religious bugs?

[jesusoft]

I swear I'm not trolling and am not anything close to a christfag, but I was wondering how religion would factor in. The if nothing else the bugs are sentient and will start to philosophize about their place in the world. A spider that finds a way to read the torah and becomes a jew seems awesome to me....

[Alpharius]

I have a hard time picturing any form of organized religion in a game like this... Mythology perhaps, a fear of godlike creatures capable of destroying whole civilizations, but nothing that you'd worship, more like something you'd fear.

[captainbeer]

I definitely think at least SOME of the bugs would get some kind of religion going. Perhaps there are some passed down stories of the Huge-Mans who once towered over the earth and ruled it and disappeared during a great war in the heavens.

[jesusofthemonkeys]

I dunno, it seems like religion would take easy to the hive/nest. Plus the image of pillbug missionaries are cool as fuck.

Also I have trouble seeing roleplay opportunities in the setting and a new sentience coming to grips with its place in the world seems like a good opportunity.

[Alpharius]

I dunno, it seems like religion would take easy to the hive/nest. Plus the image of pillbug missionaries are cool as fuck.

Also I have trouble seeing roleplay opportunities in the setting and a new sentience coming to grips with its place in the world seems like a good opportunity.

I guess it's possible, but pretty much any religion would still be in the formative stages.

[Quest Lord]

Yeah, I think it'd be more an assortment of myths and folklore then any religions as such. Myths of the Age of the Huge-Men, when giants ruled the world. . .

There might be ideologies as opposed to religions, but I think it's best if we leave out religions here. Social ants might have some kind of ideology where the hive is all, it's what is important, etc. Dying for the hive is seen as a good death, not because of some afterlife, but because the hive is what matters.

[jesusofthemonkeys]

Yeah, now that i'm thinking about it a hunter/gatherer type animism seems like it would be the coolest/most appropriate.

[Grawflemaul]

It kinda seems too obvious, but I like the idea of Praying Mantises as very religious people.

Religious in the sense that they worship some great Proto-Mantid as they lie in wait for their next victim to come along. Not religious in any communal sense.

[Quest Lord]

Some kind of spiritualism for the praying mantis sounds cool, could work with this.

[Guest]

Termites build enormous cathedrals that reach into the sky; why don't they just go into the ground? Perhaps they serve a greater Matriarch that made the All-hive?

:X

[Bogleech]

I can imagine the German cockroach having a rich mythos about the beasts who built their ancestral homes yet constantly attempted to destroy them. Beasts who could make the terrible sun rise indoors, poison the air, and created glorious, exotic foods no insect can reproduce.

Like primitive man, I could see many insects believing (not religiously, but just matter-of-factly) that the world is some inconceivably huge animal. The surface of a mammal probably looks a lot like soil and grass to them already. Ectoparasites like fleas and lice probably see that single-celled life (louse-sized to their perception) crawl around on their bodies, and that the things they live and feed upon are creeping around on and feeding from the earth, so they might naturally conclude an infinite succession in both directions.

[Quest Lord]

I like this.

Any "religion" should be less a matter of faith, and just a 'matter of fact' way to explain the world around them.

[Naryzhud]

It kinda seems too obvious, but I like the idea of Praying Mantises as very religious people.

Religious in the sense that they worship some great Proto-Mantid as they lie in wait for their next victim to come along. Not religious in any communal sense.

I like. Perhaps some sort of meditation as a way of enhancing their combat prowess as they lie in wait? Could translate across in game as a bonus to hit if they spend a certain amount of time meditating in ambush?

[Bogleech]

How about fireflies and stars? They can already mistake various lights for their own kind, so a sentient firefly might interpret messages in the night sky almost involuntarily. The sky lights don't flash the same distinct words that the fireflies have, of course, so they're open to broad interpretation, which could lead to something very close to opposing religions.

Imagine how we might have developed as a species if we saw the same cryptic pattern of symbols every time we looked up at the sky, and had no means of ever finding out what they were.

[Quest Lord]

How about fireflies and stars? They can already mistake various lights for their own kind, so a sentient firefly might interpret messages in the night sky almost involuntarily. The sky lights don't flash the same distinct words that the fireflies have, of course, so they're open to broad interpretation, which could lead to something very close to opposing religions.

Imagine how we might have developed as a species if we saw the same cryptic pattern of symbols every time we looked up at the sky, and had no means of ever finding out what they were.

Oooh! I like that. They just assume the night sky is fireflies of a different, higher flying species maybe, and they get messages from them. . . .

[Naryzhud]

Very cool idea there Bogleech! Could lead to some potentially interesting religious unrest if there were a meteor shower or a large star supernovaed...

[Bees]

With altruism and self-sacrifice running rampant on eusocial insects, would they develop something similar to the religion of early humans, with a notion of afterlife so that a honeybee would not think twice before ripping off her own guts stinging an enemy or a carpenter ant wouldn't object to acting as a suicide bomber?

If not, what could be a driving factor behind killing oneself to benefit the colony? Pure ideology combined with pheromone control does look like it would cut it, but I like the idea of a feudal Japan honor system in eusocial insects where disgraced individuals beg for a honorable death by spilling their venom on their enemy.

[Bogleech]

Maybe they rationalize that every life their actions preserve is a continuation of their own, so they never really die as long as the colony survives. Sort of spiritual, but also sort of technically correct. It is therefore preferable to work hard and die defeating an enemy than work hard and die of old age.

[Quest Lord]

Maybe they rationalize that every life their actions preserve is a continuation of their own, so they never really die as long as the colony survives. Sort of spiritual, but also sort of technically correct. It is therefore preferable to work hard and die defeating an enemy than work hard and die of old age.

This. They see the colony as an extension of themselves, so they protect it with their own personal lives.

[ChickenSpider]

It seems that the ants would worship their queen as a living goddess, thus viewing all other ant colonies as heretics that must be purged in holy fire. The spiders and the praying mantis would worship a hunter god, think Cernnunos. All arthros (player races) would view the Cordyceps fungus as a kind of magical plague sent upon them by a jealous demon god (mabey one of the Amazonian ant demon gods)?Campagin ideas: Ants launch a crusade against a pillbug mission. A pillbug missionary needs to be escorted through an area known for it's trapdoor spiders.

[Quest Lord]

It seems that the ants would worship their queen as a living goddess, thus viewing all other ant colonies as heretics that must be purged in holy fire.

Ants tend to act in the best interests of the colony more then the queens in the long run.

The spiders and the praying mantis would worship a hunter god, think Cernnunos. All arthros (player races) would view the Cordyceps fungus as a kind of magical plague sent upon them by a jealous demon god (mabey one of the Amazonian ant demon gods)?Campagin ideas: Ants launch a crusade against a pillbug mission. A pillbug missionary needs to be escorted through an area known for it's trapdoor spiders.

Not sure I like religions with set gods, as much an a more simplistic spiritualism based on folk myths and legends. So the praying mantis would meditate, and focus, before striking, whereas a hunting spider might have been raised on stories of mighty hunters, and from them learned the basics of the hunt.

[Naryzhud]

Not sure I like religions with set gods, as much an a more simplistic spiritualism based on folk myths and legends. So the praying mantis would meditate, and focus, before striking, whereas a hunting spider might have been raised on stories of mighty hunters, and from them learned the basics of the hunt.

This.

[Bogleech]

They could just revere certain concepts in a manner almost akin to gods, without believing in them as "beings." Mantids might "worship" the hunt. Ants might "worship" the power of numbers and community.

Burying beetles might speak of death with great reverence, consider themselves at one with it and even argue with those silly ants and mantids over its superiority to the other processes of nature, but they wouldn't necessarily believe in a death-god or death-magic. Insects might simply lack the same psychological traits that make "personifying" everything so natural to us humans.

[Quest Lord]

They could just revere certain concepts in a manner almost akin to gods, without believing in them as "beings." Mantids might "worship" the hunt. Ants might "worship" the power of numbers and community.

Burying beetles might speak of death with great reverence, consider themselves at one with it and even argue with those silly ants and mantids over its superiority to the other processes of nature, but they wouldn't necessarily believe in a death-god or death-magic. Insects might simply lack the same psychological traits that make "personifying" everything so natural to us humans.

I'mokwiththis.jpg

It clicks as being fitting.

[Arachnid Knight]

I figure ants and bees are unified in the beleif that the universe is a "Great mechanism." A machine to be maintained through ritual and duty. The sun goes up and comes down every day because they maintain the great machine. And when they die, they become components in the great mechanism, existing in eternal order and harmony.

Predators like Mantids, spiders, or assasin bugs may be more like the Aghori, they devour the dead so that their sacrafice can continue life. Perhaps they beleive life and death are one and the same.

As for herbivores like butterflies, moths, or beetles, perhaps their a bit like the druids of D&D, benevolent in nature, but ferocious when tempted. Possibly beleivers in some all unifying bond which ties all together.

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