Endings... and Beginnings

It’s almost the end of the quarter and the beginning of the holiday break.  I am in that state of mind where I would rather be doing almost anything than the things I have put on my to-do list. Of particular interest are stories I am not working on, holiday plans which don’t need to be made quite yet and curling up with books and movies that are not related to either my dissertation or my writing.  Yet, despite the lure of the irrelevant I have been getting things done.  I put together my costume for the Tav’urisk party next week – and promptly misplaced part of it.  I have finished the menu, made shopping lists and have a final list of decretive elements to obtain. 

The writing on the religion, Daletha, is nearing a completed draft and I have finished drafts of the 12 Saints Tales.  Of all the entries I have completed for the Encyclopedia of Idhua I have the most doubts about the religion.  Oddly, as I noted as I began this project, it seems more strange and silly to create an invented religion and try to write about it, than it has to do so with invented countries and history.  Perhaps because I want to maintain the mystery at the center of things within my work and religions often try to explain that mystery – particularly in their written texts.  If I ever write a tale that is dealing heavily with the religion I will have to go back, but I have a slightly fleshed out outline – and an idea of the major historical periods and movements.

I will be glad to return to country building and short story writing in January.  I am going to work on the country of Orin next.  It is the country immediately south of Ariceda and settled early on by the same Seldue tribes that lived in Arcieda and southern Fjallind.  I have already written one short story set in Orin – Catkin – which is the one I submitted several weeks ago; however it is not a world-building or cultural exploration.  Orin was a convenient place for the physical requirements of the story.

Struggling with (Fictional) Religion

I am finding that creating a religion is much harder than any of the world creation or invented history I have been working on.  I want to create a religion which is both unifying and divisive and that can enhance the stories I am telling without overwhelming them.  The religion I am creating is called Daletha.  It is a duotheistic, with a God and a Goddess, as well as a legion of heavenly messengers and saints.  Coming from one mind and in a short period of time, there is no way that its philosophy can attain the complexity over time that a centuries-old religious system encompasses, but I am trying to work out the broad strokes of its theology over time and record its major movements and systems.  Ultimately, it is going to be a transcendent religion, but I am trying to balance that with some descendant theology as well.
 
In some ways creating a religion is a profoundly personal aspect of the world, because it will become a skeleton for the stories I want to write.  If I create a religion whose adherents are not people I would want to write about, I have created a useless construct.  Yet, trying to develop a world-view and philosophical system that fits the characters I create has ended up making me take a close look at my own world-view, and consider the fact that though I am fabricating an imaginary creation it is personally resonant.
 
Scholars examining J. R. R. Tolkien’s cosmology have been quick to point out the ways it fits (or does not fit) his own Catholic faith.  While I have no idea if my (real or fictional) cosmology will ever be studied, I am, at any rate, aware of the assumptions (true and false) which can be drawn.  One of the reasons that Tolkien’s writing is so powerful is the powerful forces underscoring his story, and while he does not have a religion in Middle Earth that we would recognize as such, we do recognize the deep spiritual underpinnings of his work.  It is impossible to say if my writing will ever achieve that depth – I can only hope it will.