The current book I’m working on deals with the religion in the world I’ve built. Creating a religion for a fantasy is a doubled edged as uni-climate planets and universal languages. Most authors force the entire world to believe the same.
First, I settled on a one religion with many regional parts. There are countries who as a whole do not subscribe to the belief and others that take parts more serious than others. Some of this is regional and some governmental.
The first step is to ask what do these people worship and why. What do they provide? What does the infrastructure provide and why?
In a fantasy world, magic tends to interfere with religion. Whether it is part of the religion, despised by the religion or just separate comes into play. I choose to have the magic interweave with the religion, which poses its own set of problems.
How much is for the people? What isn’t for the people?
In this book, I’m using religion as a haven. The main character wants to part of it but her duties are keeping her from it. It’s about agreeing to lose something for the greater good and what drives you to that.
Every swear, ritual and myth that I work into the story goes into the file. I’m not sure it’s clear all the way through. What pertains to the story and what is relevant back-story is a puzzle that I’m trying to fit into the plot.
Belief is a tricky thing.
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