#oooo you think my conworld is sooooo interesting *casting magic spell*

[boydykedevo]

actually lemme uhh. okay so my most developed conworld that I've had for like. five years is called Rohitan, I've mentioned it before once or twice i think. There's two main cultures: Zjifel, twelve peer polities in a river valley, and the Lagae, a group of hundreds of small clans to the south. And my favorite piece of worldbuilding is the Lagae religion so. Lemme explain it real quick (lie (it will not be quick (this is going under the cut for a reason)))

first thing: not all the Lagae consider themselves Lagae (i use it for all of them for simplicity) and that's for a very important historical reason: decades ago, when Zjifel was just starting to gain power, they decided to invade the group of warring clans on the south of the continent (there was a reason, I won't get into it).

Before that point, the group had no collective identity. They shared a culture and religion and sometimes allied with each other, but they belonged to their own clans first and foremost. But when the northernmost clans started getting attacked and sought the help of southern allies, the leaders of their allied clans had trouble getting their warriors to come to their aid. There were numerous political benefits to helping, as well as the practical one of "if they take them out, we're next", but it was far from home and facing invaders who were intimidating and most citizens didn't care about the political alliances of their leaders.

So, to help rally soldiers to the cause, the ruling class developed propaganda based around their shared religion. The basic concept was that there were three gods (Mulae, Lali, Lishke) and they each represent a stage in an endless cycle of creation, maintenance, and decay (respectively). And the important part is that none of them are good, and none of them are bad. There are times you want each, and times you want to prevent each, and what's important is accepting the cycle and understanding when each is needed.

For their propaganda, the ruling class associated the invaders with Lishke to drive home that they would destroy their people's home, and they associated the clans with Lali, fighting to maintain their status quo. They called the group Lagae, gae meaning people and la from Lali (the invaders, in turn, being Lishgae).

Eventually, they managed to fight them off, and Zjifel gave up and wrote their neighbors off as too violent to invade. The propaganda stuck around, though, and the clans continued using the collective identity of Lagae. The land they lived on began to be called Kide, a term previously used for one's home village. They were one collective split into clans, rather than clans who happened to be near one another. And over time, the association of the group with Lali and threats with Lishke turned Lali into the god of good and Lishke into the god of evil. (Mulae kept her role as creator and became heavily associated with nature, acting as a sort of neutral party between good and evil) The concept of the cycle no longer fit with the gods, and was therefore mostly dropped as a philosophy, becoming more of a metaphor or way of sorting things.

But I said not all the clans consider themselves Lagae. That's because the southernmost clans were too far away to be affected by either the war or the propaganda. They were already somewhat culturally distinct from the northern clans, focusing more on herding than farming, since their colder climate made much of the land infertile. Now, their religion and philosophy had diverged as well. The other clans saw them as Lagae too, but they still considered themselves completely separate clans.

The southerners increasingly found the northern religion confusing, too; if they ever fought with a northern clan, they'd notice engravings and patterns in their clothing intended to ward off Lishke. Typically, when one's the aggressor in a battle, Lishke is vital to keep on your side; you're attempting to destroy, which you couldn't do without him. On the other hand, they'd invite Lali to their battles, which is also stupid; if you intend to change anything by winning, the god who maintains the status quo is the last thing you want around. And they wouldn't notice this from battle, but in trade and diplomacy, they saw a strange lack of any veneration of Mulae. Occasionally the northerners would nod to her, but to the southerners, she's essential for forming new bonds, and that's not nearly enough.

They conclude the northerners simply don't understand the cycle, and they must be too immature to accept it.

Okay that's enough for now, might add to this in the morning but. yeah.