WorldbuildingWednesday - Making Religions

Welcome to today's #WorldbuildingWednesday post! For those of you new to this series, I'm @oblivioncubed. In this series of posts, I break down what Worldbuilding means to me, how I build a setting, why I choose to build what I do, and hopefully provide you some inspiration to use in your Worldbuilding.

My world - Trothguard - is a setting I've created as a catch-all location for any tabletop RPG games I run, so everything I build is filtered through a lens of 'how will this improve the game for myself and my players?'.

Today we're going to dive into Making Religions.

Last time we looked at how to create a culture for your world by asking 'who lives here?' and the next logical step in your worldbuilding is to ask: 'What do those people believe?'.

Today we're going to look at how to create religion in your world, and some questions you can ask yourself to make this process relatively simple! If you've been following this series for a while, you might already have a lot to work with, since many of our past posts have elements that could easily be worked into a religion - and ideally, we should be weaving the things we create together to create a well thought out world - so if you have been building based off of these posts, I definitely encourage you to look over your previous work and see if you can use it for today's post! That said, lets jump right into:

Making Religions

There is a lot that can go into making a religion, and some of these we've eluded to in posts all throughout this series. Let's look at some core elements, and some prompts you can ask yourself to help create them.

Creation Myth
All religions (and even many cults) will have some kind of story about how the world and its people was created. This can be as wild and fanciful or as logical and scientific as you want it to be. Consider the role of gods in your world, if there are any, and the technology level that is present. It's also not uncommon for there to be some kind of Destruction Myth as well, so also consider how your people might think the world will end, or what the end of the world will look like.

Morality
Religion often defines a set of values around what is good, and what is bad. When defining morality for your religion, keep in mind that not everything needs to make sense. While there's an obvious reason to avoid murder, you could also dictate that it's immoral to show your ankles while praying, or any other number of esoteric things you choose.

Life and Death
What does your religion believe is the meaning of life? And, what do they think happens when you die? Consider the culture you're building this religion for. If they are warlike, perhaps they think the meaning of life is to conquer their surroundings, and that when they die, their spirit joins the armies of the gods.

Holidays and Rituals
Rituals and holidays are deeply ingrained in any religion. Some are for practical reasons and act as a means of celebrating a day that would already be happening - such as a holiday around the traditional harvest time. Rituals and ceremonies around things like births, recognition of membership to the religion, and such also play a big part. If there are any important figures, consider how they might have holidays and rituals associated with them.

God(s)
Of course, when creating a religion you should ask yourself what god (or gods) they worship. If that is a living god, how active of a role does it take in the religion (if any)? In some cases, people worship nature (or elements of nature) itself, so consider what the religion defines as a god, and how that affects their practices, rituals, and other aspects of the religion.

Priests, Clergy, and Hierarchy
Any religion is going to have some means of structuring itself. Consider how the organization itself is structured and ran. Further, what types of clothing do the clergy wear? Are there particular colours associated with this religion? Are there any special ceremonies or rules that they must follow?

There are also some other things that you might find worthwhile to create, such as:

• If there are any special holy sites
• The religion's view of why evil exists
• How close the religion's myths, legends, and creation stories are to what actually happened
• How long the religion has been established for
• How widely adopted this religion is

I think these points are secondary to the religion itself, which is why I haven't provided them their own sections. They're potentially useful depending on what medium you're creating your world for but aren't strictly essential to tell a story (in my opinion).

For myself, there are plenty of these sections I've not fully fleshed out because I haven't had a need yet - and since I build for a tabletop world there are probably parts of my list that I'd never need to know for all but one or two religions that my players were actively invested in.

For my needs, it's far more important for me to have an idea of the hierarchy, who they worship, the clothing style and colour, the group's predominant symbol, and what their core belief or guiding principle is.

I think that's it for today folks. Smaller blog, but I hope it's still useful!

Thank you for reading today's #WorldbuildingWednesday! I hope this has provided you with some inspiration!

If there's something else you'd like to ask me about, please do so! I will make every effort to answer it next Wednesday.

For previous #WorldbuildingWednesday post you can read them here:
0: Introduction to WorldbuildingWednesday
1: Starting the World
2: Kingdoms, Factions, and Notable People
3: Creation Facts and Creation Myths
4: Shaping History
5: Myths & Legends
5.a: Player Visions (Supplemental)
6: Gods & Lesser Deities
7: Creating Cultures