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The world of Holo was given life by Sky, god of light and life. When the world was new he breathed life into the Elder races in the continent of Itheria. Elves were born from the Great forest, Dwarfs from the Iron hills, Goblins from the Azonath swamp, Nisfelms (Primordial demons) from the fire and shadows deep within the mountains, and Frells (Yetis) from the ice in the frozen realms. All of them are able to use sorcery and wield magic at will.

Centuries later, Sky made the humans who were different from the other races. For humans are not highly attuned to magic and only rarely are able to use sorcery. But Sky has given them prayers which can grant miracles, blessings, or even curses.

But my problem here is that I don't know how to insert these gods into a religion for the other races of the land, when most races only knew about the gods from stories told orally?

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  • $\begingroup$ A religion is based on stories about the gods, memorized in a special book. In chriistian case it's the bible. You actually don't need a book, you can say every priest learns the stories from his master, but a book is for humans easier to handle. back to the stories. The stories casn be about anything. no restrictions, but for relieability try to explain sth the people don't know. like lighnings, or the creation of mountains (or the world), earthquakes... dozens of things possible. $\endgroup$
    – user55267
    Commented Dec 19, 2018 at 8:49
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    $\begingroup$ But is religion really important in making the world more realistic and in-depth? $\endgroup$
    – JustMika
    Commented Dec 19, 2018 at 8:54
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    $\begingroup$ @JustMika that's the question that only creator of the world can answer. There are worlds without any mention of religion any ones that rely on gods for the whole story. $\endgroup$
    – SZCZERZO KŁY
    Commented Dec 19, 2018 at 9:01
  • $\begingroup$ @JustMika it is useful because it makes it similar to our world. Most of us are familiar with religion, superstition, folklore, stories, myths, legends, etc. as these have accompanied humanity for the entirety of our history. It's very hard to imagine a world where people didn't have any of those and didn't try to explain the world through the (flawed) ways they had at the time. Moreover, a fictional setting can have gods present around the mortals, and so it'd be really weird to NOT have some sort of religion around them. $\endgroup$
    – VLAZ
    Commented Dec 19, 2018 at 9:03
  • $\begingroup$ Hi Mika, welcome to worldbuilding.SE! Maybe you can find some inspiration here (although, unfortunately, that question was closed) worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/q/824/42101 $\endgroup$
    – NofP
    Commented Dec 19, 2018 at 9:06

2 Answers 2

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Ask yourself questions about your religion

I was unsure if you asked about how to make a religion, or how to insert yours into your world. So I put questions about both in there :

  • How do various religions, view magic (if it exists)? Do any forbid it? Why or why not? Do any require priests/priestesses to be magicians? Do any forbid it?

  • Are there actual gods/godlike beings? If so, do they take an active role in a) the temples, churches, and religions that worship them, or b) the lives of everyday people? Why or why not? How many gods are there, and is there a hierarchy among them? Which ones are good or evil, or is this meaningless when speaking of gods?

  • How do various religions view non-believers? Foreigners? Non-humans? Which support the state/ruler/government, and which are interested mainly in ordinary people?

  • What customs surround a birth and the introduction of a new child to the family? Is the mother sequestered for some period? Is the child? Is there a formal presentation of the new child to parents, grandparents, overlord, priest, the gods? Is a feast and celebration declared, or does everyone keep a low profile to keep from attracting demons or bad luck?

  • What customs surround death and burial? Is there a special class of people (doctors, priests, funeral directors, untouchables) who deal with dead bodies? What things must be done and why (burn hair to free spirit, burn body to prevent necromancy, coins on eyes for ferryman, etc.)? Are the dead feared, revered, or ignored?

  • Is there a difference between miracles and magic? If so, how are they distinguished?

  • Is there tension, rivalry, or outright hostility between any of the actual gods? How does this affect church politics? People’s everyday lives?

  • Where does religion fit into this society? Is there a state church? Is freedom of religion the norm? Do people generally think of the temples/churches as parasites or as a useful part of society?

  • Which ethical/moral decisions are considered the province of religion, and which are not? Do the gods care how people behave? Why or why not?

  • If there are actual, demonstrable gods, what part does faith play in their worship? What are their various rites like, and why? What offerings are considered good, better, best? Are people supposed to pick one or more gods to worship and ignore the others, or does everybody officially worship everyone? How do people decide whom to worship? How do they decide which temple to be affiliated with?

  • How much of a part do various religions and philosophies play in public and private life? Are philosophers and theologians considered ivory-tower academics, or do they debate in the marketplace, like Socrates? How much influence do their theories have on the way people actually behave?

  • Are priests and philosophers full-time workers, or do they need day jobs? If they are full-time, who supports them — the congregation, a wealthy patron, the temple’s investment fund, the god they serve?

  • Why are the gods interested in people? Are they like the Greek pantheon (quarrelsome, larger-than-life humans), or are they transcendent and incomprehensible? Do the gods have limits to what they can do? To what they will do? Can the gods make mistakes?

  • How do the various temples and philosophies explain the classic “problem of evil”? Do they think bad things are always a just punishment for some transgression, a character-building exercise, the result of an evil antagonist (Satan, Loki) or just something the gods can’t prevent?

  • Do your religion have a book to refer on (like the Bible)? How complex and developed is this book?

Most of these are directly taken from https://www.sfwa.org/2009/08/fantasy-worldbuilding-questions/

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You can go with the Greek and Roman method. The gods have stories and roles to play; like fighting skill, or sexuality, or fertility, or cleverness, or a trickster, etc.

Individual citizens chose tokens for one or more of these qualities and prayed to the gods by various means. Aphrodite was the Greek goddess of love, beauty and fertility, sex was actually a worship of Aphrodite. (Unlike the Christian God, Greek gods were quite sexual.) Women intending to get pregnant might dress like her, build a small altar with a doll representing Aphrodite and light a candle and pray to her, even whilst having sex.

Ares represents the violent and physical untamed aspect of war. If you are learning the sword or grappling, put a drop of your blood on Ares altar before you enter the arena. Athena represents military strategy and generalship and she is the goddess of intelligence. If that is something you feel a need for, pray to Athena for your guidance.

Or your world could have something like little churches to visit: a building occupied by women that are the acolytes of Athena, that you can go to for advice (for a donation).

You don't have to have just one monolithic religion. Make your gods distinct, and people mix-and-match to pray to one or a few depending on their personality; in fact you might tell a lot about a person by the religious tokens they wear, showing what they find important.

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