Action is Belief

Welcome to column two of the Building Better Religions series. The goal of this series is to give GMs a toolbox to design and run more realistic in- game religions. In my previous column I shared some tips for building more realistic places of worship. In this column I will do the same for creating more realistic rituals. And the creation of rituals is an essential step in the construction of any coherent, playable religion.

In our culture we tend to see our religious identity as a matter of belief. The thing that defines a person as a member of a religion is whether they believe the teachings of that religion. But this is actually only one way of understanding religious identity. For many human cultures, it was not your belief that made you a part of a given religion, but your actions. It was participating in the rituals of a religion that defined you as a part of that religion.

The day-to-day process of religious life is defined by ritual. Ritual is what makes your private religious beliefs into a public action, an action that defines you as part of a religion both to yourself and to others. In ritual, you use your body to express your faith, making that faith a real, physical thing.

If you want to play a PC or NPC whose religion is a major part of their identity, you need to come up with rituals for them. On a purely practical GMing level, telling your players that a character is a member of such and such sect of the mighty divine moon god is not going to have the dramatic effect of finding that NPC kneeling before a personal moon shrine. One of the basic rules of any storytelling is “show, not tell” and ritual is the way you show religious identity.

When designing a ritual, remember that your ultimate goal is to create a religious mood. A ritual can be private or public, elaborate or simple; it can take hours or a few seconds- in the end, it is about making the believer feel their faith, reinforcing their sense of them self as a believer.

Belief is Identity

Public ritual reinforces community identity. If you worship with a group you are publicly proclaiming yourself as part of that group. You are worshipping your god through membership in a community. The unity of movement and action can lead to a sense of transcendence, of losing yourself in the group, which strongly reinforces your identity as a member of that group. It’s not just religious action that can have this effect. Whether you are swaying and singing with hundreds at a concert or doing the wave with twenty thousand screaming baseball fans, the group ritual action can cause a profound sense of being a part of something greater then yourself. A GM can use group ritual to play with group dynamics. If you want PC’s to feel connected to a community, having them participate wholeheartedly in a ritual can create an immediate emotional bond. Alternatively, having them not participate can easily create a sense of exclusion or outsider status, or even fear at the worshipper’s unity and single-mindedness. Also, having some PC’s participate and not others can set up some nice divided loyalties. If a non-native PC participates in a ritual, they are connecting them self to the community. They are saying “I am like you.” The people of that community will treat them better and with more affection. However, if that PC then acts publicly in a way against the community religion, the people will feel betrayed, and treat them poorer then the rest of the party. Community rituals define community identity, and PC’s should not treat them lightly.

Private ritual also reinforces identity as a member of a group, by making it your own, uninfluenced choice to do this sacred action. When you perform a private ritual you say to yourself “this is who I am, because this is what I believe.” As mentioned, this can be useful for both GMs and PCs to show a character’s religiosity instead of just describing it. If an NPC makes the sign of the crescent moon after being rescued by the party, they immediately know something about that NPC’s self-identification. If a PC makes the sign of the crescent moon before opening the mysterious chest, you have a clear, wordless re-enforcement of their character.

In fact, my advice for designing a religion is to start with private rituals and build from there. The huge, dramatic set pieces with thousand of robed chanting worshippers, giant bonfires and city-wide processions are going to be an occasional expression of faith. But if you want to create a truly livable religion you need simple, everyday rituals. How do the worshippers make their faith real in the non- dramatic, day to day life? Once you know that, you can build to the bonfires and processions.

Theater of the Gods

Hopefully by this point I have convincingly argued that incorporating rituals into a game is a good idea. But how do you design those rituals? I will offer a few common meanings and physical components of rituals to hopefully spark your imagination. Remember, as always these suggestions are just suggestions. Fell free to ignore everything I offer if you come up with something more interesting to you. Also, please share any new ideas in the forums.

The underlying question you should be asking when designing a ritual is “what does the ritual mean, to the believers?” What belief is the worshipper trying to live out, what truths are they trying to make physical? Here are some possibilities.

Sacred drama. A drama nerd friend of mine once told me that religion is the origin of all theatre. It began as ritualized reenactments of religious stories. The goal of any theater can be describe in religious terms- to make the story come alive, to make it real. Only in this case it is a religious story- a miracle, tragedy, or other important event. Dramatic rituals can be a group of worshippers passively watching a story, or they can be fully participative. The whole group could be acting out the story, connecting themselves to it and making it real for them. If you have already created stories for your religions- heroes, battles, gods and monsters- you can use them for ritual inspiration. Remember a ritual drama can be literally acting out a story, or it can be using actions and objects to symbolically act it out. If the moon god eternally battles the god of darkness for control of the sky, you can have a literal stage battle or a symbolic use of dramatically lit candles to make the story physically present.

If you do not have a specific story to create a ritual around, here are some general religious concepts that could inspire a ritual.

Consecration. Rituals of consecration would be making something or someone holy. The average RPG religious source material usually includes sacred objects and sacred offices. Why are those objects, those people sacred? What was done to them to make them share in the power and holiness of their patron deity? Anything that is believed to manifest the power of the deity would be a good focus of a consecration ritual. Purification. If a holy person or object has come into contact with something that their religion views as corrupting or profane, a ritual cleansing would be needed to restore holiness. A consecration ceremony could be a good jumping off point for a ritual that is in some sense a re-consecration and purification of something that has become tainted by unholiness.

Transformation. When someone undergoes a change in station or situation, there can be a religious ritual that is the physical symbol of that change. These can be positive changes such as puberty rituals or marriage, or negative changes. If someone is ejected from a community, their may be a formal ritual of shunning, formalizing the outcast’s new status. To use a very dorky example, in Star Trek: the Next Generation, the Klingon High Council had a ritual of shunning wherein they would X their arms over their chest and turn their back to the dishonorable offender. After this ritual of transformation, the offender was considered to be no longer a Klingon.

Sacrifice. This is one form of ritual pretty popular in gaming materials, specifically human sacrifice. It’s an easy shorthand for “evil cult. Kill them and steal their stuff.” Animal sacrifice is something I have mostly seen used in game to add an air of creepiness or menace to a religion. But sacrifice does not need to be anything that dramatic or gruesome. In fact, it is one of the most common forms of worship in the world. Sacrifice is giving up something to your god as a sign of faith and devotion. That giving can be as dramatic as human sacrifice or as simple as an offering of flowers or fruit. The ancient Greeks would pour out a little wine before each meal. As long as you are giving up something you would rather not, it is a sacrifice. The meaning of that sacrifice can range from an extremely literal “feeding the gods” to a deeply symbolic act of self-negation.

Prayer. The most simple, private rituals are acts of worship. What do you do with your body when you pray, and why? What gestures or actions of prayer have you been taught? Any knowledge of sacred symbols or deeds could be the inspiration for a few simple prayer rituals. See the aforementioned sign of the crescent moon.

Of course, feel free to mix and match. A sacred drama could contain rituals of purification to prepare to act out the story, and transformation of the people as they witness the drama. A ritual prayer could begin with washing; a puberty ceremony could include sections from a sacred story. And remember, these categories by no means summarize all rituals. I am just offering a few guidelines. If you think of another meaning for ritual, please use it.

Toolbox of the Gods

After you have decided on the meaning of the ritual, you need to come up with the physical components of the ritual (or vice versa). Here are a couple of common ritual components and some ideas as to potential symbolism.

Incense is often used as a physical representation of prayer. The smoke rising up is associated with prayer rising to the gods. For worshippers of some religions, the smell of incense can be enough to create a religious mood. If you want to use a physical symbol of prayer, you can be even more obvious. Many religions have a form of prayer ritual that involves writing the prayer on paper and placing that paper at a holy place. Medieval Catholic pilgrims would travel to holy shrines for healing, and leave wax or metal effigies of the body parts for which they were praying.

Besides being an obvious symbol of light, candles are also sometimes representative of the physical presence of the worshippers. Lighting a candle to burn at a holy place is a way of representing your own continued physical presence there. Also, like incense, a candle can be a physical sign of a prayer.

On a related note, fire is also a good light symbol. However it can also be purification, cleansing, transformation… it’s a very versatile symbol. Some religions even use the imagery of being consumed by fire to describe union with their deity.

Water is also a pretty obvious symbol, of life, purification or cleansing. However, the environment a religion is practiced in will also have major effects on the symbolism of water. Water means something different to a desert race then it does to a nautical race.

Food is a basic necessity of life, and can represent the giving or receiving of life energy. Also, shared meals are a powerful symbol of community and oneness.

Speaking of symbols of life, blood is another primal representation of the giving or taking of life. It can be giving blood, spilling blood, anointing with blood- this is one of the most obvious and often used signs of life force.

Clothing can range from elaborate masks and robes to simple strips of cloth, but they all have the same symbolic meaning. Putting on sacred clothing is a way to physically show that you are taking on a sacred role, that you are becoming something outside of day-to-day life.

Praying with mantras. The recitation or chanting of simple prayers is a common used technique to clear the mind of distractions and focus prayer or mediation. These simple prayers are usually one of the first teachings of any religion, and a good building block for a more complicated ritual life. Many faiths have some sort of physical measurement or representation of those simple prayers. One of the most common devotional tools in the world is a circle of beads used to count off a set of basic prayers.

Finally, all rituals have an element of action. Action can range from everyone standing and singing at a certain time to an elaborate, precisely choreographed procession. In private ritual, actions can involve prayer positions or gestures. Ritual is, at heart, making a belief physical through action.

Myth and Symbol

If you are a GM trying to realistically run a world in which religion plays a role, you need to create rituals for that religion. In designing a religion, you are designing a whole internal world of images, ideas, symbols, and stories. Ritual is what makes that internal world present in the physical world. Ritual is finding new meanings for everyday objects or actions, which is one of the major purposes of religion. Rituals bring holiness into ordinary life. Designing rituals adds richness and flavor to any in-game religion.

Questions? Comments?