Monotheism in Fantasy Worlds- Thoughts?

[Rullenzar]

Henotheism is sometimes considered a sophisticated version of monotheism in that it allows the worshiper to believe in essentially one Supreme Being and still appreciate and not limit the names, expressions, or manifestations used to describe it.-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henotheism:

Was doing a little research when the topic of religion came up to see If it would be something my story would or should use as I hadn't thought about it yet and after reading about this certain term I remembered this topic and thought it might be useful for you.

On a side note I'm not sure why the site stated doesn't take you to the page as it is copyed and pasted but after clicking link here, click on 'search for henotheism in related articles' then click the very first article in the list. This will take you to the page if your interested in reading up on it.

 

[Phin Scardaw]

The beautiful thing about fantasy writing is that you can write whatever takes your fancy.

Monotheism is a very recent thing in human history I believe, and probably an inevitable part of our evolution. It seems natural to me that cultures less developed would have gods big and small, especially for people who live close to the earth and depend on it for survival. As cultures mature and technology develops, it seems natural also for a people to identify with ONE nation, ONE government leader, ONE god.

I don't think there's any taboo to worry about. Most fantasy stories will either not have any gods because the adventurers are too busy have adventures to pray, and so religion doesn't feature at all in the plot or there are gods and religious rites, but these are added simply to give texture to the invented cultures.

It's fun to consider having the gods appear in the stories as active characters. I think that would be fun to explore, and I remember liking that aspect of the original DragonLance books. If you only had one god who appears to people, what is its agenda? Why appear to anyone at all? And how does this influence the plot of your story?

I think the main point I'm making is this: what purpose does any god have in your story? If it is not doing anything, or if your characters are not pious, then why include it?

I have a novel in which my main character interacts with many gods: Anubis, Balder, Odin, Charon, Phaeton, Quetzalcoatl, Tezcatlipoca, and many others. The gods are real characters and its fun to write of them that way. Writing about a singular god would be hard though, because I couldn't imagine how I could relate to an entity that was omnipotent and alone.

In another novel of mine, the "gods" are very powerful fairies. These Sylphs created the entire universe in which the humans have their adventures. Up until they disappeared, the Sylphs were very present in the different Realms they'd created. They gave humans Songs to sing that would work as spells, tapping into the mana; and the Sylphs also helped the humans build an empire called the Olymphin, during the golden age. These creatures are very advanced and entirely benign, and the story depends on them.

In my opinion, if it's in your story, then it should be a part of the story. I'm curious to hear more about your progress.

 

[Ice Spider]

Absolutely it's OK, and I can even think of some series that have done it, like The Kingkiller Chronicle and the Dragon Age series (video games).

many religious traditions can be more complicated than the Western dichotomy of monotheism and polytheism

This is a good point. Love the examples you mentioned. I would add that even within "classical" monotheism, you have more strict monotheistic religions like Islam, and less strict ones like Catholicism. The Trinity seems kinda polytheistic to me. The way Catholics talked about Mary in the Middle Ages, you'd think she was a Goddess. And the way a lot of Protestants talk about Satan today, you'd almost think he was a god too!

The society in my WIP is henotheistic, fwiw.

 

[Steerpike]

What I'd like to know is who are the two people who answered 'no,' and why...

 

[Mindfire]

What I'd like to know is who are the two people who answered 'no,' and why...

I also am curious. lol

 

[SeverinR]

You can have mono and polytheism in one culture.
Just because in our worlds history, poly evolved into mono doesn't mean that every world would do it.

Did monotheism become the norm, because of "My gods better then your god" is hard to support if it takes several gods to cover daily life? One god can handle all of the persons needs, rather then several different.

 

[shangrila]

I'll be honest, I wouldn't like it. Though that comes purely from my own beliefs; the large examples of monotheism are, to me, a scam. But that's a subject for another time.

As far as whether or not it would be valid, of course it would be. It's a fantasy world, your fantasy world, so you can have as many or as little gods as you like. In the world I created, I've got multiple gods, mostly because I feel it leaves it open for tension between them and perhaps a larger, behind the scenes kind of story arc running through my story, but not everybody likes it, nor would multiple gods be needed for something like that (Joe Abercrombie does it with a pair of feuding wizards, for example).

Someone above brought up motivation and I just wanted to give an example. In the Preacher comics, God eventually revealed that he created everyone because he was lonely, and humans in particular because he wanted to be loved. The world is a miserable place and bad things happen specifically so that people will turn to him and love him. Now, maybe that would offend some christians, but personally I just thought that made him so much more...human. Which was cool and a real nice way to end that story.

 

[Erica]

A lot of the fantasy novels I've read have complex worlds where some nations or cultures are polytheistic and some are monotheistic. Whether any or all of the gods are 'real' in the sense that they interact with the world regularly, whether they are 'real' but absentee landlords or simply social constructs (or whether that's left purposely vague) is sort of up to the writer. Sometimes the monotheistic religions resemble medieval Christianity in structure or belief, but often they do not.

And monotheistic doesn't have to be a carbon copy of Christianity or any other existing monotheistic religion. I would be careful of making a story which seems blatantly anti atheist or anti religious, simply because that can turn off some readers who might otherwise like your story, but then, it might be a matter of how people take it and who your target audience really is. My world has a monotheistic theocracy where the god has different aspects which have subsumed earlier pagan dieties. The god is real and benevolent, for the most part, but an absentee landlord as well.

The evil done in the god's name is due to human ambition and misconceptions...not because the religion is inherently bad. There are other cultures in my world who follow different religions, some pagan, as well. Again, the gods exist in some way, but their worshipers only ascertain the 'truth' about their religion through a glass, darkly, so to speak.

So in my world, there is no one true religion...religions are human constructs seeking to understand what is real about the divine.

I think there are ways you can make people not following the 'one true' religion seem plausible, though. Lots of people on Earth believe that there is only one 'true' god or religion (theirs) and that most other people are mistaken, stubborn or foolish for not seeing the truth as it has been revealed to them. And there have been plenty of beliefs where the 'truth' is only revealed to a select group of people and those people are not even interested in 'converting' anyone else (though evangelical religions do have a historical advantage in terms of growth potential).

The only issue I'd really have is with their only being 4 religions in the world (whether or not any of them are 'true' or not). Since when has there ever been so few religions at any time in human history on Earth? So if you want to make it plausible, you may have to work that into your world's history somehow.

 

[Rikilamaro]

What I'd like to know is who are the two people who answered 'no,' and why...

I am also curious about that. Just because I'd like to know their reasoning.

 

[Ankari]

Monotheism, I think, is always the black sheep of fantasy. I can't think of one series that truly worships one god. The only series I recall that has a monotheistic religion in it that does not recognize other religions are acceptable is ASOIAF which uses the Bright Lord.

I think that, for some reason, fantasy authors are afraid to broach the subject because they think it hits too close to home in our world. I think that monotheism is a strong tool that can be used in fantasy, after all most of our childhood fantasies derive from the cliche Knight in Shining Armor, stalwart of faith and full of courage.e.

As someone said, try to avoid copying real world monotheistic faiths and you should be fine.

 

[Mindfire]

Monotheism, I think, is always the black sheep of fantasy. I can't think of one series that truly worships one god. The only series I recall that has a monotheistic religion in it that does not recognize other religions are acceptable is ASOIAF which uses the Bright Lord.

What about The Chronicles of Narnia? We never actually see people worship Aslan per ce, but they might as well. And while the Calormenes do have a religion of their own, their god Tash is shown to be a terrible demon who requires human sacrifice, so their religion wouldn't be considered "acceptable".

 

[Steerpike]

Monotheism, I think, is always the black sheep of fantasy. I can't think of one series that truly worships one god. The only series I recall that has a monotheistic religion in it that does not recognize other religions are acceptable is ASOIAF which uses the Bright Lord.

I think that, for some reason, fantasy authors are afraid to broach the subject because they think it hits too close to home in our world. I think that monotheism is a strong tool that can be used in fantasy, after all most of our childhood fantasies derive from the cliche Knight in Shining Armor, stalwart of faith and full of courage.e.

As someone said, try to avoid copying real world monotheistic faiths and you should be fine.

I think there is some truth to this, but I find it interesting that, in answer to the poll, at least two writers said it "has no place" in Fantasy. Think about that. You've basically got two writers telling other writers that they don't think it can be done in a Fantasy world, of all things. It is absurd, when you think about it.

 

[Mindfire]

I think there is some truth to this, but I find it interesting that, in answer to the poll, at least two writers said it "has no place" in Fantasy. Think about that. You've basically got two writers telling other writers that they don't think it can be done in a Fantasy world, of all things. It is absurd, when you think about it.

Lol you do have a point there.

Btw, to clarify matters, I don't "copy" real-world monotheism at all really, but the monotheism in my book could be considered Abrahamic "in spirit" even though it doesn't really have any practices or doctrines in common with Judeo-Christianity other than basic moral principles. But really, it wouldn't make sense to transplant Judeo-Christianity into a world where the historical events that shaped those traditions did not occur. The monotheism in my books is more of a what-if kind of deal. Theology isn't the main focus, but it does inform the decisions that the characters make.

 

[Ankari]

What about The Chronicles of Narnia? We never actually see people worship Aslan per ce, but they might as well. And while the Calormenes do have a religion of their own, their god Tash is shown to be a terrible demon who requires human sacrifice, so their religion wouldn't be considered "acceptable".

My usage of "acceptable" is to mean recognized and not normal. What I meant to say by that sentence is that a lot of fantasy writers have their characters worshiping one deity solely, even though they recognize the existence of others. So a character who worships the God of War solely but recognizes the existence of other deities is not monotheistic.

By the way, I remembered another author that uses monotheism very well. R Scott Bakker with this series Prince of Nothing and The Aspect-Emperor.

 

[Devor]

I think there is some truth to this, but I find it interesting that, in answer to the poll, at least two writers said it "has no place" in Fantasy. Think about that. You've basically got two writers telling other writers that they don't think it can be done in a Fantasy world, of all things. It is absurd, when you think about it.

I'm a little surprised nobody's said anything, but I'm one of the two who voted "no" in the poll and I posted about it pretty much right away. It's on page two and opens with "I voted 'no,' but I don't really mean it."

I was mostly reacting to a number of threads with poor details of a religion that is "essentially" a real-world religion, followed by a terribly ignorant, lopsided or shallow portrayal of said group. But honestly, if the question simply asked "Does religion have a place in fantasy writing?" I'm not sure my answer would be much different. The number of D&D-style religions saddens me. The culturally-wrong portrayals of Greek, Norse and other religions makes me wonder at our inability to capture a historical mindset.

I think handling religion poorly is a good way to get your manuscripts in the garbage bin, and that most writers would do better to leave it aside until they've developed better skills at handling the subject. As I said earlier, if I had to set a rule, the rule would be "No, skip it," because I think, on average, you're more likely to have it harm your work than improve it. But I think rules are meant to be broken once you know what you're doing.

I'm aware that's not really what the question was asking. I figured it was better for the discussion to take the question less literally.

 

[Phin Scardaw]

But honestly, if the question simply asked "Does religion have a place in fantasy writing?" I'm not sure my answer would be much different. The number of D&D-style religions saddens me. The culturally-wrong portrayals of Greek, Norse and other religions makes me wonder at our inability to capture a historical mindset.

I think handling religion poorly is a good way to get your manuscripts in the garbage bin, and that most writers would do better to leave it aside until they've developed better skills at handling the subject. As I said earlier, if I had to set a rule, the rule would be "No, skip it," because I think, on average, you're more likely to have it harm your work than improve it. But I think rules are meant to be broken once you know what you're doing.

Probably most Fantasy does not need to include religion because the heroes in the stories are on the path to becoming godly. They interact with races immortal and wise as angels, and are forced to combat demons and monsters. They have not much need of mythos, because they exist within the sphere of the mythological.

A series like Game of Thrones, however, seems to use gods and religion very well as those other Fantasy elements are not very apparent and are greatly subdued. Here we have a story based on very flawed human characters - and they are shown to have religious compulsions, a need to worship and idolize.

I would say that Religion in general is one of those darker areas of human nature, like Sexuality, whose inner regions are unlit and unexplored, and whose depths are not easily plumbed. It can be done, and done well - but like a sloppily-written sex scene, such elements can really hurt a story, it's true. A good writer sees what it means to be human and reports back from the deeps of the psyche using prose and story to relate the Truths found there.

 

[Jabrosky]

I have a monotheistic culture in a story I've started this evening, but since it's largely based off ancient Israel (albeit with a medieval Islamic/"Arabian Nights" visual aesthetic), a form of monotheism analogous to Judaism is the logical choice for it.

 

[Mindfire]

I have a monotheistic culture in a story I've started this evening, but since it's largely based off ancient Israel (albeit with a medieval Islamic/"Arabian Nights" visual aesthetic), a form of monotheism analogous to Judaism is the logical choice for it.

Do you have a David figure? If you have a culture based on ancient Israel, you MUST have a David figure. It's kind of a given.

 

[Jabrosky]

Do you have a David figure? If you have a culture based on ancient Israel, you MUST have a David figure. It's kind of a given.

My male main character is a prince, making him royalty like David, but he's more inspired by the Prince of Persia than David per se.

 

[Mindfire]

My male main character is a prince, making him royalty like David, but he's more inspired by the Prince of Persia than David per se.

David and the Prince of Persia had some things in common. Sort of. A little. Well, not much. But it's strangely easy to imagine David as a Prince of Persia type.