WORLDBUILDING: Fantasy Religions and Mythologies

[@AegisRamble0]

Well, this was simply wonderful sir.

[@chrisdiokno5600]

I do enjoy trying to figure out religious beliefs and mythologies and such in my fantasies

[@nekokoishi]

Kinda reminded me of the religion I made for an adventure campaign. It has multiple deities and each of them symbolize an element and an ideal. The current one that is mainly focused (since the player chose this deity for his character) on a deity named Tanima. She represents the plant element and her ideal is protection. Even though protection seems more of an earth element's ideal. I chose it because plants or nature can shelter and nurture people and animals. As for the full list. Diety: Duta Element: Earth Ideal: Cultivation She is the one that created the earth which the animals has set foot on and the plants have grown on. Worshipped for her domain which people cultivate their food. Diety: Tanima Element: Plant Ideal: Protection She is the one that made plants exist within this world. She is worshipped for giving food and shelter to the animals that roams the land and swim in the seas. Diety: Apu Element: Fire Ideal: Rebirth He gave meaning to life of the planet as he made fire possible in this world. Becoming the cornerstone of birth of civilization. He is worshipped for symbolizing rebirth to life for giving them meaning. Diety: Tubi Element: Water Ideal: Life He has created the waters which life originated. He is worshipped for giving life throughout the world. Diety: Hangi Element: Air Ideal: Exploration She created the air that all life breathes. She is worshipped for her ideals of exploration as the air gives birds, bats, and insects the ability to fly and travel. Which many took inspiration to travel around the world as well. Diety: Kuryen Element: Lightning Ideal: Power He is the one that made storm brews and lightning strikes. He is worshipped for his powers and destructive capabilities. Diety: Ila Element: Light Ideal: Knowledge She is the one that made light possible in the world. She is worshipped as the light gave life the ability to see the world which gave them the ability to learn and gain knowledge about it. Diety: Dulom Element: Darkness Ideal: Death He is the one that made darkness possible in the world. He is worshipped as the care taker of death for all life will eventually come to.

[@smergthedargon8974]

The religion of my spider people posits that all the other religions in the setting are in fact some degree of correct, and that their deities are all expressions of a pair of fundamental divine forces.

[@J-Bat]

Sounds interesting!

[@terrorcop101]

Sounds a bit like my personal beliefs regarding why there are or have been so many religions in the world.

[@smergthedargon8974]

@@J-Bat It leads to the fun result of spiderfolk trying to get blessings from the holy workers of as many religions as possible for important occasions.

[@planespottermerijn]

This is basically Catholic doctrine

[@ohnoagiga4580]

the PirateSoftware of worldbuilding has returned we are blessed on this day

[@ShadowrunnerSR3]

This thought was already in the back of my mind, but I only realised it when I read this comment. XD

[@AdolphusOfBlood]

I like the classical Mystery Cults and how gods/goddess within the same pantheon were worshiped by different groups, and for different aspects of the same god or goddess at times. Like Despoina worship in the Eleusinian mysteries vs Persephone over all.

[@Zestie331]

Just found your channel, love the world building advice thanks!

[@jjhh320]

I like the approach from that scene in Conan, where Conan and Subotai just sit around getting to know one another, going "what god do you worship?" and then start talking up their gods -- Crom or the Four Winds -- and talking smack about the other's. It's enough to let you know that many gods of many cultures exist, and if you meet someone new, it isn't strange to ask them of their deity and be surprised to hear of one you hadn't heard of before.

[@J-Bat]

Those types of scenes are great

[@Titanic_Tuna]

I just found your channel today and subscribed a few minutes before this video went live. Been binging all of the videos, good work so far.👍👍👍

[@J-Bat]

Thank you!

[@InfinityCSM]

Cool video! Keep them coming!!!

[@RowbotMaster]

I prefer the 3rd level of involvement if mortals can still receive divine magic, because it allows for arguments between clerics and wizards that their bible is just a fancy spell book. I've been thinking of adding ages to my d&d setting withe the 1st being when gods created the world, 2nd when they made mortals and had direct involvement and each age is them moving further away. But eventually an evil god will claim the start of a new age as they alone return to the world

[@trikebeatstrexnodiff]

Damn, I never thought about how the involvement of the gods with their creations (and vice versa) could seriously lower the stakes even though it never felt like to me while coming up those scenes... My pantheon is inspired by Tengrism (a Turco-Mongolic Religion/Mythos) and I thought since the Gods in Tengrism are omnipresent, I could use that for my pantheon as well. It is still a hot debate whether Tengrism was a monotheistic religion or a polytheistic one, for there are many "Gods/Deities" (like the God of Wrath, Gods of Directions, God of Hurricane etc.) but there is only one God being worshipped as in the most superior; "Tengri". (Does that make it closer to Henotheism?) [The Kams (Shamans) could worship Erlik (think of it like the opposite of Tengri) aside from Tengri as well] Thus, I thought the Religious Authorities in my story could interact with their Gods except for the most superior God. (Inspired by how the Kams in Tengrism could interact with their Gods/Deities (except for Tengri) during their rituals) And I'm thinking... I should probably fix this in my story. I'm not sure how since I don't want to ever get rid of those scenes so I'll probably use some messenger semi-gods or something. Still that would feel out of the ordinary for the character and the reader but the stakes would not be lowered, I hope... About Tengrism: -> Some think that Tengrism was first a monotheistic religion and later grew a branch which had polytheistic elements around the middle ages and grew the strongest. -> Some think that Tengrism was first a polytheistic religion and later grew a branch which had monotheistic elements around the middle ages and grew the strongest. (Yeah, the exact opposite. Don't know how that works) -> Some other think that the Monotheistic Branch was popular only among the Elites and the Imperial Residents, meanwhile the ordinary people's Tengrism was closer to being considered Polytheistic. -> Meanwhile, modern Tengrism is a monotheistic religion, at least among the Turks. (Don't know how Mongolians consider it as.) -> What I think is though, it is really close to be considered a Henotheistic belief system

[@J-Bat]

I've never seen someone pull from Tengriism before! That's super interesting. Glad the video gave you something to think about.

[@trentonbuchert7342]

I’ve written my gods to definitely exist and have significant influence over the physical world, but are so powerful that it takes too much energy to stay awake for extended periods of time, so they’re basically always sleeping. They can be communed with and even briefly awakened through prayer, but they mostly only interact with the mortal world through their dreams. I feel this lets me keep them distant and mysterious but also involved whenever is appropriate for the plot.

[@J-Bat]

Seems like a good balance!

[@ADxtraIsHere]

Interesting ideas. This will be helpful. Leaving a like for this great video❤👍🏾

[@MarshalMarrs-eu9yh]

My idea for a fantasy religion is one that combines genderless deity focused monotheism, gender based duotheism, hard/soft hybrid polytheism and animism.

[@yohanrives3752]

No one religion would be true while all others would be wrong, though fanatics would certainly think so. They would all hold spiritual truths while being based on myhtologies.

[@VellyJell]

I love your videos so much :)

[@J-Bat]

Thank you so much! the kindness you and other commenters have demonstrated since I started this channel has been wonderful. I'm glad this community is so positive!

[@RocknRoll301199]

I'm making a dualist religion for my starting nation and I take the fact you left it out as a personal offense. Jk, but it is an option that exists, that aside good video

[@pacoes1974]

I started with the cleric domains in DnD and created gods for each of them. I then allowed for a hierarchy to develop and it shaped my religion. I was able to have magic be 3 distinct powers that came from three different gods (Arcane, life (chi), and death (necromancy)). It gets way more complicated from there.

[@J-Bat]

Sounds like a good process--starting from a framework and building it out gives you an easy start, but still a ton of room to personalize it.

[@Andrewtr6]

The nice thing about "a lot of gods exist but people chose which ones they worship" worldbuilding is that you can have both polytheistic and monotheistic religions. In my fantasy world, I take this approach to developing the religious beliefs. Originally, I was just going to use real polytheistic religions, but I decided this was just too many gods to keep track of. So, instead I decided to create my own pantheon inspired by various classifications of deities (sky god, weather god, earth god, god of the underworld, etc). These gods are important to the magic system as well. Since majority of the people in my story can use magic, I want the religion to also reflect this. A lot of the gods will personify some part of the magic system. This association isn't static but rather developed over time. Gods change based on how they're worshipped- they often reflect the culture and time period. This allows me to be flexible with my mythology. A lot of the gods were worshipped separately but over time formed into pantheons. However, I don't wanna focus too much on the gods. They'll have a presence in the story (similar to how Percy Jackson and the Olympians uses the Greek gods) but the story is about the magic more than the gods. There are temples, festivals, shrines, and customs that reflect the religion, I just don't want the magic to revolve around the gods. Something I'm thinking about is having it where the gods aren't as big of a focus as they once were. They're still worshipped, but it's like comparing the Holy Roman Empire to today. However, the "church" or religious organization is trying to shift back to how it was. I need to decide why this drift occurred. In a society where gods are real, there'd be a good argument for having a strong religious presence. For whatever reason, I want the gods to go from involved to not very involved. In story, the exact reason for this will be debated. This could even be why the "church" is pushing a strong focus on religion. They believe it will gain more favor from the gods. If I don't want the church to be villainous, they could be right. Perhaps the current state of the kingdom is in a decline or just not as great as it once was because the gods no longer involve themselves. I want the gods to have enough involvement where they are known and considered facts, however, not enough where they are getting involved with wars or politics unless I wanna do something Trojan War style. It is very difficult to gain favor from a god and even when a patron is noticed this favor might not be impressive. I still have to do more worldbuilding here for exactly what I want. Most of the time, the gods will be creating problems the heroes have to solve. Again, think of the quests in PJO or from actual mythology that gods would give to heroes. Something like "go slay this monster", "find this magical item", or "herd all of my man-eating horses". I like this idea that people serve the gods far more than the gods serve people. The one thing I haven't made any decisions about yet are demigods. I want the gods in my world to have flings with mortals and thus demigods will exist. I just don't know how society would react to them.

[@covenawhite4855]

Henotheism is a religion that knows there are other Gods but only worship select Gods

[@covenawhite4855]

Henotheism Henotheism is the belief that there may be more than one deity but only one of them is to be worshiped. Zoroastrianism is sometimes considered an example. Kathenotheism Kathenotheism is the belief that there is more than one deity, but only one deity is worshiped at a time (or ever) and another may be worthy of worship in another time or place. If they are worshiped one at a time, then each is supreme in turn.

[@JustClaude13]

An odd thought just occurred to me. What if you have one god in an area, who dwells physically with his(her) followers? People get up in the morning and see their god walking down the street.working wonders, and maybe picking up a latte at the local coffee shop. Do people get tired of him after a few millennia? Do they look down on him? Will they someday fire him and hire a new god from somewhere else? What do you do with an unemployed god?

[@J-Bat]

That would be pretty interesting. The first thing that comes to mind is a very unique comedy, but you could use that concept for all sorts of things.

[@terrorcop101]

Another option for the indirect option is the choosing of champions or creation of demigods, both of which involve people of significant power and possible authority literally being given their gods' blessing to do something for some reason. What's more, the subtle/no involvement of deities option comes with the added bonus of being perfect for any setting or arc that requires the characters to undergo a test of faith at one or more points of the story. One idea I've been playing with for a few years is set in a near-future dystopia where all the gods humanity ever worshipped have suddenly returned and are desperately throwing their power around trying to attract followers. But the Christian God, as He tends to do, remains frustratingly silent, which forces his dwindling number of followers to count their blessings and weight them against the fact that because their God doesn't openly offer gifts and miracles, they've become the pariahs of society. The main character's arc has him on a path of questioning his faith, praying out of desperation, self-debating if he should accept or deny the miracles in his life, and ultimately choosing to take a leap of faith when all hope is gone.

[@mousewifegames]

Thinking both about the apocalyptic/post-apocalyptic divide, the way many fantasy worlds are built, and Pf2e's upcoming releases - I'm curious if you have any thoughts on what it means for gods to die, or "the age of gods" followed by "the age of man"/a time when the world was in flux vs. the present when the world is more concrete. Of course, much of this stems from the fact that we (and the characters of stories) always live in the present, and it's easy to say "back long before, things were grander or mightier", but given how frequently authors use "there was the first world, and now we're in world 2.0, and who knows maybe we're at the crux of world 3", maybe there's something there? See also: "history", vs. "the end of history"

[@J-Bat]

I certainly do, it is a very interesting subject. Some of my thoughts come out in the Apolcaypse or Fallen Worlds videos, but there is still so much more to say, in particular about how characters perceive the past relative to the present they live in. There will definitely be more videos on the topic!

[@covenawhite4855]

Have you heard of the Dark Sun D$D series. It is a post-apocalyptic world with magic but no Gods. Based on the Bronze Age City States in Mesopotamia (ancient Iraq). There are criminal Elves, Dwarfs, Bug people, and cannibal jungle Halflings. Human living in walled cities running on slavery controlled by Dragon Sorcerer Kings and the world is connected by desert trade routes. Where gladiators battle and water is scarce. Dark Sun takes place after 3 different Environmental Collapses over centuries and a great war of eaxtermination by humans against all magical races.

[@JustClaude13]

I avoided copying Greece and Rome by copying Daoism. One Eternal produced the Divine Twins to create one pair of opposites. The Divine Twins then produced two pair of twins, who each produced two pair of twins until the whole world was created. Each race in this project has their own creation myth, from the Cosmic Plains to the Middle World. Religion plays an important part in the growth of any civilization, so I developed the creation myths first, and let the society build from there.

[@Phantom_Boi]

i kinda wish you went on a bit more about like, more irl-like gods. like where its a religion but its hard to prove one way or the other. I know you went over like, basically-nonexistant interference but a lil more of your thoughts on that woulda been neat imo

[@J-Bat]

That's fair, but talking about irl religions can be pretty tricky, so I wanted to focus on the essentials. I may revisit the topic at some point though

[@yohanrives3752]

I don't think it's possible for a structured religion not to meddle with politics. Priests are always on the side of earthly power

[@ironclad4451]

fantasy pantheons.... OR PHANTEONS... if you will

[@BasicallyBaconSandvichIV]

I've actually made the gods of my world real fysical beings who have a mortal part and a divine magical part held up by the power of belief and innate magic. After watching this video I'm pretty sure I'm going the monotheistic with other religions elsewhere route though. There's at least one father, who claims to be the sole god, and his kids are holy saints. Though I'm not sure if I'm going to make it just one Emporor Empyrean with this role, a series of Emporers ruling, or a series of Emporers ruling but only one claiming divinity in this way. Empyreans only live for 2500 years, so it's a bit tricky on the timeline part. To be clear, they're lying. They did not create the world even though they claim this. They took over as dominant culture from the Elder Fae, who took over from the Giants, who took over from the Dragons. And who was before the dragons has been lost to all except maybe for the Eldest of Great Dragons, the Monstrous Librarians of the Great Library, or the CheeseSniffer. They're also not divine in the way we think of as divine, but they claim to be. And though Fionn, the father, claims to be solely divine and his children mirrors of that, his children actually are powerful in their own right. But so far only Holy PrincessSaint Fionnghualla of the Silver Moon is really doing his own thing in secret in the Lage Waterlanden. Her attempt at playing of the Empire and the High Kingdom is so far quite successful for them. But thank you for the video! It was hugely helpful! All I now need to figure out is how many Emporer Empyreans were there, and which of those claimed divinity in such a way. It's made things a lot more clear for me, thank you!

[@BasicallyBaconSandvichIV]

By the way, most of the names here are placeholders. I keep track of my lore by memory and hardly ever write things down, so I usually don't need to use names for them. And if I do it's either their function or a placeholder name (which often is also their function). For instance, Fionnghuala I called "Ultimate Waifu Gwyndolyn" for a while, simply because I built the world around them so I didn't know what the naming scheme would be. So quite some things, mainly places, got their first names here, while writing this comment. Though some like the CheeseSniffer already had a name, and never had a placeholder name or the like.

[@jgr7487]

THen there's the Henotheistic approach: there are many gods, but one is utterly superior to the others.

[@legueu]

0:49 How were you able to mimic my voice, and look so perfectly? This is terrifying! 😱