Ideas for homebrew religious customs

[generic]

Here are some ideas from my various homebrew worlds:

The Philosophy of Noskril: Followers of this philosophy are bound by the codes of Noskril to do their best to emulate a historical hero in all ways possible. Thus, they adopt the personalities, mannerisms, clothing styles, names, and fighting techniques of ancient, legendary heroes. It is the belief of Noskrilites that there have been a certain number of truly great heroes, whose presence should bless every generation. It is principally a Human philosophy. The symbol of Noskril is a copper chain in a ring, symbolizing the sacred duty to emulate the great heroes of the past.

The Caregiver: This monotheistic Human deity preaches righteous, "holy" discrimination against Tieflings in conjuction with reverence of Aasimar. Worshipers of The Caregiver are bound, by their religion, to slay or abuse Tieflings when they encounter them. In contrast, all worshipers of The Caregiver are required to be respectful to Aasimar.

And so on...

 

[Springheel]

Lots of good ideas, thanks!

 

[Eis]

well shoot I thought this was a thread of homebrew religious costumes!

 

[Eltab]

Everybody knows the constellation of Leo the Lion - except the inheritors of what claimed to be the culture that invented agriculture; they know Leonard the Farmer. Leonard holds a sickle in one hand and guides a plow with the other. When the plow touches the horizon at dawn it is time to sow a crop. When the sickle touches the horizon at dusk it is time to reap that crop. The fruit of the crop is considered to be a delicacy and does in fact go for a high price because it will only grow under certain climate conditions. Of course, adherents of the faith that recognizes Leonard as a saint or mythic figure believe that they should tithe their crop to his priests.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Lots of good ideas, thanks!

There’s lots of creative people on ENWorld, clearly. If you give us a few sample major faiths/pantheons from your home brew for us to brainstorm on, I bet we could give you even better ideas.!

 

[gyor]

Figure out the competing cosmologies and types of deities first. Is there doing to be hard Monotheism like traditional Abrahamic religions (Christianity, Islam, Judaism), is their going to be more eminative soft polytheism boarding on soft monotheism, like traditional Neoplatonism or certain forms of Hinduism, is going to be less theistic focused, more the universe eternal/self creating like Buddhism or Jainism?

Maybe hard anthropomorphic D&D Polytheism like traditional polytheism?

Archtype Polytheism which is where the Gods are seen more as Archetypes then thinking beings?

Angelology like in Innistrad?

Demonology?

Animalism?

Pysicphysicalism?

So much to choose from.

FR I'd say is Hard Polytheism, with hard Neoplatonic, Gnostic, Hindu, Buddhist and Hermetic influences on a more subtle level, depending on region.

Personally I'd suggest looking into RW Theurgic practices for ideas.

 

[gyor]

Also think of the goals of worshippers of the religion. Is it reaching heaven safely, is it escaping the cycle of rebirth, is it simply serving nature, a better incarnations, more material earthly rewards, apthea (aviodance of pain), more social transformative utopianism, appeasement of wrathful gods, erotic communion with spirits/gods, a desire to honor ones ancestors, Henosis, Theosis, Goetia (both traditional nd modern meanings), a desire to promote a certain identity, civic service/nation building?

 

[Chaosmancer]

I just recently thought about Art in DnD (like the lack of famous artists in DnD worlds) and that ties into some religious practices.

For example, I just realized my dwarves occasionally enter a sacred fugue state while working on their artistic pieces, and that the most prized of dwarven art is that which has a TON of detail work, because the goal of dwarven work and art is to improve the world, leaving as little "blank space" as possible would be considered the best work.

Meanwhile, I've done weird things with Elf memories and realized that massive art projects (like murals that stretch entire city districts) or massively long poetry and epics would make the most sense for them. They value the moment that they can forever revisit. Their most sacred epics would be funeral dirges and the like, as I realized that tied perfectly into the origins of the pantheon I'm forming and that Correllon would have sang a stupidly long dirge that lasted a year and a day for his fallen comrades. He would also sing dirges for all elves as they pass into the afterlife.


Really, a lot of religious rites are based around an epic story. "We do this, because the Gods did something similiar in a story" so figuring out the story or directive usually puts the rites more clearly in view.