Religious Template
This is a proposal for templates for summarized data and as longer papers on all divine entities and religions etc. Not all fields are applicable on each entity/religion.
It is largely based on ideas by Andy Gibson and Peter Brink.
Comments invited on content and organization and whatever you can come up with. It's not fixed yet...
Note: Substantial revision of this document and the included templates is likely in the near future - Trotsky
Gods and other Divine Entities
Fields
[NAME]
[DESCRIPTION]
[ATTRIBUTES]
[STATUS]
[SERVES]
[NOTES]
[REFERENCES]
Explanation
- [NAME]
- The name of the God or whatever it is. E.g. Agrik.
- [DESCRIPTION]
- A short explanation. E.g. Evil God of War and Fire.
- [ATTRIBUTES]
- Lady of Paladins, Shieldmaiden of the worthy cause etc. (I'm no longer referring to Agrik :-)
- [STATUS]
- One of:
-
- FG
- First God - Those strange beings noone prays too.
- LG
- Lesser God - The 10 and others.
- DG
- Demigods - The centaur in ISOP I for instance. Mermael.
- DS
- Demonic Servants - Klyss is a nice example here?
- ST
- Saint.
- LE
- Lesser Entity. Pradeyalkri? (Or are they DG?)
- ??
- Unknown / Doesn't fit in any other status.
- [SERVES]
- Whom this entity serves. (If any.) Mermael serves Peoni for instance.
- [NOTES]
- Something else we want to convey.
- [REFERENCES]
- Where info of this entity can be found. GoH etc.
This template is mainly useful for summaries.
Other possible parameters: [Appearence], [Goals], [Likes], [Dislikes], [Attitutes towards Gods], [Attitudes towards People], [Powers].
Hm, maybe a bit too D&Dish? But I think it could be valuable for us to at least think a bit about some of these issues. What makes Larani or Morgath tick, what is her/his goal in 'life'? What is Haleas attitude towards Sarajin? What does Ilvir really think about his human followers? Does he prefer Vlasta? What does he think about followers of Larani?
Religions/Faiths
Fields
[NAME]
[DEVELOPMENT]
[IDEAS AND MORAL]
[Faith]
[Holy and Taboo]
[Ethics/Commandments]
[Sin/Punishment]
[Death/Afterlife]
[MYTHS]
[Heroes]
[Legends]
[Holy Books]
[COMMUNITY]
[Churches]
[Orders]
[Offices]
[Politics]
[Common Adherents]
[Moral of Adherents]
[Language]
[Script]
[Conflicts/Schisms]
[CULT]
[Service Features]
[Prayers/Songs]
[Offering/Sacrifice]
[Rituals]
[Invocations I]
[Invocations II]
[Invocations III]
[Invocations IV]
[Invocations V]
[Invocations VI]
[Invocations VII]
[Symbols]
[Artefacts]
[Instruments]
[Animal]
[REFERENCES]
Explanation
- [NAME]
- Name of the God in question.
- [DEVELOPMENT]
- How did this religion evolve?
- [IDEAS AND MORAL]
- What do the followers believe in? See below:
-
- [Faith]
- How is the God viewed? Do the followers believe in other gods too? Etc...
- Holy and Taboo]
- What is holy? What is forbidden?
- [Ethics/Commandments]
- What is right? What is wrong? How should you behave?
- [Sin/Punishment]
- How is bad behaviour handled.
- [Death/Afterlife]
- What do they think happens after this life?
- [MYTHS]
- What is said/written to inspire the followers? See below:
-
- [Heroes]
- Saints, martyrs.
- [Legends]
- Morally upbuilding stories etc.
- [Holy Books]
- Bibles, kinda..
- [COMMUNITY]
- How is the faith organized? See below:
-
- [Churches]
- Clerical orders.
- [Orders]
- Fighting orders.
- [Offices]
- Bureaucracy
- [Politics]
- Involvement in mundane affairs.
- [Common Adherents]
- Who is the normal believer?
- [Moral of Adherents]
- As per HM.
- [Language]
- What language is used by clerics.
- [Script]
- What script is used in Holy books etc.
- [Conflicts/Schisms]
- Intrigues in the organization.
- [CULT]
- What are they really doing in the temple? See below:
-
- [Service Features]
- What are the common activities at mass?
- [Prayers/Songs]
- Well ya know... What they sing and say again and again...
- [Offering/Sacrifice]
- Purpose and content of offering/sacrifice.
- [Rituals]
- Common lay services and restricted rites. Initiation rites, Religious drama, Divination, Singing and Dancing.
- [Invocations I]
- As per HM + new stuff.
- [Invocations II]
- As per HM + new stuff.
- [Invocations III]
- As per HM + new stuff.
- [Invocations IV]
- As per HM + new stuff.
- [Invocations V]
- As per HM + new stuff.
- [Invocations VI]
- As per HM + new stuff.
- [Invocations VII]
- As per HM + new stuff.
- [Symbols]
- Important symbols: Swords, Octagons, Lanterns...
- [Artefacts]
- Objects connected with cult/god.
- [Instruments]
- Preferred Musical instuments.
- [Animal]
- Animals connected with cult/god.
- [REFERENCES]
- Where is there information to be found on this religion?
This template is in contrast to the first probably more useful for longer papers.
Books
Fields
[TYPE]
[AUTHOR]
[TITLE]
[SUBJECT]
[LANGUAGE]
[SCRIPT]
[ORIGIN]
[DATE]
[COPIES]
[NOTE]
[REFERENCES]
Explanation
This is almost exactly the template I used in the Hârnic
Booklist, so that serves as an explanation in it self.
-
[TYPE]
-
is 'Religious' in this case, and
-
[REFERENCES]
- Is a new field for telling us where references to this book can be found. I have that in the other templates too.
There should probably be templates for the longer texts on ceremonies etc too, so that this gets coherent.
This page was last updated on
January 23, 2002
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All works are Copyright their respective
authors, 2002.