For roughly 20 years, the closest I've come to actively practicing religion is crossing myself with holy water when I go into Catholic churches. But I’m fascinated by religion as a concept, even though I don’t believe in one personally, and I find it to be a particularly interesting and useful tool to employ in speculative fiction. The beliefs, rituals, symbolism, history, terminology, and traditions that come along with a religion can be very helpful in clearly establishing a culture within an invented setting, and giving that place a sense of history.

If you're looking for examples, the first one that always comes to my mind is Dune, where the beliefs of both the Fremen and the broader galaxy aren't just window-dressing setting details but are critical for the development of the plot. The Actual Star by Monica Byrne is another one where the religion is woven in, and it also uses a long timeview that explores how traditions and beliefs shift over thousands of years, which makes it a particularly fun read for folks with an interest in mythology. On the fantasy side, Ann Leckie's The Raven Tower and Kerstin Hall's Star Eater are two I've read in recent years that employ religion and mythology in a very interesting and effective way. In the horror realm, V. Castro's Goddess of Filth twists real-world religions into new speculative plot threads.

Creating a religion wholesale might sound like a very daunting task, and it can be if you let it be. But just like with creating your own language, you don't necessarily need to make a religion fully practice-able for it to come across as real on the page. Here's the steps I take when I'm creating a religion for one of my story worlds, as someone who has done a significant (what some might call excessive) amount of research into both real-world and fictional religions.

Step 1: Establish who or what adherents worship.

Every religion or spiritual system has something at its core that is the primary target of prayers, rituals, and other activities related to the religion. This can be literally anything, if you're inventing a religion of your own, but there are a few common categories among extant religions:

  • Monotheistic - Have a single, central deity who is typically also seen as a creator figure. The Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) are the most obvious example of this from Earth religions.
  • Polytheistic - Have a set of deities, which often have their own internal hierarchy or regional affiliations, and are frequently assigned specific areas of dominion (e.g. the sea, the earth, death, rain/storms, etc.). Familiar examples of this include Hindu gods or Norse, Greek, and Egyptian mythologies.
  • Animistic - Belief that spirits inhabit or govern aspects of the natural world, which can include landscape features, weather, celestial objects, specific locations, or living things like plants and animals. Many religions from Asia and Oceania are examples of this, including Ainu, some forms of Shinto, and Aboriginal Austraian and Pacific Island traditions. The beliefs of the Sami people of northern Europe also fit this category, as do many beliefs from across the Americas.
  • Pantheistic - A single “god” that is amorphous and seen as synonymous with the universe, reality, or nature. Some Hindu and Taoist traditions can be seen as examples of this.
  • Ancestor veneration - Real historical people are the target of prayers and ritual practices. These could be immediate ancestors who are remembered by living practitioners or distant, semi-mythologized figures. Examples of this can be found in Shinto and Japanese Buddhism, as well as many indigenous religions from across continents.
  • Object veneration - You might also see this called fetishism or idolatry, and is when a physical object is the target of worship. Usually the object is seen as having supernatural powers or origin. Pure object-based religions on Earth are fairly rare, but some form of this can be seen in things like the icons of Greek Orthodoxy, the treatment of relics in Catholicism, or the shintai in Shinto.

...this is certainly not a comprehensive list, and you'll see variations or combinations of these practices, too, but that at least a place to start.

If you're going with a pantheon or animistic system, then it's also smart to establish roughly how many spirits or deities the religion has and whether those are seen as universal or regional, or a mix of both. In the ancient Greek pantheon, for example, there were some core gods like Zeus and Athena that had adherents just about everywhere it was practiced, but there were also many localized gods seen as the patrons of specific areas or cities.

Another thing to think about that can help to shape the other aspects of the religion is the distance believers see between themselves and the subject of their devotion. In other words, how much do the spirits interact with the physical world? Again, there a few levels of this in Earth religions:

  • Deism – “God as clockmaker,” where the central deity created existence but doesn't involve itself in day-to-day affairs
  • Distant deity reachable through intermediaries – The central deity (or deities) can't be directly accessed by humans, so humans instead ask for other figures to intercede on their behalf, often lesser deities, ancestors, or supernatural beings like spirits, angels, daemons, etc. It's also common for specific humans to be capable of more direct or higher-level interaction with the spiritual realm, like if some prayers can only be made by trained priests. Yoruba is a prime example of this, as are Christian concepts like praying to saints.
  • Direct prayer to nontangible deities – A very common model in extant world religions, seen in most Protestant Catholic sects as well as Sikhism, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, and many, many others. Individuals can directly make offerings or prayers to the target of worship.
  • Deities or spirits are physically present on Earth – This is typical of animistic religions, where spirits are seen as being physically embodied by aspects of nature, but is also common in polytheistic traditions. Ancient Greek gods were thought to regularly come to Earth and interact with people, while Hindu deities regularly manifest on Earth.
  • Spirit mediation/mediums/shamans – A variant of intercession, where trained individuals are able to interact directly with the spirits, deities, or ancestors. Examples of this can be found across Asia and the Americas, including the Sami noaidi, the Buryat and Mongolian böö, the Korean Mudang, the Vodou Houngan/Manbo, and the Candomblé Babalorixá/Iyalorixá.

....basically, you want to figure out if regular people can interact with the target of worship, who does it on their behalf if not, and how likely they think it is that supreme figure(s) will intercede (or even care).

Step 2: Choose and sketch out their holy texts.

Note that these don't have to be written texts, if it's an oral tradition, but that's a shorthand for the broader concept here: every religion has some kind of scriptures, liturgy, mythology, or other core set of words that are used in prayers and religious ceremonies. This text often includes stuff like:

  • Creation or origin stories about the world, humanity, and/or the religion itself
  • Explanation of the cosmology (e.g. any heavens, underworlds, spirit worlds, etc.)
  • Afterlife structure and beliefs
  • Legends or myths about the gods, ancestors, spirits, saints, prophets, culture heroes, etc.
  • Apocalyptic narratives or end-times prophecies
  • Geneaologies or hierarchies for ancestors, deity pantheons, or major figures like prophets, priests, etc.
  • Doctrines outlining the core beliefs
  • Rules or tales to establish the religion's moral compass, sins, virtues, and good vs. bad behavior
  • Commandments or laws followers are expected to follow (forbidden behaviors, family/marriage rules, dietary restrictions, etc.) and the rewards or punishments for adhering to/breaking them
  • Instructions for or descriptions of rituals, prayers, ceremonies, initiations, rites, festivals, offerings, etc. and any other strategies for interacting with supernatural beings
  • Calendar for sacred days, important festivals, or other religious observances
  • Descriptions of and rules related to sacred objects or locations
  • Prayers, hymns, or incantations used during those things above
  • Direct accounts that are attributed to gods, spirits, prophets, founders, or other figures related to the religion
  • Descriptions of (and rules for) religious offices and practitioners

It's important to note here, you definitely don't need to include all of those things among an invented religion's texts. A lot of real religions don't include all of them, either. Look at this like a menu more than a recipe, and pick and choose the things that will be the most useful for your world and story.

As far as whether to actually write them or not, I would say that's a story-by-story question. If the religion's practices directly impact the day-to-day lives of the characters or are central to the plot, then it likely will be helpful to at least write their core tenets or commandments as a reference, even if those never get directly included in the story. But that doesn't mean you need to write out the religion's equivalent of a Bible. For most stories, just knowing the mythology's big-picture arc, major players, and core beliefs will let you build it into the fabric of the society. If you do plan to have characters quoting scripture or saying prayers on-page, you can write those on a per-need basis then compile them into your notes for future reference.

Step 3: Decide where, when, and how the religion is practiced.

A lot of these details are things that might be included in those religious texts from the last step, but they're also something you want to solidify independently because this is the physical manifestation of the religion that you'll actually be able to portray on the page. A lot of these things are going to flow organically out of the other things you've already decided about the religion. If it's an animistic belief system, for instance, then it's logical that their rituals would take place in nature, and would likely follow the rhythms of that landscape, aligning with things like weather patterns, the position of celestial bodies, or the lifecycles of local plants and animals.

Some questions you can ask yourself that can be helpful at this stage:

  • Are there specific buildings where this religion is practiced? If so, what do they look like and where are they located within communities?
  • Do certain members of the religion live in designated places? (e.g. a monastery for monks)
  • Do individual members of the religion have altars or religious iconography in their homes?
  • Do prayers or rituals need to happen in a specific place?
  • How often do religious ceremonies take place?
  • Are similar steps repeated in every ceremony, or are there different traditions for different occasions?
  • How do people dress during religious ceremonies?

Again, you don't need to spell out every little detail, but you want to go deep enough that you have a sense for how belonging to this religion impacts the rhythm of your characters' daily life. It can also be useful material to mine for story beats or world details that can add depth to the story for readers.

Step 4: Identify the religion's symbols and sensory details.

Speaking of mining things for world depth, these are the details you can really make some hay with, as it were, more than the big-picture concepts. The symbols associated with a religion become a shorthand for those beliefs, and you can sprinkle them in selectively to quickly give readers information about characters or locations once you establish what those symbols represent.

Sensory details, meanwhile, are what really give the religion that lived-in feel. This includes sight details, like ritual attire, the architecture and decor of religious spaces, or iconography that believers would display or wear. Sound is also a common aspect of religious ritual: specific hymns, chants, or music that accompanies rituals, the use of instruments like bells or horns, or regular sonic rituals like a call to prayer are common examples.

And don't neglect smell and taste, either. As someone who grew up Catholic, smelling certain kinds of incense immediately transports me back to Christmas mass. Catholicism also hits the “taste” point with the Eucharist ritual, and other religions have similar practices. Integrating the typical food or aromas associated with the religion into the story adds another layer to the reader's immersion into the world.

Step 5: Place the religion within the broader cultural context.

No aspect of worldbuilding exists in a vacuum, and how the rest of society works around the religion you've built is key for how you'll present it in the story. The first thing to decide is how much influence the religion has in the society of the story's world. This is another place where you can see things on a spectrum:

  • Governing - The story takes place in a theocracy where religious figures either are political leaders or have direct influence over them, and the religion's moral laws are also encoded into the legal system
  • Dominant - The majority (or all) of the people in the story belong to the religion, and as a result it has a profound influence on culture and society, though it is not officially linked to the government
  • In a melting pot - The religion is one of many that are practiced in the world, and is one of two or more that have a significant reach or influence
  • Fringe - The religion is practiced by only a small portion of the population, and may be little-known or seen as a cult (whether or not that is fair)
  • Persecuted - The dominant society actively opposes the religion by forbidding its practice, discriminating against its members, or attempting to eradicate it

...and, again, things won't necessarily fall along those cut-and-dry boundaries, but you can use that as a guide to figure out where the religion falls relative to the broader world you've built around it.

History is something to think about here, too. Is this religion ancient or more recent? Did it start from scratch or branch off from another faith? Did it originate in the place your story is set, or was it brought here by immigrants? All of these things can influence the way people engage with the religion (and characters who practice it).

That's really the bottom line when you're creating a mythology or religion for a fictional world, whatever the context. The most important parts of it are the things that directly impact the characters, because those are going to be what shape your story and give you points of tension and conflict to exploit. Those are the places you want to focus your time and energy when you're creating one for your stories.

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