they go through life.
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64	[[folder:Video Games]]
65	* In ''VideoGame/BravelyDefaultII'', Gwydion is the Lord of Dragons who is worshipped solely by the people of Rimedhal. He acts as its GuardianAngel in times of need, and is said to speak to them through the archbishop Domenic. But in recent times, Domenic and the inquisitor Helio have led a crusade against fairies, blaming them for all of Rimedhal's ills, and purging suspected fairies in Gwydion's name. Meanwhile, Gwydion's voice has fallen silent on Domenic's ears.
66	* In ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress'', there are abstract [[https://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Force "forces"]] who are worshipped by the elves. Although they are not considered gods in the traditional sense, they are nonetheless glorified by their elven followers.
67	* ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls:''
68	** Despite the Nords worshipping the other Aedra of the Imperial pantheon, they hold a far greater reverence of Shor/Lorkhan than most of the other races of men, as they believe he saved all the spirits from the static cage of pre-creation, and welcomes any Nord who died honorably into the hallowed halls of [[WarriorHeaven Sovengarde]], which he created for them.
69	** Like the Nords, the Bosmer too worship the Imperial pantheon, but for them, it is Y'ffre, [[NatureSpirit who was responsible for bringing nature itself to Nirn]], who is held in higher regard.
70	** Though they worship the [[OurGodsAreDifferent Aedra]] as well, the [[OurElvesAreDifferent Dark Elves]] hold Azura as their patron [[OurDemonsAreDifferent Daedra]], and they also have the [[DeityOfHumanOrigin Tribunal]], who were Chimer (The Ancestors of Dark Elves) before they ascended to godhood.
71	** Talos is another DeityOfHumanOrigin, and is held in high regard by most men, but especially the [[HornyVikings Nords]].
72	* ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'':
73	** Medea and Caster of Okeanos mention their patron deity Hecate, whom they worship and derive their blessings and techniques from. Medea explicitly went to Caster of Okeanos to get trained as a priestess of Hecate. Following her Rank Up Quest, Medea also gains a skill called "Blessings of Hecate".
74	** Nagao Kagetora is a devout Buddhist who particularly favors the protection of the WarGod Bishamonten, riding into battle and shouting his name as a {{Battlecry}}. Her reputation as a nigh-invincible warrior in the Warring States period eventually led to others calling her an avatar of Bishamonten himself, and she too began to declare herself such.
75	* The people of Eorzea in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' collectively worship a pantheon known as The Twelve, though each of its major city-states have a dedicated patron deity. Other gods are acknowledged, but the deities in question have particular import to the culture of each city-state:
76	** Limsa Lominsa, a port city and pirate stronghold, has Llymlaen the Navigator, goddess of wind and seas
77	** Gridania, a forest city that lives in harmony with the elementals, has Nophica the Matron, goddess of earth and harvest
78	** Ul'dah, a desert city full of merchants, has Nald'thal the Traders, twinned deity of fire, commerce, and the underworld
79	** Ishgard, caught in perpetual conflict with dragons in the frozen north, has Halone the Fury, goddess of ice and war
80	** Ala Mhigo, a near-eastern analogue conquered by the Empire, has Rhalgr the Destroyer, god of lightning and destruction
81	** Sharlayan, the dogmatically pacifistic land of learning, has Thaliak the Scholar, god of water and knowledge
82	** The fallen nation of Belah'dia had Azeyma the Warden, goddess of fire and inquiry
83	** The fallen nation of Nym had Oschon the Wanderer, god of wind and travelers
84	* ''VideoGame/GenshinImpact'' has the Archons, which were seven minor deities that ascended to the status of God, being known as "[[StockGods The Seven]]" of Teyvat. In this world, there are seven nations that are patronized for every Archon that also [[ElementalEmbodiment represents one of the seven elements]] in this world. Until now, the seven nations (Mondstadt, Liyue, Inazuma, Sumeru, Fontaine, Natlan and Snezhnaya) are patronized by the [[BlowYouAway Anemo]] Archon Barbatos, [[DishingOutDirt Geo]] Archon Rex Lapis [[spoiler:(both [[GodInHumanForm reincarnated into human]] and {{playable character}}s Venti and Zhongli]]), the [[GodOfThunder Electro Archon Baal]] (known primarily by the title of Raiden Shogun), [[MotherNature Dendro Archon Buer]] (known as "Lesser Lord" Kusanali) [[spoiler:also known as Nahida]], [[LordOfTheOcean Hydro Archon Focalors]] (publicly known as Furina), the [[GodOfFire Pyro Archon]] (who goes by Murata) and the Cryo Archon (known as the Tzaritsa). Despite this, there's nothing against praying to a foreign deity with Sumeru merchant Dori once praying to Rex Lapis due to him being [[TheAlmightyDollar the God of Commerce]].
85	* Zig-zagged in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsOfColdSteel''. While the people of Zemuria worship the goddess Aidios as their sole deity, the nomads of the Nord Highlands (which includes Gaius Worzel) worship the winds instead, but they also integrate some of Aidios' teachings into their beliefs as well, creating a cross-belief system in which the two faiths can co-exist. As a result, the nomads don't prefer one belief over the other.
86	* In ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'', Hylians and Hyrulians as a whole generally worship the three Golden Goddesses Din, Nayru, and Farore. ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword'' introduces a fourth goddess named Hylia, who had previously only been alluded to by having a lake and species named after her. Hylia is an EthnicGod for the Hylians who [[spoiler:the original Zelda is a {{reincarnation}} of]]. By ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'', Hylia worship prioritizes worship over the Golden Goddesses. None of them are referenced, however Hylia statues and churches are seen throughout Hyrule.
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89	[[folder:Web Comics]]
90	* ''Webcomic/{{Digger}}'': It is mentioned that most (non-Wombat) peoples have pantheons of multiple deities, but most godly people tend to pick a single PatronGod. Murai is a member of the Veiled, an order of {{Warrior Monk}}s that serve all gods equally, but she is also counted as a worshipper of Ganesh due to having grown up worshipping him.
91	* In ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'', most believers focus their active worship on a single deity despite believing in all of them. The dwarves like Durkon in particular almost exclusively worship Thor to the exclusion of the rest of Thor's pantheon.
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94	[[folder:Real Life]]
95	* UsefulNotes/TheRomanEmpire has held several gods in particularly high regard over the years, with the favored gods changing with the times and the whims of the people in power.
96	** Many people in the territories conquered by Rome had a god or gods of their own, and Rome didn't mind just so long as you also worshiped their own pantheon. But Rome particularly valued Mars, the war god, especially highly, as Augustus, the first emperor, allegedly traced his lineage back to the legendary king Romulus, a son of Mars and descendant of the Trojan warrior Aeneas.
97	** The Vestal Virgins are a group of priestesses dedicated to the worship and tending to the flames of Vesta, goddess of the hearth, home, and state. They believed that Rome's prosperity was tied to Vesta's favor, and kept a sacred fire burning within her temple to preserve the goddess' protection.
98	** During the Crisis of the Third Century, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sol_Invictus Sol Invictus]] became favored by the Roman military. Aurelian made Sol the main deity of the Roman Empire, intending to give the entire population of the Empire a figure they could believe in without betraying their own gods.
99	** The Roman emperor Elagabalus attempted to institute worship of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elagabalus_(deity) his namesake Syrian-Roman solar deity]] as the supreme god, above even Jupiter. He further ordered that Rome's most sacred relics be moved to the temple Elagabalium, and that Roman religious minorities (particularly Jews, Samaritans and Christians) must practice their rites in the temple as well. These decisions were enormously controversial, and contributed to his assassination in 222 CE.
100	* The Egyptian pharaoh Amenhotep IV, who renamed himself UsefulNotes/{{Akhenaten}}, promoted the worship of the sun Aten over the other gods. Aten was originally an aspect of the sun god Ra (always one of the most important gods of the Egyptian pantheon), but Akhenaten reinterpreted him as a completely separate god to replace Aten, which didn't go over well with the powerful priesthood of the old gods. And then went even further by trying to make people worship ''only'' Aten, in an early example of monotheism. This went over even worse. After his death the priests of the older gods started destroying his temples and some archaeologists believe they killed his son UsefulNotes/{{Tutankhamun}} (though most think either a combination of inbreeding and malaria, or a mishap in battle, to be more likely). Tutankhamun was originally named Tutankh''aten'', but after Akhenaten's death [[MeaningfulRename changed his name]] removing the reference to Aten in favor of Amun, another major god of the old pantheon who over the centuries had been [[CompositeCharacter merged with]] Ra.
101	* There's archaeological evidence to suggest that, prior to the exile in Babylon, the Israelites worshiped other gods besides [[{{God}} YHWH]], but venerated Him above all others. God is even thought to have had a wife. (Note that the ExactWords of [[Literature/BookOfExodus the First Commandment]] are usually translated as some form of "I am the Lord your God, and you shall have no other gods ''before me''.") This is believed to have changed after the Israelites were freed to return home when the Persian Emperor Cyrus the Great conquered the Babylonians, possibly influenced by the monotheistic Persian state religion UsefulNotes/{{Zoroastrianism}}: the Jews of the Second Temple ceased to worship other gods and became fully monotheistic. Occasional passages in [[Literature/TheBible the Hebrew Bible]] that otherwise [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness seem a little odd]] show that not quite all hints of this early henotheism were excised from the stories by the time they were first written down: for example, many of the prohibitions in Leviticus against homosexuality are contextually tied to efforts to abolish various pagan sex rituals among the Israelites.
102	** In the Bible itself, the Israelites are said to have repeatedly started to turn to the gods of their neighbors for various reasons. It's never said that they ''stopped'' worshipping [=YHWH=], and indeed they probably just started considering him TopGod of a pantheon, but putting pagan gods on equal level to Him was just as blasphemous, and tended to result in him withdrawing his support and the Israelites getting their asses kicked until the next prophet would get them back into shape.
103	* While Ahura Mazda has always been the supreme god in UsefulNotes/{{Zoroastrianism}}, there is evidence to suggest that some pre-Islamic Iranians worshiped other deities as well, especially Mithra and Anahita.
104	* While the many beings of [[Myth/AboriginalAustralianMyths indigenous Australian religions]] can technically be considered gods and almost all cultures acknowledge the existence of multiple agents at work, worship usually is/was restricted to one or a few. For example the Gamilaraay worshipped Baiame and nowadays compare him to the Judaeo-Christian god, considering him more sacred than the other supernatural beings, but the latter still existed and were cause for concern/wonder. The Yuin by contrast revere/d Daramulum, which to the Gamilaraay was a relatively minor child/brother of Baiame.
105	* The Aztec (in)famously revered Huitzilopochtli above other gods, resulting in the stream of HumanSacrifice. To solidify his superiority the Aztecs actually captured tokens of other gods from rivalling nations.
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Context Main / HenotheisticSociety