Religion: Fantasy World Building - by Brad on 10:45 18 Aug 2002
In our real world here in the West, monotheism influences our perception of religion in society.
But if you are creating a world with a pantheon of gods and goddesses it is likely to be very different from our perception. In a polytheistic culture people will not cleave to only one god. That is, they will not worship one god or goddess exclusively. They will worship the goddess of agriculture at harvest time, and the huntress before the hunt and the god of war before marching off to fight, etc. These are gods with specialties, and season and you ignore any one of them at your peril. ;)
Another aspect that you might want to layer in are minor local gods and spirits. The Britains (Celts) thought that many local places had their own godlings and spirits. They often built sacred altars at these places to leave offerings to appease these powers. To the Britains such places were frequently where two elements met. So a bridge or ford might have a spirit living nearby because it was a place were earth, water and air intersected. Ancient wells also seemed important because they were also a place where the elements intersected.
Even the pagan Romans, with a differnet pantheon did not discount the exisitance of these local Celtic spirits and they left their own offerings too, just in case.
Still a different aspect is the idea of a clan god or household god. Some minor god that is the patron of a people and not a place. Again this might well be layered in with a greater pantheon.
Some of what we are talking about might also be remenants of older religions: fragments left over from an even earlier age. Older cultures get absorbed by invaders and odd fragments of the older religions might survive in isolated corners alongside or in spite of the newer pantheon.
Now, nobody has to use anything suggested here. But my point is that religion, pantheism or monotheism will effect how your world is built. There is no right way to go about it but you can certainly add very rich layers of detail by, er, shamelessly stealing from history!
In our real world here in the West, monotheism influences our perception of religion in society.
But if you are creating a world with a pantheon of gods and goddesses it is likely to be very different from our perception. In a polytheistic culture people will not cleave to only one god. That is, they will not worship one god or goddess exclusively. They will worship the goddess of agriculture at harvest time, and the huntress before the hunt and the god of war before marching off to fight, etc. These are gods with specialties, and season and you ignore any one of them at your peril. ;)
Another aspect that you might want to layer in are minor local gods and spirits. The Britains (Celts) thought that many local places had their own godlings and spirits. They often built sacred altars at these places to leave offerings to appease these powers. To the Britains such places were frequently where two elements met. So a bridge or ford might have a spirit living nearby because it was a place were earth, water and air intersected. Ancient wells also seemed important because they were also a place where the elements intersected.
Even the pagan Romans, with a differnet pantheon did not discount the exisitance of these local Celtic spirits and they left their own offerings too, just in case.
Still a different aspect is the idea of a clan god or household god. Some minor god that is the patron of a people and not a place. Again this might well be layered in with a greater pantheon.
Some of what we are talking about might also be remenants of older religions: fragments left over from an even earlier age. Older cultures get absorbed by invaders and odd fragments of the older religions might survive in isolated corners alongside or in spite of the newer pantheon.
Now, nobody has to use anything suggested here. But my point is that religion, pantheism or monotheism will effect how your world is built. There is no right way to go about it but you can certainly add very rich layers of detail by, er, shamelessly stealing from history!
Religion: Fantasy World Building - by Kainja on 01:24 24 Aug 2002
good points, Brad. a lot of fantasy writers seem to give short shrift to the religious aspects of their stories, and part of that might be due to the fact that in pantheistic societies, which is most fantasy worlds, the relationships are SO complicated. As you indicate.
good points, Brad. a lot of fantasy writers seem to give short shrift to the religious aspects of their stories, and part of that might be due to the fact that in pantheistic societies, which is most fantasy worlds, the relationships are SO complicated. As you indicate.
Religion: Fantasy World Building - by Brad on 14:59 24 Aug 2002
True. Even Tolkien does not mention them in LOTR, only in the Silmarillion. But that back story is what supplies the rich depth to Middle Earth. That can be useful if the riter knows the backstory to their own mythos.
True. Even Tolkien does not mention them in LOTR, only in the Silmarillion. But that back story is what supplies the rich depth to Middle Earth. That can be useful if the riter knows the backstory to their own mythos.