How do you think a Faith of the Seven analogue would have faired in OTL?

In a world without Christianity, if a religion similar to the Faith of the Seven arouse (7 Gods in One Person, 7 Heavens, 7 Hells), do you think it would have done better or worse than Christianity? It obviously wouldn't have been exactly the same as the ASOIAF religion (so don't call out ASB) but I feel like something tangently similar could have arisen...but the question is which OTL faith would have the best chance of having The Seven Faced God springing from it.
 
It depends on its message and what society it springs from.

As for OTL faiths, Hinduism comes to mind, with its many-faced gods, many-faced One God, and hundred-layered afterlives. A different codification or reformation of it might lead into this direction.
 
I think it would depend on when it arose and how. I do wonder if it would spread faster than Christianity do to it being a lot more similar to paganism than Christianity was.
 
Its spread would depend on its message, just as Christianity and Islam. If it's too similar to the previous faith, you'll might see some syncretism but not replacement at least in a short term, but if it fulfils the cultural and social needs of the time it might grow popular enough to replace it fully almost immediately
 
Faith of the Seven is an admitted Catholic analogue and used a lot of Catholic or otherwise Christian theology in forming the way it thinks and talks about the divine, so I doubt it. Things like triuum godhood and hypostatic Union are not pre-Christian religious concepts. Maybe in the east.
 
I think the fundamental ingredient that caused success of Christianity and Islam was that all are spiritually equal. That's a powerful message among the poor.
 
I think a lot depends on whether you get the High Septon analogue closer to High Sparrow (and therefore Christianity) or the corrupt HS we know from ASOIAF.
 
It borrows from many religions, but generally is thought to have Christian/Catholic principles in Greco/Norse form.
 
It seems like an ethnic religion with not much of a missionary impulse. It doesn't usurp the Old Gods in the North, the Drowned God, and has lost in Essos to "totally not evil fire god."
 
It seems like an ethnic religion with not much of a missionary impulse. It doesn't usurp the Old Gods in the North, the Drowned God, and has lost in Essos to "totally not evil fire god."

Well it was brought be conquest to Westeros initially. That's why the Old Gods are gone below the neck.
 
Faith of the Seven is an admitted Catholic analogue and used a lot of Catholic or otherwise Christian theology in forming the way it thinks and talks about the divine, so I doubt it. Things like triuum godhood and hypostatic Union are not pre-Christian religious concepts. Maybe in the east.

The Faith of the Seven in ASOIAF seems a bit more pagan and moralistic and less apocalyptic than Christianity. So yeah, the east. Hinduism has the face for it.

Do you guys realize that GRRM besides borrowing from Catholicism also borrowed heavily from Zoroastrism?
7 has a religious and cultural significancy in Zoroastrism. Sadly I can't eloberate on this further due to lack of time but I can link a source:
http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/haft

Seven is a holy number in many places. Though GRRM also borrowed from Zoroastrianism in making that Lord of Light religion.

Well it was brought be conquest to Westeros initially. That's why the Old Gods are gone below the neck.

This is why it calls to mind the Hindus. Indo-Aryan migration and stuff.
 
Given a lot of people here are saying Hindus can totally remake the Faith of the Seven, I totally agree.

What needs to happen though is The concept of Avatar needs to come earlier and ingrain itself in society. Then Krishna worship and the worship of Avatara need to catch one. Since the original root Sanskrit word was alon the lines of 'the descent' rather than 'incarnation' it is in the sense that God descended to take mortal form to redeem humanities sins unto himself.

Given the Father, Mother, Crone, Warrior, Smith, Maiden and Stranger are seven but there have been technically nine so far in the Dashavatara, Ten Avatars of Vishnu (if you want to include Buddha that is), the last Avatar, Kalki, will herald the coming of the rebirth of time giving it the apocalyptic feel as Christianity but keeping the polytheistic theme of ASOIAF. For his actions in actions in Mahabharata Krishna can take on the Christ like role of the great saviour while Buddha also was one.

Maybe you don't even need the Avatars. The Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva Trinity can just become the mainstay, with the Shakti beint their female counterparts and becoming a Faith of The Six.
 
I'd expect the Seven-Faced God would emerge out of one of the Indo-European religions, since it is essentially a fictionalized version of them anyway. So Greco-Roman paganism, Celtic paganism, Hinduism, and other related pagan religions. Mostly Greco-Roman though.

The Father, Warrior, and Smith are essentially just Jupiter, Mars, and Quirinus (the Archaic Triad of Roman paganism) respectively. Or more generally, they're an example of the trifunctional hypothesis also conformed to by the Hindu Trimurti (Brahma, Shiva, and Vishnu respectively - although usually Shiva is put last in the Trimurti, I'd compare Shiva more to Mars and Vishnu more to Quirinus and placed them accordingly). (All three - the Male Three of the Seven, the Archaic Triad, and the Hindu Trimurti - also correspond to the Clergy/Brahmin, Nobles/Kshatriya, and Commoners/Vaishya respectively.) So a religion conforming to that hypothesis has the male parts of the Seven-Faced God down and just needs to have them specifically explained in those terms.

The Maiden, Mother, and Crone are the triple goddess of Wicca - and more historically; correspond to Artemis/Diana, Selene/Luna, and Hecate/Trivia respectively. So that's another historical Greco-Roman triad that could be combined with the above to have six of the Seven already present.

The Stranger is the one I can't think of a good historical origin for.

To summarize, if you were to use Greco-Roman mythology as the origin it could be something like this:

Father: Jupiter
Warrior: Mars
Smith: Quirinus
Maiden: Diana
Mother: Luna
Crone: Trivia
Stranger: ???
 
Things like triuum godhood and hypostatic Union are not pre-Christian religious concepts. Maybe in the east.[/QUOTEum

That's not the case at all. Triuum gods appear in Celtic mythology to name just one, and I've also heard the theory that Loki is a hypostatis of Odin, or was in early Nordic beliefs. Furthermore, hypostatic unions were common in classic Hinduism (with a hero being an avatar of an existing divinity). However, that is all besides the point, since (from my readings of SoFaI) neither of those are features of the faith of the Seven in Westros.
 
To Dan - none of these concepts are particularly similar, and within the context of the Faith of the Seven, the Seven itself could be described simply in terms of the Trinity with a few more individuals. This is not well understood by the layman in universe.
 
Faith of the Seven is an admitted Catholic analogue and used a lot of Catholic or otherwise Christian theology in forming the way it thinks and talks about the divine, so I doubt it. Things like triuum godhood and hypostatic Union are not pre-Christian religious concepts. Maybe in the east.

Also seems to be inspired by the Valar gods of LOTR, who are singing Illuvatars song and seem to represent different elements. .
 
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