F A I T H

What Are Religions?

Faith operates as an altogether different creature in the Dreamlands than in other realities. The crucial difference lies in humanity's metaphysical limitations—bound by the small minds of individual believers, religions grow, transform, mutate, and occasionally branch away across generations. While numerous short-term strategies can temporarily amplify religious power, many prove sinister or corruptive. Minor corruptions merely affirm humanity's darker impulses, while major corruptions embrace the nonhuman—the more alien, the more pervasive the contamination.

The Lifecycle of Faith

Religions possess finite lifespans in the Dream. Factors supporting positive prosperity include: an actual deific figurehead existing in some accessible dimension; robust culture and worldly maturity; understanding of the laity's positive emotions; clergy moral behavior; evolving aesthetic traditions; solid folklore; constructive yet powerful emotional frameworks; comprehensive mystical and occult methodologies; favorable circumstances; and intelligent management of underlying archetypes as they relate to changing eras.

Generally, coherent religions endure several millennia before succumbing to corruption or attrition. Some face "hijacking" by other faiths, reduced to subsidiary branches. Great deities fade into parochial irrelevance within extended pantheons. The Dreamlands' major deities span thousands of years, some exceeding five millennia.

Metaphysical Architecture

Religions exist as intricate metaphysical structures—complex knots woven from "fermented" generational mana generated by legions of believers. They comprise accumulated myths, fears, virtues, and aspirations. The intricacy, timeframe, emotional intensity, and corpus depth determine the metaphysical power available to adherents. Incorporating "alien principles" considerably boosts faith's power but simultaneously contaminates the system's moral foundation.

Most religions reject this analysis as heretical anticlerical doctrine or Wyld anathema, naturally preferring their own theological explanations for divine power and moral authority.