As a Buddhist alternative, how about ekattadharma, or the way of one soul. An extreme version of the reincarnation idea that maintains Brahma entered the world at his birth and then entered the world, all living things (devas and asuras included) are the same soul, until Janaka (father) entered the world. Janaka is the father of Brahma and created the world to train his son in preparation for the Moksha of high heavens.

In essence, it is an apocalyptic faith which believes each life (forward or backwards in time) is merely another step in the journey of the same soul until all life is extinguished and we/I achieve moksha. Adherents of the faith follow the moral structures set forth by Janaka to help speed up the perfection of the soul and to experience increasingly better lives.
 
As a Buddhist alternative, how about ekattadharma, or the way of one soul. An extreme version of the reincarnation idea that maintains Brahma entered the world at his birth and then entered the world, all living things (devas and asuras included) are the same soul, until Janaka (father) entered the world. Janaka is the father of Brahma and created the world to train his son in preparation for the Moksha of high heavens.

In essence, it is an apocalyptic faith which believes each life (forward or backwards in time) is merely another step in the journey of the same soul until all life is extinguished and we/I achieve moksha. Adherents of the faith follow the moral structures set forth by Janaka to help speed up the perfection of the soul and to experience increasingly better lives.

Did you create that, or..? Because it's interesting, though it sounds very familiar.]
 
Did you create that, or..? Because it's interesting, though it sounds very familiar.]
Yes and no.
Weirdly, there is a popular short story on the internet which follows this idea which traces itself back to the guy who wrote The Martian (I'm on my phone so it's a bit harder for me to link it, but you can find it on his website). I just took that general idea, gave it a dharmic context and the potential for apocalyptic divergence.

If it was a faith, I like to imagine the priesthood wearing masks to hide their identity and symbolise everyone's oneness. It could cause an awesome Asian mass mask wearing culture, over time evolving to indicate class, sect and potentially political leaning as the tradition draws secular elements.
 
There's an awesome livestock disease called rinderpest that plagues cows but not people if you need something for crowd control. I read somewhere that it was responsible for some of the migrations of the Goths.
 
Going further with the self/god worship and a Balkanised China, during the time of Confucius a rival philosophy/religion arose called Yangism. It was a precursor to elements in Taoism (which is sometimes seen as a unique balance between Yangism and Mohism) and was an extreme egoist philosophy. Imagine Objectivism with Chinese characteristics and you have something close to what we know of it, based on the surviving texts and often unfair criticisms of it from its rivals.

If not the faith I made, you could really mess with cultural development by having Carvaka do well in India and Yangism do well in China, leading to an egocentric and materialist Asia.
 
As a Buddhist alternative, how about ekattadharma, or the way of one soul. An extreme version of the reincarnation idea that maintains Brahma entered the world at his birth and then entered the world, all living things (devas and asuras included) are the same soul, until Janaka (father) entered the world. Janaka is the father of Brahma and created the world to train his son in preparation for the Moksha of high heavens.

In essence, it is an apocalyptic faith which believes each life (forward or backwards in time) is merely another step in the journey of the same soul until all life is extinguished and we/I achieve moksha. Adherents of the faith follow the moral structures set forth by Janaka to help speed up the perfection of the soul and to experience increasingly better lives.

That sounds like a creepypasta I read once. The Egg, I think it was called.

...

Anyway, I remembered something interesting on this forum that I can't remember the exact thread of.

The idea was of a Judaean empire rising to become a dominant power, but a henotheistic and syncretic one, while Rome becomes the home of an increasingly monotheistic cult of Jupiter Optimus Maximus. If Israel still pops up, maybe having the House of Omri maintain its power and dominating the Levant would be interesting.

ASB, I know, but this is the most appropriate thread to post this in, I think.
 
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