Intro
If you’re a fantasy reader—or even a reader of certain types of sci-fi—you probably know that fictional religions are very common. Which makes sense, considering that religion has been an extremely important part of a lot of real people’s lives for a very long time; it’s only natural that writers want to create something similar for their fictional worlds.
And, I’ll tell you now, religions are one of those things that can super help bring a fictional world to life. Just like in the real world, religion often serves as the heart of a culture—so, even if none of the main characters in your story are particularly religious, coming up with a religion or two can still be an important step in your worldbuilding. And, if you do have a character who’s supposed to be religious, coming up with the beliefs and practices of their religion is a must.
But religion is a very complex and varied thing, so it’s easy to be intimidated by the idea of coming up with one from scratch. Fortunately, I have some experience in the area, so I’ll walk you through how I do it for my own stories.
Creating Deities
The best place to start building a religion is with the god(s) it follows. The whole religion will be based on them and what they represent, so this will also tell me what the theme of the religion is.
But first, I have to decide whether the religion is monotheistic (has only one god) or polytheistic (has multiple gods). This decision really just depends on what I want to do and how many gods I feel like making, but I’ll share some of the stuff that I consider when I’m doing each:
Typically, monotheistic is less complex to write and might feel more relatable to most readers, given that most of the biggest modern, real-world religions are monotheistic. This single god—or energy, or whatever you want it to be—could be believed to be the creator of all things and/or the driving force behind all events. Or they could specialize in just one aspect of life that’s central to whatever culture worships them—like, if it’s a war-like culture, maybe their god is a war god, and all other aspects of life are kind of built around that. This god could also be associated with some sort of natural phenomenon that’s common where their worshippers live—for example, if this god’s followers live on a volcanic island, maybe the god is a volcano and/or fire god.
Polytheistic religions, while they do still exist in the modern world, are often associated more with ancient history—which is part of why they’re a popular choice for fantasy religions. I think that, a lot of the time, when we think of polytheistic religions, our minds automatically jump to the classic Greek, Egyptian, and Norse pantheons—which, granted, are great examples, but they can make it easy to forget that a polytheistic religion doesn’t have to include a huge pantheon. There could be as few as two gods—maybe they represent two opposing forces of life, like good and evil, or they serve as a sort of mother and father for the cosmos. Regardless of how many gods this polytheistic religion worships, I’d have to figure out what each god represents and what their role in the universe is. This is where I get things like gods of thunder, love, war, fire, mischief—just about anything I can think of. Just like with the monotheistic gods, I can try to narrow things down by thinking of things that are crucial to the cultures of those who worship them, and make gods that represent those things.
Once I know whether I’m doing a monotheistic religion or a polytheistic religion and have a general idea of what the god(s) represent, I can start to flesh them out more. This includes coming up with things like their origins, personalities, and—if applicable—appearance. (This doesn’t necessarily have to be their actual appearance; in a lot of fiction—and even actual religious texts—gods tend to take on different forms when communicating with mortals. It’s also possible that characters are only going to “see” this god through mortal-made artwork, and no one has ever actually seen them, so their “appearance” could just be what artists tend to depict them looking like.)
The origins, in particular, are likely going to be pretty important to the religion as a whole. Maybe the god or gods have just always been there, or something happened to bring them into existence. Maybe some other god or gods were in power before this current one(s), and there’s some crazy story to how they gained power. (You know, like in Greek mythology.) I really can just go wild here; look into the origins of the gods in just about any mythology you can think of, and you’ll surely see some pretty weird stuff. So I can feel free to have fun with it.
Mythology is always a great place to look for inspiration when you’re doing anything that involves creating deities. Greek, Egyptian, and Norse are always great places to start, but I encourage you to look into some of the less popularized mythologies too. Chances are, your fictional god(s) will benefit from having multiple sources of inspiration, helping them be truly unique.
Creating Religious Beliefs and Practices
Unless the god or gods are going to be active characters in the story, the biggest impact they’re probably going to have on it will be through the beliefs and practices of their followers. You know, the things that devotees do in the name of their god, and how their faith determines how they live their lives.
We’ll start with the religious beliefs. If the god is based on an ideal—something like peace, chaos, love, deceit, loyalty, etc.—it usually isn’t too tricky to figure out what the core beliefs of their followers are; they’ll just be what the god represents. But, if the god represents something like a natural phenomena or anything else more concrete, I’m probably going to have to get a little more creative. For these sorts of gods, I usually try to think of what sorts of ideals or concepts could be associated with what the god represents. Like, maybe the followers of our volcano god from earlier associate the volcano with death and destruction (when it erupts and destroys a bunch of stuff), followed by new life and beginnings (when the destruction forces them to innovate and rebuild, and the volcanic soil it leaves behind fertilizes their future crops). And this is only one possible interpretation; this is another area where I can really get creative.
If the religion is polytheistic, things could work a little differently. Its followers will probably believe in and pray to all the gods, meaning that they might not have a single god that they strive to live in accordance with. (Though it’s entirely possible that, even if they do believe in all the gods, they have one in particular that they consider “their” god, so most of their worshipping goes to them. For these, I can usually just do the same stuff I talked about earlier.) For these sorts of religions, I can try to find a common theme that connects all the gods—maybe it’s something like the cycle of life, or order vs. chaos or something like that—and have that be the driving principle behind the religion. A lot of the time, you can get away with being pretty general about it.
Once I know what the basic beliefs of the religion are, I can start thinking of religious practices and traditions that go with them. The details of these practices, of course, will depend heavily on the god or gods associated with them and what they represent, so they’ll probably be very different depending on the religion. Different gods and religions will put an emphasis on different events. For instance, religions that focus a lot on nature and the cycle of life might make a big deal out of the changing of seasons, or the births and deaths of its practitioners. On the other hand, a religion that focuses on war and battle probably wouldn’t care so much about natural processes, instead putting emphasis on events that relate to their personal values, like when children grow to warrior age or when it’s time to march on their next enemy. Again, it depends very much on the god or gods that the religion follows. (If it’s a polytheistic religion, it’ll likely be that different gods are associated with different events and practices.)
Although the exact practices and how big a deal they are will likely vary from one religion to another, pretty much all major real-world religions—whether they’re ancient or modern—have some general practices in common. All of them include things like prayer and meditation, for example, so I’d definitely want to incorporate something like that into my fictional religion. The specifics of how the practitioners do it will be what makes it unique to that religion. Maybe they only pray/meditate at specific times of day, or they have to have some sort of holy item with them when they do it. For example, in my Rise of the Oathsworn series, followers of Thymadra—the goddess of justice that the hero worships—typically pray with a weapon in hand, to serve as a sort of symbolic connection between them and their goddess. Details like this can really go a long way in making the religion feel more fleshed out.
Other practices that most major religions over the course of history tend to have are often focused on major life events and predictable seasonal phenomena. Below, I’ve listed several of these sorts of events, in case you want more examples or need some inspiration:
- Birth and death
- Coming of age
- Marriage
- The changing of seasons
- Entering a season known to bring regular natural disasters to the area
Religious Holidays and Cultural Impact
Holidays, of course, are arguably the most important religious traditions—so, if it’s possible to include them in my story, it can really help add some depth to the religion and the culture it’s a part of.
For the most part, coming up with the holiday will be about figuring out the traditions and practices that happen on that day (or days, if I want it to be a longer thing). But, before I start coming up with those things, it’ll probably help to know the reason for the holiday—which means I need to figure out what makes this particular day so important to this religion. Maybe it’s something to do with the god or gods themselves, like the day they’re said to have created everything or a day when they’re supposed to visit the mortal realm. Or it could be the day when an important priest or prophet was born, or the day that said priest or prophet did whatever they’re famous for. Really, just any big religious event. Then I’ll base the things that the faithful do on that day on whatever the event is, and boom, I’ve got a holiday!
And holidays lead us directly into the cultural impact of the religion. Because, if a religion is the dominant one in a given area or country, it will probably affect everyone in that region, whether they’re practitioners of the religion or not. These effects could be either negative or positive. A negative example would be if the practitioners try to force everyone to join their religion and kill everyone who refuses. A positive example could be…well, something like a holiday. Here in the U.S., for example, there’s an increasing number of people who celebrate Christmas who aren’t technically Christian; agnostics and even atheists celebrate the holiday too, either because it’s one of their family traditions or just because it’s fun. And, even if a person doesn’t celebrate the holiday, they’ll almost certainly be touched by it in some way, whether it’s through seeing window displays at shops or knowing to navigate around a parade route.
Of course, there are other ways that religion can affect a culture as a whole, aside from just holidays. Maybe the calendar that everyone uses is based on religion, or there are common sayings and curses that come from it. Really, the historically-most-prevalent religion in a region can affect all sorts of things that we don’t usually pay much attention to, so the possibilities are just about endless.
Outro
That’s all for today’s post. I hope you found this interesting, and that I’ve given you ideas for your own fictional religions. As always, thanks for reading!
