WorldEmber 2025: Faith

Recently, I have been considering the faith of my world. I always recognised it to be a major background influence that dictates the behaviour of my characters and informs their decisions, and that, just like our real world, is entrenched in their language. There is the basic understanding, but it is not yet fully realised, and I've left it aside quite deliberately this year so it could become the basis of my WorldEmber.

Let's Pledge!

I originally pledged to do 25k, but life started to get in the way, and now I'm looking at my work load, at my family, and thinking I just want a nice Christmas, and not saying sorry but I've got to write tonight. It's important to be honest. And honestly, where my head is right this second, 10K seems like a scary enough number. But I'm hoping/ imagining I will do more.

The content tree chart at the bottom of this article will give you the full extent of my madness. My goal is to create a believable, tangible religion, with details on rituals, language, behaviours etc that I can thread through my story, effortlessly (minus the effort that will take place here). I don't think I can write about all 12 angels in my world, so I will focus on the key ones, the ones which are most important to my story.

• Brevus
  • Mala works in the Temple of Brevus, and his teachings dictate the life Mala leads
• Lucian
  • The 'creator' of the Ananan people. He's a tricky angel because he's revered and hated
• Larimus
  • Lucian's twin sister, and the creator of all humankind

If I can cover these three at least, I'll be a happy bunny

Bingo!

So I decided to go straight through the middle

Stubs

There are a few articles here that are not stubs, for example Angels, which I wrote for the mini competition, Aliens vs Elves, and Angel Cakes and Clergy which I wrote for Summercamp 2025. There are also some that I started writing, but my ideas are now outdated. Everything else would be written fresh. All articles that I have identified can be found in this chart:

So what is Cosmos?

In Cosmos, there are 12 angels. Each angel has a month named after them, and their own temple within the religion. Some angels have certain ceremonies attached, such as Larimus has weddings, and Lucian has funerals, and each angel has a dedicated set of followers. Most towns have a temple, or two dedicated to one angel, whereas cities have minsters that are dedicated to all twelve. Everyone, every Sunday, must attend the temple, and if they are away, they must temporarily register at the temple they will visit or they will be fined.

The primary belief is that the angels are the ultimate designers, and remain the designers. Everyone, and every facet of their being, is designed by the angels. Look, health, intelligence, creativity, luck, etc, is all there by design, and to maintain the design, it is only socially permissible to have relations (in their view) with those who share the same class, language, or financial situation. Unsurprisingly, my book focuses a lot on those who defy this expectation, but for everyone else, Cosmos defines their culture, values, and awkwardness in having non-sanctified relationships.

This project is big, but it is important.