Religion Mega Thread
Jul 5, 2021 7:40:58 GMT -6
Post by Caulder Melhaire on Jul 5, 2021 7:40:58 GMT -6
We recently wrapped up the latest IW Workshop, in which we took a religious/spiritual system from our writings and tore it to pieces on an altar of questions. What makes our gods/goddesses/deities tick? How do our people worship, and where? What IS sacred, and why are other things less so? What do people in the real world find sacred? What happens after that final voyage, where the grey rain-curtain of the world rolls back and all turns to silver glass?
Through it all we compiled a large list of resources that can be used to dig into your fictional religion and flesh it out as much as possible. Or, maybe you're just curious about where religions originate and how cultures come up with myths and folklore. Either way, there's some good stuff in here about life, death, and the worship between.
On the subject of the General Character of Religion
The Religious Literary Primer - This is a field primer for emergency relief agents. The goal is to provide a sense of religious literacy for agents, not only so that they better understand how to assist communities during a crisis, but also how these communities can be best integrated into relief efforts. For our purposes, it provides a nice amount of detail on the major religions, while also including information on indigenous faiths.
Limyaael’s Rant #26: Religions - An interesting, albeit sometimes salty, take on the common pitfalls of fictional religious systems. Mentions some good ways to consider adding depth, and the importance of making sure those rituals aren't just snatched from real life and implanted without any logical meaning to your world.
Limyaael’s Rant #68: Gods - See above, except this time with relation to the deities of your world. Has some interesting notes on adding more depth and diversity to your pantheon.
Creating Religious and Belief Systems - A short blog entry with some good general questions to consider when building a religion. How many boxes can you tick?
On the subject of Places of Worship
Sacred Spaces and Sacred Places: This is a quite massive text, at 103 pages. However, check out the table of contents to find what specifically you want to know, including several sections on not only what constitutes a Sacred Space for a vast number of cultures (including Indigenous folk) but also information on the symbolism practitioners may find within. Overall, the idea of this book was to provide an overview of (non)architectural definitions of sacredness and sacred space.
What is a Sacred Site?: Put together by the Sacred Land Film Project, this brief site article discusses what may constitute a Sacred Site to the Native American peoples.
Fantasy Guide to Architecture: This is a tumblr article that looks at a basic guide to architecture. Talks about your most common materials, along with some basic architectural terms and style guides for a variety of cultures including African, Chinese, and Indian. Briefly covers trends in architecture from the 6th- 19th centuries.
Designing for places of worship: An architect's guide: This is a quick article, but pay close attention to the little references here and there to how these buildings emulate a modern interpretation of their respective religions.
Architecture for Worship: Re-Thinking Sacred Space in the Contemporary United States of America: That was quite a mouthful for such a short article, but I found some interesting information about the key features that make up the houses of worship for the Big Three.
Sacred and Tradition: Spaces for Internal and External Reflection: This is a thesis submitted by one Tahmina Orfan, an architectural student at Calgary. Personally, this is one of the most fascinating things I've ever seen. It's a full-fledged mockup of a place of worship for Sufism, with a special focus on integrating light into the sacred space.
On the subject of the Clergy
Religious Questions pt. 2: Another rant from Limyaael. The first three sections (5, 6, and 7) contain some information related to this chunk of the questionnaire. (Skip number 8, unless you want to get the gears turning ahead of time for our final discussion topic)
Ethics and Religion Talk: What is the role of clergy? : A brief Q&A from several different religious leaders detailing what it means to be "clergy" in their culture.
Inside the life of a Voodoo Priestess: Let's talk about the sorely misunderstood practices of Voodoo. In this short documentary, Katy discuses her role as a Vodou manbo, and how she brings spiritual healing to the people of Haiti.
Addressing Religious Leaders: An interesting guide to addressing spiritual leaders for a multitude of religions. How do people address your clergy members?
On the subject of Superstitions and Death
The Mythology of Afterlife Beliefs and Their Impact on Religious Conflict, Part 1: Interesting article on different afterlifes (lives?) in religious culture and what happens to a soul when it crosses into them.
7 Unique Burial Rituals Across the World/ 9 Myths and Beliefs About Death In Cultures from Around the World: Articles describing some interesting thoughts on death from a variety of cultures.
Cultures and Grief: Great page to learn about different cultural responses to death, along with religious observations for the departed (funerals, wakes, food, rituals, etc).
Worldbuilding: Creating Superstitions: A blog entry detailing some interesting sources of superstitions to consider. Do any of these apply in your world? Could they?
Superstition Generator: Have some fun with this portion and generate a few random superstitions for your world (or just your amusement).
From Here to Eternity: Travelling the World to Find the Good Death: This is a fantastic book by Caitlin Doughty, I cannot recommend it enough. In it, she travels the world to look at a multitude of funerary customs, and what it means for different cultures to "honor the dead." She is also one of several behind the Order of the Good Death, a group devoted to breaking down the barriers that we as a culture have put up between ourselves and our dearly departed, and moving us closer towards a culture of 'death positivity'. Her Ask A Mortician channel consistently posts videos on demystifying the funeral industry, strange death rituals, and iconic corpses through history. (Not sponsored, I promise LOL. I just love her work)
Hallucinatory Near-Death Experiences: Though the intent is to question the legitimacy of Near-Death Experiences (NDEs), this article discussesthe differencesin NDEs as experienced by cultures acrossthe world. If this link doesn't take you directly to it, check out the "Cultural Differences" link in the essay's TOC for the more relevant portion. What might an NDE look like in your world?[Thanks to Scintilla for providing this link!]
Through it all we compiled a large list of resources that can be used to dig into your fictional religion and flesh it out as much as possible. Or, maybe you're just curious about where religions originate and how cultures come up with myths and folklore. Either way, there's some good stuff in here about life, death, and the worship between.
On the subject of the General Character of Religion
The Religious Literary Primer - This is a field primer for emergency relief agents. The goal is to provide a sense of religious literacy for agents, not only so that they better understand how to assist communities during a crisis, but also how these communities can be best integrated into relief efforts. For our purposes, it provides a nice amount of detail on the major religions, while also including information on indigenous faiths.
Limyaael’s Rant #26: Religions - An interesting, albeit sometimes salty, take on the common pitfalls of fictional religious systems. Mentions some good ways to consider adding depth, and the importance of making sure those rituals aren't just snatched from real life and implanted without any logical meaning to your world.
Limyaael’s Rant #68: Gods - See above, except this time with relation to the deities of your world. Has some interesting notes on adding more depth and diversity to your pantheon.
Creating Religious and Belief Systems - A short blog entry with some good general questions to consider when building a religion. How many boxes can you tick?
On the subject of Places of Worship
Sacred Spaces and Sacred Places: This is a quite massive text, at 103 pages. However, check out the table of contents to find what specifically you want to know, including several sections on not only what constitutes a Sacred Space for a vast number of cultures (including Indigenous folk) but also information on the symbolism practitioners may find within. Overall, the idea of this book was to provide an overview of (non)architectural definitions of sacredness and sacred space.
What is a Sacred Site?: Put together by the Sacred Land Film Project, this brief site article discusses what may constitute a Sacred Site to the Native American peoples.
Fantasy Guide to Architecture: This is a tumblr article that looks at a basic guide to architecture. Talks about your most common materials, along with some basic architectural terms and style guides for a variety of cultures including African, Chinese, and Indian. Briefly covers trends in architecture from the 6th- 19th centuries.
Designing for places of worship: An architect's guide: This is a quick article, but pay close attention to the little references here and there to how these buildings emulate a modern interpretation of their respective religions.
Architecture for Worship: Re-Thinking Sacred Space in the Contemporary United States of America: That was quite a mouthful for such a short article, but I found some interesting information about the key features that make up the houses of worship for the Big Three.
Sacred and Tradition: Spaces for Internal and External Reflection: This is a thesis submitted by one Tahmina Orfan, an architectural student at Calgary. Personally, this is one of the most fascinating things I've ever seen. It's a full-fledged mockup of a place of worship for Sufism, with a special focus on integrating light into the sacred space.
On the subject of the Clergy
Religious Questions pt. 2: Another rant from Limyaael. The first three sections (5, 6, and 7) contain some information related to this chunk of the questionnaire. (Skip number 8, unless you want to get the gears turning ahead of time for our final discussion topic)
Ethics and Religion Talk: What is the role of clergy? : A brief Q&A from several different religious leaders detailing what it means to be "clergy" in their culture.
Inside the life of a Voodoo Priestess: Let's talk about the sorely misunderstood practices of Voodoo. In this short documentary, Katy discuses her role as a Vodou manbo, and how she brings spiritual healing to the people of Haiti.
Addressing Religious Leaders: An interesting guide to addressing spiritual leaders for a multitude of religions. How do people address your clergy members?
On the subject of Superstitions and Death
The Mythology of Afterlife Beliefs and Their Impact on Religious Conflict, Part 1: Interesting article on different afterlifes (lives?) in religious culture and what happens to a soul when it crosses into them.
7 Unique Burial Rituals Across the World/ 9 Myths and Beliefs About Death In Cultures from Around the World: Articles describing some interesting thoughts on death from a variety of cultures.
Cultures and Grief: Great page to learn about different cultural responses to death, along with religious observations for the departed (funerals, wakes, food, rituals, etc).
Worldbuilding: Creating Superstitions: A blog entry detailing some interesting sources of superstitions to consider. Do any of these apply in your world? Could they?
Superstition Generator: Have some fun with this portion and generate a few random superstitions for your world (or just your amusement).
From Here to Eternity: Travelling the World to Find the Good Death: This is a fantastic book by Caitlin Doughty, I cannot recommend it enough. In it, she travels the world to look at a multitude of funerary customs, and what it means for different cultures to "honor the dead." She is also one of several behind the Order of the Good Death, a group devoted to breaking down the barriers that we as a culture have put up between ourselves and our dearly departed, and moving us closer towards a culture of 'death positivity'. Her Ask A Mortician channel consistently posts videos on demystifying the funeral industry, strange death rituals, and iconic corpses through history. (Not sponsored, I promise LOL. I just love her work)
Hallucinatory Near-Death Experiences: Though the intent is to question the legitimacy of Near-Death Experiences (NDEs), this article discussesthe differencesin NDEs as experienced by cultures acrossthe world. If this link doesn't take you directly to it, check out the "Cultural Differences" link in the essay's TOC for the more relevant portion. What might an NDE look like in your world?[Thanks to Scintilla for providing this link!]
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