User talk:Lithium-Ion/Sandbox/Religion

Preliminary thoughts

First, I really applaud the effort you put into doing up an early iteration of this collaborative framework. Though I must add a few things:

• Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are quite intertwined since, well, Christianity and Islam are offshoots of Judaism which got very big. As such, logically, Judaism would originate in the Jewish homeland (Naphon) and from there, through trade and colonisation in the Memsberic region, would Christianity and Islam spread.
• When setting out the major religions and their sects, we just sort out some of the basic tenets and potential origins. There doesn't need to be exact equivalents of the main religious figures, though they could still be vaguely referenced in some way (like Mohammed or Buddha or the Messiah). It's also possible to create a set of fictional prophets/saints to be used as names, but they won't be necessarily central figures of said religion.
• I acknowledge that here, this is where the line between the real-world and OGF gets blurred as we "adapt" versions of real-world religions that are, unfortunately, quite tied to the places they originate or very prevalant in. This would def be a very contentious part for which I doubt there would be a clear consensus on.

Zhenkang (talk) 13:47, 26 March 2026 (UTC)

Comments especially on Buddhism

I think this is a very good direction overall, especially if we keep the framework broad enough to avoid forcing overly rigid real-world parallels where they may not fit the OGF setting cleanly. For Dharmapala, I’d suggest using it as the umbrella term, with Sanadharma as the Hindu-like branch (because “eternal dharma” is already a well-known self-designation in Hindu traditions) and Gautanism as the Buddhist-like branch.

Within Gautanism, it would probably make sense to divide things first into the two broad currents:

• Shravayana for the more monastic / smaller-vehicle tradition.
• Bodhayana for the broader / great-vehicle tradition.

Then, under those, we could add the more specific schools and sects that people have already used or want to use in the map or lore, such as Tendai, Rinzai, Nichiren, Jodo, and any other local developments that emerge later.

I also think it would be best to keep the naming flexible and descriptive rather than insisting on a single hard canon for every sub-branch. That way the page can acknowledge common ideas and broad relationships without overcommitting on details that may still be debated or context-dependent.

On the Shinto/Hanuism side, I’d propose treating Hanuism (hanu = god, in Izaki) as Izaland’s indigenous tradition (similar to Shinto), with shrine-based worship at Sumatai sites, strong nature reverence, ritual dances, and trance practices. It’s already deeply syncretic with Dharmapala in Izaland, so probably best to frame it as a distinct native tradition that often blends with Gautanism rather than trying to force it into the Dharmapala umbrella. Kyowa could have a related but parallel tradition that feels like the “Shinto proper” analogue. Since "Shin" means god, we could keep it as it is, or, just to change, "Kamiism"?

Overall, I’m very much in favor of the general structure, and I think the proposed names — Dharmapala, Sanadharma, Gautanism, Shravayana, and Bodhayana — give us a clear and reasonably elegant hierarchy to build on.

--Izaland Terramorphing Committee (talk) 07:08, 29 March 2026 (UTC)