Oddities of religion
Oddities of religionby Yurix---------------------I was reading through a click-post on old sects that were rejected by early Christians, and it got me thinking about the idea of the Goddess in "The Worldmenders' Saga". Here is a list of those sects:- Arianism: created by Arius. Believed that Jesus was inferior to YHVH. - Adoptianism: created in the 2nd century, promoted by Elipandus in the 7th. Believed that Jesus was a human born without any divine essence and was "adopted by God" after being baptised without sins.- Novatianism: Believed that those who relinquished their faith were forever barred from the Christian Church. - Docetism: That Jesus Christ had no corporeal form, that the "mortal flesh" could be corrupted, and thus Jesus could not be corrupted. - Donatism: Donatists argued that Christian clergy must be faultless for their ministry to be effective and their prayers and sacraments to be valid.- Encratism: Hippolytus of Rome refers to them as "acknowledging what concerns God and Christ in like manner with the Church; in respect, however, of their mode of life, passing their days inflated with pride"; "abstaining from animal food, being water-drinkers and forbidding to marry"; "estimated Cynics rather than Christians".- Catharism: The idea of two Gods: one Good (based on the New Testament), one Evil (based on the Old Testament). Cathars believed human spirits were the sexless spirits of angels trapped in the material realm of the evil god, destined to be reincarnated until they achieved salvation through the consolamentum, a form of baptism performed when death is imminent, when they would return to the good God as "Perfect".- Bogomilism: Believed that God had two sons: Michael and Satan. Satan rebeled, traveled to Earth and created the human body and the Material World, while Michael created the human soul. They did not use the Christian cross, nor build churches, as they revered their gifted form and considered their body to be the temple. This gave rise to many forms of practice to cleanse oneself through purging, fasting, celebrating and dancing.- Cainites: Venerated Cain as the first victim of the Demiurge, the deity of the Old Testament, who was identified by many groups of Gnostics as evil. Also believed that Judas did not betray Jesus, but actually followed his orders. I decided to skip a few, as some were a bit too... crazy.- One group had the gruesome practice of ingesting their own blood and sexual fluids;- One believed that the Second Coming of Christ was imminent and enforced martyrism and ascetism;- One believed that God was never the Father of Jesus, with the latter having never been a human being in the first place;- One believed that the snake that tempted Adam and Eve was actually "the true hero" of the story, as God wanted to create them without an actual conscience;- Some had mixed beliefs: Numerology, Libertinism, Reincarnation, belief in a Prime Being that was androgynous...I also remember of a practice regarding judgment in a Cadfael story. Essentially, two priests would randomly open the Bible at a certain page, read a passage, then use their interpretation of the situation and what they read to figure if the person was innocent or guilty or whatever they were accused.I honestly feel like the three main factions of "The Worldmenders' Saga" - the Acolytes, the Outcriers and the Defiants - could actually have some inspiration from those discarded religious ideas.A lot of things I noticed from religions were:1- That their narration was centered around one person that the believed was of divine natured or touched by it;2- That every action and word is studied in and out of context to figure what was said and/or done and why;3- That many of their traits were overly amplified to make them better than those around them;4- That their devotion or specific practices are "passed down" as religious activities.So, it got me wondering: what could each faction's own beliefs be like?Story-wise, there are a trio of important figures:- Karyana, seen as the Goddess by the Acolytes;- Merit, which the Outcriers worship as the 'Divine One'; and- The Anarch, which partially inspired the practices of the Defiants.It honestly feels like the basic line boils down to the question: "Who created Sherad?" However, I feel like each faction could have their own sets of beliefs and practices that differ from one another.My first depiction of the Acolytes were more akin to the classic medieval Monks, while the Acolytes were loosely based on the modern interpretation of the "holy warriors" (Crusaders, Djihad, etc.). And since theunholyborn basically has the entire Defiant section covered, I would leave it to him.However, I think that there should be more than that. If we look at Karyana's story and some past religious practices, there would be quite a few clashes:- Many religions ban alcohol and red meat;- Some important religious movements see women as inferior to men;- Some also ban all priests of being wed or in relationships;- And as noted above, many did not believe that Jesus Christ was ever a mortal, or in some cases 'divine'.I feel like this would be an interesting way to build up the world's setting. Let's see what pops up.
YurixTheWanderer
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