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Korhil

Notes On Building Religion (bloody Long)

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I'm a bit of a wannabe anthropologist and I make a point of reading many religious texts and discussions & comparisons of religions, I though i'd offer some examples of common themes in religion, which maybe could be integrated into the EL pantheon.

 

EL has a Polytheistic religion, that is to say that a number of diverse deities exist. Generally speaking, in real life these types of religion tend to have a dozen or so major deities (of, say, love, war, harvest, death and such) and dozens, maybe even hundreds of lesser gods and goddess' for more mundane, everyday things.

 

Steryotypical gods:

 

Mother Earth

The most universal deity is Mother Earth, a goddess of fertility. this goddess is a focus of prosperity and fertility and is usually (though not always) seen as a benevolent, sympathetic figure. She is usually good, occasionaly neutral, never evil.

 

Green Man

Less common, but still easy to find analogues of this deity in many religions. The Green Man is generally a counterpart to Mother Nature. He's ofen depicted as full of vigour, laughter and life, whereas Mother Nature is seen as calm and serene.

Images of the Green Man usually have him with a crown of leaves, his face covered with foliage, he sometimes has horns.

 

The Desroyer

This is a god or goddess of destruction, a famous example would be Shiva of the Hindu religion, the word "Thug" actaully comes from a sect of violent, murderous priests called Thugee who were dedicated to her. While usually considered evil a deity of destruction can also be associated with regeneration and regrowth.

 

The God of War

Usually a god of war is also associated with storms. Almost always male, he usually has power over lightning and is a commanding figure, if not the leader of the gods he will certainly be a lieutenant. A famous example is Thor from the Norse religion.

 

Sun God

A sun god is responsible for the birth of a new day, he's (usually male to pair up with a female Luna god) associated with light, birth and, by default, usually with goodness and purity.

 

Goddess of Night

Counterpart to the Sun God, representing the Moon and nightime. Usually depicted as haughty, arrogant and beautiful, though there are exceptions, in Chinese folk Daoism I believe there's a goddess of night who is trapped in the moon, whose tears are the morning dew, though I haven't read that one for a long time so i'm not certain... Anyway a luna goddess is generally associated with activites that occur at night such as hunting, she also sometimes strays into being a goddess of love and lovemaking.

 

Death

This is usually a male god who rules the underworld (EL could use this) this god isn't usually evil. Osiris (Egyptian pantheon) was greatly repsected and loved. This god is nevertheless usually an object of fear and usually looks after those souls who don't make it to heaven.

 

Trickster

A very common god, the trickster usually makes mischief, ranging from harmless pranks to downright evil ness (Loki of the Norse Pantheon ended up tricking the blind god Hod into killing his brother baldur by stabbing him with a branch of mistletoe) the trickster is also commonly vulgar, an Indian trikster god is the subject of many tales where he consults his three wise turds for advice O.o

The trickster is also comonly the most intelligent and humourous of the gods. They're always Chaotic and usually Neutral.

 

Well, those are a few to be going on with now i'll bore you with common myths of religion that could be part of the game:

 

 

Now i'm going to bang on about the actual myths of religion, starting (appropriately) In The Beggining....

 

there are four basic varieties of creation myths, all the creation myths of all religions fall into one of these categories:

 

Creation from water: The world rises from some primordial ocean via the actions of a creator god, found in Japanese and Egyptian myths.

 

Divine Egg: A shell full of raw materials of existence, split open by a divine force, found in Chinese and Yoruban myths and a little known alternative Greek myth.

 

Ex Nihilio is creation from nothingness, usually by a god speaking (Let there be Light) obviously this is found in Christianity, also in Indian and samoan myths.

 

Divine Body, this idea is the belief that all creation comes from the body of a divine being, ofen killed and torn asunder to make the world. The Norse acocunt is probably the most famous.

 

 

Birth of Man:

These myths come in three different flavours.

 

Man from earth: Man is made of the earth, soil, rocks an so on, found in Yoruban, Norse and Inca myths.

 

Mating of the Gods, this is the belief that man comes from the mating of two gods, found in Hindu and Pawnee (if I remember rightly)

 

The divine body, man might come from some part of the god himself suxh as tears or flesh. I sfound in Egyptian and Mayan myths.

 

Flood:

 

The most universal myth is that of the flood, although it's often absent in countries which do not border a large body of water. Overall, flood myths portray the flood being some divine punishment for the rebellious nature of man. Found in Christanity, Sumerian and many other religions. In nearly all cases Man is warned ahead of time and given some means of survival, finally, after the water has buggered off, these men settle down like good little chimps, do what they're told and father the race of men as we know them. Examples:

Noah, Neshanu, Hathor, Michabo, the list goes on.

 

Well, that's al I can be bothered with, I hope this is of some use, i don't mind carrying on and adidng to it at a later date if any of this is remotley useful in fleshing out the gods and goddesses of EL. Let me know.

Edited by Korhil

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Thanks for the post. :P It has been an interesting read, particularly about the stereotypical gods.

 

For EL, we're planning a slightly less-than-ordinary pantheon, although there ARE one or two that are reminiscent of the stereotypical gods (particularly Glydoc/Thor and Selain/Loki). They are currently being revised by me, though, but here's the thread about them: Gods and Religions (and this is the older thread/discussion about it: Older thread). Note that I'm trying to move away from the usual D&D alignments, because the main story/theme of EL will be a debate about whether Life = Good and Death = Evil. What about an Eternity in which you continually grow older, yet are unable to die?

 

The background stories behind the gods featured in those threads, although not entirely complete yet, can be found in the following threads:

History of the Lands (earlier edition)

History of the Lands (Revised Edition - semi-complete)

And I presume you would have already read Tumaros' Great War on the Story section of EL's main website. :o

 

For a history of our discussions about how the history of EL is being formed, try reading through my two longish posts in the Storylines Discussions pinned topic. For a starter look at the races and cultures of EL, try this thread: Eternal Lands Races. The rest of the stories, I leave it to you to find and read.

 

Keep in mind it's all being worked on, though. :o

 

-Lyn-

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The current pantheon of gods seems a little arbitrary, mainly for my own amusement i'm revising it, maybe some of it will be useful:

 

I've kept the original names and general outlines but am fleshing them out so they cover more aspects:

 

Aluwen God of Chivalry, Justice, Honour and War (formerly Defence) i've brought him out as a more general god of righteous combat, which fits the theme of defence rather well I hope.

 

Glydoc - God of the Forge, covering all aspects of metal work, and crafting of miscellainious items

 

Mortos God of Attack, covering Murder, Lies, War, Treachery (I overlapped this god with Aluwen so that players who enjoy combat but who maybe have different morals can still "worship" a god who promotes violence in some form)

 

This is as far as I've gotten so far, the current listings are so limited that it's hard to make my own revisions without destroying the original concept, which I'm loathe to do...

 

edit: I have to throw out the strict defenitions of good and evil... which is a tough one....

 

This will need some thinking....

 

I haven't had the opportunity to review all the background on the gods yet, I'll do that as soon as I have a spare five minutes...

Edited by Korhil

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