Religion

"
Dracula: I was called here by, huuuuumans, who wish to pay me tribute!
Richter Belmont: Tribute?! You steal men's souls! And make them your slaves!
Dracula: Perhaps the same could be said of all religions. "

– An excerpt from the infamous exchange in Castlevania: SotN.

Because it's important to several settings and RPG systems, we have a religion article. Let's try and keep it focused on the directly-related-to-/tg/ stuff and not descend into the pure skub that can arise in discussions of real-life religions, okay?

Definition of Religion

Almost since the inception of the term, scholars have failed to agree on a definition of religion. While there are some belief systems that always count as religions, some have applied the term to various things such as political ideologies, or groups when they reach a certain point. There are however two general definition systems: the sociological/functional and the phenomenological/philosophical.

The two most widely accepted are:

• "a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say things set apart and forbidden - beliefs and practices which unite into one single moral community called a church, all those who adhere to them."
• "a comprehensive worldview or 'metaphysical moral vision' that is accepted as binding because it is held to be in itself basically true and just even if all dimensions of it cannot be either fully confirmed or refuted".

As stated before, one common element that every religion which fits the criteria has is humanity's relation to supernatural forces, as all of them have at least one god and/or an afterlife even where there are exceptions; Buddhism doesn't have any gods but has afterlives, and Taoism doesn't have an afterlife but does have a pantheistic concept of a god as a supernatural force.

Like other terms for heavily debated subjects, religion and religious have also been used as insults or Snarl Words in social and political discussions (especially from the 20th century and onwards) to ridicule groups openly promoting something the user disagrees with. This snarl creates a caricature of the group to smear them by association with the worst excesses of real-world religious people or the most common criticisms/negative stereotypes of organized religion (like being too preachy, judgmental, irrational, hypocritical, or pressuring everyone to convert).

Religion vs. Mythology

While mythologies aren't religions in and of themselves, every religion has a mythology. These involve several criteria such as how life should be lived, what happens to a person after death and relation to the supernatural. Whatever the source, the mythology almost always predates the religion. As a result, especially since the Fantasy genre deals in supernatural beings and forces, most if not all fantasy settings have religions. Science fiction does to a lesser degree, mostly because during the Golden Age of sci-fi empiricists and secular humanists were attracted to the genre and their views often seeped into their stories. Despite this, given that most real-life societies have had religions playing a role in or since their founding, religions are still found in sci-fi.

Religions involves belief systems and practices, where an adherent can call upon the power/being the religion is focused on to give them aid in various ways, depending at the very least on the religion and the task in question. Given that religions are about people's place in the world, how it was made, ideas on how life should be lived and what happens after death, they have major implications for societies. Given that people can become dangerously single-minded about a cause, people can be become extremists about their religion, regardless of the fact that some are more benevolent than others and in numerous cases even if it involves going against the religion's teachings; in conjunction with the above this means religious conflicts can become widespread, long-lasting, cause carnage and also involve other elements such as politics.

How this impacts /tg/

A few major ways:

• A lot of Fantasy settings are ordinary politheistic, usually close to some admixture of Norse and Greek mythologies. Some of them also have a Top God - one more powerful than all the others and maybe the in-universe creator of everything - who is mostly hands-off in cosmic affairs. The gods of these religions tend to focus on specific areas (gods of Justice and Nature are common, for subtly obvious reasons) and frequently want their followers to propagate or promote these things.
• There are quite a few writers of Science Fiction and Fantasy that are of the opinion "Religion Is Bad", albeit this is more common in Sci-Fi than fantasy. As a result those writers model their fictional religions on the - occasionally exaggerated - worst excesses of real world religious people and lift imagery from those religions; popular targets are Christianity, Islam, Scientology or the Aztec. This also comes in flavors of either "The Gods Don't Exist", "The Gods are Incompetent" (more on that below) or "The Gods are all Evil".
• There are also quite a few sincerely religious Science Fiction and Fantasy writers (usually Christian, but not always). These authors usually put more thought into their fictional religion plus its central figure (although they have a tendency to go all "Crystal Dragon Jesus"), and try and have it be at least a somewhat good influence, although religious institutions and leaders are usually hit-and-miss affairs.
  • If a work has multiple writers, (as frequently happens with RPG and Wargame settings, and quite a few popular SciFi/Fantasy ones as well) there's a tendency for the writer to try and pull the setting into one of the other two depending on their views. This leads to the theme changing from one side to the other as the story progresses (such as Warcraft's Light vs Void conflict), or swinging back and forth between them.
  • Doing the "The Gods are Incompetent" thing (the similar but different "The Gods are Insane" route also falls under this umbrella) can go into any of the three; in a sincere monotheist's (such as Christian) work, it can be a "Take That" to polytheistic religions; in a "Religion is Bad" athiest's, it can be one to religion in general; in a Buddhist-influenced work, it can be a part of the whole "even the Gods are tied up in the Wheel of Karma" concept; and, even if the author is not pushing any religious message in any way, there's a neutral, plot-structural reason to go "Incompetent Gods": it can make the adventurers the Most Competent People Available.
• Urban Fantasy writers are a special case, since almost all Urban Fantasy is set in something that might be called "the real world with a twist", with all the usual political trouble that implies. Usually, they take one of two routes. The first is "there are many possible explanations" and vague things up as much as possible (Faith being the power that repels Vampires rather than than a cross having any actual connection to a deity is a popular one). The second is atheistic and/or "Religion is Bad" propaganda (which is uncommon outside Cosmic Horror, but not unheard of). Some Urban Fantasy works with a clear correct religion exist thanks to the above mentioned sincerely religious authors exist. Typically these are barely veiled proselytizing or just straight up terrible, though there are some good ones.

Further, note the "Religion is Bad" and "Religion is Good" brigades will be involved in arguments over the relative morality or "goodness" of various factions and the accuracy of any messages a writer presents.

Examples of /tg/ connected fictional religions

• The Imperial Truth/Cult in Warhammer 40,000 manages to mix features of atheism, Catholicism, and generic fanaticism and xenophobia. Religiosity is mostly explored with humans and no real religions are used (since the Emperor violently purged them and those who followed them - except for maybe one Catholic Perpetual, and that's before Chaos entered the picture...). As for the other major factions;
  • All Greenskins worship Gork and Mork (jury's out on whether the Gretchin Revolutionary Committee do), but are too disorganized to have anything like a formal religion, though they do make effigies of Gork and Mork and call on them.
  • The T'au creed "The Greater Good" is a philosophy that allows religiosity as long as it doesn't clash with the Greater Good.
  • The Eldar Pantheon's religious practices aren't fleshed out save for those of Cegorach and Khaine, via the Harlequins and Aspect Warriors. Apart form these two, with most of their gods out of commission, most Eldar religious worship is of a deistic bent. As for the Ynnari, they have yet to establish teachings or rituals. As for the rest of the Eldar race, the Corsairs are all over the place, the Dark Eldar are selfishly irreligious for the most part (the popular exception are the Incubi who appear to hold Khaine in some high regard) and there's rumors of Chaos Eldar.
  • While the Necrontyr had religions before certain star entities roboticizied them, those aren't fleshed out or detailed. Its also heavily implied the C'tan co-opted the Necrontyr religion beforehand, with the change to Necrons taking the higher though processes of most of them. Any Necrons with any comprehension of faith and religiosity either worship the C'tan or have become irreligious.
  • Tyranids have some concept of religiosity, as seen with propagating Genestealer cults and the Deathleaper understanding the concept of martyrdom, but otherwise display no interest or regard for anything other than their all-consuming extra-galactic hunger.
• Among Dungeons and Dragons settings, Planescape, Eberron, and Pathfinder are notable for having some coherent things that could be called "Religions", rather then the usual generic Pantheism.
  • Most of Planescape's Factions effectively count as religions, to the point they can produce Clerics (Atheist ones at that). Yes, even the Athar. (Perhaps especially the Athar.)
  • Half of Eberron's religions aren't worship of deities. The Blood of Vol seeks to unlock the divinity within one's self and rejects the gods (if they even exist) and the Path of Inspiration seeks to improve their next reincarnation. The Undying Court worships not gods but their undead ancestors that make up their government. The Path of Light, Becoming God and Reforged all seek to create a deity. Even some interpretations of the Sovereign Host, like the one most common among dragons, don't worship them as deities. Due to the way divine casting works in Eberron, all of these can produce divine casters.
  • There's a handful of religions on Golarion that aren't merely worship of pantheons. The most prominent (read: Actually has mechanical support) is the Prophecies of Kalistrade, which is basically fantasy Ferengi.
• D20 Modern's Urban Arcana, unusually for urban fantasy, has D&D deities bleed into reality alongside the monsters. You are still able to play a cleric "acolyte" of any real world deity despite this.
• Star Wars is inconsistent on if the The Force is a religion. The Jedi and the Sith could both be considered religions as they are considered monastic, but mix in several other traits such as being meritocratic (Jedi) and kraterocratic (Sith) and Lucas himself has axed at least one prototyped book for portraying them too much as a religion. It's also notable that the Sith were former Jedi who left the Jedi path for several reasons including disagreements over the teachings of that creed. Aside from that, religion is nearly always a non-human tradition, something noted in a culture's historical background and never seen implying its extinction, or a scam. The religiously linked "damn" and "hell" are the two real world swear words that exist in-universe, purely because Han Solo used them in the films, and some concept of an "angel" exists because a young Anakin told Padme about them in the prequel trilogy films.
  • There are rare exceptions where a religion is fleshed out and explored, and the writing goes various directions for better or worse. A notable example is the aggressive polytheistic religion of the antagonistic Yuuzhan Vong from the EU (which the story gradually revealed was long ago perverted from benevolent roots).
• Very large books could be written about religion and World of Darkness/Chronicles of Darkness. We'll just cover a few highlights:
  • From Vampire: The Requiem, there's the the Lancea et Sanctum, which might be best described as "Christianity for Vampires", and the Circle of the Crone, which is "Pagan Vampires". Both have Vampire miracles on tap (pun intended).
  • Hunter: The Vigil has various religious organizations among the Compacts and Conspiracies.
  • Mage: The Ascension has various religious Traditions, portrayed in that highly-stereotypical and highly-depending-on-the-author way typical of old WoD.

See also

• Mythology