Religion in story

[meylaran]

Can anyone suggest books or websites that I could use for research on this topic? My first story does not deal so much with religion, only establishes a basic premise of the belief system of the world. However, my current WiP has a protagonist that is priestly-type (healing, divine magics, etc.). I just would like some wider knowledge on religion while I write. Thanks in advance for any help!

 

[Chilari]

Well I guess that depends. What do you want to do with this religion? What kind of world is your story based in? Because you don't have to base your world's religion on any Earth religions, even if your story is set on Earth. It's fantasy; make it up. Draw on real world religions for things like rituals and festivals, by all means, but don't let your lack of knowledge stop you. Think about what you need from the religion in your story, what plot points hinge upon it, and then built it up from there.

I'll give you an example. In my WIP, one of my main characters is an immortal king who invades another city as part of his goal to create an empire spanning the known world for the sake of peace and trade between all cities and nations. I needed religion to do two things: first, explain why they didn't make peace with him in the first place and arrange some sort of treaty; and secondly, to make the people of the city, and in particular my second main character, to absolutely HATE his guts. So I decided they believe that immortals are deceptive, and that dishonesty in their culture is a major bad move, a big no-no. So I gave them two gods: the god of truth, justice and honesty (Reth) and the god of deception and dishonesty (Sune). But why would they specifically believe that immortals are deceptive? Well, they also believe in reincarnation, and that one of the gods would lead their soul to a new life when they died, and which it was would depend upon how honest they were in the life they've just departed. The virtuous would be led by Reth to lives of luxury and power; the not-so-vituous by Sune to lives of drudgery and poverty. Immortals therefore defy this belief by never dying and thus never being reincarnated. Thus the Rethsunians believe that in life immortals were so deceptive that even Sune would not lead their souls to new lives, and that's how they became immortal.

So I used religion to create a stance towards immortals and specifically my main character, and in the process created something that was bigger than just that collective opinion towards immortals.

If you want to research real world religions to get some ideas, by all means do. Wikipedia should have articles on all the major and a lot of the world's minor religions. If you want to do something a bit different from what is normally seen in fantasy, avoid drawing on Christianity, Islam, Wicca or Buddhism. Try something else instead - try looking up Marduk or Shintoism or the pre-Roman gods of northwest Eurpoe or something.

 

[meylaran]

I suppose that is really what I'm looking for, something to draw ideas from. I have estalished a religious system involving three known gods, thus far (the current book will introduce a fourth). It is constantly evolving and changing, however! My thought is that it will be bigger. I spent a lot of time developing the political system, which religion has it's hands in, of course, but I need to develop the religious belief system further and just wanted some reading materials to draw ideas/inspriation from. Thanks for the suggestion of different religions to draw from! That is VERY helpful, indeed!