List of Alternate Religions and Deities

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Namkhaism
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    • CountPeter

    As I don't intend to finish the TL (may reboot it at some point, but hey ho). Here is Namkhaism.

    Namkhaism
    Namkhaism is a religion born somewhat out of the partially unexplored by OTL imperial cult surrounding Genghis Khan. Taking parts from the Muslims (some of which thought he was the direct descendant of Abraham through his consort Keturah), Tengriism (which had him annointed as the world ruler by Shamanic tradition, as well as Temujin's own practice in Shamanic rites) and the apocalyptic embrace of Vajrayana Buddhism adopted by the Mongol Court. Founded and codified by Kublai (who in the TL is ruler of Tibet, not China), it eventually becomes a state religion of some of the Mongol Khanates, and manages to make the crusades even more hectic than OTL (with no mongol civil war, the unstable Hulagu Khan burns down Acre, causing something of a 3 way war for the east between Namkhaists (which starts as more of a political affiliation), Muslims and Christians).
    Theologically, it goes back to Abraham for it's legitimacy, but goes with the idea that the traditional telling of the story is incorrect; Abraham was indeed meant to sacrifice his son as a means of conquering the material plane and in not doing so failed to live up to his contract with god. Genghis Khan (Mahdi Maitreya in Namkhaist tradition) was Abraham reborn, who through sacrifice of his children in war to create a heavenly kingdom on earth, lived up to his bargain with god and allowed the world to move away from Samsara without being bound to it.

    Gods
    Tengrii-Allah.
    The god. Essentially the abrahamic god, he is seem in a metaphysical way as actively making everything possible through the buddhist empirical/metaphysical context of Sunyatta (emptiness).

    Olgoi-Khorkho.
    The devil. Something closer to Yaldabaoth, he is "master of the material" and is directly responsible for souls being trapped in Samsara if they do not embrace Namkhaism. Based on the OTL Olgoi-Khorkho, a mythical giant red worm in Mongol Folklore which is said to reside in the Gobi and is the OTL inspiration for the sandworms in Dune.

    If anyone is interested in reading further, I actually wrote a polyphonic holy book for it too, called the Holy Kadag. It can be accessed here (https://www.alternatehistory.com/fo...h-and-god-a-longer-lived-genghis-khan.398686/) but I would ask that you please don't post there as I don't intend to carry it on. Maybe reboot it, but that thread itself is dead.
     
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    • galanx

    This is from the New Albion TL; more of an ATL offshoot of Christianity/ alternate Mormonism. Britain
    has gotten into the sea-otter trade with China earlier, establishing forts and claiming the west coast from Francistown[San Francisco] to the Dezhnyov[Bering] Straits.
    A few expeditions have travelled from east to west, discovering the Bitter Sea [Great Salt Lake]. Because of butterflies the Americans take Quebec and Nova Scotia during the Revolution. Most of the Loyalists either return to Britain or grumblingly acquiesce to the ARW, One group that can't is composed of Mohawks who fought for the British, their white allies like the OTL father and son Butlers
    who fought alongside of the Native Americans and are accused of committing massacres, and the black ex-slaves who were promised freedom if they fought for the British. Like OTL, Washington is adamant they be returned to slavery.
    The three groups are forced west to the area south of Lake Superior. William Brant, a Mohawk leader who has been educated in Christianity [OTL he translated the Gospel of Mark into Mohawk]
    Brant founded a new religion based on the story of Noah in Genesis:

    20 And Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard:
    21 And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent.
    22 And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without.
    23 And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their father's nakedness.
    24 And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him.
    25 And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.
    26 And he said, Blessed be the Lord God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.
    27 God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant

    A popular idea of the time was that the Negroes suffered from the Curse of Canaan and thus were servants of the whites (descendants of Japtheth), while the children of Shem were the Asians. Brant made the mental leap that the American Indians were also Asians who had crossed into the Americas (and guess who were moving into their tents?), He further taught that the white, black and reds should overthrow the curse by uniting into one race through polygamy, and settle in the land around the Bitter Sea [Great Salt Lake]
    The British later accepted them as a bastion against the eastern encroachment of the Americans based on past loyalty and a promise to give up polygamy. Thus is founded the Church of the Three-Fold Cord, based on a verse in Ecclesiastes


    “And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.”

    composed of white, black and red strings for the three races; their flag is the old British Union flag, with the blue background replaced by black for the same reason.They're also temperance, blaming drunkenness for Noah's curse.
     

    King Thomas

    Banned
    Under the Changeling Way there are myths of the First Changeling, who was given the power to change shape by the Creator God to gain the love she needed, but she is seen as kind and loving but remote from changelings. The Goddesses with the real power are the Queens, whose Hives believe them to be divine Goddesses in their own right (because of all the love they take, they age very slowly indeed (imagine Egyptian Pharaoh worship if the average Pharaoh who was not murdered stayed young and strong for 1000 years before aging and dying.) Few Changelings are Goddess botherers but they will sometimes pray to the First Changeling before a complicated operation or a battle. Some Hives cremate the dead to free their souls, others bury them after a ritual to free the soul.
     
    Cult of the New Warrior
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    • wtw

    Cult of the New Warrior

    In Europe firearms disappeared fairly quickly due to stricter controls on them before the third world war in the early 21st century as a result texts from surviving Medieval era saw a resurgence of knights across the European landscape that quickly evolved into the Japanese Bushido code type system with those of the greatest honor or prestige being seen as closest to the god or gods that they worshipped. Similar was the rise of equestrian cults that worshipped horses for their abilities to transport people and fighting in war. Both cults would be slowly wiped out by the Neo-Latin Empire and the Ikwa alliance in the 23rd century.
     
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    • Messianic Satanism
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    • CountPeter

    Messianic Satanism
    An Abrahamic philosophy that believes Jesus failed the tests of being a messiah by not achieving the tasks put forward by Satan, gods advocate and tester of men's hearts.

    Messianic Satanism views Satan as the bringer of god's light to mortal man, his favoured son and the ruler of earth, yet still humble before he who rules the universe. The relationship between God, his Aeons (planet rulers), angels and mortal man reflects Platonic philosophy, each being another step down on the ladder.

    The Messiah, when they appear, is understood to be the alchemical perfection of material that can contain the monad. As such, the messiah will prove themselves by fulfilling all of Satan's tasks as put to Jesus in the desert.
     
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    • Revolutionary Confucianism: the eternal revolution
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    • CountPeter

    Revolutionary Confucianism: the eternal revolution

    An order of Confucians who believe that the mandate of heaven is not only the foundation of the state, but its tempering for virtue. The state must be at all times demonstrative of its mandate, and revolutionaries are vital to this effort.

    Whilst not a major religion, it has a loyal base of secretive (and usually wealthy) members, private military contractors (with selective clientele) and a cult pop culture following (amounting to serious funding in the digital age) due to the religion's support to almost all revolutionary and counter culture movements in the last century.

    In practice, it is not unheard of for members to assist in the downfall of a government, only to offer their support to the survivors in a counter revolution.
     
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    • Alexander the Average

    CountPeter said:
    Revolutionary Confucianism: the eternal revolution

    An order of Confucians who believe that the mandate of heaven is not only the foundation of the state, but its tempering for virtue. The state must be at all times demonstrative of its mandate, and revolutionaries are vital to this effort.

    Whilst not a major religion, it has a loyal base of secretive (and usually wealthy) members, private military contractors (with selective clientele) and a cult pop culture following (amounting to serious funding in the digital age) due to the religion's support to almost all revolutionary and counter culture movements in the last century.

    In practice, it is not unheard of for members to assist in the downfall of a government, only to offer their support to the survivors in a counter revolution.
    Click to expand...
    Sounds like they would get purged very quickly in any revolution.
     

    Herucalmo

    I wonder what future real life influences and developments would have to take place for something like Dune's Orange Catholic Bible super-ecumenism?
     

    Max Sinister

    Banned
    Herucalmo said:
    I wonder what future real life influences and developments would have to take place for something like Dune's Orange Catholic Bible super-ecumenism?
    Click to expand...

    That's comparably easy. But what about Zensunni and Zenshia? How do you mix Islam with Buddhism (or anything)?
     

    CountPeter

    Alexander the Average said:
    Sounds like they would get purged very quickly in any revolution.
    Click to expand...
    I see it as a very hard thing to purge. Its international, so purging would only be so effective, but more importantly outwardly members can claim to be normal Confucians. That and, I imagine, there are a lot of passive means to aid a revolution.
     

    CountPeter

    Herucalmo said:
    I wonder what future real life influences and developments would have to take place for something like Dune's Orange Catholic Bible super-ecumenism?
    Click to expand...
    Well in Dune, it took an AI Rebellion and the desire to engineer human thought.
    Max Sinister said:
    That's comparably easy. But what about Zensunni and Zenshia? How do you mix Islam with Buddhism (or anything)?
    Click to expand...
    check out my Namkhaism post. I wrote entries for a holybook, some theology etc.
     
    Neoteros

    Neoteros

    CountPeter said:
    Revolutionary Confucianism: the eternal revolution

    An order of Confucians who believe that the mandate of heaven is not only the foundation of the state, but its tempering for virtue. The state must be at all times demonstrative of its mandate, and revolutionaries are vital to this effort.

    Whilst not a major religion, it has a loyal base of secretive (and usually wealthy) members, private military contractors (with selective clientele) and a cult pop culture following (amounting to serious funding in the digital age) due to the religion's support to almost all revolutionary and counter culture movements in the last century.

    In practice, it is not unheard of for members to assist in the downfall of a government, only to offer their support to the survivors in a counter revolution.
    Click to expand...

    Speaking of Confucianism... there is at least one well known Western philosopher that was more or less a contemporary of Confucius:

    Pythagoras of Samos.

    If he and his disciples managed to become the rulers of the polis of Kroton (now Crotone, in the Calabria region) as it was about to happen in OTL, and actually do a good enough job at governing it, his philosophy could've become much more influential, becoming more or less a Western equivalent to Confucianism: on one hand, Pythagoras was a supporter of oligarchy in government but, on the other hand, his views on gender equality were almost revolutionary and subversive in a society as patriarchal as that of ancient Greece, and his belief in vegetarianism could've led to the Mediterranean becoming very similar to the Indian subcontinent as far as meat consumption goes.

    Sure, to gain enough converts to become a Western version of Confucianism, Pythagoreanism would have to become somewhat less cult-y than it was in OTL - maybe one of his disciples drops many of the vaguely mysteric undertones of his master's philosophy and opens it to syncretism with the Hellenic religion? The various gods could end up being seen as facets of the "mathematical" God of the original Pythagoreans, again in a manner similar to the Hindu one.
     
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