Ooooh... Fun. Here are the major ones so far fleshed out:
- Mithraism: An extrapolation upon what would have happened, in a parallel reality, if the Roman-era Cult of Mithras had survived into the present era. Focused on abstract and lofty mystical concepts but also strongly evangelical, often with a lean towards the Church Militant side of things. Similar in trappings to the Orthodox Church, but with much of the bureaucracy and associated scandal of Roman Catholicism in addition to many more radical, Protestant-like sub-sects.
- Hermeticism: The cult of magic, as it were. Ostensibly focused upon the Moon (Thoth/Hermes Trismegistus) as chief deity (or trinity of deities; it's complicated) and ritual focus, though the emphasis on the god(s) themselves has gradually waned to the point that it is more about harnessing raw power than anything sacred. What little central authority exists operates on a strict meritocracy and is very secretive. And pretentious.
- The Church of the Occident: A fairly diffuse semi-henotheistic
religion whose canon consists a small handful of nature deities, the most commonly revered being Nodens. Most common in relatively port cities and forest towns due to a reliance upon often fickle natural cycles. Has a penchant for superstition.
- Akkadian Orthodoxy: A complex and contradictory polytheistic religion with a large number of minor deities but with preference given to a septet of elemental deities, each of whose cult holds great power and vies constantly with each of the others for more. Known for impressive displays of "divine intervention" at major holidays, as well as raucous parties and incomprehensibly intricate moral codes which are best ignored. Derived mostly from Babylonian and Sumerian canon.
- Hurrian Orthodoxy: Similar to the Akkadian, but with all the bombast stripped away and replaced with sinister portent. Fond of lengthy, sombre processions, strange contrapuntal music, and interesting costumes... Oh, they're also really into Virgin Sacrifice. And doing freaky magical stuff that would turn most people's hair white. Surprisingly friendly.
- The Church of the Broken Wheel: An analogue to the esoteric end of Buddhism found in the Himalayan countries and, to a lesser extent, Japan. Pacifistic, meditative, and heavily philosophical, though not without its eccentricities. Has produced extensive texts on supernatural beings and creatures, though they are not always inclined to share with outsiders.
- Animism and Ancestor Worship: Both are quite common throughout this world, and considering the nature of the setting, this is probably the most reasonable position to take.
- Other Religions:
- The Valusii - Have their own thing. It is somewhat difficult to summarise.
- Saurian Religions - Mostly animistic or polytheistic, with an emphasis on moral conduct and the power of objects. Ancient but not archaic.
- The Daoine Sidhe - "We have no masters."
- Atheists and Agnostics: Not as unreasonable as one might assume: The existence of powerful supernatural beings has no real bearing on how the world came to be, what will happen to it, or what happens when we die. It is simply another fact of life.
edited 28th Jan '11 12:23:57 PM by JHM
I'll hide your name inside a word and paint your eyes with false perception.Listreism is the remnants of an archaic polytheistic religion, the lesser deities have been demoted to sainthood while the upper echelons have all emerged to be two deities, Life/Creation and Death/Destruction. Neither is considered the "bad" god and so there is no hell expy. Instead, the more truthful, moral and generally good you are the closer you will reside to the seat of Death. In its earlier days came with a very strict caste system but secularization has made it defunct outside of remote colonies or communes.
Sorai is now completely of academic interest, and was essentially an empire spanning magic cult in its hay day. There are neo-Soraics, but they are not magic (note this is a strictly no-magic universe) revivalists, instead choosing to live by the main tenants of the religion, harm no one, kill nothing, help anyone who needs it etc. Essentially they are the zenith of hippy vegans or even Jainists.
Hynanity actually a non-theistic religion, the founder, Hyn, was a large supporter of the "natural order". This meant doing ones best to help the natural evolution of events, some speculate it was a result of major opposition to technological advances which took place in that universes 16th century. The most practised religion in the empire, still only about 1% of the population actually identifies as a Hynian.
Atheism the majority of the population is atheistic, there are currently no major space stations with formal places of worship, and most central planets have only two or three in a major city, most of which have 9 million people. Outer planets and colonies are more prone to religious belief, though it is still a small portion of the population.
The creator of the universe is Khaos (borrowed from Greek Mythology), but otherwise things get remarkably confusing and I am still sorting them out. Gods Need Prayer Badly is very important, as it shaped the ancient non-sentient forces into gods we can identify with. However, gods are only truly dependent on human belief if they embody abstract concepts - such as love, war, wisdom, and etc. The forces of nature are fairly secured, being embodied in extremely powerfull deities, and because across history mankind has venerated deities embodying the forces of nature the is only a single deity per force of nature present, but with immense avatars. For example, there is a single sun god, but he was many aspects/avatars because he was worshipped as Helios, Ra, Neito and etc. across history.
Thus, deities can roughly be divided into nature deities and human deities. The Olympians (with the possible exception of Poseidon, whose main aspect was merely the domain of the sea and earthquakes) and the Aesir, for example, can be called human deities because most of their worship was focused on their connection to mankind, with both the Olympians and Aesir having within their ranks more gods representing abstract concepts than forces of nature (Zeus and Thor, for example, represented far more justice than their aspect as sky gods, and Athena, Odin, Hermes, Ares and the like were exclusively representing abstract concepts like war, wisdom and being a thief). Yahweh also fits in this category, as he began already as a god representing an abstract concept (guess what) before adquiring the modern qualities of a collective consciousness of mankind, due to the shift of belief into making him the Eldritch Abomination we know today.
Meanwhile, deities like the greek titans and protogenoi, being forces of nature, are not really dependent upon human worship, as their worship (or really just "acknowledgement", as most titans were not actively worshipped as far as we know, but widely known in Ancient Greece) was focused on them being incarnations of nature, not aspects of the human society and other abstract concepts. Thus, whereas the human gods seek actively for worship, nature gods usually do not care about it, although it gives them more power. The line, however, some times is blurred; some abstract concepts, like love, are so deeply within mankind's psyche that they became forces of nature themselves, and the fact that some deity groups associated with forces of nature have members representing love, like Eros (and possibly Aphrodite) for the protogenoi and Freya for the Vanir further seems to stress this.
TL;DR: Khaos created the world, from Khaos eldritch abominations were born, said things became sentient thanks to the evolution of sentience and emotions among living beings, and worship further molded the gods. Some now happen to be more dependent on belief than others, although everyone gets stronger through worship.
The Revoria Magnus (Romanized alien term, coming from this settings Empire, although it's not evil) involves the worship of the precursors. Until relatively recently, the precursors had been trapped in their own dimension, because their gate into our dimension proper, a Flying Brick "superhero," committed suicide after he decided he didn't agree with their plans for sapient life (they crate their "superheroes" by bonding, or melding minds with, a normal sapient creature, essentially jamming two minds into one body).
In any case, the alien race to which this man belonged formed a religion around him anyway, as he was their emperor, and his children ended up upholding the nation anyhow even though they weren't supers themselves. Thus, the religion is centered around worshiping the Revoria (precursors), venerating their vessels (the supers) as prophets or holy warriors. "Revoria Magnus" technically refers to the belief system summary; it roughly translates to "Highest are the Lords of Light (Revoria)."
Of course, humanity's first foray into FTL Travel ripped a hole into the precursor dimension, bringing back the supers to rule the sapient races of the galaxy...and once again serve as holy beings for the resident Empire.
I am now known as Flyboy.Well, mine does not have a set name but it could be called Agnullstic.
Basically, it's followers believe that the heat-death of the universe is worth fighting for, as it will result in the "Blessed Nothing", a heavenly state of non-existence. Several things in the 'verse threaten this “blessed” future, and so it's followers work to destroy them by any means possible.
They also work to Genocide every living species in existence, in order to hurry the entire blessed nothing thing up. But they don't se it as a bad thing, because they’re just sending them to Adnullsitc heaven early.
Religion never really figures heavily into any of my work, probably because I'm veyr indifferent towards religion in real life. Thus I've never reallly elaborated on the religions in my settings. The demons in the Zaran comic have a religion based around the belif that the kign of demons ascended to godhood when he died. Farallon has the Generic Fantasy Pantheon that every fantasy setting is contractually oblidged to have, aswell as cultists worshipping the Outer Gods and voidspawn. My unnamed sci-fi setting has an alien civilastion with a quasi-religious concept of manifest destiny that they use as a justification for attempting to conquer the galaxy.
I have really started on the religions in my worlds yet, but I did make a collaborative conreligion for a class last semester.
Maiestasism worships a mother goddess and her four sons, who are known as the Four Birds and embody the seasons. There was a god for a fifth season but he became evil and is the source of evil in the world. Practioners get tattoos for the various rites of passage (birth, puberty, marriage, death) and respect nature. They have weekly services and have a holiday for each season.
That's about all that will fit in just a few sentences.
I don't have a name for it yet, but my religion is partially inspired by Taoism and based on Order Versus Chaos, with a god of each.
Neither order nor chaos can exist entirely separately from the other, kind of like yin and yang. Additionally, neither is all good or all bad. Life, for example, is a balance of it. Too much order, there's no free will. Too much chaos, life can't exist because atoms won't stay together. Magic is the ultimate union of the two - it enables one to ignore natural laws, but it needs to consistently ignore the right laws, but it works slightly differently for everyone, but there's enough overlap that the laws of magic can be identified, but... and so on.
The sun was believed to be the avatar of the god of order - it makes a fairly consistent circuit across the sky. The moon was the avatar of the god of chaos - it sometimes appears at night, sometimes during the day, it changes shape, and it occasionally turns red for no reason. However, the sun is chaotic by changing where it moves across the sky, and very rarely turning black. The moon is also ordered by being semi-predictable in its changes.
...and that's it for now. It's not very well-developed.
Not so much a religion but a cult in a world I'm building, that after one of the main characters.
They worship a the elemental incarnation of nature, ruler of the seasons with control over the flow of growth and decay. They are highly devotee and some are even violent. They are also small and almost all of them have some fight in them. Said incarnation is an Eldritch Abomination Sealed In A Human Shaped Can.
edited 20th Feb '11 1:55:49 AM by Vyctornian
"Every anime character is bisexual until proven otherwise." - A comment a found on youtube.College of Thoman Pontiffs (CTP): the Five Fingers of Faith (FFF) 1) Rozak d'Koynam build the Bridge over the River Feydor in Thoma, 2) He made a pact with the Demon of the Hidden Name (DHN). 3) His first-born, Awtzar da Charon was involved. 4) He organized CTP. 5) He fought the Justified Ancients of Mummu (JAM), the Ferrymen's Guild.
CTP is a portmanteau of Roman Pontiffs who made a Religion of Bridge-building, Free-masons who made a Secret Conspiracy of Cathedral-building and Bavarian Illuminati who made a religion of Secret Conspiracy.
Rozak is not a creator god, he is a human who became a god. CTP honours the other gods, expecially Demeter, goddess of the Earth and Athena, goddess of Wisdom without whom Rozak would never have been.
CTP missionaries will tell anyone the FFF and teach Engineering to anybody. Only members who swear secrecy can learn the Hidden Names of the Demon (HND).
CTP alignment (alg) is Lawful dark.
Church of the Holy Flame (FLM) worships Fire, its alg is Lawful Light. When Flamist tribes encounter Heathens, the priests say "Let our Gods fight it out." Then they throw the wooden idol into the Holy Flame. Heathens became Genre Savvy and built stone idols. Flamist priests waited until the stone idol was very hot and said "Flame's bride is the Ocean." and poured cold water on the hot stone idol.
Flamism is based on the real-world Church with bells and whistles, so a split is growing between North Flamists who support Women Bishops and South Flamists who forbid Women Bishops.
South-East Flamists belief Flame is the King of the Gods, North Flamists believe that every 1000 years, the Gods elect the Mayor of Olympus and Flame wins. South-West Flamists believe Flame is the One True God.
Witchcraft is modern Wicca with bells and whistles. Its alg is Chaotic dark. Druidism is Neutral grey.
Justified Ancients of Mummu (JAM) alg Evil light is the Church of the One True God. It is a portmanteau of Roman Catholicism, Islam, Aztecism, Platonism, Buddhism, Vegetarianism, Non-Smokingism and all the religions that I disapprove of.
edited 20th Feb '11 12:13:16 PM by Dagobitus
I have an unhealthy fascination with Christianity-inspired religions, so yeah. XD This part of my world hasn't been fully fleshed out yet though, so things might get a bit fuzzy and contradictory. Or might get debunked later on. Urf. 8D
There's a creator, but no 'sub-deities'. Creator made everything and called it a day. Creator is also the one destined to end /her creation after some time. Whoops. But during the two times she tried to do so (yes, two), she was thwarted by the very beings she created. These humans turned themselves into...something-else-but-not-quite god-like and became known as Angels (no, this is not an Evangelion reference XD). They defeated the Creator and assured the existence of their world for an unspecified period of time.
Over time, a religion sprouted around these Angels, called the High Haven. Angels are, technically, not gods but rather 'heroes', but try telling that to their followers.
High Haven is closely linked to the government of the country which spawned it. Indeed, the nobility of that country claims descent from these Angels and have the powers to prove it. High Haven believes that the Angels are the only ones capable of defeating the Creator should she try to end the world again. And oh, they don't call her 'Creator' nowadays.
On the other side of the ocean...worship of the Creator continues, the religion of Azure. It's the main religion of an entire continent, although with differing sects. To these people, the 'legend' of the Creator trying to end the world is hogwash - actually, she was trying to save the world from the abominations who called themselves 'Angels'. The war between the two forces ended in a stalemate. The followers have a case of God Needs Prayer Badly - after that war, the Creator fell asleep/dormant/died/whathaveyou (depending on which scripture/sect you follow) and in order for her power to continue nourishing the world, people need to worship her.
Aaand these two factions hate each others' guts. 8D
Religion 1: Shamanistic, polytheistic in a very abstract way, practices Ancestor Veneration. The Gods are appeased through animal sacrifice and feasts in their name (the feasts tend to be wild parties where Everybody Must Get Stoned and there are lotsa brawls and short-term hookups).
It's loosely based on Modern Asatrú, but with a gods-as-power-symbols Chaos Magick influence.
Religion 2: Also polytheistic, highly syncretistic, ritual and so based from a mix of Mediterranean pagan religions. Think Roman-like faith plus Egyptian-like religious mysteries and secrets. It's the religion of the Empire. Corrupt, but not evil.
Religions 3 and 4: Straight animism, totem-animals and ancestor worship are the core of these two religions. They're actually pretty simple: a coupla Big Spirits in each, ruling the spirit world and being completely distant and unapproachable. The spirits, of which are plenty, are the ones being contacted.
Religion 5: Monotheistic, revelation-based, the only one that is ascetic or purity centric in any way. Everyone else is pretty much freaked out by this faith, and they combat it accordingly. It's the Religion of Evil of the setting, They're loosely based on the Abrahmic religions.
Religion 6: Straight druidry.
edited 5th Apr '11 3:31:18 AM by SavageHeathen
You exist because we allow it and you will end because we demand it.My world is made entirely of giant floating landmasses, with a parallel Cthulu-esque plane called the Storm, filled with mind-eating monstrosities and is the source of psychic power. It has two major religions and a cult.
The Church of the Skies: Most wide-spread religion, polytheistic, believes the gods of wind, water, fire, and earth fought a war at the beginning of time. The twin gods of wind were triumphant over all opponents. They believe the world was formed from the excess power use of this war, and that races were formed from the blood of the gods. All gods are worshiped equally, psychics are burned.
The Path of Descension: Fairly common, monotheistic. Believes the All-Father created all races, but exiled them for trying to overthrow him. He threw them upwards, into the skies above his Perfect Realm. They believe that through spiritual meditation and increasing the "good energy" of the world, all races will gradually descend into the Perfect Realm at the bottom of the world. Psychics are seen as having potential, they can either greatly increase or decrease the world's good energy.
The Cult of The Tempest: Believes that the creatures of the Storm created this world, and that the races drove them out(which they actually have some plausible archeological evidence for). They worship the Storm as the source of power and psychics. Has some control/contact with Storm-entities. They love psychics(the "Storm-children").
In reality, they're all wrong.
In AB!Beowulf, Valhollr is a big Crapsack World conspiracy to turn perfectly good deceased into mindless soldiers for Odin. Einherjar are forced to relive their deaths every day, and to escape from the insanity lose their minds in the parties, drink and drugs, and act out their frustrations on each other and the Valkyrjar. The Valkyrjar do the same as a result.
Banned entirely for telling FE that he was being rude and not contributing to the discussion. I shall watch down from the goon heavens.

Joan of Arc meets Jesus meets Mohammed. A shepherdess finds out she's a damn fine military commander, leads an army against a demonic invasion, performs miracles along the way, and then seals shut the portal to Chaos using her own blood. A religion sprouted up around her, but it isn't the tolerant, peaceful religion she wanted. The priests are corrupt, the templars are crazy killing machines, and because they're all psychics like the Disciple was, the Temple is the biggest power in the world.
There's also a pagan system, along with the worship of demons and the Dark Gods (Lovecraft-style abusive precursors). I put a lot of thought into each of them; the ogre religion was especially fun to make.
In the same place I was that one time, all the time