Hey Nimway,
I know you’re after advice on religion, but I have a few other thoughts that might be useful too. As ever, feel free to completely ignore me, it’s your story.
I am struggling to make the lifeforms on the planet seem more alien (many people would slap me just for using humanoids), which is why I gave them another pair of eyes on the last drawing (to the right), not sure if I will keep it but it's there for now.
They obviously lay eggs, they are covered in a primitive type of feathers and thus don't have clothing (they would probably only need that in extreme temperatures), only to cover their genitals and some jewelry/accessories.
They don't have nipples/mammaries, and instead feed their young by chewing the food for them and feeding them mouth-to-mouth (seen in some human cultures).
This has lead to kissing as a sign of affection - but not like with us in western culture, they do mouth-to-mouth kissing between close friends and family as well.
It's impossible to tell the gender of a Tikao before they reach sexual maturity at about age 10-12, which is why they don't have "he" or "she" in their language. Their language BTW, cannot be pronounced by us, and they cannot speak our languages, since they make completely different sounds (like wookiees, prawn etc. - but exactly what they sound like, I don't know yet).
This can be very difficult to manage. I have a third gender in my wip, and it can make for some compromises in terms using ‘he’ and ‘she’ in the narrative. Now, I only have them in very few scenes and have found it difficult. If you have an entire novel, I can only imagine it will be a bit of a tightrope. The other thing is that whether or not they mature into gender, they still do eventually for the purposes of procreation. They would still have ‘he’ and ‘she’, as the late blossoming does not mean that the words wouldn’t exist. Generally, if they have words for male and female, they will have ‘he’ and ‘she’.
Most Tikao are inherently afraid of water and are very poor swimmers. They have very poor eyesight at night, but see better (more colors and sharper detail) than we do during daytime.
They have no external ears. They are shorter and lighter than us, being about 140-170 (max) centimeters tall.
I am working on their sexuality and family structure, but as it is now, they are polyandrous, meaning one female has several males. Another idea is polyamory, meaning no closed pairs (all females have several males, and all males have several females).
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The Tawitea are purple-skinned, largely hairless (like us, but I suppose even more hairless), and have evolved around the water. (Idea I got from the "aquatic ape hypothesis".)
They have large eyes with slits instead of round pupils (yes, catlike, but never ever will I compare them to cats
, and that's not where I got that idea anyway), so I suppose they are more evening/night active than we and sleep during the brightest hours of the day.
My only concern here is that if they’re hairless I’m not sure they would be most active in the colder part of the day. Their society would likely make better use of warmth.
Like I said, their seafaring has gotten quite advanced in the last couple of centuries, and the particular culture I am creating is located in this planet's "Caribbean", meaning a small sea with islands all around it.
The Tawitea and Tikao are (also, like I said) from completely separate parts of the evolutionary tree, and have evolved on continents that split off several hundred million years ago. The creatures on the Tawitea's continent have a form of sensor organs on their heads (I came up with them well over a year ago and I still don't know what they are used for
), and in some creatures, like the Tawitea, these organs have "gathered" around the hole that makes up the ear, to form a primitive external ear.
Oh and about Tikao and kissing
- the Tawitea don't do this at all. (It is not done in all human cultures either, some believe your soul is in your saliva apparently, so you don't want to lose your soul by...)
The Tawitea have four elements which play a large part of their culture.
These are water, earth, the sky and the stars (yes, sky and stars are separate).
An individual is given his or her element during adolesence, perhaps in a form of "coming of age-ritual".
Water is probably the most common one, and also most cherished (although not too prestigious), since water is so defining for Tawitea society. The most common jobs here relate to fishing, diving (which includes gathering food) and constructing and using ships.
Earth is also quite common, and individuals with this element work neither with water, in the air or with anything spiritual. They are often farmers, hunters, builders and artists.
Sky is more rare, and those who belong to this Element (5-10%?) become Okaiwa riders (name needed for that "profession" - but in short, they ride big flying creatures with a 12-meter wingspan).
Then the fourth element, and the rarest (?) - the Stars. Those who belong to this element (~5%?) become spiritual advisors, philosophers and scientists.
Hmm…I might suggest that you include fire as well. Given that they have probably created fire given the delineation of the society and the division of occupations, I am assuming that they have developed enough to use metals (where they would need fire for forges, ship parts etc). That way you can have artists (i.e. those that are more ‘passionate’ and creative) within fire. The idea of artists being in the solid, practical grounding (ha ha) of ‘earth’ doesn’t seem to match for me.
Bowler1 - I agree, I don't think I can have good world-building without a fleshed-out religion. And since they are not in a very "technological age", they still have to answer the big questions of life with religion.
The main conflict will be - or at least be sparked through** - tensions between the two species. They discovered each other about 200 years ago, have learned each other's languages (Tawitea can't pronounce Tikao language and vice versa, but they can speak their own language and understand what the other one's saying), exchanged cultural information, traveled between the continents and visited each other, etc.
This is going to make life very difficult. Imagine trying to learn French without being able to ask a single question. When people learn things about languages by listening, that isn’t enough. You need to be able to ask what things are called, to carry out conversations to gain a degree of fluency. Also, if nobody can speak the other’s language, why learn it at all? They’ll never be able to converse, so why bother? Unless they develop some kind of written hybrid, there’s no reason for this.
I am also working right now on what the main antagonist (I know something about her, but I still don't have a name) wants and what she does. Religion may be a part of her motivation, but I want it to be deeper and more complex than that (so it won't be like the spanish inquisition or something else like that).
** Because the conflict won't just be Tawitea vs. Tikao, their own society will probably also be pretty much undermined by themselves.
Now, onto religion.
Taking in the above, I think you can quite easily go for an elemental style of worship with the Tawitea. This can be reflective of different factions, and even possibly be the cause of conflict within their society as each faction ‘fights’ for more cred. Alternatively, a constant state of harmony with recognition of equal value to the elements could be good. You could even take it further and have the fiery ones as somehow ostracised or ‘evil’, as they’re devoted to passions and swift changes in temperament, or taking things to extremes. This may have led them astray at some point, perhaps leading to segregation. Plot-wise, it could be interesting to explore this dichotomy. The Star faction could also be higher than the other four, in that they are able to function ‘normally’ in daylight (assuming the sun is part of that. Perhaps the Fire guys, if you should use them, could be close to the Star dudes because of the sun. This could also create more depth in the history, as conflict between Earth, Air and Water vs Stars and Fire would be likely. Perhaps the girl could even be the catalyst for division/ balance, in that she bridges the gap between the two sides.
With the Tikao, I think you might be able to draw from the importance placed on gender. Perhaps their gods are simply male and female, with a separate religion for women than for men. That way, the rite could have something to do with that, a coming of age in which the god ‘male’ or the god ‘female’ chooses them. The social commentary that could result might be very interesting to explore.
By having the above, you have two completely different bases for beliefs, but each have different ‘sides’ that allow you to develop conflict and use that conflict as a basis for certain things within their society.
I think that perhaps it might be worth switching the day and night thing, just because of the physical make up of the races (hairless would be active when warmer i.e. daytime, feathered more active when cooler i.e. night). Also on the physiology, predators tend to have their eyes facing front, while the prey have them on the side. This may be a factor in how the two peoples react to one another.
Just some food for thought, hope it helps.
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