The Do's and Don'ts of Writing a Story

HOW TO: Build a fantasy religion

Why create a religion for my world?

Religion is a big part of every culture that can influence the day to day  life of a large group of peoples it's important to define it if present in your world. The other thing is that it's a good way for world-building, you can define the life of people, the way cities are built and the way of thinking of the population.

Where to start?

 - Polytheist or monotheist: chaos the type of religion that fits better to your world, it's important because polytheist and monotheist religions have some differences that have relevance when you write - not only the number of gods but, for example, how gods are worshipped or how temples are built. 

 - Read about real religions: this is a good base and you are going to see a lot of aspect that you have to take count of. Reinterpret is a way of creating a new one, so you can take principles, for example.

 - Decide the characteristics of the god/s: after you have a clear idea of what you want to do, e.g. religion similar to Roman's or a mix between Egyptians and Greek gods, you have to clear some points:

1.) Is your god/s good or bad? How are they seen by humans? What are they famous for? What is their temper? Are they revengeful or forgiving? Are they feared or loved or both? If you create more gods then you can decide to make them represent something.

2.) Is your god/s in contact with humans? The relationship with humans; so if they are between humans and if humans know about it. In this case when and how do they do so. If they don't meet humans you have to decide if they communicate with them and how. 

3.) Physical appearance: if they had a physical appearance describe it or describe characteristics that the god has when in physical form. 

 -  Worship: while the points before were about the point of view of the god/s, you always have to define how the humans venerate god/s. Some points:

 * Is the whole population religious? This is important because there you can determine the relationship between who believes and who doesn't or between different religions, or say if it's imposed.

 * Relationship between religion and the state? So if religions have political power, how much power they have and if it's used for good or bad. 

 * What are the religious institutions? Is there a leader of a cult? What are the offices and how are they built? How much influence do the institutions have on the population? 

 * Where? Where is the worship? God/s temples/churches or at home?

 * How? This is probably the most important aspect but more complex too. Here you need to define how people practice their own religion, so if they only pray or if they make sacrifices. If there are rules that influence their daily life. If there are any festive events or particular rituals. If there are symbols that they worship.

  - The name. The name can be one word or more but it's better if it's not more than four because it has to be something that has an effect. It can be a word or a period that describes a fundamental principle of your religion, or something like "the belief of X". 

A thing that is always good to keep in mind is that religions tend to give a sense of belonging to believers. this can be used in a lot of ways and is important especially if your new religion has political power or a big influence on the population.