Weirdest religions in fiction?

[gaylolis]

I saw stuff like Bokononism and Jashinism, but what kind of fictional religions you find especially weird?

 

[Draconite]

The axis order

 

[DarkeReises]

Only one I can think of right now is the Demoness Sect or whatever it was called from Lord of the Mysteries. Not that weird per se, but it was funny for a certain reason I won't state just cause of minor spoilers.

 

[K5Rakitan]

All religions exist in my story.

 

[The_Everdistant_Utopia]

I find any religion that is just a reskin lite of Christianity kind of weird because most of the times authors don't even bother to change the iconography; as in using crosses, the same hierarchy and angels.

The last one I can to some extent forgive since Angels kind of became a fantasy staple, but in general it just feels a bit odd/lazy.

At least use a different icon, for pete's sake...

 

[Southdog]

Dune has some of my favorite religions in how far they've shifted from their original incarnations but maintained their core. From Zensunnis and Mahayana Christianity to the Fremen beliefs of Shai-hulud. The Bene-Gesserit are also pretty kino

 

[LilTV1155]

Cthulhu Lore. Comic about Hoodwinked Alien? And that religion in manga, Bookworm Ascendance where yoga crane is "dignified." Plus the religion in Isekai/etc. Trope Manga where hating the poor kids for being Beastkin, Demonkin, Darkin, Dark Elementalist, Hero, and etc. because of whatever BS spouted for common enemy and controls.

And there's the fictional religions that approve of shit stuffs done to prisoners of wars, innocents, children, and women.

 

[Jemini]

Dune has some of my favorite religions in how far they've shifted from their original incarnations but maintained their core. From Zensunnis and Mahayana Christianity to the Fremen beliefs of Shai-hulud. The Bene-Gesserit are also pretty kino

The Bene-Gesserit are based off of the tantrix discipline in Hinduism. Basically, religified prostitution. Extremely HIGH CLASS religified prostitution, and in the case of Dune they have the added focus of exerting behind the scenes power to subtly control the galaxy while also trying to breed super psychics through sending their members to breed with particular members of the royal families.

I would say Frank Herbert's creations in Dune in terms of religion are examples of some of the best done evolutions on real world religions I've seen, it's some pretty good work. Not at all like some of the strange things other people on this list have put forward. Still, you have to admit that it does qualify as weird to have something based on a bronze age sex worshiping religion in a star-travelling sci-fi world.

 

[Echimera]

For me, I think the Imperial Cult in Warhammer 40k takes the cake for the irony of it all.

The books where the Emperor is still around make it abundantly clear that he wanted to do away with religion completely (despite knowing that gods actually exist) and actively (as in, with a galaxy spanning and badly named crusade) pushes the completely secular Imperial Truth to ultimately starve out the Chaos Gods.
But even while he's around, cults that worship him as a god in human form start to show up within the Imperium, and thanks to how the whole setting works, their collective belief actually becomes true.
One major contributor to this is Lorgar, one of his 'sons', who grew up on a planet where the society was centered around religion and united it in the belief in the Emperor (having precognitive powers himself) way before the Emperor showed up on the planet.
At a later point, the Emperor decided to reprimand Lorgar for the whole worshipping thing that went against his plans, publicly humiliating him. This ultimately lead to Lorgar shifting his worship to the Chaos Gods , once he learned of their existence, kickstarting a rebellion of about half the crusade against the Emperor that ultimately wasn't successful, but ended with the Emperor on permanent life support.

Within a few hundred years the small cults spread to basically all of the Imperium of Man, and after some internal strife, the Imperial Cult is the official state religion of the Imperium of Man and by the time of the 40k narrative there are literal angels of the Emperor.

---

The Cult Mechanicus in the same setting is a close second.
Back in the Middle Ages, the Emperor secretly dropped off a fragment of a physical alien god on Mars and hid it. After the colonization of the planet, this somehow drove the settlers to developing technology. Way later, after humanity lost a lot of knowledge, the population of Mars dedicated themselves to keeping the technology running and formed a religion around it, worshipping the Machine God.
They have a trinity, with the Machine God, the Omnissiah as the messiah (the Emperor took that spot) and the Motive Force and every single action in regards to the use and maintenance of machines has been ritualized beyond recognition, because they believe that appeasing the Machine Spirits is what makes stuff work. And somehow it does, as there are credible reports of well kept machines, most notable weapons and tanks, working after they should not have been able to do so.
They also hate AI (a robot uprising might do that to a civilization) and at the same time worship things like the advanced targeting AI from some tanks as higher Machine Spirits, though most situations besides that where we would assume that an AI would be used actually uses organic components (read: usually lobotomized people hardwired into the machines).

 

[hyperkvlt]

Beddism. A religion worships sleeep...

And Recycultist. A cult that... Uh..

 

[RaidenInfinity]

Isekai Shukyo e Yokoso - Baka-Updates Manga

Latest And Newest Manga Release Updates and News.

www.mangaupdates.com

 

[SailusGebel]

The one where they worship women's panties.

 

[DarkeReises]

Cthulhu Lore. Comic about Hoodwinked Alien? And that religion in manga, Bookworm Ascendance where yoga crane is "dignified." Plus the religion in Isekai/etc. Trope Manga where hating the poor kids for being Beastkin, Demonkin, Darkin, Dark Elementalist, Hero, and etc. because of whatever BS spouted for common enemy and controls.

And there's the fictional religions that approve of shit stuffs done to prisoners of wars, innocents, children, and women.

Cthulhu Mythos lore is whack af, but I still love it.

For me, I think the Imperial Cult in Warhammer 40k takes the cake for the irony of it all.

The books where the Emperor is still around make it abundantly clear that he wanted to do away with religion completely (despite knowing that gods actually exist) and actively (as in, with a galaxy spanning and badly named crusade) pushes the completely secular Imperial Truth to ultimately starve out the Chaos Gods.
But even while he's around, cults that worship him as a god in human form start to show up within the Imperium, and thanks to how the whole setting works, their collective belief actually becomes true.
One major contributor to this is Lorgar, one of his 'sons', who grew up on a planet where the society was centered around religion and united it in the belief in the Emperor (having precognitive powers himself) way before the Emperor showed up on the planet.
At a later point, the Emperor decided to reprimand Lorgar for the whole worshipping thing that went against his plans, publicly humiliating him. This ultimately lead to Lorgar shifting his worship to the Chaos Gods , once he learned of their existence, kickstarting a rebellion of about half the crusade against the Emperor that ultimately wasn't successful, but ended with the Emperor on permanent life support.

Within a few hundred years the small cults spread to basically all of the Imperium of Man, and after some internal strife, the Imperial Cult is the official state religion of the Imperium of Man and by the time of the 40k narrative there are literal angels of the Emperor.

---

The Cult Mechanicus in the same setting is a close second.
Back in the Middle Ages, the Emperor secretly dropped off a fragment of a physical alien god on Mars and hid it. After the colonization of the planet, this somehow drove the settlers to developing technology. Way later, after humanity lost a lot of knowledge, the population of Mars dedicated themselves to keeping the technology running and formed a religion around it, worshipping the Machine God.
They have a trinity, with the Machine God, the Omnissiah as the messiah (the Emperor took that spot) and the Motive Force and every single action in regards to the use and maintenance of machines has been ritualized beyond recognition, because they believe that appeasing the Machine Spirits is what makes stuff work. And somehow it does, as there are credible reports of well kept machines, most notable weapons and tanks, working after they should not have been able to do so.
They also hate AI (a robot uprising might do that to a civilization) and at the same time worship things like the advanced targeting AI from some tanks as higher Machine Spirits, though most situations besides that where we would assume that an AI would be used actually uses organic components (read: usually lobotomized people hardwired into the machines).

40K lore sounds fun. Blessed God, heed my plea, for I have seen your truth that Flesh is Weak.

 

[LilTV1155]

One thing we know for sure, religion and cult are a total mess.

 

[ElliePorter]

Worshipping a corpse in a golden throne... There is only one true religion and that is Blood for the Blood God, Skulls for the skull throne.

 

[LilTV1155]

Worshipping a corpse in a golden throne... There is only one true religion and that is Blood for the Blood God, Skulls for the skull throne.

Ooh! Necromancy to the extreme bone!

 

[Echimera]

40K lore sounds fun. Blessed God, heed my plea, for I have seen your truth that Flesh is Weak.

If you can get behind a setting where everybody is a dark shade of grey at best, then yes.
The setting has no good guys. Period.

Spoiler: For those interested

The main POV faction would be the Imperium, which is a religious, xenophobic system primarily driven by the constant wars on all fronts.
Contains such nice things as

• normal soldiers pitted against the horrors of the galaxy and beyond
• genetically altered super soldiers with flavors like
  • Knightly Orders - In Space
  • Religious Zealot Crusaders - In Space
  • Werewolf Vikings with Wolves - In Space
  • Roman Legions - In Space
  • Mongol Hordes - In Space
  • Vampires - In Space
  • Looks at enhanced body: That's not good enough!
  • Demon Hunters
  • Alien Hunters
• religious zealot space nuns with guns
• religious zealot cyborgs
• the Inquisition
• knight households that traded horses for giant robots
• even bigger giant robots

The different Chaos subfactions (mayn mirrors of the Imperial subfactions) all have their flavor of over the top unrestrained insanity like

• Blood for the Blood God! Skulls for the Skull Throne!
• Schemes within schemes within schemes.
• Plague and Decay
• Excess the Cenobites could get behind
• Evil unrestrained insane Thomas Wayne Batmen
• More religious zealots, this time with evil spikes
• I am Alpharius (and may have forgotten who's side I'm on)

The green-skinned Mushroom Hooligans just want a good fight.
The Space Egyptian Terminator Undead are insane megalomaniacs who want their stuff back, everybody who moved in over the last aeon or so be damned.
The Not-Japanese Space Not-Communists are just as likely to blow you up for not agreeing with their Greater Good as any other faction. And their leaders might be brainwashing them, if the guys in their single independent colony is to be believed.
The Space Bugs just want to eat everything. And their infiltrating vanguard tends to build cults that believe themselves to be freedom fighters, until the Space Bugs show up and proceed to eat them just like the rest of the planet.
The Space Elves at the brink of extinction range from snobbish pricks that sacrifice whole sectors of human worlds for one of their ships (somewhat understandable, given the whole brink of extinction thing, but they really shouldn't be d***s about it) and sadistic pirate lords, gladiators, gangs and scientists (all in one faction). And Jesters.

You know what, Warhammer needs a Honest Trailer.

 

[SailusGebel]

If you can get behind a setting where everybody is a dark shade of grey at best, then yes.
The setting has no good guys. Period.

Spoiler: For those interested

The main POV faction would be the Imperium, which is a religious, xenophobic system primarily driven by the constant wars on all fronts.
Contains such nice things as

• normal soldiers pitted against the horrors of the galaxy and beyond
• genetically altered super soldiers with flavors like
  • Knightly Orders - In Space
  • Religious Zealot Crusaders - In Space
  • Werewolf Vikings with Wolves - In Space
  • Roman Legions - In Space
  • Mongol Hordes - In Space
  • Vampires - In Space
  • Looks at enhanced body: That's not good enough!
  • Demon Hunters
  • Alien Hunters
• religious zealot space nuns with guns
• religious zealot cyborgs
• the Inquisition
• knight households that traded horses for giant robots
• even bigger giant robots

The different Chaos subfactions (mayn mirrors of the Imperial subfactions) all have their flavor of over the top unrestrained insanity like

• Blood for the Blood God! Skulls for the Skull Throne!
• Schemes within schemes within schemes.
• Plague and Decay
• Excess the Cenobites could get behind
• Evil unrestrained insane Thomas Wayne Batmen
• More religious zealots, this time with evil spikes
• I am Alpharius (and may have forgotten who's side I'm on)

The green-skinned Mushroom Hooligans just want a good fight.
The Space Egyptian Terminator Undead are insane megalomaniacs who want their stuff back, everybody who moved in over the last aeon or so be damned.
The Not-Japanese Space Not-Communists are just as likely to blow you up for not agreeing with their Greater Good as any other faction. And their leaders might be brainwashing them, if the guys in their single independent colony is to be believed.
The Space Bugs just want to eat everything. And their infiltrating vanguard tends to build cults that believe themselves to be freedom fighters, until the Space Bugs show up and proceed to eat them just like the rest of the planet.
The Space Elves at the brink of extinction range from snobbish pricks that sacrifice whole sectors of human worlds for one of their ships (somewhat understandable, given the whole brink of extinction thing, but they really shouldn't be d***s about it) and sadistic pirate lords, gladiators, gangs and scientists (all in one faction). And Jesters.

You know what, Warhammer needs a Honest Trailer.

Btw orks are good guys. They simply want to fight, that's it. There is even a small story with a happy ending about orks. When some warboss and his boys landed on the Khorne's planet or something like that. And they fight eternally. They fight, they die, they resurrect, they fight, they die, they resurrect, they fight... Khorne happy, orks happy, everyone concerned is happy. Such good fellas these orks are.