That All-Important Detail...

As I work through editing my next book, tentatively titled Lord's Curse, I have found myself returning to my world building. Not to change it, but just to immerse myself in the stupidly large amount of information I have about this world that you guys will only see in tiny bits and pieces. One of those items is the religions of my world. 

Photo by JuniperPhoton on Unsplash. Picture of an Inari Shrine. 

I currently have four fully fleshed out religions for the world, one mostly worshiped by the Dreven like Deckard, one mostly worshipped by the Sian Ku characters like Himiko and Isashi, one worshiped by the Corvidae like Tieni and one worshipped in the land Richard came from. Richard's religion is actually unique in my world, at least so far, in that it is no longer worshipped just by the core people who created it. Due to the metropolis nature of Jiza, most religions are known and worshipped there, but the most popular by a landslide with all people who live in the country is that of the Courtesan. 

I have an excel document, four or five pages long, where I list important information, like the deities in each religion, the avatars, saints and holy people, how each thinks the world was created, whether there is a prophesied end, holy colours, how the church is treated, marriage and other life changes handled, clergy organization and even a few rituals and holy days as well as how general worship is done. 

I didn't need to go this far into the religions, but I have always been interested by real world religions, and its a place where I find that so many books fall short. So many authors have one religion world-wide and you can usually tell reasonably easily exactly which religion they chose to emulate. That always seemed limited to me, and so when I chose to write my novels, I naturally put my work into making that area fully fleshed out. While I don't discuss it too much in my first book, it tends to come up a bit in book two and I go much deeper into it in the third book. 

I'm sure that the authors who don't focus on religion probably focus on the things they enjoy reading about in their books. Things like how the military is run, how governments are run, magic systems, the biology of their world... heck, even the technology in their worlds. My thing is just religions and the mythology of the world.

What do you find the most interesting details that your favourite authors insert into their books? Also, would you like me to talk in detail about all four of the current religions of my world, specifically on my blog? If its something that you would find interesting, let me know! 

Also, just a reminder, if you're in Calgary, I am going to be signing books at the Sunridge Chapters Indigo on June 9th from noon to 3pm. If you're available, come by and see me, pick up a book, and/or get yours signed! I'll hope to see you there!