Religions in a world After the End

Currently, I'm working on the setting information for a kind of Darker and Edgier Mons story which takes place After the End, where most of humanity has been wiped out and the world becomes drenched in an eternal twilight (It's unknown how this works in-story, as space exploration is impossible with weird Schziotech levels of technology Also because I'm too lazy to think of an explanation).

One of my concerns for setting is the religions of the world, as it has some affect on a couple characters. I'm thinking of having at the most, four religions. I intend to have one have similarities to the Abrahamic religions, and another to be something akin to Buddhism or something similar. I still need help with the other faiths, so ideas would be appreciated. I'll answer any questions that need answering to elaborate on anything I didn't make clear.

Okay, so based on your description I cobbled together a backstory.

20 Minutes into the Future, Genetic Engineering Is the New Nuke. The whole developed world was in the middle of a transgenic arms race. One of the most popular forms of entertainment is in the form of creating organisms with the purpose of having them fight to the pain. However, there is a developing energy crisis. The proposed solution was to deploy nanobots into the atmosphere that would coalesce in natural looking clouds that would collect solar energy and beam it to the ground. Then, work would begin on a permanent solution, which was the construction of a ring of orbital orbital solar arrays. Naturally, this doesn't go according to plan.

Instead, the nanobot cloud bred like rabbits and begin to envelop the globe. Furthermore, the nanobots weren't beaming the energy down to earth, and instead it built up into massive lightning storms that would fry anything that went through it. Everything we threw at it failed. Thus, the governments of the world turned to their gene engineering to survive until a solution could be found. They would create a new ecosystem that would remove plants from the equation, since they would all die from lack of sun, and build countless new species to safeguard mankind while their industry goes to crap.

Fast forward a long time, and those governments are long gone. Instead, you have the four religions and a hell of a lot of city states. People train the various Mons to do their bidding with varying degrees of abuse and unethical treatment, which is treated as a means of survival as opposed to a horrifically evil thing. After all, Ludd isn't right.

I figure the first of the four religions would be a tech cult who are actively trying to find a way to end the eternal night and lift humanity from the ruins, but are Social Darwinists as a consequence of several encounters with hostile religious factions and the complete misinterpretation of Darwin's theorem. the second one would be a group of Evil Luddites who believe that it was mankind's rampant gene engineering that made God turn the skies black. Needless to say, they aren't nice and have poor dental hygiene.

The third religion is a mix o several religions, predominately a few versions of Christianity, who also semi-worship the geneticists who created a new ecosystem while the world was falling apart around them. They would serve as a foil to the Luddites since they use the Mons the most. Finally, you have a Samurai Cowboy Warrior Monk cult that wanders the land and makes justice happen. Mainly with their katanas.

Anyhow, this is just what I came up with off the top of my head. Feel free to modify it as you wish.

edited 15th Mar '13 10:05:14 PM by MaxwellDaring

Somehow I feel a resemblance to the SMT verse.

If you want to get a good diversity (the downside being maximum research required), here's a base framework of the religion types you could employ. As you said you aim for four religions, I've stuck to this limit:

The first two could be monotheistic religions that while having a common origin, have split over the course of time. You could use the various Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam) or their various denominations (e.g. Catholics vs Anglicans, etc) for ideas on how they can be similar yet different at the same time. One could have a central authority figure while the other doesn't, for instance. However, the main distinction of these two over the two below is that they have very rigid, uniform practices.

For the third, use a polytheistic religion. You could base them on classic Greek and Roman religions and/or the polytheistic denominations of Hinduism. In addition, you could also incorporate shamanistic, animistic and pagan aspects if you so choose. Basically, this religion would come across as being diverse in its practices (different groups or individuals will do things slightly differently from everyone else) and very, VERY ancient; to the points its exact origins aren't known (maybe it even originated before The End).

And last but not least, use a less theistic, more philosophy-centred religion that may or may not have a god. Instead, its adherents are guided more by a code of ethics and way of life. You could use Buddhism, Jainism, and the broader aspects of Hinduism for inspiration. Maybe even a little bit of Sikhism, just without its theistic aspects. Basically, coming across as calmer and more introspective than the other religions (who instead pray to a god or gods when looking for answers and reflecting).

edited 16th Mar '13 3:42:19 AM by peasant

@Maxwell Daring - While that has some similarities to the actual backstory, most of it is kinda off.

@sunember 123 - I didn't think of that originally, but that now that you mention it, it does have similarities. Main difference being that they are no technical demons, as the Mons are made from aspects of a person's personality being ripped from them, and they only sometimes look like demons.

@Peasent - The philosophy-based religion and the polytheistic one are good ideas, but I only want one based off of the Abrahamic faiths, just for a little more variety.

Maybe a Mons Rights group? Anyway, it would be good if you could elaborate the backstory a bit.

So, a Mon in your world is like an agathos daimon in Mediaeval philosophy?