Gryphos
Auror
In one of my WIPs, I've created a religion focused entirely around eyes, what I've dubbed the 'Faith Oculus'. And I think it acts as something of a case study of how you can take a simple concept and extrapolate so much from it to create a rich piece of world-building.
I think I've mentioned this concept in other threads, but basically, in this world, there are huge eyeballs floating in the sky at around stratospheric level, so many that the sky is almost completely lined with them. They're transparent enough to allow sunlight through, but they're still always noticeable, especially so at night. This world has no moon; instead, at night the Eyes Above shine with a blueish light, meaning that night isn't actually very dark at all. But most important of all, the Eyes Above are active. They pivot and turn to watch things unfold on the earth.
So, naturally, people started worshipping the Eyes Above as gods. Having the Eyes Above watch you is the greatest honour in the world. It's something of a blessing; the same way in our world someone might say, 'God bless you', these people might say, 'Eyes watch you'.
This was fairly basic stuff, so then I'm thinking about the implications of a religious system based around the Eyes Above, and I extrapolated the idea that perhaps vision itself is seen as sacred. In that case, it would become desirable to see the world as clearly as possible, as that would bring one's existence as closer to that of the Eyes Above. Perhaps priests of the Faith Oculus are required to have 20/20 vision, and so have to go through eye tests before they can be ordained. On the other end of the scale, how are people with poor vision seen by society? In a world where vision is sacred, blind people would be discriminated against. Cool stuff.
Then I started to think about the nuances of religious practice, and I came up with the idea that when praying to the Eyes Above, people look upwards while covering their eyes. At first I made it this way because I thought it made a cool visual image, so I thought about how to justify it. I decided that the idea is to obscure one's vision as a sign of humility. I took this idea further, and came up with the idea that the funeral rites of this religion involves carving out people's eyes and placing them in their mouth, to be covered, but not closed.
Why not closed? Well, thinking more, I came up with the idea that to close one's eyes is inherently sinful, as it is denying one's vision at a fundamental level, rather than simply obscuring it as happens when covering one's eyes with their hands. In a world where vision is sacred, why would anyone want to close their eyes and deny their vision?
But if closing your eyes is sinful, then sleep itself would be inherently sinful. It would be a sin everyone is forced to partake in; all the pious priests who used various methods to never fall asleep eventually died after a few weeks. But sleep is sinful for two reasons: not only because it involves closing one's eyes, but because it means escaping the real world and entering the dream-world which exists in people's minds, the one thing the Eyes Above cannot see. Therefore, to fall asleep is to run away from the gods.
But, if there's one thing I don't think is used enough in fantasy religions, it's the idea of different, philosophically conflicting sects. In this case, the orthodox belief is that eyes should be covered and not closed, but there is a heretical sect which believes that eyes can be closed. They believe there is value in choosing not to see, justifying this belief with the fact that sleep is an essential process for life. Closing one's eyes as they pray is dubbed a 'heretic's prayer'.
So that's that. Starting from the simple concept of 'gods are eyes', I extrapolated different ideas to create a fully fleshed out and (hopefully) interesting fantasy religion, facilitating philosophical conflicts which will be very prominent in the story. I think one of Sanderson's Laws is that you should expand on what you already have before adding something new, and having gone through this process, I wholeheartedly agree.
I think I've mentioned this concept in other threads, but basically, in this world, there are huge eyeballs floating in the sky at around stratospheric level, so many that the sky is almost completely lined with them. They're transparent enough to allow sunlight through, but they're still always noticeable, especially so at night. This world has no moon; instead, at night the Eyes Above shine with a blueish light, meaning that night isn't actually very dark at all. But most important of all, the Eyes Above are active. They pivot and turn to watch things unfold on the earth.
So, naturally, people started worshipping the Eyes Above as gods. Having the Eyes Above watch you is the greatest honour in the world. It's something of a blessing; the same way in our world someone might say, 'God bless you', these people might say, 'Eyes watch you'.
This was fairly basic stuff, so then I'm thinking about the implications of a religious system based around the Eyes Above, and I extrapolated the idea that perhaps vision itself is seen as sacred. In that case, it would become desirable to see the world as clearly as possible, as that would bring one's existence as closer to that of the Eyes Above. Perhaps priests of the Faith Oculus are required to have 20/20 vision, and so have to go through eye tests before they can be ordained. On the other end of the scale, how are people with poor vision seen by society? In a world where vision is sacred, blind people would be discriminated against. Cool stuff.
Then I started to think about the nuances of religious practice, and I came up with the idea that when praying to the Eyes Above, people look upwards while covering their eyes. At first I made it this way because I thought it made a cool visual image, so I thought about how to justify it. I decided that the idea is to obscure one's vision as a sign of humility. I took this idea further, and came up with the idea that the funeral rites of this religion involves carving out people's eyes and placing them in their mouth, to be covered, but not closed.
Why not closed? Well, thinking more, I came up with the idea that to close one's eyes is inherently sinful, as it is denying one's vision at a fundamental level, rather than simply obscuring it as happens when covering one's eyes with their hands. In a world where vision is sacred, why would anyone want to close their eyes and deny their vision?
But if closing your eyes is sinful, then sleep itself would be inherently sinful. It would be a sin everyone is forced to partake in; all the pious priests who used various methods to never fall asleep eventually died after a few weeks. But sleep is sinful for two reasons: not only because it involves closing one's eyes, but because it means escaping the real world and entering the dream-world which exists in people's minds, the one thing the Eyes Above cannot see. Therefore, to fall asleep is to run away from the gods.
But, if there's one thing I don't think is used enough in fantasy religions, it's the idea of different, philosophically conflicting sects. In this case, the orthodox belief is that eyes should be covered and not closed, but there is a heretical sect which believes that eyes can be closed. They believe there is value in choosing not to see, justifying this belief with the fact that sleep is an essential process for life. Closing one's eyes as they pray is dubbed a 'heretic's prayer'.
So that's that. Starting from the simple concept of 'gods are eyes', I extrapolated different ideas to create a fully fleshed out and (hopefully) interesting fantasy religion, facilitating philosophical conflicts which will be very prominent in the story. I think one of Sanderson's Laws is that you should expand on what you already have before adding something new, and having gone through this process, I wholeheartedly agree.
Sage
Myth Weaver
