It's what this section of the forum should be for! But half the time I just see any question being put here because they don't know where else to put it. I'll be chucking more questions at your stuff by the way. And posting my own stuff. Just busy busy.
Pretty much, yeah. As girls, they are told stories about women who ran away. Those women were picked up by traffickers or held captive by the nomads and "never seen again." so it creates a fear of leaving. i'm sure (in my made up society) women have left. but from my MC's POV, no one has left or stood up to the rules, so she is othered and alone. They are taught to be good girls, grow up to be good women, be motherly, feminine, and subservient. i guess i'd say its an accepted practice there, not really questioned because its as normal as getting dressed in the morning. The story only partly takes place in that society, and things in that society eventually change as conflict arises. The MC's daughter eventually goes back to the society as an adult and is the complete opposite of what they see in a woman (a soldier, short hair, scars, prefers pants, doesn't care too much for kids, cant cook, is an organized mess) but eventually becomes a beloved and respected ruler with a following of young girls who want to be just like her.
A useful thing to remember is that religious doctrine tends to come after the practice, so it could be interesting to have it be a semi-recent development. In what way does the necromancy corrupt? Considering the religion seems highly tied to a geographic area, how do they view areas other than it?
So, as for my own thing, there were seven gods, or entities that labelled themselves gods, that more or less exist for known history: Eilthorne (God of Hunting, Beasts, and the Wilds) Volkea (Goddess of Fire, Cooking, and Crafters) Mascue (The Arts, Deceit, persuasion) Tern (Earth, Soldiers, Builders) Friyarna (Farming, Love, Prosperity) Polis (Order, War, Storms), Euroa (Faith, Loyalty, Death) They had several cities spread across the world and actually took a hand in overseeing, and from there did a lot of social structuring. Divine right of kings was an actual thing and nobility would often send requests for permission for war. However. around 200 years ago Polis got shanked during a meeting by a human dignitary, and the other gods fled. Up until this point the gods had more or less thought themselves immortal, as did everyone else, so this came as a massive suprise to everyone. The demigods tried to keep things in check, but weren't able to communicate between their specific cities, so they were left to resolve things by themselves, and some of the human king's decided that, as the gods kids were only partially divine, and they as kings were chosen by divine right, their own thoughts on how they should run things were sanctified than what the demigods said.
I guess this is where the specialisation of my races comes in. Each race has knowledge of and a degree of command over one elemental force (for dragons / FireKind it's fire, for giants / ClayBorn it's earth, for mer creatures / SeaKin its water, and for elves / AerClann it's air). No-one but the giants communicate directly with the earth. But yes, if motivated, the elves could potentially learn to understand and command earth powers via blood alchemy, and they could manipulate the earth and do harm. If Viridulan my evil Archalchemist got his hands on those ancient runes, he might cause probs. He's currently more inspired by fire. It's more dynamic and exciting. But there could be an alternative or tangental storyline in there. Yes, the earth is sentient. A form of consciousness, at differing levels of differentiation/self awareness, permeates all material reality in my world (along the lines of animism). Yes, if the earth mother got really upset, she could communicate to the giants that she was suffering and they would want to take action to heal that. In part this is exactly what happens, and why Cregg, my youngling giant, is determined and driven to seek out and learn the old lore. Ancient hidden beings, have begun stirring deep within the earth. These titans are filled with rage and destruction (there's another storyline to this, they are not the earth mother's creation). Cregg uses geomancy to help defend the aboveworld from the onslaught of their violence.
The story that really gets into the pantheon has the following set of deities. Note: In the Mythology of the world there used to be a lot more gods but a sort of war between the Mother and the Austere resulted in only the following gods remaining. The Mother-Goddess of warfare, the moon, the Harvest, justice, and fertility. The Son-God of the Hunt, solitude, precision, and trees The Daughter-Goddess of Joy, music, dance, Wine (Alcohol in general really), and love The Feral-God of Deceit, loyalty, Death, insanity, chaos, and the unknown The Wretch-God of Disease, famine, generosity, and repentance The Flayed-God of Punishment, the Home, Protection The Austere-God of Oppression The Sycophant-Goddess of Cowardice
With the gods so present in your setting's worldly affairs, I would think the priesthood would have more clout than the nobility. After all, what is mortal governance compared to divine governance? That's partly my preference talking, as the potential political/religious intrigue between the rival temples would likely interest me more than the struggles of kings and demigods.
As stated, divine right of kings was a thing, in that the original kings were more or less divinely ordained to rule based on land. A lot of the time anyone could be a priest by picking up a book and preaching. The kings actually had a "your family should do this" in their past.
Why is it a waste? Monarchacly power in our own history was justified through religious power both in Eastern Europe with their patriarch system, and every protestant monarchy. The two are largely inseparable. Not to mention that I said the demigods were still trying to hold things down, even having made their own state.
You can't compare our world's history to a world with several walking and talking gods and demigods. And I've already said why, imo, it's a waste.
In case you didn't get the memo, our world never had gods and demigods chilling out and overseeing our civilizations.
Yup. At least in Europe, post-Luther, there were some pretty insane people wandering around starting varying branches of Christianity on no more authority than they had a bible and this is what they thought it said.
Sure. But you seem okay with kings and churches, so why pick out self educated ministers as a special point of contention? Why would anyone obey a church or a king when there are gods about?
Presumably they would obey the gods first, and then the authorities who observe and interpret the will of said gods - the priesthood. At least that's how I see it. If you see it differently, that's fine. No offense though, but I can't imagine a scenario where I'd want to talk that through with you. No, you've got it all wrong. I didn't suggest they couldn't exist, I said I felt that narrative choice is a waste. And I still do. As I said earlier, with newly added special emphasis.
It seems to me that a better time/place to compare this sort of thing to, rather than the comparatively liberal west (where the divine right of kings was hotly contested from the Reformation onward), would be Ancient Mesopotamia. From what little I know about it, my understanding is that the Temples there and the priesthood had immense institutional power. I think, generally, in a world where a religious organization holds such political power, the priesthood would be a pretty formalized body reserved for the privileged of society. Wealthy noblemen would likely pay large sums to get their sons into seminary, priests would extort large temple taxes from the downtrodden and oppressed people, and would likely live in considerable luxury. Wandering zealots would probably be considered a threat to their power.
As stated, the gods are gone and, historically, the local priesthood had a tendency to side with whoever is in power in their local area. Beyond that, I think you forget that royalty was, within the European feudal system, a form of religious power. Or perhaps more accurately, power justified through religion. As for the struggles of kings and demigods not interesting you, neither side is arranged perfectly. A lot of nations think that the demi gods are right. A few demigods think that the king's might have a point. The conspirators who organised the attack that caused the gods to disappear themselves were more ideologically motived. Either way, I'm not planning for this to be an epic battle between God and evil. The largest meaningful fight in the book I have planned out is four/five against seven.
I hope you didn't think I recommended an epic battle between God (gods?) and evil. I clearly said I saw potential for interesting temple intrigue. Best of luck to your story, and thanks for sharing.
Bearing a mental illness of such a degree that one cannot tell the difference between fantasy and reality, is subject to uncontrollable impulses and behaviour, or cannot reasonably function due to their psychosis.
