Guide on Novels and Games - FANTASY - S&R - RELIGION SECTION

'''WARNING! ALL THE FOLLOWING TEXT TALK ABOUT A DELICATE ARGUMENT AND ARE MY ASSUMPTIONS FROM WHAT I SAW IN VARIOUS WORKS, IF YOU ARE A BELIVER AND FEEL OFFENDED BY THIS I CAN ONLY SAY SORRY, IT'S NOT SOMETHING DONE VOLUNTARILY'''

In fantasy religion is something more strong respect our reality for various reason:


 * For	us the concept of "faith" is weak respect medieval and	fantasy because with the advancement of the science we started to	explain things that in the past were considered "supernatural"	and connected to the "divine".
 * In	fantasy certain gods and goddeses grant blessings that can be	recognized by anyone and so this is a proof of their power and	presence.
 * In	fantasy there is magic and in some stories gods and goddesses don't	just count on the faith for have belivers but appear to people.

This are some of the reasons that the "faith" for gods and goddesses is strong into fantasy stories but I'm sure that there are other reasons that I'm missing and some of them will be present in the next list that is the one of the function that we normally see in novels, stories and mangas BUT before write that I need to make clear the different type of "cults" we can found, this is important for various things so don't understimate it:


 * Cult	of a true god/s and/or goddess/es, this religion is based on	faith toward a real god and/or goddess, keep in mind that depending	on how the author think the cult is possible that reject or rivarly	against one or more other cults.
 * Cult	of a fake god/s and/or goddess/es, this religion is based on	people that worship an entity that is not a god or goddess, for	example worship a powerfull dragon as it is a dragon god. I	vaguely remember that there is story where a demon were warship as	if it were a benevolent god and used the power of the beliver for	boost itself and fully resurrect, I think was a game but I don't	really remember the name or other info.
 * Cult	of a not existing god/goddess, the beliver worship something	that don't exist, can start with a random guy that use an invented	god during a crisis and when the crisis end, for a coincidence or	whatever, some people start to belive it and in the long time it	become a cult.

Now that I listed this "macro groups" I can start making the list of the function a church have normally in fantasy:


 * Spiritual,	they guide the people using the teachings gave by their god/s and/or	goddess/es.
 * Oracle/Divinization,	the church/temple take in people with this skills and use them.
 * Orphanage,	in various fantasy the church take in orphans until they become	adults, normally this happen when they reach 16 years, or are	adopted.
 * School,	in certain stories the church teach to the children how write and	read, this can happen as good deed of the one that is there.
 * Last	rights, with this I refer to a member of a church/temple	that go where a dying person is, pray for his/her soul and	eventually listen its last words and wishes.
 * Dead	Management, we usually see in fantasy that the dead are	buried but in real life not all the religions have the custom of	bury the body of the dead, certain instead burn them, in the past	there were the vikings that.
 * Birth	records, in theory the church/temple have the duty of sig	the birth in their zone noting the name of the new born, the gender,	the date and the parents but till now I'm not sure if this is done	or not simple because I always heard of noble have their own family	register and for what concern the commoners don't know nothing	because I don't remember a single story where I saw commoners go to	a church/temple and ask to sign their own child so it's possible	that something like ths don't happen or happen out of the scene.
 * Marriage,	the marriage situation is similar to the birth records, till now I	mainly saw marriage made inside churches and temples where the	couple are nobles so personally I'm not sure how work for commoners,	is possible that "big ceremonies" are held when the couple	is made by nobles while small and simple ones are held when the	couple is composed by commoners, in any way the theory say that the	church/temple note all the cerimonies it do.

A side note about the marriage... our society is basically monogamy based but in various fantasy stories poligamy is normal plus in our society, time ago divorce wasn't possible but in some works I saw that they have it but I don't know how really work there, maybe with only the annullement of the marriage but I don't really know anything else, the only thing that I saw around is the annullement of engagement between nobles where they basically sign an official document but nothing about the marriage.

A personal note, till now I used "church/temple" because it was my intention generalize the terms with the most common one, normally I saw novels use "priest" and "nun" but this don't mean that since they are between the most famous they have to be necessarely used since there are others infact in a novel I saw a religion use priest while another use shaman.

When deciding which religious title use remember the following 2 points:


 * RESPECT	THE ROLE, this is an important thing to do first because is the	right thing to do and second because don't do that can create	problems.
 * DO	GOOD RESEARCHES, if you wand to use a religious figure study in deep	what that role is and its duties so don't stop just to 2 or 3	sources that maybe say the same things and continue to look around	for other sources.

In all of this I hadn't say a word about a point... how a church/temple can stay "active" from the economic point of view... this is quite a particular topic because change based on the author but let me list the reasons... yes, I know, I'm making an infinite number of lists in this guide but it's not like I can do something about it...:


 * Donations,	churches and temples receive donations from the belivers, this	donations can be food or money, the thing is donate depend on the	economic means of the one that donate, for example merchant can give	money while farmers can give food.
 * Healers,	in some stories the only one that can use healing magic are the	members of churches and temples, this mainly come from the fact that	they are basically recruited after being discovered, in another	story I even saw that the church/temple rent the healers to the	adventurer's party.
 * Purification,	similar to the healer's situation, in some stories the ones that are	able to exorcist evil spirits are normally part of the church/temple	and for this reason they are hired for purify hunted manors and	similar things.
 * Various	works, basically the member of the church/temple do random	works earning money from them.
 * Production,	basically the church make products and then sell them for earn	money, for example in a story I saw that a church with orphans make	and sell potions using the help of the orphans too.

As final touch about religion and churches/temples I need to say that is possible that each race have it's own "race god", for example a dwarf like race can have as their main god/goddess one of fire and blacksmiths, plus is possible found cities that worship a single god/goddess like go in city X that worship only god D and go in city Y that worship goddess D.