Ž.J.
Dreamer
Greetings to all you good folks!
I took a long break from this forum, but yet i am back and i want to ask thee several question about religion in worldbuilding (medieval fantasy setting).
In my own setting i struggle a bit with inventing a properly functioning religion for one of my civilizations. The idea i currently have is called "Adh Tiliath" or translated as "The Faith" and the main aspect of it is how humanity was lifted from misery and darkness (this is how this particular cavitation views the times before the rise of settlements, when men were simple hunter-gatherers) by a man who decided to fight his inner demons and lift himself from the dark, thus civilization was born. I struggle a bit with inventing a proper theology for this religion, like: how do people visualize this man, who saved them? what is the main symbol of this religion? what is the continuation of the mythos? and so on....
I want to have something, that is different from Christianity and any other main monotheistic religions from our world and in the same time different from any fantasy religions, who are popular enough to be immediately recognized . I already have created two religions in this world, one for elves and one for dwarves, but in the same time they are more like Confucianism and Shintoism, more "ways of live", rather then fully fledged religions. For the other civilizations of man i still haven't though of a religion, but i guess i will start when i am finished with this one. Since magic in my setting is in a more "soft form", and it doesn't play a major role in current events, i don't want to really involve magic in this religion, thus i don't want it to have it's origins in magic.
I ask for your help here. How do you build fantasy religions and do you have any advice of how i can further develop the theology of "The Faith". How to invent a mythos for a fantasy religion?
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A bit of a background for those more curious ones. This civilization, or in other words "ethnic family", is made of, what was previously many tribes, but now simply ethnics groups, covering roughly 1/3 of a continent named Elerand. They speak a number of different, but related languages, however when they meet together they communicate in Ereim "language of the people", which is often used as a lingua franca. My main inspiration for them comes from Welsh and Anglo-Saxon peoples. They are one of the first (known) human civilizations to form petty realms and later kingdoms and thus in time their civilization grew so strong, that one of their kingdoms managed to conquer the whole continent, thus forming the Empire. Now it has been around 123 years after the fall of the Empire, an event which now chronologically helps to describe time, as the abbreviations BIF (before imperial fall) and AIF (after imperial fall) are often used.
I took a long break from this forum, but yet i am back and i want to ask thee several question about religion in worldbuilding (medieval fantasy setting).
In my own setting i struggle a bit with inventing a properly functioning religion for one of my civilizations. The idea i currently have is called "Adh Tiliath" or translated as "The Faith" and the main aspect of it is how humanity was lifted from misery and darkness (this is how this particular cavitation views the times before the rise of settlements, when men were simple hunter-gatherers) by a man who decided to fight his inner demons and lift himself from the dark, thus civilization was born. I struggle a bit with inventing a proper theology for this religion, like: how do people visualize this man, who saved them? what is the main symbol of this religion? what is the continuation of the mythos? and so on....
I want to have something, that is different from Christianity and any other main monotheistic religions from our world and in the same time different from any fantasy religions, who are popular enough to be immediately recognized . I already have created two religions in this world, one for elves and one for dwarves, but in the same time they are more like Confucianism and Shintoism, more "ways of live", rather then fully fledged religions. For the other civilizations of man i still haven't though of a religion, but i guess i will start when i am finished with this one. Since magic in my setting is in a more "soft form", and it doesn't play a major role in current events, i don't want to really involve magic in this religion, thus i don't want it to have it's origins in magic.
I ask for your help here. How do you build fantasy religions and do you have any advice of how i can further develop the theology of "The Faith". How to invent a mythos for a fantasy religion?
.................................................................................................................................
A bit of a background for those more curious ones. This civilization, or in other words "ethnic family", is made of, what was previously many tribes, but now simply ethnics groups, covering roughly 1/3 of a continent named Elerand. They speak a number of different, but related languages, however when they meet together they communicate in Ereim "language of the people", which is often used as a lingua franca. My main inspiration for them comes from Welsh and Anglo-Saxon peoples. They are one of the first (known) human civilizations to form petty realms and later kingdoms and thus in time their civilization grew so strong, that one of their kingdoms managed to conquer the whole continent, thus forming the Empire. Now it has been around 123 years after the fall of the Empire, an event which now chronologically helps to describe time, as the abbreviations BIF (before imperial fall) and AIF (after imperial fall) are often used.