To clarify: A lot of ancient European and Mediterranean religions are taught like they had a consistent pantheon, in terms of the gods involved, their relations with one another, and their history. Zeus is the god of thunder, slayer of Kronos, brother-husband of Hera, and father of Heracles. Frigg is the wife of Odin and mother of Baldur. Horus is the falcon-headed son of Osiris and Isis, and the slayer of Set.
However, I know that in the case of many Near Eastern religions, there was never really a unified mythology, and was instead a loose collection of city cults with varying degrees of syncretism with one another. Was this ever the case too with European religions? Were there swathes of ancient Greece who had no clue who the hell the Titans were, or that Zeus and Ares were related? Did the priests of Set have a narrative for their god sans duel with Horus?
If that is the case, then when did the modern codifications develop? Was it done by outside historians compiling all the myths? One state imposing its rule (and subsequently their own interpretation of religion) upon the rest of the people? Modern historians trying to codify a confusing subject?
https://preview.redd.it/0ij4gbu8g1981.png?width=1751&format=png&auto=webp&s=4af974d9e76d734003b8a16be269e02562acc50e
ooh boy, this is gonna be controversial to be sure, but interested in seeing what world you come up with free of these absolute religious monoliths steamrolling literally every other religion out of existence
What gods roam your worlds religions and what are their functions and statuses? Iβll start with the nocturnal pantheon:
Haliant: The first god and god of the hunt and the intelligent beings.
Vistal: Goddess of the city and communication, Haliants wife
Kolviont: God of war and mountain, Son of Haliant and Vistal
Raris: Goddess of winter and ice, sister of Kolviont
Zedellys: Dragon god of the sea and the fish
Alkranias: God of fire, brother of Haliant
Zhuls: Goddess of death and the far
Zhulfralur: God of death, reptiles and insects as well as husband of Zhuls
Sillianas: Goddess of Silver and love
Kloralniar: God of cats and magic, son of Sillianas
Larmas: Goddess of rain and fertility
Zekrollon: God of shadow and metal, husband of Larmas
Konkordox: God of wood and forest, brother of Zekrollon
Nilib: God of song and art
Zhulikis: God of the forbidden and snakes, son of Zhulfralur
Fharun: Demi protector goddess of lizards, daughter of Zhulfralur
Hi everyone, I am SO EXCITED for bayo 3 like the rest of you. I just wanted to point out something that I'm not sure if anyone has noticed in the new trailer.
First thing: you can tell from the street signs that this is set in shibuya, Japan. This would be the first time that Bayonetta is not in Europe or the US (Christian countries). My theory is the enemies we are facing in Bayonetta 3 have nothing to do with Christianity, but Japan's shinto religion. Which also believes in a heaven, underworld, and earth (purgatory).
Second thing: the big bad that comes out of the sky, does not look like our usual angels or demons. And has a jade colored aura. You notice that the big bad appears to be wearing a scarf or robe that is also seen throughout shinto deities. It's called a "hagoromo" "wing robe" this allows the deities to fly back to heaven.
Third thing: when the enemies are destroyed the appear to scatter into fox or wolf looking figures. You can also see tomoe being scattered in the air. Foxes are very important symbols in shinto (inari) which are messengers to the gods of shinto. Tomoe is a shinto symbol that were also made out of carved pieces of jade. The three tomoe in a circle represents the heavens, earth, and underworld.
Anyway, just thought I'd jot down this evidence and see if anyone else was starting to notice this. Tell me what you guys think? Would it be cool to switch religions for bayo 3? I think so!
I work with a multitude of deities (Pan, Odin, Lucifer, and Dionysus) and sometimes i feel as if im being disrespectful for mixing, That being said i cant stand the confines of only working with one specific group. Is this worth worrying about or am i just over thinking?
So, I am currently looking at Tier 2 Tenets for my religion, and I have not yet found a really really good guide on these. So I thought that I would gather up the opinions and thoughts and things like that, that I have encountered on the 3 first religious choices.
Edit: ok, so I actually included ruminations on all 4 tiers. Please ignore that part of the header :-)
Regarding Pantheon:
Most threads and videos I have seen do not agree 100% on the "best" but most mention that the choices here are either short term (polytheism - faith pr. att. territory) or long term (shaman - faith per pop).
As I have not yet reached the classical era, my views are obviously a bit biased.
But looking at the suggestions and basic calculus, the polytheism seems to be the winner, unless you play a very food oriented game. If you have 2 cities, in the ancient age, it looks like you can support maybe 3-4 pop per city, giving you a maximum of 8 faith. Poly gives you 5 pr attached, and in my game I immediately attached a territiry to each city, giving me 10 faith.
When you reach the classical age, the cities may grow a bit more, but in my own game, I am also just about to add a second territory, giving me 10 faith per city. At this point my religion has spread wider, and is already supported in multiple AI civs. So the cities would have to grow very fast to overtake my initial head-start.
So basically the poly gives a head start, and only if you play very food oriented, do I think that the shaman version will be able to push back a religion. But again, I have not yet made it so far, so I am unsure how the battle will look. But from my own game, with my religion being so widespread already (just reached tier 2 in turn 40, while still in ancient era) I seriously doubt that shaman can catch up.
Regarding Tier 1 tenets:
So, this will not be a full walkthrough of all the tenets, but I will highlight some of the thoughts and ruminations that I went through.
Influence is one of the best resource, especially in the initial game. But the "influ on mountains" tenet still does not seem so good. In my game as zhou, I already had a ton of schools close to mountains, so I would guess that my game would be one of the best suited for the mountain option. I have 4 schools close to mountains (2 with 3 mountains, 1 with 2, and one with 1 equalling a total of 30 science EDIT: all right my math is lousy, this is obviously 45 science...) but the tenet "only" provides me with 17 in
... keep reading on reddit β‘I am using the Tech Stop (Industrial) Mod in case that affects the issue I'm running into.
I'm America and founded a pantheon in my capital. I conquered Arabia's capital, Mecca, after it was established as the holy city for a religion. When I capped the city, i also captured a prophet, but I could not use it to enhance the religion. I could only use it to create a holy site. Later a prophet was born in my capital, but i could not use it to establish a religion, only create a holy site. I also cannot buy missionaries in Mecca to spread that religion. So it's looking like I'm stuck religion-wise as I cant enhance or expand my religions. Not sure if this is a bug or is there a solution?
I like to play on higher difficulties and the one complain I always have is that its almost impossible to get a good religion/pantheon against the AI. I've never played with Feed the World. The only time I've managed to get religious settler was because I spawned next to the fountain of Youth.
But my last game was just ridiculous. I wanted a religion on Deity so I absolutely rushed it (Religious Project and all). I was even lucky enough to get a relic and a religious City-state at start. I still didn't get religious settler, and I barely got the last prophet.
The kicker is... some time after the last prophet was recruited Stonehenge was completed. Let that sink in. Stonehenge, a wonder whose only purpose is to rush a GP, and which the AI always prioritizes; wasn't fast enough to grab them a prophet.
To me that sounds like something's seriously messed up with how fast the AI's can get early Prophets/Pantheons on higher difficulties. It's the one mechanic I always feel is extremely lopsided on Deity.
Statues and shrines to Asherah were common, including an Asherah Pole that stood outside of the temple of Solomon. The writer(s) of what we know as the Old Testament were very pro Jehovah and anti other Gods, and included many instances of Jehovah being superior to the other Gods (Baal, El, Asherah, etc.). They wrote of tearing down the Asherah Poles and worshipping only Jehovah.
At the time Lehi left Jerusalem, it is very possible that Lehi's family would have been polytheistic and worshipped "Yahweh and his Asherah." (found on pottery dated 8th century BC). Or, if that weren't the truth, why doesn't the Book of Mormon mention the idolatry of Jews during those years? Sure, it mentions that they were wicked, but it doesn't say anything about them worshipping Asherah specifically. In fact, the Book of Mormon says very, very little about idolatry.
Babylon has Nimrod as the sun god, Semiramis is the moon goddess, Tammuz is the son of the sun god.
Any other Pantheon?
Just please give me names of the sun gods, moon goddess, and son of the sun god as well as devil version of those religions as well.
The Greeks came first and their religion is popularly written off as fictional stories. People can watch and read the stories of Hercules, Theseus and Odysseus and laugh it off as just fiction but the second you question jesus turning water into wine youβre being insensitive or going to hell. Iβm not saying the Greek pantheon was real and that Zeus actually existed but it just doesnβt make sense to me that people actively acknowledge Greek mythology but worship their own god especially when Greeks came first. At least Hercules was a chad and wasnβt crucified at 20 by weakling mortals.
for me eberron was always teased by "gods and religion work differently". i am just reading the book and have watched tons of content on youtube on this topic. the point is: what does a vassal believe really? how gnostic VS theistic are the religions?
before i get into any details: the big thing about eberron religions is the absence of gods. exactly like in real life religion is about believe (faith) only. this way a religion can have different ways of being interpreted, lived, acted out in daily life... and there can be disputes on which way of practicing a religion is the right way.
in other words every kind of believe is valid and individual basicly. some believe in the sovereign host as a philosophy, some take it more word by word and just think the gods are ghostly beings that could become classic gods if enough people worship them, some think its just a myth but pick out some bits of it that help them in their daily life. some groups do this, others that and sometimes there can be a peacefull of aggressive discussion on which group is right. many dont care at all.... and so on....
the second big thing yet is: as far as i understand religion in eberron, godly might can be found in anything.
Hardcore: the silver flame brings this concept to its peak by saying the silver flame is an "energy" that can be pulled and used to fight undead, fiends, aberrations etc. its almost like the force from star wars in a way. no god, just the connection to a power. will power if you will?
Softcore: the sovereign host says "onatar is wherever a smith is in flow of work" basicly. to me that means, a vassal understands that doing anything with conciousness, awareness, with flow, with pure dedication bears some godlyness, some religious experience. cooking a nice meal on a relaxin sunday for family and friends, focusing on the peace and love that comes with this act and acknowledging, appreciating the situation, setting and people involved in it is a religious act of boldrei. despite using personified names for these states of minds a vassal does not expect an angelic human like creature to appear when he/she lights a candle in the name of dol arrah, he/she just uses this little ritual to focus on this state of mind related to the name of worship. in contrast the devourer is a force of nature, something that can not be stopped, personafied misfortune that comes with a ship sinking in a brutal storm. not fighting this dark side of nature but embracing EVERY aspect of
... keep reading on reddit β‘Iβm a new DM working on his first original setting. I plan on giving my players a table-handout on the pantheon of the setting β the godsβ name, portfolio, cleric domains, alignment, symbol, worshippers, and general explanation/description. The gods of my setting are distant, but known, by way of clerics and paladins. But that leads me to ask this question β if I were to inform my players with all this info, whatβs left for Religion checks? If the players and inhabitants of the world know of these gods, what information is there left to find out through Religion checks?
It would be nice to have extra benefits or some RP changes in gameplay if you are devoted to a certain deity. Such as the various adventures guides state, EX. "you may receive lodging or supper from local townspeople or people along the road who support your cause." Even if it was just something minor like one more short rest perday or something just pure flavor, but each unique associated with each god to make your faith feel rewarding.
It would be cool if they included some of the older gods or less popular ones too. It seemed like they have all the main gods which are great but still they are missing some good ones.
Following the post of https://www.reddit.com/r/worldbuilding/comments/lnqkpw/a_guide_to_writing_religions/
There are so many possibilities we can learn from real world religions. Now let's see the fantasy world building part.
Apart from the names of the deities, their origin or personality, how is the practice part of your religion?
How to gain the clergy occupation? Recruited? Inherited? Elected? Selected by god or oracle? How are they educated and qualified? Personally trained? Taught in seminary? Or born with blessing?
What is the organizational structure of your religion, is it highly organized (such as Catholic Church)? If there are some form of organization, how do they get their operating resources? (Tithe? )
What's the relation between the church and kings? Do they have military power in conflict? Armored monks and temple knights, or maybe the clergies are blessed with divine power in battle?
If there are multiple gods in one pantheon (as it's common in fantasy), are the clergies serving different gods working under a single organization? Or they have independent organizations? Is there a single religious leader, or multiple leaders for different gods? How about their relations with each other?
I hear this a lot from Christians so I was wondering if you could debunk this claim? Also is the βmaking up godsβ thing Christians say about other religions because they take the golden calf story literally even though historically the whole exodus thing probably never happened?
I love Max Gladstone's 'Craft Sequence,' Gareth Hanrahan's 'Black Iron Legacy' and MiΓ©ville's 'The Scar'
All of them have weird deities and "might as well be deities."
What else is out there that gets really strange?
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