Could you give us a basic rundown of what religion is like for the aliens of RTTS?
I went over this a little in my RttS birthdays and celebrations post, but generally speaking:
BUG FERRET religions tend to have a huge amount of associated stories, multiple religious texts, hundreds of gods with dozens of roles within a pantheon, fantastic beasts of varying holiness and horribleness, and lots of squabbling over what of the many books and stories are canonical. Religious institutions are frequently more involved in media than government, and many playhouses, gaming halls, and libraries are run or sponsored by local religious groups. Holidays tend to be many, and frequently used as excuses to dance, socialize, and eat themed foods.
Breakaway sects from major modern religions that take faith more seriously are often just more pious partiers, but extremist groups are at risk of becoming cults. Bug ferrets are less inclined to violent us-vs-them psychology than humans, but abusive power structures tend to form within strict social groups. Because of the individual being devalued in favor of group health and strength, half or less of a group being bullied can sometimes difficult to address or even recognize by other ferrets.
SKIMMER AVIAN religion was historically very dogmatic and organized and had a huge influence on state, but they’ve entered an “age of reason” and it’s now a lot more popular to scoff at religion as tribalist nonsense (while unthinkingly adhering to the worst of its ideals). But unlike colonialist human religions, skimmers rarely occupied other nations explicitly seeking to convert. Their goals were usually more in mind to impose economic domination and skimmer decency standards (religion influenced, but not the same as conversion).
Pygmy and diver religions tend to be more localized, their territory being scattered small islands resulted in lots of different versions of the same general stories. Polar and flightless avians live on larger connected landmasses, so their religions have more of a through-line and more written religious texts. Avian religious celebrations in general tend to be pretty modest and short, ranging from church sermons to house parties with friends. In small enough island communities, the entire population may gather for the event. In space, these smaller and more location based religions tend to be overshadowing by the dwindling but still influential skimmer institutions. Most avians in space celebrate skimmer holidays and/or personal holidays and identify as atheist.
CENTAUR religion tends to be privately practiced and animist, with a lot of variety in what deities and spirits are celebrated and how they are celebrated between different clans. Clans also tend to have their own personal mythology and patron spirits, especially older clans who have had time for their creation to be mythologized by generations of oral story telling. Line of descent, historical rivalries, and local natural disasters can also play a big role in shaping the region’s mythos. Holidays are variable, but almost all clans away from the snowy twilight of the equator have one big one in fall before the long winter nights, and one big one in spring when daylight comes back. Oral historians typical preform for holiday events, speaking historical poetry and acting out history.
SCUDS I have not decided yet, but I imagine they’re not that dissimilar to humans. Plenty of fighting about it.
